Pysäköintivirhemaksu saapui eilen.

yesterday

Breakdown of Pysäköintivirhemaksu saapui eilen.

• saapua: to arrive
• pysäköintivirhemaksu: the parking fine

Questions & Answers about Pysäköintivirhemaksu saapui eilen.

What does pysäköintivirhemaksu mean literally, and why is it such a long word?

It is a compound noun, which is very common in Finnish.

It breaks down like this:

• pysäköinti = parking
• virhe = mistake / violation / offense
• maksu = fee / charge

So pysäköintivirhemaksu is literally something like parking violation fee.

A very important thing about Finnish compounds:

• the last part usually tells you what kind of word it is
• here, the last part is maksu (fee), so the whole word is a kind of fee

English often uses several separate words where Finnish prefers one compound word.

Why is pysäköintivirhemaksu in this exact form? What case is it?

Here it is in the nominative singular, which is the basic dictionary form.

In this sentence, it is the subject:

• Pysäköintivirhemaksu = the parking fine / parking penalty fee
• saapui = arrived
• eilen = yesterday

So the sentence structure is basically:

• Subject + verb + time expression

Because the subject is singular, the noun stays in its basic singular form.

Why is the verb saapui? What form is that?