Questions & Answers about Pihalla on sata lintua.
Why does the sentence start with Pihalla instead of the birds?
Since there are a hundred birds, why do we use on (is) instead of ovat (are)?
In these 'there is/are' sentences, the verb is always the singular on, no matter how many things are at the location. Finnish literally says 'On the yard is a hundred birds'.
Why is the word for bird lintua rather than just lintu?
In Finnish, any number greater than one must be followed by the partitive case. Lintua is the partitive singular form of lintu (bird). You can think of it as saying 'a hundred of bird'.