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Koulussa on sata tuolia ja tuhat kirjaa.

Koulussa on sata tuolia ja tuhat kirjaa.
There are a hundred chairs and a thousand books in the school.
From Lesson 23:Negative possession (ei ole)·Finnish

Breakdown of Koulussa on sata tuolia ja tuhat kirjaa.

olla
to be
kirja
book
tuoli
chair
ja
and
koulu
school
sata
one hundred
tuhat
one thousand

Questions & Answers about Koulussa on sata tuolia ja tuhat kirjaa.

Why does the sentence use the singular verb on instead of a plural verb?
Finnish does not use a plural verb to say 'there are'. Sentences that state what exists in a location always use the singular verb on. Additionally, when a number greater than one acts as the subject, the verb always stays singular.
Why are the words tuolia and kirjaa in the partitive case instead of their basic forms?
Whenever you use a number greater than one in Finnish, the noun that follows it must be in the partitive singular form. Because of the numbers sata (one hundred) and tuhat (one thousand), you must use the partitive forms tuolia and kirjaa.
How is the partitive formed for the words tuoli and kirja?
For many basic words ending in a short vowel, you form the partitive singular by simply adding an -a or -ä to the end of the basic word. Here, tuoli gets an -a to become tuolia, and kirja gets an -a to become kirjaa.
Why does the sentence start with Koulussa rather than a word for 'there'?
Finnish does not have a direct translation for the English dummy word 'there' in phrases like 'there is' or 'there are'. Instead, you simply start the sentence with the location. Koulussa means 'in the school', and you follow it directly with the verb on to literally mean 'in the school is'.

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