Breakdown of Kukaan ei tiedä tulevaisuudesta.
ei
no / not (negative verb)
tietää
to know
kukaan
anyone, nobody (with negation)
tulevaisuus
future
Questions & Answers about Kukaan ei tiedä tulevaisuudesta.
Why does tulevaisuus have the elative ending -sta here?
In Finnish, to say you know about something, you use the verb tietää plus the elative case (-sta/-stä). It works exactly like the emotion verbs you are learning in this lesson (such as tykätä or välittää), which also use the elative to mean "about". Therefore, tulevaisuudesta means "about the future".
Wait, doesn't kukaan mean "anyone"? Why does it translate to "nobody" here?
Kukaan is a negative pronoun that must always be paired with a negative verb (in this case, ei). While English just says "nobody knows", Finnish requires a double negative structure. When kukaan and ei are used together as the subject, they mean "nobody".
Why is the verb form tiedä instead of tietää?
Because it comes right after the negative word ei. In negative sentences, the main verb drops its personal ending. You find this "connegative" form by taking the minä form (tiedän) and removing the -n, which leaves you with tiedä.
How does the word tulevaisuus change into tulevaisuudesta?
Words ending in -uus or -yys change their stems to -uute- or -yyte- before endings are added (giving us the basic stem tulevaisuute-). When you add the -sta ending, it closes the syllable, which triggers consonant gradation. The strong -t- weakens to a -d-, resulting in tulevaisuudesta.
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