Word
Minäkään en juonut tarpeeksi.
Meaning
I did not drink enough either.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Minäkään en juonut tarpeeksi.
minä
I
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
juoda
to drink
-kaan
neither / not either (also -kään)
Questions & Answers about Minäkään en juonut tarpeeksi.
Why is the clitic -kään instead of -kaan attached to minä?
This is because of vowel harmony. The word minä has the front vowels 'i' and 'ä', so it takes the front-vowel version of the clitic, which is -kään. If the word had back vowels (a, o, u), it would take -kaan.
Why does -kään attach to minä instead of the verb?
The clitic attaches to the word it emphasizes. Here, the speaker is emphasizing that they didn't drink enough either ('Me neither' or 'I didn't either'). The clitic -kaan/-kään always requires a negative verb like en in the same sentence to complete the meaning 'not either'.
Why is the verb juonut here instead of the regular past tense juin?
To make a negative sentence in the past tense, you use the conjugated negative verb (here en) plus the past participle form of the main verb. For juoda (to drink), that form is juonut. You cannot use a regular past tense form like juin together with en.
Where does the word tarpeeksi come from?
Tarpeeksi is an adverb meaning 'enough', but it originally comes from the noun tarve (a need). The -ksi ending is the translative case marker, so the word literally translates to something like 'for a need'.