Breakdown of Olin jo skannannut viivakoodin, paitsi että erä oli väärä.
olla
to be
jo
already
että
that (conjunction)
väärä
wrong
paitsi
except (for), besides
skannata
to scan
viivakoodi
barcode
erä
batch
Questions & Answers about Olin jo skannannut viivakoodin, paitsi että erä oli väärä.
How does paitsi että differ from just using paitsi in this sentence?
paitsi että (except that) acts as a conjunction introducing a full subordinate clause with its own subject and verb (erä oli väärä). If you used just paitsi, it would act as a preposition requiring the following noun to be in the partitive case, such as paitsi väärää erää (except for the wrong batch).
Why is the verb olin skannannut used instead of the regular past tense?
This is the pluperfect (past perfect) tense, formed with the past tense of olla and the past participle. It is used here to emphasize the sequence of events: the scanning was already completely finished before the person realized the batch was wrong.
Why does the object viivakoodin end in -n rather than being in the partitive case?
The accusative case (which looks like the genitive here) shows that the action was fully completed. The barcode was successfully scanned. If the action had been interrupted or was ongoing, you would use the partitive case, for example: Olin skannaamassa viivakoodia (I was scanning the barcode).
What kind of word is erä and where else might I see it?
Here, erä translates to batch or lot, which is very common in logistics, manufacturing, and retail. You will also frequently hear it in sports, where it means a period or set, such as a period in an ice hockey game.
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