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Questions & Answers about Tänään aurinko on kirkas.
What does tänään mean, and why is it placed at the beginning of the sentence?
Tänään means today. In Finnish, adverbs of time are often placed at the beginning of the sentence to indicate when something happens. Although Finnish word order is flexible, beginning with tänään emphasizes the temporal context.
What is the role of aurinko in the sentence, and why does it appear in its given form?
Aurinko means sun and serves as the subject of the sentence. It appears in the nominative case, which is the unmarked form used for the main subject of a sentence in Finnish.
How is the verb on used in this sentence?
The verb on is the third person singular present tense form of the verb olla, meaning to be. It acts as a linking verb, connecting the subject (aurinko) with the predicate adjective (kirkas).
What function does the adjective kirkas serve, and why is it not inflected?
Kirkas means bright and serves as a predicate adjective describing the subject (aurinko). Since it is linked to the subject by the verb on, it remains in the nominative form to agree with the subject, which is typical for predicate adjectives in Finnish.
Are there any case markings on the words in this sentence, and what does that tell us about Finnish grammar?
Both the subject aurinko and the predicate adjective kirkas are in the nominative case, which is common for the main elements of a sentence. Tänään is an adverb and is not marked for case. This reflects how Finnish uses case marking primarily with nouns and adjectives, while adverbs typically remain uninflected.
Why doesn’t the sentence include an article like the, which is common in English?
Finnish does not use articles such as the or a. Context and shared knowledge are used to determine definiteness in Finnish, so the absence of an article in aurinko is completely normal.
How does the word order in Tänään aurinko on kirkas compare to typical English sentences?
The structure of the sentence mirrors an English pattern when translated: Today the sun is bright. Although English generally follows a fixed subject–verb–object order, Finnish word order is more flexible. In this case, the adverbial element tänään is fronted for emphasis, which is a common practice in Finnish even though the typical subject–verb structure is still recognizable.
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