Tämä on viides päivä.

to be

Breakdown of Tämä on viides päivä.

• tämä: this
• päivä: the day
• viides: fifth

Questions & Answers about Tämä on viides päivä.

What is the role of Tämä?

Tämä is the proximal demonstrative pronoun “this,” serving as the subject (equivalent to English “this”).

What is on in this sentence?

on is the third-person singular present of olla (“to be”). Finnish does not drop the verb “to be” in full sentences, so you need on to link tämä and viides päivä.

Why is viides päivä in the nominative case?

Because olla requires nominative-case complements to express identity (predicate nominative). Both viides (fifth) and päivä (day) are in nominative singular.

Why isn’t there a word for “the” in Finnish?

Finnish has no separate definite or indefinite articles. Definiteness is understood from context or by demonstratives like tämä. So “the fifth day” is just viides päivä when you already know which day.

How do you form and inflect ordinal numbers like viides?