Breakdown of He eivät nukkuisi luolissa, koska he pelkäävät rottia.
he
they
koska
because
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
nukkua
to sleep
pelätä
to fear
rotta
rat
luola
cave
Questions & Answers about He eivät nukkuisi luolissa, koska he pelkäävät rottia.
How is the negative conditional eivät nukkuisi formed here?
To make the negative conditional, you use the negative verb for 'they' (eivät) followed by the main verb's conditional form without a personal ending. For nukkua (to sleep), you take the strong stem nukku- and add the conditional marker -isi, giving us nukkuisi.
Why does nukkuisi keep the double kk? I thought negative verbs often cause a consonant change.
That is a great observation! While the standard present negative drops a consonant (like en nuku - I do not sleep), the conditional mood is built differently. For type 1 verbs like nukkua, you add the -isi marker to the strong stem. This means the double kk remains in both positive and negative forms: hän nukkuisi (he would sleep) and he eivät nukkuisi (they would not sleep).
Why is the word for rats, rottia, in the partitive case here?
The verb pelätä (to fear or to be afraid of) is a partitive verb. This means it always requires the thing you are afraid of to be in the partitive case. Because they are afraid of rats in general (plural), the base word rotta becomes the partitive plural rottia.
How do we get the form luolissa (in caves)?
This comes from the base word luola (cave). To say 'in', we add the inessive ending -ssa. To make it plural ('caves'), we insert the plural marker -i- right before the case ending. The final 'a' of the word drops out to make room for the 'i', resulting in luolissa.
Learn He eivät nukkuisi luolissa, koska he pelkäävät rottia 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