Word
Minulla ei ole lemmikkiä.
Meaning
I do not have a pet.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Minulla ei ole lemmikkiä.
olla
to be
minä
I
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
lemmikki
pet
Questions & Answers about Minulla ei ole lemmikkiä.
Why do we use minulla here instead of minä?
In Finnish, there is no direct verb for 'to have'. Instead, you say that something 'is on' someone. Minulla is the 'on me' form (adessive case) of minä (I).
Since the sentence is about 'I', why don't we use en ole instead of ei ole?
Because the grammar literally translates to 'on me is not a pet.' The verb doesn't match 'I'; it always stays in the 3rd-person singular 'it is not' form (ei ole) when expressing possession, regardless of who has or doesn't have the item.
Why does lemmikki have an -ä at the end?
When you state that you do not have something, the thing you lack must be in the partitive case. To form this for the word lemmikki (pet), you add an -ä to the end, making it lemmikkiä.
Why is the partitive ending -ä instead of -a for this word?
This is due to vowel harmony. Because the base word lemmikki only contains the front vowels e and i, any endings attached to it must use the front vowel ä instead of the back vowel a.