Word
He eivät olleet mökillä. He olivat kotona.
Meaning
They were not at the cottage. They were at home.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of He eivät olleet mökillä. He olivat kotona.
olla
to be
he
they
kotona
at home
ei
no / not (negative verb)
Questions & Answers about He eivät olleet mökillä. He olivat kotona.
Why is the negative past "eivät olleet" instead of using "olivat" with a negative word?
In Finnish, the negative past tense doesn't use the regular past tense verb. Instead, you use the negative verb (here, eivät for "they") plus a special past-tense form of the main verb. For olla, that special form is olleet. You cannot say "eivät olivat".
Why is the negative word olleet and not ollut?
The ending changes based on whether the subject is singular or plural. For singular subjects (I, you, he/she), you use ollut (for example, hän ei ollut). Because the subject here is the plural he (they), the word gets a plural -t at the end, becoming olleet.
How do you build the affirmative past tense verb olivat?
You start with the past tense stem of the verb olla (to be), which is oli-. Then you add the standard personal ending for "they", which is -vat. Together, they make olivat (they were).
Why do we use mökillä instead of mökissä for "at the cottage"?
In Finnish, you usually use the -lla/-llä ending for cottages to mean spending time at the property in general. If you used mökissä (with the -ssä "inside" ending), it would sound like you are emphasizing being physically indoors rather than just visiting the cottage.