Breakdown of Kello on varttia vailla yhdeksän illalla.
olla
to be
kello
watch / clock (the time)
yhdeksän
nine
ilta
evening
vartti
quarter
vailla
to
Questions & Answers about Kello on varttia vailla yhdeksän illalla.
Why do we say Kello on instead of just translating "It is"?
In Finnish, you don't use a pronoun like "it" to tell the time. Instead, you literally say "The clock is" (Kello on).
What does vailla actually mean?
Vailla literally means "lacking" or "without". So when you say varttia vailla yhdeksän, you are literally saying "a quarter lacking nine", which is how Finnish expresses "a quarter to nine".
Why is the word for quarter (vartti) written as varttia?
Varttia is in the partitive case. The word vailla requires the amount of time coming right before it to be in the partitive form, so vartti becomes varttia.
Why is the hour just yhdeksän and not yhdeksältä?
Because we are stating what the current time is, so the hour stays in its basic, original form. You only add the -lta/-ltä ending (like yhdeksältä) when saying that an event happens at a specific time.
How does ilta (evening) become illalla (in the evening)?
To say "in the morning/afternoon/evening", Finnish usually adds the -lla/-llä ending to the time of day. Adding this ending to ilta causes a spelling change called consonant gradation, where the strong lt softens into a double ll, resulting in illalla.
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