Meillä ei ole kiire, emmekä mene kokoukseen.

to be

Breakdown of Meillä ei ole kiire, emmekä mene kokoukseen.

• mennä: to go
• me: we
• kiire: the hurry

Questions & Answers about Meillä ei ole kiire, emmekä mene kokoukseen.

Why does the sentence start with Meillä and not just Me?

In Finnish, possession and some “state” expressions use an adessive form instead of a simple subject pronoun.

• Meillä = on us / at us (adessive case of me, “we”)
• The structure olla + -lla/-llä is how Finnish often says to have or to be in a certain state.

So:

• Meillä on kiire literally: “On us is hurry” → We are in a hurry / We have a hurry.
• In the negative: Meillä ei ole kiire → “On us is not hurry” → We are not in a hurry.

Using just Me with olla would be wrong for this expression:

• ❌ Me olemme kiire (ungrammatical)
• ✅ Meillä on kiire / Meillä ei ole kiire.

Why is it ei ole and not just ei in Meillä ei ole kiire?

Finnish negation uses a special negative verb (ei) plus the main verb in a specific form.

• ole is the “connegative” form of olla (“to be / to have” in this construction).
• ei ole together function like “is not / does not have”.

So the pattern is:

• Affirmative: Meillä on kiire. – “We have a hurry / we are in a hurry.”
• Negative: Meillä ei ole kiire. – “We do not have a hurry / we are not in a hurry.”

You almost always need both parts:

• ei (negative verb, agrees with person and number)
• ole (main verb olla in the special negative form)