Learn Hardcore Finnish: Kotitehtävä on helppo, koska opettaja selitti asian hyvin. - The homework is easy because the teacher explained the matter well.

Finnish has no separate words for “the” or “a.” You simply use the noun in its base form. Here kotitehtävä can mean either “homework” in general or “the homework” depending on context. Definiteness is understood from the situation, not from an article.

What case is kotitehtävä in, and how do I recognize it?

It’s in the nominative singular, which is the citation form of Finnish nouns. As the subject of the sentence, it appears without any added ending (apart from the stem itself).

Why is helppo uninflected here? Shouldn’t adjectives change to match the noun?

When an adjective is used as a predicate with the verb on (“is”), it stays in the nominative singular to agree with the subject. You only get case endings on adjectives when they directly modify a noun (e.g. helpon kotitehtävän – “of the easy homework”).

What role does koska play in this sentence?

Koska is a subordinating conjunction meaning “because.” It introduces a reason clause that explains why the homework is easy.

Why is there a comma before koska? Is it mandatory?

In Finnish, commas before subordinate clauses like those introduced by koska are optional but recommended to clarify the sentence structure. They help signal the start of the reason clause, though you won’t see a separate conjunction in every case.

What tense and form is selitti, and what does it tell us?

Selitti is the imperfect indicative (simple past) of selittää (“to explain”), third-person singular. It tells us the explaining happened at a specific time in the past.

Why is asian in the form asian rather than asia?

Here asia (“matter/thing”) is the direct object of selitti, so it takes the accusative singular ending –n (often identical to the genitive). That gives asian = “the matter.”

What kind of word is hyvin, and how does it relate to hyvä?

Hyvin is an adverb meaning “well.” It’s derived from the adjective hyvä (“good”) by an irregular stem change to hyvin. You use it to modify the verb (how the teacher explained).

Why isn’t the pronoun hän used before selitti?

Finnish is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns like hän (“he/she”) are usually omitted when the verb ending already indicates the person (third person singular in selitti).

Do Finnish subordinate clauses always put the verb at the end? Here selitti is in the middle—why?

Unlike German, Finnish subordinate clauses do not require a verb-final order. The neutral pattern is still SVO (Subject–Verb–Object). You could move words around for emphasis, but koska opettaja selitti asian hyvin is perfectly standard.