Learn Finnish: Hotelli ei ollut kamala. Se oli ihana. - The hotel was not terrible. It was wonderful.

In Finnish, you never put the main verb in the past tense after the negative word ei. Instead, to make a negative past tense, you combine the negative verb (ei for he/she/it) with a special form of the main verb called the past participle. For the verb olla (to be), the singular past participle is ollut, which gives us ei ollut (was not).

How do we know to use oli in the second sentence?

oli is the past tense (imperfect) form of olla for third-person singular subjects (he, she, or it). Because the subject se (it) refers to one single hotel, we use oli to mean "was".

Would ollut change if we were talking about multiple hotels?

Yes! The past participle ollut is only used for singular subjects. If the subject were plural (like "hotels"), the negative verb would be eivät and the participle would change to olleet. Because there is only one hotel here, we use the singular ei ollut.

Do the adjectives kamala and ihana need any special endings because the sentence is negative or in the past tense?

No, they stay in their basic dictionary form (the nominative case). The adjectives simply describe a single subject (the hotel). Making the verb past tense (oli) or negative (ei ollut) does not change the case of these descriptive adjectives.