Breakdown of Ellet uusi sopimusta, emme voi lisensoida ohjelmaa.
ei
no / not (negative verb)
voida
can, to be able to
ohjelma
program
sopimus
contract
ellei
if not / unless (inflects for person)
uusia
to renew (e.g. passport, contract)
lisensoida
to license
Questions & Answers about Ellet uusi sopimusta, emme voi lisensoida ohjelmaa.
What exactly is ellet and how does it relate to conditional conjunctions?
Ellet is a combination of jos (if) and the negative verb et (you don't), meaning "unless" or "if you don't". While a word like kunhan sets a positive condition ("provided that"), ellet sets a negative condition. Remember that it conjugates based on the subject: ellen, ellet, ellei, ellemme, ellette, elleivät.
Is uusi the adjective for "new" here?
No, here it is the verb uusia (to renew). Because it follows ellet (which contains the negative verb et), it appears in the negative connegative form, which happens to look identical to the adjective. The phrase ellet uusi means "unless you renew".
Why are both objects (sopimusta and ohjelmaa) in the partitive case?
Because both clauses are negative. In Finnish, if the verb is negative, the object is strictly in the partitive case. The first clause is negated by ellet, making the object sopimusta, and the main clause is negated by emme, making the object ohjelmaa.
The English sentence sounds like it is talking about a future event. Why is everything in the present tense?
Finnish does not have a dedicated future tense, so the present tense is used instead. Conditional words like ellet (unless) or kunhan (as long as) naturally point to future possibilities or conditions, making a separate future tense unnecessary.
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