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Voi harmi! Konsertti peruttiin.

Voi harmi! Konsertti peruttiin.
Oh, what a shame! The concert was cancelled.
From Lesson 146:Relative pronoun for clauses (mikä)·Finnish

Breakdown of Voi harmi! Konsertti peruttiin.

konsertti
concert
perua
to cancel
voi harmi
oh, what a shame

Questions & Answers about Voi harmi! Konsertti peruttiin.

The word "voi" usually means "butter" or "can". What does it mean in "Voi harmi!"?
Here, voi is simply an exclamation like "oh!" or "alas!". It is often paired with other words to express emotion, like voi ei! (oh no!) or voi harmi! (what a shame! / what a pity!). It has nothing to do with voi (butter) or the verb voida (to be able to).
What tense and form is the verb "peruttiin"?
It is the past passive form of the verb perua (to cancel). The passive voice is used when we don't say who did the action, which translates perfectly to "was cancelled" in English. The ending -ttiin is the standard past passive marker for verb type 1 (verbs ending in two vowels).
In spoken Finnish, doesn't the "-ttiin" ending mean "we did" something?
Yes! In spoken Finnish, the passive form is very commonly used to mean "we" (for example, me peruttiin would mean "we cancelled"). However, in this sentence, there is no me (we) mentioned, so it acts as the true passive: "was cancelled".
Why is "konsertti" in its basic form, rather than taking an object ending like "-n"?
In Finnish, when an action is done to a whole object using the passive voice (like peruttiin), the object stays in the basic form (nominative). If the sentence were active, like "I cancelled the concert" (Minä peruin konsertin), the object would take the -n ending.

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