Breakdown of Hän ei valitse kaakelia eikä tapettia kylpyhuoneeseen.
hän
he / she
ei
no / not (negative verb)
kylpyhuone
the bathroom
valita
to choose
tapetti
wallpaper
kaakeli
tile
Questions & Answers about Hän ei valitse kaakelia eikä tapettia kylpyhuoneeseen.
How does the neither... nor structure work in this sentence?
Why are the words for tile (kaakelia) and wallpaper (tapettia) in the partitive case?
Because this is a negative sentence. When an action does not happen, the object of that action (the things not being chosen here) must always take the partitive case.
Why use the illative case for the bathroom (kylpyhuoneeseen) when the translation says for the bathroom?
In Finnish, when you choose, buy, or build something to go in a specific room or building, you use the illative (into) case to show where the item will end up. You are conceptually choosing the materials to go into the bathroom.
Why is the verb valitse missing the final -e that usually marks the hän form (valitsee)?
Because it follows the negative verb ei, it drops its personal ending and takes the connegative form. For the verb valita (to choose), you find this form by dropping the final -a from the infinitive and adding -se, giving us valitse.
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