Questions & Answers about Sitä paitsi sää on huono tänään.
How does the phrase sitä paitsi literally break down?
The word paitsi usually means "except". It governs the partitive case, which is why se ("it") becomes sitä. So literally, sitä paitsi means "except for that" or "other than that". In conversation, it has evolved into a fixed phrase meaning "besides", "furthermore", or "anyway".
Could I use sen lisäksi instead of sitä paitsi to mean "besides"?
You can, but there is a slight nuance. Sen lisäksi is a neutral "in addition to that" or "furthermore". Sitä paitsi, much like "besides" in English, often introduces a clinching argument, a conversational afterthought, or a justification for why something shouldn't happen.
Why is the adjective huono in the nominative case instead of the partitive (huonoa)? Isn't weather uncountable?
This is a common mix-up! While weather feels like an abstract mass noun in English, the Finnish word sää behaves grammatically as a normal, countable noun. Because of this, the predicative adjective describing the subject sää takes the nominative case (huono).
Could I use the word ilma instead of sää in this sentence?
Yes, you absolutely can. While sää strictly means "weather", the word ilma (literally "air") is used interchangeably to mean weather in everyday spoken Finnish. Saying ilma on huono tänään sounds completely natural.