Breakdown of En ollut treenannut viime kuussa ollenkaan, joten ensimmäinen lenkki tuntui raskaalta.
Questions & Answers about En ollut treenannut viime kuussa ollenkaan, joten ensimmäinen lenkki tuntui raskaalta.
Finnish is using the pluperfect (past perfect) here, just like English “I hadn’t trained” rather than “I didn’t train”.
- En treenannut = I didn’t train (simple past)
- En ollut treenannut = I hadn’t trained (past perfect, before some other past event)
In the sentence, the “other past event” is ensimmäinen lenkki tuntui raskaalta (the first run felt hard).
So the structure is:
- earlier past: en ollut treenannut (I had not trained)
- later past: lenkki tuntui raskaalta (the run felt hard)
That’s why the pluperfect (en ollut treenannut) is used instead of simple past (en treenannut).
It’s a standard negative pluperfect form. Compare:
Affirmative pluperfect: Olin treenannut = I had trained
- olin = I was / I had (past of olla, to be)
- treenannut = past active participle of treenata (trained)
Negative pluperfect: En ollut treenannut = I had not trained
- en = 1st person singular of the negative verb ei
- ollut = past active participle of olla
- treenannut = past active participle of treenata
Pattern for negative pluperfect is:
(subject) + ei (conjugated) + ollut + main-verb-participle
Examples:
- En ollut syönyt = I had not eaten
- Emme olleet käyneet = We had not visited
Treenannut is the past active participle of the verb treenata (to train, to work out).
Formation:
- infinitive: treenata
- stem: treenaa-
- past active participle: stem + -nut/nyt → treenannut
Meaning:
- as part of a compound tense: olin treenannut = I had trained
- used adjectivally: treenannut urheilija = a trained/fit athlete
In this sentence it appears in a compound tense (the pluperfect) with olla: olin / en ollut treenannut.
Viime kuussa uses the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä), which is very common in Finnish for time expressions meaning “during X”:
- viime kuussa = during last month
- tänä vuonna = this year
- talvella = in (the) winter
Alternatives and nuances:
- viime kuukausi = “(the) last month” as a bare noun, without the “during” sense; less natural in this context.
- viime kuukautena (essive case) can also mean roughly “during the last month”, but it’s stylistically different and less idiomatic here.
So viime kuussa is the most natural way to say “last month (time period)” in this sentence.
Ollenkaan means “at all” in negative sentences.
- En ollut treenannut ollenkaan = I hadn’t trained at all
- En ymmärrä ollenkaan = I don’t understand at all
It intensifies the negation, emphasizing that the activity did not happen even a little bit.
You can often replace it with yhtään or lainkaan:
- En ollut treenannut yhtään / lainkaan – all are acceptable and close in meaning.
In everyday speech, yhtään is especially common.
Word order can vary:
- En ollut treenannut viime kuussa ollenkaan
- En ollut viime kuussa treenannut ollenkaan
Both are grammatical; the emphasis shifts slightly, but the meaning is essentially the same.
Joten is a coordinating conjunction meaning roughly “so / therefore / so that” in the sense of consequence:
- …, joten ensimmäinen lenkki tuntui raskaalta.
= …, so the first run felt hard.
Alternatives:
- …, siksi ensimmäinen lenkki tuntui raskaalta.
= …, for that reason the first run felt hard.
Here siksi is an adverb (“for that reason”), not a conjunction, so the structure is slightly different but acceptable. - niin että usually introduces a result clause, often with a more “descriptive consequence” meaning (“so that / in such a way that”).
In this exact sentence, niin että would sound awkward or would need rephrasing.
In this context, joten is the most natural and straightforward way to connect cause and effect.
Lenkki is a bit broader than just “run”:
- literally: a loop, lap, circuit
- in everyday language, especially in sports/fitness context: a run or a brisk walk / jog done as exercise
So:
- lähteä lenkille = to go for a run / for a jog / for an exercise walk
- juoksulenkki = a running workout, a run
- kävelylenkki = a walk (as exercise)
In this sentence, given treenata (“to train, to work out”), ensimmäinen lenkki is most naturally read as “the first run / the first training run.”
Here ensimmäinen lenkki is the subject of the clause and refers to one specific, complete event: “the first run”.
- ensimmäinen = first (ordinal number, nominative)
- lenkki = run, jog, loop (nominative singular)
As a normal subject of tuntui (“felt”), it appears in the nominative:
Ensimmäinen lenkki tuntui raskaalta.
You’d use partitive (ensimmäistä lenkkiä) in other contexts, e.g., where the event is incomplete, ongoing, or in certain object positions, but not here as the clear, whole subject.
With the verb tuntua (to feel / to seem), Finnish normally uses the ablative case (-lta/-ltä) for the complement:
- tuntua + ablative = to feel / seem (in some way)
Examples:
- Tuntuu hyvältä. = It feels good.
- Se kuulostaa oudolta. = That sounds strange.
- Kahvi maistuu pahalta. = Coffee tastes bad.
So:
- raskas = heavy, hard (basic form)
- raskaalta = “as heavy/hard” (ablative form, used after tuntua)
Thus tuntui raskaalta literally means “felt as heavy” → “felt hard / felt heavy.”
Yes. Finnish word order is quite flexible, and moving elements mainly changes emphasis, not basic meaning.
Variants:
- En ollut treenannut viime kuussa ollenkaan…
Neutral: slight emphasis on I hadn’t trained… (during last month at all). - Viime kuussa en ollut treenannut ollenkaan…
Emphasis on last month as the time frame, e.g. contrasting it with other months.
Both are grammatical and natural.
The core rule is that the finite verb (here: en ollut) usually stays early in the sentence, but adverbials like viime kuussa can move around it to adjust focus.
Both can be translated as “to train / to practice”, but they feel a bit different:
treenata
- colloquial/neutral, very common in sports and fitness
- often means to work out, to do training sessions
- En ollut treenannut viime kuussa ollenkaan → I hadn’t been working out at all last month.
harjoitella
- slightly more formal or general
- can be used for practicing skills (music, languages, sports techniques)
- En ollut harjoitellut viime kuussa ollenkaan might suggest practicing some skill or sport, not necessarily general fitness workouts.
In a fitness / running context, treenata sounds very natural and is the typical choice.
All three can mean “at all” in negative sentences, and all would work here:
- En ollut treenannut viime kuussa ollenkaan.
- En ollut treenannut viime kuussa lainkaan.
- En ollut treenannut viime kuussa yhtään.
Nuances (very subtle and often interchangeable):
- ollenkaan: very common in spoken and written Finnish, neutral.
- lainkaan: a bit more formal or “standard”; very common too.
- yhtään: extremely common in speech; can sometimes carry a slight sense of “even a little bit”.
In everyday conversation they’re close enough that you can treat them as synonyms for “at all” when negating.