Word
Aluksi suomi oli vaikeaa.
Meaning
At first Finnish was difficult.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Aluksi suomi oli vaikeaa.
olla
to be
vaikea
difficult / hard
suomi
Finnish (language)
aluksi
at first, initially
Questions & Answers about Aluksi suomi oli vaikeaa.
Why does alku (beginning) take the translative ending -ksi to become aluksi?
While the translative case usually shows a change of state, it is also used to form certain fixed time expressions. Aluksi is a very common adverb meaning "at first" or "initially." You will also see this same pattern in words like lopuksi (finally).
Why is suomi written with a lowercase letter when it refers to a language?
In English, we always capitalize languages, but in Finnish, names of languages and nationalities are written with a lowercase letter. The capitalized version Suomi specifically refers to the country of Finland, not the language.
Why is the adjective vaikeaa in the partitive case rather than the basic form vaikea?
When you use the verb olla (to be) to describe an uncountable subject or an abstract concept, the describing adjective must be in the partitive case. Because the language (suomi) is treated as an abstract, uncountable concept here, the adjective takes the partitive ending -a.