Breakdown of Kaipaan sinua, koska emme ole tavanneet moneen kuukauteen.
olla
to be
sinä
you
koska
because
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
Questions & Answers about Kaipaan sinua, koska emme ole tavanneet moneen kuukauteen.
Why is 'for many months' translated using the illative case (moneen kuukauteen)?
This is the main rule for expressing duration in a negative sentence. When you want to say you haven't done something 'for' or 'in' a certain amount of time, Finnish requires the time expression to be in the illative case. If the sentence were positive ('We have met for many months'), you would use a different case.
How do we get the forms moneen and kuukauteen from their base words?
The base words are moni (many) and kuukausi (month). The stem for moni is mone-, and adding the illative ending -en gives us moneen. The stem for kuukausi is kuukaute-, and adding -en makes it kuukauteen. Remember that both words in the phrase must agree and be in the same case.
Why is the verb phrase emme ole tavanneet formatted this way?
This is the negative present perfect tense, meaning 'we have not met'. It uses the negative verb emme (we don't), the helper verb ole (have), and the past participle of tavata (to meet). Because the subject is plural ('we'), the participle takes the plural -eet ending, becoming tavanneet.
Why does kaipaan require the partitive case sinua instead of sinut?