Breakdown of Mä lähen, jos mä en selviä.
minä
I
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
lähteä
to leave
jos
if
selvitä
to survive
Questions & Answers about Mä lähen, jos mä en selviä.
Why is the verb written as lähen instead of lähden?
In spoken Finnish (puhekieli), the letter d is frequently dropped from the middle of words. Even though the standard written form is lähden (from the verb lähteä), you will almost always hear it as lähen in everyday speech.
What is the base form of selviä, and why does it look different here?
The dictionary form is selvitä (to manage, to survive). It is a Type 4 verb. To form the present negative, you take the infinitive, drop the final -tä, and add -ä to get the negative stem selviä. Combined with the negative verb, that gives us en selviä (I don't manage).
The English translation says 'I will leave', but isn't lähen in the present tense?
Yes, it is! Finnish doesn't have a separate future tense. You simply use the present tense for future events, and the context makes the timing clear. Here, the conditional word jos (if) shows that the leaving is a future possibility.
Do I have to include mä both times, or could I just say lähen, jos en selviä?
In formal written Finnish (kirjakieli), you can drop the first-person and second-person pronouns because the verb endings already tell you who is acting. However, in spoken Finnish, the short pronouns mä (I) and sä (you) are almost always spoken out loud.
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