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Questions & Answers about Kymmenes kerros on hiljainen.
What does kymmenes mean, and how is it formed from kymmenen?
kymmenes is the ordinal “tenth.” You start with the cardinal kymmenen (ten), replace the –en ending with –es and add the adjective-type endings. So kymmenes behaves like an adjective and is declined just like one (nominative singular here).
Why is kerros in the nominative case (no ending)? Shouldn’t a floor/location use a locative case?
This is a simple “X is Y” sentence using olla (to be). In Finnish, both the subject (kymmenes kerros) and the predicate nominative (hiljainen) stay in nominative. If you instead wanted “on the tenth floor (something happens),” you’d use a locative: kymmenennessä kerroksessa.
Why isn’t there an article like the before tenth floor?
Finnish has no definite or indefinite articles. Context tells you whether you mean “a tenth floor,” “the tenth floor,” etc. If you really need to specify “this” or “that” tenth floor, you’d use a demonstrative: tämä kymmenes kerros (“this tenth floor”).
How do adjectives agree with nouns in Finnish—why is hiljainen unchanged here?
Adjectives in Finnish agree in number and case with the noun they modify by taking the same endings. Here both kerros and hiljainen are singular nominative, so hiljainen stays in its base form (nominative singular).
Could I say Hiljainen on kymmenes kerros instead?
Yes, it’s grammatically correct—Finnish word order is flexible—but it sounds like you’re answering “Which one is quiet?” rather than giving neutral info. The usual neutral form is Kymmenes kerros on hiljainen (S V P).
How do I decline kymmenes in other cases?
Ordinals decline like adjectives. For example:
• Genitive: kymmenennen
• Partitive: kymmenettä
• Inessive (in): kymmenennessä
• Elative (out of): kymmenennestä
… and so on, by adding the standard adjective-case endings.
What’s the difference between hiljainen and hiljaa? Could I say Kymmenes kerros on hiljaa?
hiljainen is an adjective (“quiet”), hiljaa is an adverb (“quietly”) or the partitive form of hiljainen. You don’t use hiljaa as a predicate with olla; saying X on hiljaa is colloquial and awkward. The correct neutral description is X on hiljainen.
Can I drop on and just say Kymmenes kerros hiljainen?
In everyday speech or notes you might see verbless headlines (Kymmenes kerros hiljainen), but in a full sentence you need the copula on. Without it the clause is incomplete and sounds like a fragment.
Do Finnish nouns have gender? Why doesn’t hiljainen change form for “floor”?
Finnish has no grammatical gender. Nouns are declined by case and number only. kerros is just a regular noun with its own declension pattern—there’s no gender agreement to worry about.