Learn Hardcore Finnish: Kulho on iso.

Kulho means “bowl,” on is the present tense third person singular of olla (“to be”), and iso means “big” or “large.” So the sentence translates as “The bowl is big.”

Why is there no article like the before kulho in this sentence?

Finnish does not use articles such as the or a. Nouns in Finnish appear without articles, and context or word order conveys definiteness.

What is the grammatical structure of kulho on iso?

The sentence follows a simple subject–verb–predicate adjective structure:
• kulho is the subject (in the nominative case),
• on is the linking verb (present tense of olla), and
• iso is the predicate adjective describing the subject.

Does the adjective iso change its form to agree with kulho, and why?

In predicative constructions like this one, the adjective remains in its basic nominative form and does not take additional case endings to match the noun. When adjectives are used attributively (directly before a noun), they may inflect according to the noun’s case, but that is not needed here.

What tense is on in, and why can the subject sometimes be omitted in Finnish?