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Questions & Answers about Sää vaikuttaa aikatauluun.
Why is sää written as it is and in this case?
sää is the nominative singular form of “weather,” used for the subject of the sentence. Finnish marks the subject with the nominative case, so you don’t add any endings beyond the basic word.
What person and number is vaikuttaa, and how is it formed?
vaikuttaa is the third-person singular present tense of the verb vaikuttaa (type 1). The ending -a (or -ä) signals “he/she/it affects.”
What case is aikatauluun in, and why is it used here?
aikatauluun is the illative singular of aikataulu (schedule). The illative answers “into what?” (mihin?) and is required by vaikuttaa when indicating what is being affected.
How do you form the illative singular for a noun like aikataulu?
For nouns ending in a vowel, you add -un to the nominative:
aikataulu → aikatauluun
Notice the long vowel uu remains.
Why are there no articles (“a” or “the”) before sää or aikatauluun?
Finnish does not use articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is inferred from context or added words, but no separate word like “a” or “the” appears.
Can you change the word order for emphasis?
Yes. Finnish is relatively flexible.
– Sää vaikuttaa aikatauluun. (neutral)
– Aikatauluun vaikuttaa sää. (emphasizes that it’s the weather doing it)
Where would you put an adverb like paljon (“a lot”) to say “The weather affects the schedule a lot”?
Adverbs typically go before the verb:
Sää vaikuttaa paljon aikatauluun.
Or you can extend it:
Sää vaikuttaa aikatauluun erittäin paljon.
What’s the difference between vaikuttaa and vaikuttua?
vaikuttaa is an active (transitive) verb meaning “to affect/influence” and takes its object in the illative (vaikuttaa johonkin).
vaikuttua is intransitive (or passive in effect) meaning “to be affected by” or “to be impressed by” and uses the elative case (vaikuttua jostakin, “to be influenced/impressed by something”).