Breakdown of Puhuimme ongelmasta. Se ei ole iso.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
iso
big
ei
no / not (negative verb)
Questions & Answers about Puhuimme ongelmasta. Se ei ole iso.
Why does the verb puhua have an -i- in the middle of puhuimme?
The -mme ending means "we", and the -i- before it is the Finnish past tense marker. Without the -i-, puhumme is the present tense ("we talk"), but adding it makes puhuimme ("we talked").
Why is the word for problem in the -sta form (ongelmasta)?
The ending -sta (the elative case) usually means "from" or "out of", but it is also used to mean "about". When you use the verb puhua (to talk) to say you are talking about something, that thing must take the -sta or -stä ending.
Why is "is not" translated as ei ole instead of ei on?
In Finnish negative sentences, the main verb drops its personal ending. For the verb olla (to be), the present negative form drops the 3rd person form on and uses the base stem ole. Therefore, "it is not" is always se ei ole.
Can I drop the word se and just say ei ole iso?
No, you need to keep se (it) here. While Finnish allows you to drop the pronouns for "I" and "we" (which is why there is no me before puhuimme), you cannot drop third-person pronouns like hän (he/she) or se (it).