Breakdown of Mies sanoi, että tämä puhelu on todella kiireellinen.
tämä
this
olla
to be
mies
man
sanoa
to say
että
that (conjunction)
todella
really (very, intensifier)
puhelu
phone call
kiireellinen
urgent
Questions & Answers about Mies sanoi, että tämä puhelu on todella kiireellinen.
Why does the Finnish sentence use on (is) when the English translation says was?
This is the core of reported speech in Finnish! In English, if the main verb is in the past tense (said), we usually shift the reported verb into the past tense too (was). Finnish does not use this sequence of tenses. Instead, Finnish keeps the exact tense the person originally used. The man originally said, Tämä puhelu on todella kiireellinen, so the reported sentence keeps on.
What is the difference between puhelu and puhelin?
Both words come from the verb puhua (to speak), but they mean different things. Puhelin is the physical telephone itself. Puhelu refers to the phone call or the conversation you have on the device.
How is the word kiireellinen formed?
It comes from the noun kiire, which means hurry or haste. The suffix -llinen is a common way to turn a noun into an adjective, meaning having the quality of that noun. So adding it to kiire gives you kiireellinen, meaning urgent.
Why is tämä puhelu in the nominative case (basic form) rather than the partitive?
Tämä puhelu acts as the subject of the subordinate clause (the part after että). Because this is a basic sentence describing a specific, single thing (the phone call is urgent), the subject takes the nominative case.
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