Ellei vesi ole puhdasta, en juo sitä.

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Breakdown of Ellei vesi ole puhdasta, en juo sitä.

• olla: to be
• puhdas: clean
• juoda: to drink

Questions & Answers about Ellei vesi ole puhdasta, en juo sitä.

What does ellei mean, and how is it formed?

Ellei is a fused form of ellei = elle + ei, meaning unless / if not.

• elle is an older/rare standalone conditional marker (you mostly meet it in ellei)
• ei is the negative word
  So Ellei vesi ole puhdasta = Unless the water is clean / If the water isn’t clean.

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Is ellei the same as jos ei? When would I use one vs the other?

They’re very close:

• jos ei = plain if not
• ellei = typically unless, often slightly more formal or “set-phrase-like”

In many contexts you can swap them with little change:

• Ellei vesi ole puhdasta, en juo sitä.
• Jos vesi ei ole puhdasta, en juo sitä.

But ellei naturally matches English unless.

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Why is it vesi ole and not vesi ei ole in the first clause?