Breakdown of En ole unohtanut sitä sääntöä vielä.
minä
I
olla
to be
ei
not
unohtaa
to forget
se
that
vielä
yet
sääntö
the rule
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Finnish grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about En ole unohtanut sitä sääntöä vielä.
Why is the verb in the perfect tense (en ole unohtanut) instead of the simple present negative (en unohda)?
Finnish often uses the perfect tense to express an action or state that’s relevant to the present moment. Here, en ole unohtanut conveys that up to now you haven’t forgotten. The simple negative en unohda would imply a general habit of not forgetting, which doesn’t fit this context.
Why are both en and ole used before unohtanut? Isn’t that two verbs?
Finnish forms the perfect tense with the auxiliary verb olla (to be) plus the past active participle of the main verb. In negation, en replaces olen (I am), so you get en ole + unohtanut (“I have forgotten”). It’s one compound verb structure, not two separate actions.
Why is the object sääntöä in the partitive case instead of the nominative sääntö?
In negative sentences, Finnish uses the partitive case for objects. Also, the partitive marks incomplete or ongoing actions. Since the forgetting hasn’t happened, you use sääntöä rather than sääntö.
What does sitä do in sitä sääntöä? Why not just sääntöä?
Sitä is the partitive form of the demonstrative pronoun se, meaning “that.” It specifies “that rule.” Finnish often pairs a demonstrative pronoun with its noun, both agreeing in case.
What does vielä mean, and why is it placed at the end?
Vielä means “yet” or “still.” Placing it at the end emphasizes the time aspect (“…not forgotten yet”). Finnish word order is flexible; moving vielä can shift focus but doesn’t change the core meaning.
Could vielä appear somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes. You can say En vielä ole unohtanut sitä sääntöä or En ole vielä unohtanut sitä sääntöä—all are correct. The slight changes in adverb position only tweak emphasis, not the overall meaning.
Why is there no pronoun for “I” (minä) in the sentence?
Finnish verb forms carry person information. En is already the 1st person singular negative form, so adding minä is unnecessary unless you want extra emphasis.
Why does the perfect use the auxiliary olla plus a participle? It seems to translate oddly.
Literally, Finnish perfect combines olla + past active participle (here unohtanut). Even though word-for-word you might parse it as I am not having forgotten, it functions just like the English present perfect, so we translate it as I haven’t forgotten.