Lusikka on pöydällä.

to be

Breakdown of Lusikka on pöydällä.

• pöytä: the table
• -llä: on
• lusikka: the spoon

Questions & Answers about Lusikka on pöydällä.

What does on mean in Lusikka on pöydällä? It looks like the English preposition on, but is it the same?

In Finnish, on is the third-person singular form of the verb olla (to be). So in Lusikka on pöydällä, on simply means is. It has nothing to do with the English preposition on.

Why are there no words for a or the in this sentence?

Finnish does not have definite or indefinite articles. A noun in the singular (like lusikka) can mean a spoon or the spoon depending on context. You don’t need to insert a/the manually.

Which case is lusikka in and how do I recognize it?

lusikka is in the nominative singular, the basic dictionary form of the noun. It’s used for the subject of a sentence. You recognize it by the lack of additional case endings (apart from the stem ending -a here).

Which case is pöydällä and why is it used here?

pöydällä is in the adessive case, which expresses location on or at something. In English you’d use the preposition on; in Finnish you attach -lla/llä to the noun.