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Questions & Answers about Tämä on hyvä syy.
What does Tämä mean and why is it used here instead of Se?
Tämä is the Finnish demonstrative pronoun for “this,” referring to something near the speaker or just mentioned. Se means “it” or “that” (something more distant or already established in the discourse). In Tämä on hyvä syy, you use tämä because you’re introducing or pointing out a specific reason right now.
What is the role of on in this sentence?
On is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb olla (“to be”). It functions as the linking verb “is,” connecting the subject Tämä (“this”) with the predicate hyvä syy (“a good reason”).
Why are there no articles (like “a” or “the”) in the Finnish sentence?
Finnish does not have definite or indefinite articles. Context and word order convey whether something is “a” or “the.” So Tämä on hyvä syy simply means “This is a good reason,” without needing the word “a.”
Why is the adjective hyvä not in a special form (for example hyvän)?
Adjectives in Finnish agree with their nouns in case and number. Here both hyvä and syy are in the nominative singular because they form a predicate nominal after on. The form hyvän would be the genitive (“of a good”), which doesn’t fit this structure.
Why isn’t syy marked with a case ending like the partitive?
Predicate complements after olla use the nominative case, so syy remains uninflected in the nominative singular. Using the partitive (syytä) or any other case would change the meaning or break the predicate structure.
Can you change the word order—for instance, Hyvä syy on tämä?
Yes. Finnish word order is relatively flexible because of its case system. Hyvä syy on tämä is grammatically correct and would put emphasis on hyvä syy (“a good reason”). The default, neutral order is Tämä on hyvä syy.
How would you say “This is a really good reason” in Finnish?
Insert an adverb like todella (“really”) or erittäin (“very”) before hyvä:
- Tämä on todella hyvä syy.
- Tämä on erittäin hyvä syy.
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