Word
Eikö tuo mies ole tuttu?
Meaning
Isn't that man familiar?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Eikö tuo mies ole tuttu?
olla
to be
tuo
that
mies
man
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
Questions & Answers about Eikö tuo mies ole tuttu?
How do we form a negative question like "Isn't...?" in this sentence?
To ask a negative yes/no question, you attach the question ending -kö directly to the negative verb. Here, ei (is not) becomes eikö (isn't?). The negative verb always moves to the very beginning of the sentence when it forms the question.
Why does the question ending use an umlaut (-kö) instead of -ko in eikö?
The negative verb ei contains front vowels (e, i). Because of Finnish vowel harmony rules, you must use the front vowel version of the question ending, which is -kö.
Why do we use the word ole here instead of on?
In Finnish, negative sentences require the main verb to drop its personal ending. The positive version of this sentence is Tuo mies on tuttu (That man is familiar). When you make it negative with ei, the verb on changes to its negative base form, ole.
Why is the verb ole separated from eikö?
In a negative question, the negative verb (eikö) takes the first position. The subject (tuo mies) comes next, followed by the main verb (ole). This is why you say Eikö tuo mies ole... rather than putting the two verb parts together.