Breakdown of Koska etäisyys on suuri, emme ole nähneet toisiamme vuosiin.
olla
to be
koska
because
ei
no / not (negative verb)
vuosi
year
nähdä
to see
toinen
other, another; second
suuri
large, great
etäisyys
the distance
Questions & Answers about Koska etäisyys on suuri, emme ole nähneet toisiamme vuosiin.
Why is vuosiin in the illative case here?
In Finnish, when you express how long something has not happened, you use the illative case for the time word. This is a special rule for negative sentences. Vuosiin is the plural illative of vuosi (year), giving us the meaning "for years".
Could I say vuoteen instead of vuosiin?
Vuoteen is the singular illative, which would mean "for a year". Because the sentence means we haven't seen each other "for years" in the plural, we must use the plural illative form vuosiin.
Why does the word for "each other" take the form toisiamme?
The base word toinen means "other". To express "each other", Finnish uses the plural partitive form toisia. Because the subject is "we", you must also add the first-person plural possessive suffix -mme, making it toisiamme. The partitive case is required here because the main action is negative.
Why do we use nähneet instead of nähnyt?
The sentence is in the negative perfect tense, which is formed with the negative verb emme, the auxiliary verb ole, and the past participle of the main verb. Because the subject is the plural "we", the past participle must also take its plural form, ending in -neet instead of the singular -nyt.
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