Breakdown of En osaa pelata snookeria, sillä en tiedä mitään biljardista.
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
tietää
to know
osata
to know how to
pelata
to play
Questions & Answers about En osaa pelata snookeria, sillä en tiedä mitään biljardista.
Why is snookeria in the partitive case?
There are two reasons working together here! First, the verb pelata (to play) always takes a partitive object when playing a game or sport. Second, because of object case inheritance, the negative main verb en osaa forces the object of the entire verb chain (en osaa pelata) to be in the partitive.
How does the predicate chain osaa pelata work in this sentence?
The verb osata (to know how to / to be able to) belongs to a group of verbs that require the following verb to be in its basic, dictionary form (the first infinitive). Therefore, osata chains directly into pelata without any extra endings.
Could I use koska instead of sillä for "because"?
Yes, you could. koska is more common in everyday spoken Finnish. sillä is slightly more formal and is mostly used in written Finnish or careful speech. Also, while a clause with koska can start a sentence, sillä must always come between two clauses, much like the English conjunction "for".
Why is biljardista in the elative (-sta) case?
The verb tietää (to know) requires the elative case when you are talking about knowing about something. So, tietää biljardista translates to knowing about billiards.