Breakdown of Me emme myy harkkoa emmekä osta eristettä.
me
we
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
ostaa
to buy
myydä
to sell
eriste
insulation
harkko
concrete block
Questions & Answers about Me emme myy harkkoa emmekä osta eristettä.
How does "neither... nor" work here, and why is it emmekä instead of eikä?
In Finnish, "neither... nor" uses the negative verb twice. The second part ("nor") attaches the clitic -kä to the negative verb. Because the subject for both actions is "we", both negative verbs must be conjugated for "we" (emme). This gives us emme... emmekä.
Why aren't the main verbs conjugated as myymme and ostamme?
In negative sentences, the negative verb (emme, emmekä) already shows who is doing the action. The main verbs just take their base negative form (the connegative), which are myy and osta.
Why are both objects (harkkoa and eristettä) in the partitive case?
In Finnish, if the verb is negative, the object of that verb must always be in the partitive case. Since we are not selling or buying these items, the actions are not completed, which triggers the partitive rule.
Harkko just takes an -a, so why does eriste become eristettä with two Ts?
Nouns that end in -e in their basic dictionary form, like eriste, belong to a specific word type where the partitive ending is always -tta or -ttä (depending on vowel harmony). Therefore, you add -ttä to the basic form to get eristettä.
Learn Me emme myy harkkoa emmekä osta eristettä and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free