Breakdown of Minä en ymmärrä vielä suomea hyvin.
Questions & Answers about Minä en ymmärrä vielä suomea hyvin.
Negation in Finnish uses a negative auxiliary verb (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät) that carries person and number. The main verb appears in its “connegative” form without personal endings. For “I don’t understand,” you combine:
• minä (I)
• en (1st person singular negative)
• ymmärrä (connegative of ymmärtää)
vielä means still or yet, indicating the action hasn’t happened up to now. Its placement is flexible:
• After the verb: en ymmärrä vielä suomea hyvin
• After the object: en ymmärrä suomea vielä hyvin
Both are correct; the version after the verb is the most neutral.
• vielä = still/yet (action not done so far)
• jo = already (action done earlier or sooner than expected)
In our sentence you want to say you still do not understand, so you need vielä. Using jo would imply you already do not understand, which doesn’t make sense.
Remove the negative auxiliary and add the personal ending to the verb:
• Minä ymmärrän suomea hyvin
or simply
• Ymmärrän suomea hyvin
• ymmärtää: /ˈymːær.tæː/
– y = like German ü
– ä = like the a in cat (fronted), doubled ää is long
• suomea: /ˈsuo̯.me̞.ɑ/
– uo = pronounced [uo]
– ea = pronounced [e̞a]