Word
Meillä ei ole aikaa etsiä uutta ateljeeta.
Meaning
We do not have the time to look for a new studio.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Meillä ei ole aikaa etsiä uutta ateljeeta.
olla
to be
me
we
uusi
new
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
Questions & Answers about Meillä ei ole aikaa etsiä uutta ateljeeta.
Why is the object uutta ateljeeta in the partitive case here?
The verb etsiä (to look for, to search) is a partitive verb. It expresses an ongoing, irresultative action—you are searching, but haven't found the object yet. Because of this, its object must always be in the partitive case.
Why does ateljee take the -ta ending to become ateljeeta instead of just -a?
The noun ateljee (studio) is a loanword that ends in a long vowel (-ee). In Finnish, words that end in a long vowel or a diphthong form their partitive by adding -ta or -tä rather than just a single vowel.
Why is aikaa in the partitive case after ei ole?
This is a negative possession sentence (Meillä ei ole...). In a negative "have" structure, the thing that is not possessed must always be in the partitive case. Note that even in a positive sentence (Meillä on aikaa), aika would often take the partitive because it is being treated as an uncountable, abstract amount of time.
Why do we use the first infinitive etsiä directly after a noun like aikaa?