Questions & Answers about Onpa tämä iso juoru!
Why is the verb on at the very beginning of the sentence?
In Finnish, when you use the emphatic clitic -pa or -pä to express surprise or strong feeling, the word it attaches to must move to the very front of the clause. Instead of the neutral statement Tämä on iso juoru, the verb on is pulled to the front to become Onpa tämä iso juoru!
Could I attach the clitic to tämä instead and say Tämäpä on iso juoru!?
Yes, you can! The clitic attaches to whatever word you want to emphasize most. Onpa tämä... emphasizes the fact that it truly is something (like 'It sure is!'), which is the most common way to make an exclamation. Tämäpä on... shifts the spotlight to the subject, meaning 'THIS sure is big gossip!'
Why is it -pa here and not -pä?
This is due to vowel harmony. The clitic becomes a part of the word it attaches to, so it must match its vowels. Because the verb on contains a back vowel (o), the clitic takes its back-vowel form, -pa.
In English, gossip is an uncountable mass noun. Why is iso juoru in the nominative case instead of the partitive isoa juorua?
In Finnish, juoru behaves like a regular countable noun referring to a single rumor or a specific piece of gossip. Because this is a basic sentence equating 'this' with 'a piece of gossip', the nominative case is used. If you were talking about gossip as a general mass activity, you would use the partitive juorua.
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