Breakdown of Opettajan muistikirja lienee pöydällä, jos se ei ole laukussa.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
pöytä
table
opettaja
teacher
Questions & Answers about Opettajan muistikirja lienee pöydällä, jos se ei ole laukussa.
Why is there no separate word for "probably" in the Finnish sentence?
The probability is built directly into the verb lienee. This is the 3rd person singular form of the verb olla in the potential mood, which inherently means "is probably" or "might be." You do not need to add an adverb like ehkä or luultavasti when using this form.
The infinitive is olla. Why does its potential form start with lie- instead of ol-?
The verb olla has a completely irregular potential mood. Instead of adding the potential marker -ne- to its usual stem, it borrows from an ancient, otherwise obsolete verb root lie-. So for olla, you must memorize the lie- stem, making forms like lienen, lienet, and lienee.
Why does the sentence use the potential lienee in the first clause, but the standard indicative ei ole in the second clause?
The speaker is guessing about the table but stating a concrete condition about the bag. Lienee pöydällä means "it is probably on the table." However, jos se ei ole laukussa means "if it is a fact that it is not in the bag." Using the potential again (ei liene) would mean "if it is probably not in the bag," which sounds grammatically fine but changes the logic of the condition.
Just as a quick refresher, why do we use for the table but for the bag?