Vesi on liian kylmää.

The water is too cold.

Breakdown of Vesi on liian kylmää.

• olla: to be
• vesi: the water
• kylmä: cold
• liian: too

Questions & Answers about Vesi on liian kylmää.

What does liian mean in the sentence "Vesi on liian kylmää"?

Liian translates to "too" in English. It is used as an adverb to modify the adjective kylmää, indicating that the water exceeds the acceptable level of coldness.

Why is the adjective kylmää in its partitive form instead of the nominative?

In Finnish, predicate adjectives can appear in the partitive form when the quality they describe is gradable or not considered an absolute, complete state. Here, kylmä (“cold”) becomes kylmää because—with the intensifier liian (“too”)—it expresses that the water is cold to an excessive degree, not in an absolute sense.

Why is there no article like “the” before vesi?

Finnish does not have articles. Nouns such as vesi (water) appear without any definite or indefinite article, and context is used to understand whether the reference is specific or general.

What role does the verb on play in the sentence?

The word on is the third-person singular form of the verb olla (“to be”). It functions as a linking verb that connects the subject vesi (water) to its descriptive predicate liian kylmää (too cold).

How does the word order in "Vesi on liian kylmää" compare to typical English sentence structure?

This sentence follows a subject-linking verb-predicate structure similar to English: Vesi (water) is the subject, on (is) is the linking verb, and liian kylmää (too cold) is the predicate. Although Finnish has a flexible word order, this arrangement is common and mirrors the English sentence structure “The water is too cold.”

Would the adjective ever appear in the nominative form in similar sentences?

Yes, in certain constructions the predicate adjective may remain in the nominative form, especially when there is no modifying adverb like liian. The change to the partitive form, as seen in kylmää, often occurs to reflect a gradable or non-absolute quality.