Learn Finnish: Ennen kohtausta yleisö on hiljaa. - Before the scene, the audience is quiet.

The word ennen (before) is a preposition. In Finnish, this specific preposition requires the word following it to be in the partitive case. That is why the basic word kohtaus (scene) becomes kohtausta.

How do we form the partitive kohtausta from the base word kohtaus?

Words ending in -us (like kohtaus) form their partitive simply by adding -ta to the end. The core word doesn't change, making it a very straightforward rule: kohtaus becomes kohtausta.

Why does the sentence use hiljaa instead of the adjective hiljainen?

Hiljaa is an adverb meaning quietly or still. In Finnish, when you want to say that people are being quiet at a specific moment, you use the fixed phrase olla hiljaa. If you used the adjective and said yleisö on hiljainen, it would mean the audience has a permanently quiet or shy personality!

Does the word kohtaus only refer to a scene in a play or movie?

While it means a scene in arts and entertainment, it is also the word for a sudden medical attack or fit, such as a heart attack (sydänkohtaus). Here, the presence of an audience (yleisö) tells us it means a scene.