Learn Finnish: Pienestä sateesta ei ole haittaa.

The current lesson is about postpositions like vuoksi (because of). Could we say Pienen sateen vuoksi instead of using the elative Pienestä sateesta?

You could, but the elative case (-sta / -stä) is much more idiomatic here. In Finnish, expressions of harm, benefit, or emotional reaction typically take the elative to express the source of that effect. Saying Pienestä sateesta (literally 'out of a little rain') is the natural way to express 'due to a little rain' in this context, rather than using a heavier, formal postposition like vuoksi or johdosta.

Why is the word for harm in the partitive case (haittaa)?

This is a negative existential sentence, meaning it states that something does not exist. In Finnish, when you express 'there is no X', the subject must be in the partitive case. Therefore, the nominative haitta becomes the partitive haittaa.

Why does the sentence start with Pienestä sateesta rather than the subject?

In Finnish existential sentences, the sentence usually starts with the location, state, or source to set the context, rather than using a dummy pronoun like 'there' or 'it' as English does. The structure here is literally 'Out of a little rain, there is no harm.'

Is the phrase ei ole haittaa only used for physical harm?