Breakdown of Meillä on rahaa tilillä, vaikka meillä on paljon velkaa.
olla
to be
me
we
paljon
a lot
raha
money
vaikka
although / even though
tili
account
velka
debt
Questions & Answers about Meillä on rahaa tilillä, vaikka meillä on paljon velkaa.
Why does this sentence use Meillä on for "we have"?
Finnish doesn't have a direct verb for "to have". Instead, it uses the adessive case (ending in -lla or -llä) on the owner, followed by the verb on (is). So meillä on literally means "at us is". Notice how this differs from the obligation structure you are learning in this lesson, which uses the genitive case for the person doing the action (meidän pitää = we have to).
Why do rahaa (money) and velkaa (debt) both end in an extra -a?
They are in the partitive case. In "have" sentences, the thing being owned is put in the partitive if it is an uncountable mass noun, like rahaa. Additionally, the word paljon (a lot) always requires the word following it to be in the partitive, which is why we say paljon velkaa.
The English translation says "in the account", but tilillä has the ending for "on". Why is that?
In Finnish, bank accounts use the outer location cases (like the -lla or -llä ending, meaning "on" or "at") rather than the inner ones (-ssa or -ssä, meaning "in"). So you literally say that you have money "on the account" (tilillä).
Does the word vaikka change the word order of the second half of the sentence?
No, it doesn't. Vaikka (although / even though) is a simple conjunction that joins two clauses together. As you can see here, meillä on paljon velkaa keeps its normal, standard word order just like the first half of the sentence.
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