English cannot talk about the weather without a subject: "it is raining," "it is cold." That it points at nothing — there is no thing that rains — but English grammar demands a subject in every clause, so it supplies a dummy one. Finnish has no such rule and no such word. A Finnish weather clause is simply a verb, standing alone: sataa = "it's raining." Learning to delete the subject you feel you need is the whole skill on this page, and the number-one English-speaker error is smuggling one back in as se sataa ("it rains").
Zero-subject weather verbs
The core weather verbs are zero-subject verbs: the verb sits in the 3rd-person singular with nothing in front of it. The bare verb is a complete sentence.
Sataa. Ota sateenvarjo mukaan.
It's raining. Take an umbrella. (sataa alone = a full sentence)
Ulkona tuulee kovasti.
It's very windy outside. (tuulee = 'winds', no subject)
Ukkostaa, en lähde nyt järveen.
It's thundering, I'm not going in the lake now. (ukkostaa = 'it's thundering', no subject)
Other members of the set: ukkostaa "it's thundering," salamoi "there's lightning," hämärtää "it's getting dark," pyryttää "it's snowing hard / blizzarding." None of them ever takes a subject.
sataa + partitive: what is falling
sataa on its own covers both rain and snow — context decides. To be specific, you add a partitive object naming the mass that is falling. This is the partitive of a mass noun: rain and snow are unbounded substances, so they never appear in the nominative here.
Sataa vettä, ei lunta.
It's raining, not snowing. (vettä = partitive of vesi 'water'; lunta = partitive of lumi 'snow')
Huomenna sataa lunta koko päivän.
Tomorrow it'll snow all day. (sataa lunta = literally 'rains snow')
Ulkona sataa räntää, inhottava keli.
It's sleeting outside, horrible weather. (räntää = partitive of räntä 'sleet')
The two nouns are irregular and worth memorising in their partitive shape: vesi → vettä, lumi → lunta. Notice this is the single feature that turns the plain "it's precipitating" of sataa into a specific "it's raining" versus "it's snowing" — the falling mass, in the partitive, carries the whole distinction. Compare tuulee, which is intransitive and takes no such object.
The one full subject: aurinko paistaa
Not every weather clause is subjectless. When the sun shines, Finnish uses a genuine subject — aurinko "the sun" — in the nominative, with the ordinary verb paistaa "to shine."
Aurinko paistaa, lähdetään ulos!
The sun's shining, let's go outside! (aurinko = a real nominative subject)
Aamulla satoi, mutta nyt aurinko paistaa ja lämmittää mukavasti.
It rained in the morning, but now the sun is shining and warming us nicely.
Note the harmony and gradation packed into this one word: aurinko is a back-vowel word and takes back endings, and it also has a consonant gradation nk → ng — so "in the sun" (as in istua auringossa "to sit in the sun") comes out auringossa, not aurinkossa. This is the opposite of the front-vowel vettä — each weather word harmonises by its own vowels.
Taivas on pilvinen, mutta aurinko pilkistää välillä.
The sky is cloudy, but the sun peeks through now and then. (aurinko subject again)
on + predicate: temperatures and conditions
Descriptions of how it feels or how many degrees it is use on ("is") with a predicate. Two shapes:
on + adjective — a bare predicate adjective for the general feel:
Tänään on kylmä ja harmaa.
Today it's cold and grey. (on kylmä = 'it's cold')
Ihana ilma tänään, on aivan tyyntä.
Lovely weather today, it's completely still. (tyyntä = partitive predicate)
on + partitive — for a condition present in some quantity, the mass-noun stands in the partitive after on, just like an existential clause:
Ulkona on pakkasta, laita pipo päähän.
It's below freezing outside, put a hat on. (pakkasta = partitive of pakkanen 'frost')
Aamulla oli sumua, nyt on jo kirkasta.
There was fog in the morning, now it's already clear. (sumua = partitive of sumu 'fog')
To give a full "it's a beautiful day," Finnish uses the noun ilma "weather / air" as the subject with a predicate adjective:
On kaunis ilma, mennään piknikille.
It's beautiful weather, let's go for a picnic. (ilma = 'weather' as subject)
Why English speakers get this wrong
Three transfer errors dominate, and all three come from forcing English structure onto Finnish. First, inserting a dummy subject: se sataa instead of plain sataa — English needs "it," Finnish forbids it. Second, reaching for a progressive: on satamassa ("is in the process of raining") to mirror "it is raining." Finnish uses the simple present sataa for a state happening right now; the progressive is real Finnish but wrong for weather. Third, using the nominative for the falling mass: sataa vesi instead of the partitive sataa vettä, because English "raining water" has no case marking to copy. Fix all three by remembering: bare verb, simple present, partitive mass.
For a nearby construction with the same subjectless flavour but a partitive experiencer — bodily sensations like minua palelee "I'm freezing" — see the page on impersonal feeling verbs. Weather is about the world; those are about you.
Common Mistakes
❌ Se sataa tänään.
Incorrect — no dummy subject in Finnish weather clauses: just Sataa tänään.
✅ Sataa tänään.
It's raining today.
❌ On satamassa kovaa.
Unnatural — weather uses the simple present, not the progressive: Sataa kovaa.
✅ Sataa kovaa.
It's raining hard.
❌ Sataa vesi.
Incorrect — the falling mass is a partitive object: sataa vettä.
✅ Sataa vettä.
It's raining.
❌ Aurinko paistuu.
Wrong verb — the sun paistaa (shines); paistua doesn't exist here.
✅ Aurinko paistaa.
The sun is shining.
❌ On pakkanen ulkona.
For 'it's freezing' the condition is partitive: on pakkasta. (Pakkanen nominative = 'a frost/Jack Frost'.)
✅ On pakkasta ulkona.
It's below freezing outside.
Key Takeaways
- Finnish weather clauses have no dummy subject: sataa, tuulee, ukkostaa are complete sentences. Never add se.
- sataa + partitive mass names the precipitation: sataa vettä (rain), sataa lunta (snow), sataa räntää (sleet). Irregular partitives: vesi → vettä, lumi → lunta.
- The sun is a real subject: aurinko paistaa (with back harmony and nk → ng: auringossa).
- on + adjective for the feel (on kylmä), on + partitive for a condition (on pakkasta, on sumua), and on kaunis ilma for "it's lovely weather."
- Use the simple present, not the progressive: sataa, not on satamassa.
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Zero-Subject Sentences: Weather and FeelingsB2 — Finnish weather and feeling clauses have no subject at all — no dummy 'it', no 'I'. The verb sits in the 3rd person singular, and the experiencer is a partitive object.
- Partitive with Mass and Uncountable NounsA2 — Mass nouns take the partitive for an indefinite amount — ostan maitoa, juon vettä — while the total form (ostan leivän) means a whole, bounded unit.
- Text: A Weather ForecastB1 — A short broadcast weather forecast annotated for its signature grammar — zero-subject weather clauses that need no 'it' (Sataa vettä, Aurinko paistaa), the present tense standing in for the future, region names in the interior cases (Lapissa, Etelä-Suomessa), and mass-partitive objects (sataa lunta).
- The Existential Sentence: Pöydällä on kirjaA2 — The existential clause type — a place phrase first, olla frozen in the 3rd person singular, then an indefinite subject at the end. No dummy 'there'.
- Feeling Verbs: minua väsyttää, päätä särkeeB1 — Impersonal sensation verbs that take a partitive experiencer and a fixed 3sg verb — minua väsyttää (I feel drowsy), minua pelottaa, minua palelee — plus the body-part frame päätä särkee. In Finnish the feeling acts on you; you are its object, not its subject.