Breakdown of Täällä kummittelee, mutta kenelläkään ei ole kiire.
olla
to be
mutta
but
täällä
here
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
kiire
hurry
kukaan
anyone, nobody (with negation)
kummitella
to haunt
Questions & Answers about Täällä kummittelee, mutta kenelläkään ei ole kiire.
Why is the word for "nobody" kenelläkään here instead of kukaan?
In Finnish, "to be in a hurry" is expressed using the "to have" structure, which requires the adessive case (the -llä ending). Because you say minulla on kiire (I have a hurry), "nobody has a hurry" needs the adessive form of kukaan. The stem of kuka changes to kene-, you add -llä, and finish with the -kään particle to make kenelläkään.
Where does the -kään part go when we change the case of kukaan?
The enclitic particle -kaan/-kään must always go at the very end of the word. When you decline kukaan, the case ending is sandwiched in the middle. Here, it is kene- (stem) + -llä (case ending) + -kään (particle).
Why does kummittelee not have a word for "it" before it?
Kummitella is a verb meaning "to haunt" or "to act like a ghost". Finnish drops the dummy subject "it" for atmospheric or environmental verbs. Just like sataa means "it rains", täällä kummittelee literally means "here haunts" or "there is a haunting here".
Why isn't kiire in the partitive case here, since the sentence is negative?
Abstract physical states or feelings like kiire (hurry), nälkä (hunger), and jano (thirst) stay in the nominative case even in negative "to have" sentences. While you normally use the partitive for negated possession (like minulla ei ole autoa), states of being are an exception, so you say kenelläkään ei ole kiire.
Learn Täällä kummittelee, mutta kenelläkään ei ole kiire 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