Breakdown of Ei se mitään, se on vanha laukku.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
vanha
old
laukku
bag
ei se mitään
never mind, it's nothing
Questions & Answers about Ei se mitään, se on vanha laukku.
How does Ei se mitään mean 'Never mind'?
Literally, it translates to 'Not it anything.' The word ei is the negative verb (not), se is 'it', and mitään means 'anything'. Finnish uses this exact phrase as a common fixed expression to say 'It does not matter' or 'No worries.'
Where is the verb 'is' in the first part of the sentence?
In common spoken phrases, Finnish sometimes drops the main verb. If you wrote it out fully, it would be Se ei ole mitään (It is not anything). However, the shortened Ei se mitään is the standard and most natural way to say 'Never mind.'
Why is the word mitään used here instead of mikään?
In Finnish, negative sentences often require the partitive case. Mitään is the partitive form of mikään (any). Because the sentence starts with the negative word ei, you must use the partitive mitään to say 'anything.'
Why is there no Finnish word for 'an' before 'old bag'?
Finnish does not have articles like 'a', 'an', or 'the'. The phrase vanha laukku literally means 'old bag'. You simply add 'an' in English to make the translation sound natural.
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