Breakdown of Hän ei ollut toimistossa, koska hän oli ulkomailla.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
koska
because
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
toimisto
office
ulkomailla
abroad
Questions & Answers about Hän ei ollut toimistossa, koska hän oli ulkomailla.
Why does it say ei ollut for 'was not' instead of ei oli?
In Finnish, you cannot just put the negative word ei in front of the affirmative past tense verb oli. Instead, the negative past tense is formed with ei plus a special form of the verb that ends in -ut or -yt. For the verb olla (to be), this form is ollut.
Is oli just the past tense version of on?
Exactly! While hän on means 'he is', hän oli means 'he was'. The letter -i at the end is the most common marker for the past tense in Finnish.
What is the -ssa ending doing at the end of toimistossa?
The ending -ssa translates to 'in' or 'inside'. The base word is toimisto (office), so toimistossa means 'in the office'.
Why does ulkomailla (abroad) end in -lla?
The word for abroad is built from ulko- (outer or foreign) and maa (land or country). The -lla ending usually means 'on' or 'at'. Together with an extra -i- to make it plural, it literally translates to 'on foreign lands'.
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