Olen ollut laiska tänään, enkä ole siivonnut huonettani.

I have been lazy today and have not cleaned my room.

Breakdown of Olen ollut laiska tänään, enkä ole siivonnut huonettani.

• minä: I
• olla: to be
• minun: my
• ja: and
• tänään: today
• ei: not
• siivota: to clean
• laiska: lazy
• huone: the room

Questions & Answers about Olen ollut laiska tänään, enkä ole siivonnut huonettani.

What tense is used in the phrase olen ollut, and how is it formed?

Olen ollut is the present perfect tense in Finnish. It’s formed with the present tense of olla (to be) plus the past participle of the main verb (in this case olla itself). So you get:

• olen (I am)
• ollut (been)
  Together, olen ollut means I have been.

Why is siivonnut used after en ole, and what tense does en ole siivonnut represent?

Siivonnut is the past participle of siivota (to clean). When you combine it with the negative present of olla (the auxiliary verb for perfect), you form the negative perfect tense. Thus:

• en ole = I have not
• siivonnut = cleaned (past participle)
  So en ole siivonnut means I haven’t cleaned.

What is the role of enkä in this sentence, and how does it differ from just saying ja en?

Enkä is a negative conjunction meaning and not. It links two negative clauses smoothly. You could say ja en (and I do not), but enkä is more idiomatic here: “Olen ollut laiska tänään, enkä ole siivonnut huonettani.” = “I’ve been lazy today, and I haven’t cleaned my room.”

Why is huonettani in the partitive case instead of nominative, and what does the suffix -ni do?

1. After negation, Finnish verbs take object in the partitive case.
2. Huone (room) → partitive huonetta.
3. The suffix -ni is the first‐person singular possessive, meaning my.
   Putting it all together:
   huone + -tta (partitive) + -ni (my) = huonettani = my room (as the object of a negative verb).

Why is laiska in the nominative case and not the partitive?

With the verb olla (to be), the complement (predicate adjective or noun) takes nominative. So laiska remains nominative:
“Olen laiska” = “I am lazy.”
Predicatives don’t trigger partitive.

Where is the subject I in Finnish? Why isn’t minä used here?

Finnish often omits the subject pronoun because the verb form already indicates the person.

• Olen is uniquely first‐person singular of olla, so minä (I) is unnecessary unless you want extra emphasis.

Can I move tänään to a different position in the sentence?

Yes. Finnish has flexible word order for adverbs. You can say:

• Tänään olen ollut laiska.
• Olen tänään ollut laiska.
• Olen ollut tänään laiska.
  Each is grammatically correct; the difference is only in emphasis or style.

Is there a difference between en ole siivonnut and en siivonnut?

Yes:

• En siivonnut is the negative simple past (imperfect): I did not clean (specific time in the past).
• En ole siivonnut is the negative present perfect: I haven’t cleaned (focus on present result or experience).

Why are there no articles like “a” or “the” in this sentence?

Finnish does not have grammatical articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is shown by context, word order, and case marking, not by separate words like a or the.