Word
Hän ei ole koskaan saapunut kolmantenatoista, mikä on sääli.
Meaning
He has never arrived on the 13th, which is a pity.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hän ei ole koskaan saapunut kolmantenatoista, mikä on sääli.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
koskaan
never / ever
Questions & Answers about Hän ei ole koskaan saapunut kolmantenatoista, mikä on sääli.
Why do we use the essive case ending -na for 'on the 13th'?
The essive case is used to express dates and days when something happens. Just like maanantaina means 'on Monday', adding the essive ending to an ordinal number expresses that an event happens 'on the [number] day'.
How do you build the word kolmantenatoista?
The base word for the 13th is kolmastoista. When you put a 'teen' ordinal into a case like the essive, only the first part changes. The word kolmas (third) becomes kolmantena, while the -toista part never changes. Put them together and you get kolmantenatoista.
Why is the verb phrase ei ole koskaan saapunut used here?
This is the negative perfect tense, meaning 'has never arrived'. It is built using the negative verb ei, the helper verb ole, and the past participle of the main verb, saapunut. The word koskaan (ever/never) naturally sits right in the middle of this structure.
Why does the sentence use mikä for 'which' instead of joka?
You use joka when 'which' refers to a specific noun right before it. However, you must use mikä when 'which' refers to the entire previous sentence or idea. Here, mikä refers to the whole situation of him never arriving on the 13th.