Breakdown of Ne ei jaksa mennä matsiin tänään.
ne
they / those (non-human) / they (of people)
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
tänään
today
mennä
to go
matsi
match (colloquial)
jaksaa
to have the energy
Questions & Answers about Ne ei jaksa mennä matsiin tänään.
Why is the sentence using ne instead of he for 'they'?
In standard Finnish, he is used for people and ne for things. However, in everyday spoken Finnish (puhekieli), people almost always use ne for 'they', even when talking about humans.
Shouldn't the negative verb be eivät since the subject is plural?
In standard written Finnish, yes, it would be he eivät jaksa. But in spoken Finnish, the third-person plural (they) usually drops the plural ending and borrows the singular form. So, ne ei jaksa is the normal way to say this in casual speech.
Where does the word matsiin come from?
Matsi is a very common colloquial word for a sports game or match, borrowed from Swedish or English. The standard written Finnish word is ottelu. Here it is in the illative case (matsiin), meaning 'to the match'.
Why isn't mennä contracted to a spoken form like meen in this lesson?
Contracted spoken forms like meen (I go) or meet (you go) only happen when the verb is conjugated for a person. Here, jaksaa is the conjugated verb, which forces mennä to stay in its basic dictionary form (first infinitive).
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