Breakdown of Talo on vanha, mutta se on kallis.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
talo
house
mutta
but
Questions & Answers about Talo on vanha, mutta se on kallis.
Do I always need a comma before mutta?
Yes, when mutta connects two complete clauses that both have their own subject and verb, like Talo on vanha and se on kallis, you must put a comma before it.
Does the word mutta change the word order in the second half of the sentence?
No, mutta is a coordinating conjunction, which means it simply glues two equal sentences together. The word order in se on kallis stays exactly the same as it would if you said it all by itself.
Why do we use se here instead of another pronoun?
The pronoun se translates to 'it' and is used to refer back to a thing or animal, which in this case is the house (talo). In standard written Finnish, you only use hän (he or she) for people.
Why don't the adjectives vanha and kallis have any special endings?
Because they are describing a single subject. In Finnish, an adjective must match the noun it describes. Since the house is in its basic singular form, the adjectives stay in their basic dictionary forms too.