Breakdown of Ulkonäkö ei ole hyvä tekosyy.
olla
to be
hyvä
good
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
ulkonäkö
appearance
Questions & Answers about Ulkonäkö ei ole hyvä tekosyy.
How is the word ulkonäkö formed?
It is a compound word made from ulko- (meaning external, outer, or outside) and näkö (meaning sight, vision, or look). Together, they literally mean "outer look" or appearance.
What are the parts of the compound word tekosyy?
It comes from teko (act, deed) and syy (reason, cause, or guilt). In compound words, teko- often carries the meaning of something artificial, making a tekosyy a "fabricated reason"—an excuse.
Why is hyvä tekosyy in the nominative case here? Don't negative sentences usually trigger the partitive case?
Even though the sentence is negative (ei ole), we are identifying what something is with a singular, countable noun phrase. In "A is not B" sentences, if B is a singular countable noun, it stays in the nominative. If we were describing an uncountable or abstract quality (like "The food is not good" -> Ruoka ei ole hyvää), we would use the partitive.
Since this lesson covers 'neither' (ei kumpikaan), how would I say "Neither is a good excuse"?