Breakdown of Ai, anteeksi, en nähnyt sinua.
sinä
you
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
nähdä
to see
anteeksi
sorry; excuse me
Questions & Answers about Ai, anteeksi, en nähnyt sinua.
Even though 'you' is a specific, whole person, why is sinua in the partitive case here?
In Finnish, the direct object of a negative verb is always in the partitive case. Even though seeing someone is a complete action involving a specific person, the negative en nähnyt forces the partitive sinua. If the sentence were affirmative, you would use the accusative case: Näin sinut.
How would this sentence typically sound in everyday spoken Finnish (puhekieli)?
A native speaker would very likely shorten this casually to: Ai, sori, en nähny sua. The word anteeksi is frequently replaced by the loanword sori, the final -t drops from the participle nähnyt, and the pronoun sinua is shortened to sua.
What grammatical form is the word anteeksi actually in?
It is historically the translative case of the old noun anne, which means 'forgiveness' or 'gift'. The translative ending -ksi indicates a change of state or purpose, so saying anteeksi literally translates to something like 'for forgiveness'.
Could I use the interjection Voi instead of Ai here to mean 'Oh, sorry'?