Questions & Answers about Kesällä me olemme usein rannalla.
Why does "in the summer" use -llä in kesällä, which usually means "on" or "at"?
In Finnish, seasons take the adessive case ending (-lla / -llä) to express when something happens. Even though we say "in the summer" in English, Finnish uses this "on/at" ending for the seasons.
Both kesällä and rannalla have the same ending, but one is -llä and the other is -lla. Why?
This is vowel harmony in action! The word ranta has the back vowel a, so it takes the back vowel ending -lla. The word kesä has the front vowels e and ä, so it must take the front vowel ending -llä.
Why does the word for beach, ranta, change to ranna- in rannalla?
This is because of a spelling rule called consonant gradation. When you add a closed ending like -lla to a word with nt, the nt softens to nn. Therefore, ranta becomes rannalla.
Can I put kesällä at the end of the sentence instead?
Yes, you could say Me olemme usein rannalla kesällä. Finnish word order is flexible, but starting the sentence with a time word like kesällä is a very natural way to set the scene right away.
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