Breakdown of Jos sinulla ei ole korttia, temppu on mahdoton.
olla
to be
sinä
you
ei
no / not (negative verb)
jos
if
Questions & Answers about Jos sinulla ei ole korttia, temppu on mahdoton.
Why is it sinulla ei ole instead of 'sinä et ole'?
In Finnish, there is no verb for 'to have'. Instead, you use the adessive ending -lla or -llä (on/at) plus the verb olla (to be). To make it negative, you use ei ole. You do not use et because the grammatical subject is technically the card, not 'you' (sinä). It literally translates to 'at you there is not'.
Why is kortti in the partitive form korttia?
In negative 'have' sentences, the thing you don't have must always be in the partitive case. Because you do not have the card, the basic word kortti takes the partitive ending -a to become korttia.
What does the suffix -ton in mahdoton mean?
The suffix -ton or -tön is the equivalent of the English suffix '-less' or prefix 'im-/un-', meaning 'without'. The word mahdoton is related to mahdollinen (possible), so adding -ton makes it 'impossible'.
Does the word order change after the comma like in some other languages?
No, it doesn't! In Finnish, when a main clause follows a jos (if) clause, you don't need to swap the subject and the verb. The second part stays in the normal order: subject (temppu), verb (on), adjective (mahdoton).