Questions & Answers about Kesäkuussa sää on kaunis ja valoisa.
Why does the word for June end in -ssa here?
The basic word for June is kesäkuu. Adding the ending -ssa changes it to kesäkuussa, which means "in June". This ending is called the inessive case, and it attaches to the end of a word to work just like the English preposition "in".
Is the word kesäkuu made up of two smaller words?
Yes! It is a compound word made of kesä (summer) and kuu (moon or month). All twelve months in Finnish end with the word kuu, so kesäkuu literally translates to "summer month".
Why are the adjectives kaunis and valoisa in their basic forms instead of the partitive case?
When describing a subject like sää (weather) with the verb olla (to be), the adjectives stay in their basic form. You usually only switch to the partitive case (adding an -a or -ä to the adjective) if you are describing a substance or mass noun you can't count, like water or coffee (for example, Kahvi on kuumaa).
Could I put kesäkuussa at the end of the sentence instead?
Yes, saying Sää on kaunis ja valoisa kesäkuussa is perfectly correct and means the same thing. However, Finnish speakers frequently move time or location words to the beginning of the sentence to set the scene right away.