Breakdown of Hän ei ole ainoastaan laulaja vaan myös ilmiömäinen virtuoosi.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
myös
also
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
vaan
but rather (after a negative)
laulaja
singer
ainoastaan
only (solely, exclusively)
virtuoosi
virtuoso
ilmiömäinen
phenomenal
Questions & Answers about Hän ei ole ainoastaan laulaja vaan myös ilmiömäinen virtuoosi.
Why does the verb ole come before ainoastaan here?
When linking two nouns or adjectives, the verb phrase (ei ole) precedes the correlative conjunction (ainoastaan). This keeps the focus of the contrast directly on the nouns (laulaja and virtuoosi). If you placed the verb after ainoastaan, you would grammatically need to provide a verb in the second half of the sentence too.
Why do we use vaan here instead of mutta for 'but'?
The conjunction vaan is strictly used to mean 'but rather' after a negative statement. Since the first part of the sentence is negative (ei ole ainoastaan), you must use vaan to introduce the contrasting addition. The phrase ei ainoastaan ... vaan myös is a fixed grammatical pairing in Finnish.
Why is laulaja in the nominative case and not the partitive, given the negative verb ei ole?
When using the verb olla to state what someone is (such as their identity or profession), a singular noun complement takes the nominative case, even in a negative sentence. The presence of the ei ainoastaan ... vaan myös structure does not override this fundamental rule.
What is the suffix on the word ilmiömäinen?
It uses the suffix -mäinen, which is a highly productive suffix that turns a noun into an adjective meaning 'like [noun]' or 'having the characteristics of [noun]'. Here, it attaches to ilmiö (phenomenon) to create ilmiömäinen (phenomenal).
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