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Questions & Answers about Elokuva alkaa pian.
What does elokuva mean?
Elokuva means movie or film. It’s a noun in the nominative singular, used here as the subject of the sentence.
Why isn’t there an article like “the” or “a” before elokuva?
Finnish does not use definite or indefinite articles. Context and word order tell you whether something is specific or general. So Elokuva alkaa pian can cover both The movie starts soon and A movie starts soon.
What case is elokuva in?
Here elokuva is in the nominative case, which is the basic form used for the subject of a sentence.
What tense and person is alkaa?
alkaa is the present tense, third-person singular form of the verb alkaa (to start/begin). It means it starts, it is starting, or contextually it will start.
Why is the present tense used for “will start”? Isn’t there a future tense in Finnish?
Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense is used for future events when context makes the timing clear, so alkaa can mean starts now or will start later.
What kind of word is pian, and what does it mean?
pian is an adverb meaning soon. Adverbs in Finnish generally do not inflect for case or number, so pian remains the same in all contexts.
Can pian be placed at the beginning of the sentence?
Yes. Finnish has flexible word order, and moving pian to the front—Pian elokuva alkaa—simply emphasizes soon.
Could I use aloittaa instead of alkaa here?
No. alkaa is intransitive (“to begin”), while aloittaa is transitive (“to initiate something”). You say Elokuva alkaa because the movie itself begins; it doesn’t initiate another action.
How do you ask “When does the movie start?” in Finnish?
You say Milloin elokuva alkaa? Milloin means when, so that literally is When movie starts?
Where is the stress in Elokuva alkaa pian?
Finnish always stresses the first syllable of each word. Here you stress ELO-kuva, AL-kaa and PI-an.