Breakdown of Me emme edes lannistu, vaan sinnittelemme.
me
we
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
edes
even
vaan
but rather (after a negative)
lannistua
to get discouraged
sinnitellä
to persevere
Questions & Answers about Me emme edes lannistu, vaan sinnittelemme.
Why is edes used here instead of jopa?
In Finnish, you must use edes instead of jopa when the sentence is negative. Because we have the negative verb emme, we pair it with edes to create the meaning 'not even'.
Why is the verb lannistu missing the -mme ending for 'we'?
In a negative sentence, the main verb takes its negative stem, because the person doing the action is already shown by the negative verb (emme). To find the negative stem, take the 'minä' form of lannistua (to get discouraged), which is lannistun, and drop the -n to get emme lannistu.
Why does the sentence use vaan for 'but' instead of the more common mutta?
You use vaan instead of mutta when the first part of the sentence is negative and the second part offers a direct, contrasting alternative. Here, we are NOT doing one thing (emme edes lannistu), but RATHER we are doing this other thing (sinnittelemme).
The English translation says 'will not... will persevere', but aren't these present tense verbs?
Yes, both lannistu and sinnittelemme are in the present tense. Finnish does not have a dedicated future tense. You use the present tense to talk about the future, and the context of a firm intention makes it clear that this applies to the future as well.
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