Questions & Answers about Yön aikana satoi paljon.
Why is there no word for "it" before satoi?
In Finnish, weather verbs like sataa do not use a dummy subject like "it" in English. You simply use the verb in the third-person singular form, so satoi alone means "it rained".
How does the grammar of yön aikana work?
The word aikana acts as a postposition meaning "during", which requires the noun before it to be in the genitive case. Therefore, the nominative yö becomes yön.
Is aikana related to the noun aika?
Yes, it is actually the essive case form of aika. Literally, yön aikana translates to "as the night's time". This construction is so common that it functions entirely as a postposition meaning "during" in modern Finnish.
Why isn't paljon followed by a word in the partitive case here?
While paljon often triggers the partitive when quantifying a noun (like paljon lunta for "a lot of snow"), here it acts as an adverb modifying the verb satoi. It simply describes the verb, meaning the action of raining happened a lot.