Questions & Answers about Tammikuu on kylmä kuukausi.
The current lesson is about the ending for 'in January' (tammikuussa). Why is it just tammikuu here without the -ssa ending?
Because January is the main subject of this sentence. We are simply saying what January is. You only add the -ssa or -ssä ending to a month when you want to say that an action happens inside that time period.
Both kuu and kuukausi mean month. What is the difference between them here?
The word kuu literally means moon, and it is used as the ending for all specific calendar months like tammikuu. However, when you talk about a month as a generic unit of time, like saying 'a cold month', you must use the word kuukausi.
Why doesn't the adjective kylmä have any special case endings?
In Finnish, an adjective always has to match the grammatical case of the noun it describes. Because the noun kuukausi is in its basic dictionary form here, the describing word kylmä stays in its basic dictionary form too.
Does the word tammikuu have a literal meaning?
Yes! Finnish month names describe nature. Kuu means moon or month. The word tammi means oak tree today, but in old Finnish it meant the core or axis of something. So tammikuu originally meant the deep core of winter.
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