Word
Kuntavaalit ovat joko syksyllä tai keväällä.
Meaning
The municipal elections are either in the autumn or in the spring.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Kuntavaalit ovat joko syksyllä tai keväällä.
How do we use the joko ... tai structure here?
Joko means "either" and tai means "or". Just like in English, they sit right in front of the two options being compared. Here, the options are the two seasons: joko syksyllä (either in the autumn) tai keväällä (or in the spring).
Why are the seasons in the adessive (-llä) case in this sentence?
In Finnish, to say that something happens during a certain season, you use the adessive case. So syksy (autumn) becomes syksyllä and kevät (spring) becomes keväällä.
Why does the word kevät change so much to become keväällä?
Kevät belongs to a specific group of words ending in -t. When adding endings to these words, the -t changes to a long vowel. The stem becomes kevää-, to which we attach the -llä ending.
Why is kuntavaalit plural?
Kuntavaalit is a compound word made of kunta (municipality) and vaalit (elections). Just like in English, the Finnish word for elections is almost always used in the plural form. Because it is plural, it requires the plural verb ovat.