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En viivyttele tänään, koska minulla on kiire.

En viivyttele tänään, koska minulla on kiire.
I won’t delay today because I’m in a hurry.

Breakdown of En viivyttele tänään, koska minulla on kiire.

minä
I
olla
to be
tänään
today
koska
because
kiire
the hurry
ei
not
viivytellä
to delay
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Questions & Answers about En viivyttele tänään, koska minulla on kiire.

Why does the sentence start with En instead of a separate word for not?

Finnish forms many negatives with a special negative verb (the ei-verb) that conjugates for person/number.

  • en = I do not
    So En viivyttele literally means I don’t delay / I’m not dawdling, without needing an extra word like English not.
What is the dictionary form of en, and how does it conjugate?

The base form is ei (often cited as the negative verb). It conjugates like this in the present:

  • en = I don’t
  • et = you (sg) don’t
  • ei = he/she/it doesn’t
  • emme = we don’t
  • ette = you (pl) don’t
  • eivät = they don’t

So En viivyttele specifically marks 1st person singular.

Why is it viivyttele and not viivyttelen (or some other personal ending)?

In Finnish negative clauses, the main verb usually appears in a “connegative” form, which does not carry person endings. The person is carried by the negative verb instead:

  • Positive: Viivyttelen tänään. = I am delaying today.
  • Negative: En viivyttele tänään. = I am not delaying today.

So viivyttele is the connegative form of viivytellä.

What does viivytellä mean exactly, and is it formal or informal?

viivytellä means to dawdle, linger, stall, delay (intransitively)—often implying you’re taking longer than necessary. It’s neutral in register (not especially formal or slangy).
If you mean delaying something specific (more transitive), Finnish might also use viivyttää (to delay something).

Is tänään in a special case, or just an adverb?

tänään is an adverb meaning today. It’s historically related to the demonstrative tämä (this), but you can treat tänään as a fixed time adverb:

  • tänään = today
  • huomenna = tomorrow
  • eilen = yesterday
Can the word order change, like Tänään en viivyttele?

Yes. Finnish word order is flexible and often used for emphasis:

  • En viivyttele tänään = neutral, “I’m not delaying today.”
  • Tänään en viivyttele = emphasizes today (as opposed to other days).
    Both are natural.
Why is there a comma before koska?

In Finnish, it’s normal to use a comma to separate a main clause and a subordinate clause:

  • En viivyttele tänään, koska minulla on kiire.
    The comma signals that koska… introduces a reason clause.
Does koska always mean because, or can it mean something else?

koska usually means because. It can also mean since in the “because/since” sense (reason).
If you mean “since” as “from a time onward,” Finnish uses different words (e.g., -sta lähtien, alkaen, etc.).

What does minulla on kiire literally mean, and why is it not “I have” in the usual way?

Literally it’s on me is hurry:

  • minulla = on me (adessive case: minu-lla)
  • on = is
  • kiire = hurry / rush / being in a hurry

Finnish often expresses “having” with this structure: X-lla on Y = “X has Y.”
So minulla on kiire = I’m in a hurry / I’m rushed.

What case is minulla, and what does -lla add?

minulla is the pronoun minä (I) in the adessive case (-lla/-llä). The adessive often means on/at someone or something, and it’s used in the common “possessive” pattern:

  • Minulla on auto. = I have a car.
  • Minulla on kiire. = I’m in a hurry.
Why is kiire in the basic form (nominative), not partitive or something else?

In the structure minulla on X, the thing you “have” is often in the nominative when it’s treated as a whole/neutral item:

  • minulla on kiire = I have hurry / I’m in a hurry

You may see the partitive in some “have” expressions, especially when emphasizing an indefinite amount or ongoing state (context-dependent), but minulla on kiire is the standard fixed expression.

How would you negate the whole sentence in a different tense, like “I wasn’t delaying today…”?

Finnish uses a past tense form of the negative verb plus the past participle-like form of the main verb:

  • En viivytellyt tänään, koska minulla oli kiire. = I wasn’t delaying today, because I was in a hurry.

Here:

  • en = I don’t (negative verb stays en)
  • viivytellyt = past connegative/participle form
  • oli = was (past of on)