Auton vauhti oli liian kova.

to be

Breakdown of Auton vauhti oli liian kova.

• auto: the car
• liian: too (excessively)
• kova: fast

Questions & Answers about Auton vauhti oli liian kova.

Why is auton ending in -n?

Because auton is the genitive singular of auto (car).

In this sentence, auton vauhti means the car’s speed or more literally the speed of the car.
The ending -n is one of the most common ways Finnish shows possession or a close relationship between two nouns.

• auto = car
• auton = car’s / of the car

So:

• auton vauhti = the car’s speed

Why does auton come before vauhti?

In Finnish, a genitive noun usually comes before the noun it modifies.

So the pattern is:

• auton vauhti = the car’s speed
• literally: car’s speed

This is similar to English the car’s speed, where car’s also comes before speed.

What does vauhti mean exactly?