Vanha pöytä on ruskea.

The old table is brown.

Breakdown of Vanha pöytä on ruskea.

• olla: to be
• vanha pöytä: the old table
• ruskea: brown

Questions & Answers about Vanha pöytä on ruskea.

Why does the sentence start with "Vanha" instead of "Pöytä"?

In Finnish, the word order is relatively flexible. You can start with Vanha (old) to emphasize the adjective. It’s also completely natural to say Pöytä on vanha ("The table is old") or Vanha pöytä on ruskea ("The old table is brown"). Both are correct; it’s often about which word you want to emphasize.

Why is it "vanha" and not "vanhan"?

Vanha is the basic (nominative) form of the adjective "old." Vanhan is the genitive form, which you might see in contexts like vanhan pöydän jalka ("the leg of the old table"). In this sentence, since you’re describing the subject directly, you stick to the nominative form: vanha.

Why don’t we use an article like "a" or "the" in Finnish?

Finnish doesn’t have articles. Whether a noun is definite or indefinite must be understood from the context or from other words in the sentence. So vanha pöytä can be understood as "an old table" or "the old table," depending on context.

What is the role of "on" in the sentence?

On is the third-person singular form of the verb olla ("to be") in Finnish. It corresponds to "is" in English.

Does "ruskea" ever change form depending on the sentence?

Yes. Ruskea is the nominative form and is used when you describe a subject. However, if the sentence called for a different case (e.g., describing something in the partitive or genitive case), ruskea might change accordingly (for example, "ruskeaa" in the partitive).