Breakdown of Meillä ei ole puhtaita astioita.
olla
to be
me
we
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
puhdas
clean
astia
dish
Questions & Answers about Meillä ei ole puhtaita astioita.
How do we form the partitive plural astioita from the basic word astia?
To make the partitive plural, we add the plural marker -i- and the partitive ending -ta. For words ending in -a (like astia), the final -a often changes to an -o- before the plural -i-. This gives us the stem astio- + -i- + -ta -> astioita.
The basic word for 'clean' is puhdas. How does it become puhtaita?
Words ending in -as (like puhdas) have a basic stem that ends in a double vowel: puhtaa-. To make the partitive plural, one of the -a vowels drops out to make room for the plural -i-, and then we add the partitive ending -ta. So it becomes puhta- + -i- + -ta -> puhtaita.
Why are puhtaita and astioita in the partitive plural here instead of the regular plural?
In Finnish, when you use the negative 'have' construction (like Meillä ei ole), the thing you do not have must always be in the partitive case. Since we are talking about multiple dishes, we use the partitive plural.
Why is the verb ole used here instead of the 'we' form emme ole?
In Finnish 'have' constructions, the verb is always in the third-person singular (on) because the sentence literally means 'at us is'. When you make it negative, on becomes ei ole. It never conjugates to match the owner (Meillä).
Learn Meillä ei ole puhtaita astioita and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free