Word
Minulla ei ole käteistä, mutta minulla on luottokortti.
Meaning
I do not have cash, but I have a credit card.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Minulla ei ole käteistä, mutta minulla on luottokortti.
olla
to be
minä
I
mutta
but
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
Questions & Answers about Minulla ei ole käteistä, mutta minulla on luottokortti.
Why is the word for cash käteistä instead of its basic form käteinen?
How does the spelling of käteinen change to become käteistä?
Words ending in -nen form a special group. To make them partitive, you drop the -nen and add -stä (or -sta). So, kätei- plus -stä gives us käteistä.
Why doesn't luottokortti also get a partitive ending?
Because the second part of the sentence is positive ("I have a credit card"). In a positive possession sentence, a single, countable thing like a card stays in its basic form (the nominative case).
If I want to say "you do not have" instead of "I do not have", do I need to change ei ole?
No, it stays exactly the same! In Finnish possession sentences, the verb part is always on (for positive) or ei ole (for negative). To change who doesn't have the item, you only change the first word, for example: sinulla ei ole (you don't have) or hänellä ei ole (he/she doesn't have).