Breakdown of Keikka oli hyvä, mutta siellä oli kauhea tungos.
olla
to be
mutta
but
siellä
there
hyvä
good
kauhea
terrible
keikka
gig
tungos
crowd
Questions & Answers about Keikka oli hyvä, mutta siellä oli kauhea tungos.
Why do we use siellä in siellä oli to mean 'there was'?
In English, we use an empty filler word in 'there was' sentences. In Finnish, existential sentences usually start with a real location. Because the location (the gig) was already mentioned in the first half of the sentence, we use siellä (there) to point back to it. It literally means 'there [at the gig] was a terrible crowd'.
Why is kauhea tungos in the basic nominative case instead of the partitive?
In 'there is / there was' sentences, the thing that exists is usually in the partitive case if it is an uncountable mass (like water) or plural. Even though a 'crowd' is made of many people, the word tungos itself acts as a single, singular concept here, so it takes the nominative case.
Is keikka the standard word for a concert?
It is a very common spoken-language word, exactly like 'gig' in English. It is mostly used for pop, rock, or stand-up comedy shows. For a formal classical music concert, you would use the word konsertti.
How does the past tense work for oli here?
The verb oli is the past tense of olla (to be). While your current lesson focuses on the -si- marker for Verb Type 4, it is always good to remember that olla is an irregular Type 3 verb. Its past tense marker is just an -i- added to the stem, making the 'it' form simply oli (it was).
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