Breakdown of Tämä edullinen tarjous on voimassa vain tänään.
olla
to be
tämä
this
tänään
today
edullinen
affordable
tarjous
the offer
voimassa
in force
vain
only
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Questions & Answers about Tämä edullinen tarjous on voimassa vain tänään.
What does edullinen mean, and why is it placed before tarjous?
edullinen means “affordable,” “good value,” or “inexpensive.” In Finnish, adjectives precede the noun they modify and agree in case and number with it. Here both edullinen and tarjous are in the nominative singular, forming a single noun phrase (“this affordable offer”) as the subject of the sentence.
What role does voimassa play in on voimassa? Is it a normal adjective?
voimassa is part of the fixed expression olla voimassa meaning “to be valid” or “to be in force.” Although it looks like an adjective or locative form of voima (“force”), it doesn’t decline normally. In this construction, voimassa remains unchanged and functions as a predicative complement to the copula on (“is”).
Why is tänään uninflected? Doesn’t Finnish use cases for time expressions?
tänään is a temporal adverb meaning “today.” Temporal adverbs in Finnish are indeclinable: they don’t take case endings like nouns do. You simply use tänään to mean “on today.”
What does vain mean here, and why is it placed immediately before tänään?
vain translates as “only” or “just.” It restricts the time frame to “today only.” In Finnish, the particle vain typically precedes the word or phrase it modifies, so vain tänään = “only today.” You could also say tänään vain, but placing vain before tänään is most common.
Why are tämä, edullinen, and tarjous all in the nominative case? Which one is the grammatical subject?
They form one noun phrase: tämä edullinen tarjous (“this affordable offer”). In Finnish, the entire phrase is in the nominative singular when it functions as the subject. So the subject is the whole phrase, not just tarjous.
Can you omit the verb on and say “Tarjous voimassa vain tänään”?
Yes. In headlines, slogans, or informal ads Finnish often drops the copula for brevity. “Tarjous voimassa vain tänään” is perfectly natural in marketing copy, though in full sentences you’d normally include on.
Is the word order flexible? Could you say “Vain tänään on tämä edullinen tarjous voimassa”?
Finnish allows relatively free word order for emphasis. Moving vain tänään to the front stresses the “only today” aspect. All of these are grammatical:
- “Tämä edullinen tarjous on voimassa vain tänään.”
- “Vain tänään tämä edullinen tarjous on voimassa.”
- “Tämän edullisen tarjouksen voimassaolo on vain tänään.” (more formal)