Vocab: ära jääma

to be canceled

Building blocks

• ära - “away”, ”off”, marking an action as a complete whole

• jääma - to stay, to become

This is the first compound verb we’re talking about here!

Compound verbs usually consist of an adverb (“ära” in this instance) and a regular verb (“jääma” here).

Most of the time the meaning is just a combination of the adverb and verb’s meaning.

Here, however, the meaning changes: “to stay away” is actually “to be canceled” as in “the [scheduled] event is not happening”

How to use it

The event that was originally scheduled but is now not taking place anymore is in the Nominative.

Depending on the concrete context, the word order can change:

• “ära” comes before “jääma” when “jääma” is in an infinitive form,

• and after “jääma” otherwise

Examples

Kontsert jääb ära

Literally: “The concert stays away”

Idiomatically: “The concert is canceled”

Kontsert - Noun - Nominative Sg, "the concert"
jääb - Verb - 3P Ind Sg Present, "stays"
ära - Adverb - away

Kontsert ei pea ära jääma

Literally: “The concert not has to away stay”

Idiomatically: “The concert need not be canceled”

Kontsert - Noun - Nominative Sg, "the concert"
ei pea - Verb - Negative 3P Sg Ind, "does not have to" 
ära - Adverb - away
jääma - Verb - ma-Infinitive, "to stay"