Word
Ilman apua en selviä tästä tehtävästä.
Meaning
Without help, I won’t get through this task.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Questions & Answers about Ilman apua en selviä tästä tehtävästä.
Why does ilman mean without, and why is apua in the partitive case?
Ilman is a preposition meaning without. In Finnish, ilman typically requires the partitive case for the noun that follows it.
So:
- apu = help (dictionary form, nominative)
- apua = help (partitive singular)
Ilman apua = without (any) help.
What does en selviä mean grammatically? Why isn’t the verb fully conjugated like en selviän?
Finnish negation uses a special negative auxiliary verb that carries the person ending:
- en = I do not
The main verb then appears in the connegative form (a form without personal ending):
- selvitä (to cope / manage / get through)
- connegative present: selviä
So en selviä = I don’t manage / I can’t cope.
You don’t say en selviän in standard Finnish; the person marking goes on en, not on the main verb.
What is the base form of selviä, and why does it look different from selvitä?
The dictionary form is selvitä. In the present tense stem, the -t- drops: