Kurssin paras kokemus oli yhteinen tapahtuma, jossa lauloimme.

The best experience of the course was a shared event where we sang.

Breakdown of Kurssin paras kokemus oli yhteinen tapahtuma, jossa lauloimme.

• olla: to be
• paras: best
• yhteinen: shared
• kokemus: the experience
• kurssi: the course
• tapahtuma: the event
• jossa: where
• laulaa: to sing

Questions & Answers about Kurssin paras kokemus oli yhteinen tapahtuma, jossa lauloimme.

Why is kurssin in the genitive case?

In Finnish you mark possession by putting the possessor in the genitive. Here kurssin (“of the course”) shows that the “best experience” belongs to the course. Without the genitive you couldn’t express “the course’s experience.”

How do paras and kokemus agree in this sentence?

kokemus is the subject complement in nominative singular, so the attributive adjective paras (the superlative of hyvä) also appears in nominative singular. In Finnish attributive adjectives always match the noun they modify in case and number:
paras kokemus = “the best experience”

Why is yhteinen tapahtuma in the nominative case?

After the verb oli (“was”), the complement (predicative noun phrase) stands in the nominative case. So yhteinen tapahtuma remains nominative singular as the predicate of “was.”

What role does jossa play, and why not missä?

jossa is a relative pronoun in the inessive singular (“in which”). It refers back to tapahtuma and literally means “in which we sang.”
Although spoken Finnish sometimes uses missä as a relative word, jossa is the standard way to form a relative clause for location when you need precision.

Why is lauloimme in the past tense, and how is it formed?

The sentence describes a completed event, so Finnish uses the past tense (imperfect). For laulaa (“to sing”) the past stem is laulo-, and the first person plural ending is -imme, giving lauloimme = “we sang.”

What’s the difference between calling it a yhteinen tapahtuma and saying tapahtuma, missä lauloimme yhdessä?

yhteinen tapahtuma means “a shared/joint event,” focusing on the fact that the event was communal.
Saying tapahtuma, missä lauloimme yhdessä emphasizes the action of singing together (yhdessä = “together”) rather than labeling the event itself as shared.

How could I rephrase this using a että-clause (“that”-clause) instead?

You can introduce a dummy pronoun se plus että to attach the clause directly:
Kurssin paras kokemus oli se, että lauloimme yhdessä.
Here se, että lauloimme yhdessä means “the fact that we sang together.” It’s another natural way to express the same idea.