En kysy keneltäkään apua tänään, koska minulla on kiire.

I don’t ask anyone for help today, because I am in a hurry.

Breakdown of En kysy keneltäkään apua tänään, koska minulla on kiire.

• minä: I
• olla: to be
• tänään: today
• koska: because
• kysyä: to ask
• kiire: the hurry
• apu: the help
• keneltäkään: from anyone (at all)
• en: don’t

Questions & Answers about En kysy keneltäkään apua tänään, koska minulla on kiire.

Why does the sentence start with En instead of Minä en?

Finnish usually doesn’t need a subject pronoun because the verb form already shows the person. En already means I do not. You can say Minä en kysy…, but it adds emphasis (like I am not asking, as opposed to someone else).

What exactly is en grammatically?

En is the negative auxiliary verb (the “negative verb”) conjugated for 1st person singular:

• en = I don’t
• et = you don’t
• ei = (s/he/it) doesn’t
  etc.
  In Finnish, negation is formed with this negative verb + a special form of the main verb.

Why is it en kysy and not something like en kysyn?

After the negative verb, the main verb is in the connegative form (a form that looks like the bare stem):

• positive: (minä) kysyn = I ask
• negative: en kysy = I don’t ask
  So kysy is the required form after en.

Why is keneltäkään used, and what case is it?

Keneltäkään means from anyone (in a negative context). It’s:

• keneltä = from whom (ablative case -lta/-ltä)
• • -kään = (not) … either / anyone (negative-polarity clitic)

Finnish uses kysyä joltakulta (ask from someone) with the ablative: -lta/-ltä.

How does -kään / -kaan work here? Why add it at all?

-kään / -kaan emphasizes anyone / either in negatives:

• En kysy keneltäkään = I won’t ask anyone (at all). Without it:
• En kysy keneltä is incomplete (it needs an object like whom from), and
• En kysy keneltäkään is the natural way to say I’m not asking anyone.

Vowel harmony decides the form:

• front vowels → -kään (as in keneltäkään)
• back vowels → -kaan

Why is apua in the partitive case?

Because apu (help) is typically something uncountable/partial, and Finnish commonly uses the partitive for it in this structure:

• kysyä apua = to ask for help (partitive apua)

So the verb pattern is:

• kysyä joltakulta apua = ask someone for help (literally: ask help from someone)

Is En kysy… tänään present tense or future tense?

Formally it’s present tense, but Finnish present tense often covers near-future meaning too. Depending on context, it can mean:

• I’m not asking today (present plan/decision)
• I won’t ask today (future interpretation)

If you want to make the future feel more explicit, you can add a time expression (as here) or use other wording, but Finnish often just uses the present.

What does koska do, and why is there a comma before it?

koska means because and introduces a reason clause. In Finnish, it’s standard to put a comma before a subordinate clause like this:

• …, koska minulla on kiire. = …, because I’m in a hurry.

Why does Finnish say minulla on kiire instead of a verb like I hurry?

Finnish commonly expresses states like this with to have:

• minulla on = I have (literally: on me is)
• kiire = hurry / rush / urgency

So minulla on kiire literally is I have hurry, meaning I’m in a hurry / I’m busy / I’m rushed.

What case is minulla, and why that case?

Minulla is adessive case (-lla/-llä), which often expresses possession or being “on/at” someone:

• minulla on X = I have X (literally: on me is X)

So minulla on kiire uses this possessive-style structure.

Can the word order change? For example, can tänään go earlier?

Yes. Finnish word order is flexible and often changes emphasis:

• En kysy keneltäkään apua tänään… (neutral: today applies to the whole not-asking)
• En kysy tänään keneltäkään apua… (emphasis on today, like: today, at least)
• Tänään en kysy keneltäkään apua… (strong emphasis: Today I won’t ask anyone for help)

All are grammatically possible; the choice affects what you stress.