Tämä ei ole omani.

to be

Breakdown of Tämä ei ole omani.

• tämä: this
• ei: not
• omani: mine

Questions & Answers about Tämä ei ole omani.

What does each word in Tämä ei ole omani do?

• Tämä = this
• ei = the negative verb, here not
• ole = the form of olla (to be) used after a negative verb
• omani = mine / my own one

So the structure is basically:

subject + negative verb + main verb + complement

Here, omani is the part that says whose thing it is.

Why is it ei ole and not ei on?

Because Finnish does not negate verbs by just adding a separate word like English not. It uses a special negative verb.

With olla (to be), the pattern is:

• on = is
• ei ole = is not

So ei carries the negation, and ole is the special form used with it.

A few related examples:

• olen = I am → en ole = I am not
• olet = you are → et ole = you are not
• on = he/she/it is → ei ole = he/she/it is not

So *ei on is not grammatical Finnish.

What exactly does mean?