# eipähän



## Gavril

Päivää,

How does the "-pähän" in _eipähän_ affect the meaning of the sentence below?



> – Olen ollut tässä kuusi ja puoli vuotta, ja *eipähän* ole tullut aikaisemmin vastaan, Pipatti sanoo.



"'I have been here six and a half years, and *[...]*', says Pipatti"

Kiitos


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## 盲人瞎馬

There's also siinäpähän, which seems to be a very commonly used word with the same combination of particles.


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## Marsario

Could it be "and I've never run into it/him/her"?

As far as I understand the sentence would be –Olen ollut tässä kuusi ja puoli vuotta, ja (se/hän) ei ole tullut aikasemmin vastaan. Pähän should only be an there as an exclamation...

What do Finns say?


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## Grumpy Old Man

I don't detect any real difference in meaning between _ei_ and _eipähän_ in your sentence. _Eipähän_ makes the speaker's opinion slightly more emphatic.


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## Spongiformi

Yeah, like Marsario said. It doesn't particularly affect the _meaning _at all. It merely affects the feeling of the sentence, making it less severe sounding, though it doesn't change the fact it's still negative. It would work similarly with just "_-pä_" (_eipä_). I guess Pipatti used the longest possible form of "_ei_" to downplay the negative answer. Technically "-_pa/pä_" stenghtens a sentence, "-_han/hän_" mellows it, but the streghtening part doesn't really show when used with _"ei"_.

Thus, you could also drop the "-_pähän"_ away entirely and the general message would still be exactly the same. It's not really an independently working sentence, though. It only works as an answer to something.


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## Gavril

Spongiformi said:


> It's not really an independently working sentence, though. It only works as an answer to something.



Is this because of the -_pähän_, or because the sentence has no explicit subject (_ei *[se?]* ole tullut aikaisemmin vastaan_)?

Thanks to everyone for their answers.


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## Spongiformi

Gavril said:


> because the sentence has no explicit subject (_ei *[se?]* ole tullut aikaisemmin vastaan_)?



That.


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