Breakdown of Kauppa ei ollut eilen auki.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (negative verb)
kauppa
shop
eilen
yesterday
auki
open
Questions & Answers about Kauppa ei ollut eilen auki.
Why does the sentence use ei ollut instead of ei oli for was not?
In Finnish, you form the negative past tense using the negative verb (here, ei) plus a special form of the main verb called the past participle. For the verb olla (to be), that singular form is ollut. You never use the regular past tense form (like oli) after the negative verb!
Would ollut change if we were talking about multiple stores?
Yes. In the negative past tense, the past participle has to match whether the subject is singular or plural. If we were talking about multiple stores (kaupat), the negative verb would be eivät and the past participle would get a plural ending, becoming olleet: Kaupat eivät olleet auki.
Is the word auki (open) a normal adjective?
No, auki is an indeclinable word, which means it never changes its shape. While most adjectives get special endings to match plural words or different grammatical cases, auki will always stay exactly like this.
Can I change the word order to Kauppa ei ollut auki eilen?
Yes, that is also perfectly correct. Finnish word order is quite flexible. Putting eilen (yesterday) before auki is very natural, but putting it at the very end works just as well.
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