Breakdown of Miehellä ei ole työpaikkaa täällä.
olla
to be
täällä
here
mies
man
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
työpaikka
job
Questions & Answers about Miehellä ei ole työpaikkaa täällä.
How do we get miehellä from the basic word mies (man)?
The word mies has a special stem. Before you can add grammar endings, like the -llä used to show who has something, mies changes to miehe-. Then you add the ending: miehe- + llä = miehellä.
Why does työpaikka end in -a here?
Because this is a negative possession sentence. When you say someone does not have something, the thing they are missing must be put into the partitive case. Here, the basic word työpaikka (job) gets an -a at the end to become työpaikkaa.
How does this sentence literally say 'The man does not have'?
Finnish does not have a verb for 'to have'. Instead, it uses the adessive case ending -llä (meaning 'on' or 'at') with the verb 'to be'. Literally, this sentence translates to: 'On the man is not a job here.'
If we were talking about multiple men, would ei ole change to a plural form?
No. In Finnish 'have' structures, the verb always stays in the third-person singular form. Even if multiple men didn't have a job, you would still use ei ole (is not), rather than a plural verb.
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