En pääse ylös, koska hissi on rikki.

In Finnish, negation uses a special negative verb that changes for the person.

So:

• en = I do not
• et = you do not
• ei = he/she/it does not
• emme = we do not
• ette = you (plural) do not
• eivät = they do not

That means En pääse ylös literally works like I-not get up.

You can add minä for emphasis:

• Minä en pääse ylös = I can’t get upstairs / I’m the one who can’t get up

But usually Finnish leaves the subject pronoun out when it is already clear from the verb.

Pääse is the negative-form companion of the verb päästä.

The basic verb päästä can mean things like:

• to get to
• to reach
• to be able to go
• to gain access
• to get out / get free, depending on context

In this sentence, en pääse ylös means something like:

• I can’t get up
• I can’t get upstairs
• I can’t get to the upper floor

Because the elevator is broken, the idea is not just physical motion upward in general, but being unable to access the upper floor.

With Finnish negation, the main verb usually appears in a special form called the connegative.

For päästä, the forms are:

• affirmative: pääsen = I can get / I get to
• negative: en pääse = I cannot get / I don’t get to

So after the negative verb en, you do not use the normal personal ending:

• pääsen = correct in a positive sentence
• en pääse = correct in a negative sentence

Not:

• en pääsen ❌

Ylös means up, upward, or in many contexts upstairs.

Finnish often uses location/direction words like:

• ylös = up
• alas = down
• ulos = out
• sisään = in / inside

So En pääse ylös is a very natural way to say I can’t get upstairs / up.

You could also say more specifically:

• En pääse yläkertaan = I can’t get upstairs / to the upper floor

But ylös is shorter and very common in everyday speech.

It can mean either, depending on context.

In this sentence, because of hissi (elevator), ylös is best understood as:

• upstairs
• to the upper floor
• up

English usually chooses the most natural translation for the situation, so I can’t get upstairs, because the elevator is broken is a very good translation.

Koska means because.

It introduces the reason:

• En pääse ylös = I can’t get upstairs
• koska hissi on rikki = because the elevator is broken

So the whole sentence is:

• En pääse ylös, koska hissi on rikki.
• I can’t get upstairs, because the elevator is broken.

Unlike English learners sometimes expect, Finnish does not usually change the word order dramatically after koska in a basic sentence.

This is the normal basic Finnish word order:

• subject + verb + complement

So:

• hissi = elevator
• on = is
• rikki = broken

Together:

• hissi on rikki = the elevator is broken

Finnish word order is often fairly flexible, but this is the most neutral and natural order here.

Rikki means broken, out of order, or not working.

It is very commonly used with olla (to be):

• Puhelin on rikki. = The phone is broken.
• Auto on rikki. = The car is broken.
• Hissi on rikki. = The elevator is broken.

So on rikki is a very common Finnish pattern meaning is broken.

It behaves a bit like an adjective in translation, because in English we say broken. But in Finnish, rikki is often treated more like a fixed predicate expression used with olla.

For learners, the important thing is to learn the chunk:

• olla rikki = to be broken

That will help more than worrying too much about the exact word class at first.

Finnish does not have articles like a/an and the.

So hissi can mean:

• an elevator
• the elevator

The context tells you which one makes sense. Here, English naturally uses the elevator, because a specific elevator is meant.

This is very normal in Finnish. For example:

• Minulla on auto. = I have a car.
• Auto on pihalla. = The car is in the yard.

No article is needed in Finnish.

By itself, en pääse ylös could sometimes be understood more generally as I can’t get up.

But the second part of the sentence makes the meaning clear:

• koska hissi on rikki = because the elevator is broken

That strongly points to getting upstairs / up to a higher floor, not standing up physically.

So context decides the most natural English meaning.

Finnish uses the present tense here exactly as English does for a present situation.

• En pääse = I can’t get / I’m not able to get
• hissi on rikki = the elevator is broken

This describes what is true right now.

Finnish present tense often covers meanings that English expresses with either simple present or be + -ing, depending on context.

Usually no, not in this form.

Because ylös means up / upstairs, and hissi means elevator, the sentence naturally describes moving upward in a building.

If you wanted to talk about reaching a person, Finnish would usually make that clearer in some other way.

Yes, absolutely.

• En pääse ylös = I can’t get upstairs / up
• En pääse yläkertaan = I can’t get to the upper floor / upstairs

The version with yläkertaan is a bit more explicit. The version with ylös is shorter and very idiomatic.

Both are natural, but ylös sounds very everyday and conversational.

In standard written Finnish, a comma before koska is normal when it introduces a subordinate clause like this:

• En pääse ylös, koska hissi on rikki.

So yes, the comma is correct and expected in careful writing.