Breakdown of Pihalla oli kaksi koiraa, ja metsä oli hiljainen.
olla
to be
koira
dog
ja
and
metsä
forest
piha
yard
kaksi
two
hiljainen
quiet
Questions & Answers about Pihalla oli kaksi koiraa, ja metsä oli hiljainen.
The English translation says 'there were two dogs', so why does the Finnish sentence use the singular oli instead of the plural olivat?
This is because the first part of the sentence is an 'existential sentence' (it tells us what exists in a certain location). In Finnish, when a sentence starts with a location (pihalla) followed by the verb to be, the verb is always in the third-person singular (oli). Even though there are two dogs, you must use oli (was), not olivat (were).
Why is the word for dog in the form koiraa instead of a regular plural?
After any number greater than one, Finnish requires the noun to be in the singular partitive form. The basic word is koira, and adding the partitive ending -a gives us koiraa. You do not use the normal plural ending here.
The ending -lla usually means 'on'. Why does pihalla mean 'in the yard'?
While the -lla / -llä ending often translates to 'on' (like on a table), Finnish conventionally uses it for certain outdoor areas or open spaces. For a yard (piha), Finnish speakers always use pihalla, which translates most naturally to English as 'in the yard' or 'out in the yard'.
Why is hiljainen in its basic form here?
Hiljainen (quiet) describes metsä (forest). Because metsä is a single, countable thing in its basic form, the adjective describing it stays in its basic form too. If it were describing a mass noun like water or coffee, it would need a partitive ending instead.
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