Nopein työntekijä saa pienen lahjan tapahtumassa.

The fastest employee gets a small gift at the event.

Breakdown of Nopein työntekijä saa pienen lahjan tapahtumassa.

• pieni: small
• -ssa: in
• saada: to get
• lahja: the gift
• nopein: fastest
• tapahtuma: the event
• työntekijä: the employee

Questions & Answers about Nopein työntekijä saa pienen lahjan tapahtumassa.

Why is there no article like the or a in the sentence?

Finnish has no articles. Instead of a or the, you rely on context, word order or demonstratives (e.g. tämä, se) to show whether something is definite or indefinite.

How is the superlative nopein formed from the adjective nopea?

To form an attributive superlative for most adjectives:

1. Remove the final -a/-ä:
   nopea → nope
2. Add -in:
   nope
   • in → nopein
     So nopea (‘fast’) becomes nopein (‘fastest’).

Why is pienen lahjan in that form, with -n on both words?

Here pienen lahjan is the accusative (which in singular looks like the genitive) of pieni lahja (‘a small gift’). Verbs like saa (‘gets’) often take a definite, complete object in accusative. The accusative singular of lahja is lahjan, and its adjective takes the matching genitive/accusative ending -en: pieni → pienen.

Could you use the partitive pientä lahjaa instead of pienen lahjan? What’s the difference?

Yes, grammatically you could say saa pientä lahjaa, but it changes the nuance:

• Accusative (pienen lahjan): a single, complete gift—“the small gift.”
• Partitive (pientä lahjaa): an indefinite or partial quantity—“some small gift,” or implying ongoing/unfinished action.
  With saa (receive/get) the accusative is more natural when the gift is a single, full item.

What case is tapahtumassa, and what does -ssa mean?

tapahtumassa is the inessive singular of tapahtuma (‘event’). The suffix -ssa/-ssä means “in” or “inside.”
So tapahtumassa = “in/at the event.”

Why not use tapahtumalla (adessive, -lla/-llä) instead?

The adessive (-lla/-llä) often means “on” or “at [the surface or location of],” and sometimes “with” when used with agents (e.g. kirjoittaja kirjoittaa kynällä, ‘the author writes with a pen’). To express “at/in the event” you normally use the inessive -ssa/-ssä. If you said tapahtumalla, it would feel like “at the event’s grounds” rather than inside the event.

Why does the adjective nopein come before työntekijä? Could the order be reversed?

The neutral, everyday order in Finnish is adjective + noun: nopein työntekijä (‘the fastest employee’). Finnish is quite flexible, though:

• Työntekijä nopein would be grammatically possible but stylistically marked or poetic, putting strong emphasis on nopein.

Why is it nopein and not the adverb nopeimmin?

Adjectives and adverbs form superlatives differently:

• nopein is the adjective superlative of nopea (‘fast’) and must modify a noun (työntekijä).
• nopeimmin is the adverb superlative of nopea, used when modifying verbs (e.g. Hän juoksee nopeimmin, ‘He runs the fastest’).