Learn Hardcore Finnish: Ellei meille tule vieraita viikonloppuna, jatkamme aidan maalaamista kahdestaan. - Unless we get visitors at the weekend, we will continue painting the fence together.

Ellei meille tule vieraita viikonloppuna ≈ Jos ei meille tule vieraita viikonloppuna
(= If no guests come to us on the weekend / Unless guests come to us on the weekend)

Points to note:

Ellei is a special negative if-form built from the negative verb ei.
It has different forms for different persons (like ellen, ellet, ellei, ellemme, ellette, elleivät).
Here we use the 3rd-person form ellei, because the verb tule is in 3rd person singular.
In everyday speech and writing, you can almost always replace ellei with jos ei with only a small stylistic difference:
- ellei can feel a bit more formal or bookish,
- jos ei is the very standard, neutral expression.

Why is the verb tule in the third person singular when vieraita (‘guests’) is plural?

This is because Meille tulee vieraita is an existential sentence, a very typical Finnish structure:

Meille tulee vieraita.
Literally: To us comes guests.

In existential sentences with an indefinite plural subject in the partitive (like vieraita):

The verb is usually 3rd person singular: tule
The subject noun comes after the verb and is in partitive plural.

Compare:

Meille tulee vieraita. – We will have (some) guests coming to us.
Vieraat tulevat meille. – The guests are coming to us. (specific, known guests)

So here tule is singular because the structure is “comes guests to us”, not “guests come” in the English sense.

Why is it vieraita and not vieraat?

Vieraita is the partitive plural of vieras (a guest/visitor).

Reasons for the partitive here:

Indefinite quantity / “some guests”
We are talking about some (unspecified) guests, not a particular, clearly identified group.
Finnish uses partitive plural for this kind of indefinite plural:
- vieraita = some guests / any guests
- vieraat = the guests (a specific group)
Existential sentence pattern
With verbs like olla, tulla, löytyä, jäädä, etc., when you introduce something new or indefinite, you often put the “subject” in the partitive:
- Pöydällä on kirjoja. – There are books on the table. (some books)
- Meille tulee vieraita. – We will get guests / Guests will come to us.

If you meant a specific, known group of guests, you’d use vieraat and normally change the structure:

Ellei ne vieraat tule viikonloppuna, jatkamme…
(If those guests don’t come on the weekend, we’ll continue…)

What exactly does meille mean here, and why is this form used?

Meille is the allative form of me (we/us):

me (we) → meille (to us, to our place)

In this sentence:

Ellei meille tule vieraita
literally: If to-us comes guests
→ If (any) guests don’t come *to us / to our place / to our home*.

Using meille:

Emphasizes that the guests would be coming to us (our home/family/place).
Is a very common way to express “we will have guests”:
- Meille tulee vieraita. ≈ We’re going to have guests (coming over).

You could grammatically say:

Ellei viikonloppuna tule vieraita, … – If no guests come on the weekend, …

but meille makes it explicit that we are the ones who would receive them.

What case is viikonloppuna, and how does it work in time expressions?

Viikonloppuna is the essive case of viikonloppu (weekend):

viikonloppu → viikonloppuna = on/over the weekend

The essive (-na/-nä) is often used in time expressions with:

days of the week: maanantaina (on Monday)
certain holidays: jouluna (at Christmas)
and here: viikonloppuna (on the weekend / at the weekend)

So:

Ellei meille tule vieraita viikonloppuna, …
= If no guests come to us *on the weekend, …*

Why is there a comma before jatkamme?

Finnish normally separates a subordinate clause from the main clause with a comma.

Here:

Subordinate clause: Ellei meille tule vieraita viikonloppuna
Main clause: jatkamme aidan maalaamista kahdestaan.

Because the subordinate clause is introduced by ellei, we put a comma between the two:

Ellei meille tule vieraita viikonloppuna, jatkamme aidan maalaamista kahdestaan.

If you reverse the order, you still use a comma:

Jatkamme aidan maalaamista kahdestaan, ellei meille tule vieraita viikonloppuna.

So the comma is not optional stylistically here; it’s part of the normal punctuation rule.

Is jatkamme present or future tense? Why does it seem to mean “we will continue”?

Jatkamme is present tense, 1st person plural:

jatkaa (to continue) → jatkamme (we continue / we will continue)

Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense is used for:

present time: Nyt jatkamme. – Now we are continuing.
future time: Huomenna jatkamme. – Tomorrow we will continue.

Here, the future meaning is clear from the context (a condition about the coming weekend), so jatkamme naturally means “we will continue”.

How is aidan maalaamista formed, and what does each part mean?

Aidan maalaamista breaks down like this:

aita – fence
aidan – genitive of aita = of the fence / the fence’s
maalata – to paint
maalaaminen – the -minen verbal noun: painting (as a noun)
maalaamista – partitive of maalaaminen

So:

aidan maalaaminen – the painting of the fence
aidan maalaamista – (the) painting of the fence in partitive

In the sentence:

jatkamme aidan maalaamista
literally: we continue the painting of the fence
→ we will continue painting the fence.

The genitive aidan shows what is being painted, and maalaamista is the action noun governed by jatkaa.

Why does jatkaa use aidan maalaamista and not maalata aitaa, like “continue to paint the fence”?

In Finnish, jatkaa normally takes:

a noun (often in the partitive), or
a verbal noun in -minen (also in the partitive, if the action is ongoing).

So you say:

jatkaa työtä – to continue (the) work
jatkaa lukemista – to continue reading
jatkaa aidan maalaamista – to continue painting the fence

You do not say:

✗ jatkaa maalata aitaa

That kind of “continue to paint” structure with a bare infinitive is not used with jatkaa. Instead, Finnish prefers “continue the painting (of X)”:

verb jatkaa
- -minen-noun (maalaaminen) in the appropriate case (maalaamista here).

Why is it aidan maalaamista, not aitaa maalaamista or something with partitive for the fence?

Inside a -minen verbal noun structure, the object of the action is usually in the genitive, not in the partitive:

aidan maalaaminen – the painting of the fence
kirjan lukeminen – the reading of the book
talon rakentaminen – the building of the house

When that -minen noun goes into the partitive (because of the verb jatkaa), the internal object stays in the genitive:

jatkamme aidan maalaamista
aloitimme kirjan lukemista
jatkavat talon rakentamista

So the partitive is on maalaamista, not on aita.

What does kahdestaan mean exactly, and how is it formed?

Kahdestaan means “just the two of us”, “the two of us together”, or “by ourselves (two people)”.

Formation:

kaksi – two
kahden – genitive of kaksi
kahdestaan – adverb from kahden
- -staan

There is a small set of such “together” adverbs:

yksin – alone (one person)
kahdestaan – the two of us / you / them, just two
kolmistaan – the three of us / you / them
neljästään, etc.

So:

jatkamme aidan maalaamista kahdestaan
= we will continue painting the fence, the two of us (and nobody else).

Can the word order in Ellei meille tule vieraita viikonloppuna be changed?

Yes, Finnish allows some flexibility in word order, as long as the cases stay the same. For example, you could say:

Ellei viikonloppuna meille tule vieraita, …
Ellei viikonloppuna tule vieraita meille, …

The basic elements and their roles don’t change:

ellei – if … not / unless
meille – to us
tule – comes
vieraita – (any) guests
viikonloppuna – on the weekend

The given order Ellei meille tule vieraita viikonloppuna is very natural and probably the most typical here, but other orders are possible to change emphasis slightly (for example, emphasizing viikonloppuna by moving it earlier).