Breakdown of Kumpikaan ei myöntänyt virhettä.
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
virhe
error
myöntää
to admit
kumpikaan
neither one
Questions & Answers about Kumpikaan ei myöntänyt virhettä.
How does the clitic -kaan change the meaning of the word kumpi here?
Kumpi means "which one (out of two)". When you add the negative clitic -kaan, it becomes kumpikaan, meaning "neither one". Remember that in Finnish, words with -kaan or -kään must always be paired with a negative verb, which is why we have ei right after it.
Why is the verb ei in the singular form if there are two people involved?
Even though kumpikaan implies two people, the word itself is singular (literally meaning "not which one"). Because of this, it takes the 3rd person singular negative verb ei, rather than the plural eivät.
Why does the verb myöntänyt end in -nyt instead of a regular past tense ending?
This is the past tense negative form. To say someone didn't do something in the past, you use the negative verb (ei) plus the past participle form of the main verb, which ends in -nut or -nyt. Here, the verb myöntää (to admit) becomes ei myöntänyt (did not admit).
Why is the word for "mistake" (virhe) written as virhettä?
Virhettä is in the partitive case. In Finnish, whenever a sentence is negative (meaning the action didn't actually happen), the object of the verb must be in the partitive case. Since neither one admitted it, virhe becomes virhettä.
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