Breakdown of Toiseksi meillä ei ole rahaa.
olla
to be
me
we
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
raha
money
toiseksi
secondly (in an enumeration)
Questions & Answers about Toiseksi meillä ei ole rahaa.
Why is the translative case used in toiseksi?
The word toinen means second. Adding the translative ending -ksi turns it into an adverb meaning secondly or as a second point. You will see this pattern when listing arguments, just like with ensiksi (firstly) and kolmanneksi (thirdly).
Could I just say Toinen at the start of the sentence instead?
No, because toinen on its own is an adjective or pronoun meaning second or another. If you started with Toinen, it would sound like you are saying the second person or thing has no money. You need the -ksi ending to create the adverb secondly.
Since this is a negative sentence, rahaa is in the partitive. Would it still be partitive if we actually had money?
Yes, you would say Toiseksi meillä on rahaa. Because money is an uncountable mass noun, it requires the partitive case in both positive and negative possessive sentences. If you used the nominative form raha, it would sound like you are talking about one specific physical coin.
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