Breakdown of Se ei tapahdu tänään.
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
ei
no / not (negative verb)
tänään
today
tapahtua
to happen
Questions & Answers about Se ei tapahdu tänään.
Why is the verb tapahdu instead of tapahtuu?
In Finnish, to make a verb negative, you do not use the regular 'it' form (tapahtuu). Instead, you use the negative verb (ei) plus the negative stem of the action verb. You find this stem by taking the 'I' form (minä tapahdun) and removing the -n, leaving you with tapahdu.
Why does the ht in tapahtua change to hd in tapahdu?
This is consonant gradation in action! The basic form tapahtua and the affirmative 'it' form tapahtuu both use the strong grade (ht). However, because the 'I' form (tapahdun) uses the weak grade (hd), the negative stem (tapahdu) also gets that weak hd.
Is ei just the Finnish word for 'not'?
Yes, but remember that in Finnish, the negative word is actually a verb that changes depending on who is doing the action. Because the subject here is se (it), we use the third-person singular form ei. If the subject were 'I', it would be en.
Does the word tänään have a case ending on it?
Historically, yes! It comes from an old case ending attached to the word for 'this', literally meaning 'on this day'. However, at the A1 level, it is much easier to just memorize tänään as a fixed, unchanging vocabulary word meaning 'today'.
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