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Questions & Answers about Tieto on järjestelmässä.
Why is there no article before Tieto or järjestelmässä?
Finnish does not have definite or indefinite articles (no equivalent of a, an, or the). Whether you translate it as “Information is in the system” or “The information is in the system” depends entirely on context, not on an article in Finnish.
What grammatical cases are used for Tieto and järjestelmässä?
Tieto is in the nominative singular, marking it as the subject. Järjestelmässä is in the inessive case, which indicates location inside something (“in the system”). The inessive ending is -ssa or -ssä attached directly to the noun.
Why is the ending -ssä on järjestelmässä instead of -ssa?
Finnish uses vowel harmony. Because järjestelmä contains front vowels (ä), the correct inessive ending is -ssä. If the word had only back vowels (a, o, u), it would take -ssa instead.
What role does on play in the sentence?
On is the third person singular present tense of the verb olla (“to be”). Here it functions as a copula, linking the subject (tieto) to the location complement (järjestelmässä).
What is the typical word order, and can I change it?
The neutral order is Subject–Verb–Complement: Tieto on järjestelmässä. You can rearrange words for emphasis. For example, Järjestelmässä on tieto emphasizes järjestelmässä (“It is in the system that the information is”).
Can I say Tiedot ovat järjestelmässä instead?
Yes. Tiedot is the plural for “data” or “pieces of information.” In that case you must also change the verb to plural: ovat instead of on. So Tiedot ovat järjestelmässä means “(The) data are in the system.”
Is it possible to omit on and just say Tieto järjestelmässä?
No. Finnish requires the copula on to form a complete statement when using olla. Without it, you’d have two noun forms and no verb, so the sentence would be ungrammatical.
Why is järjestelmässä one word rather than using a preposition?
Instead of separate prepositions (like English in), Finnish expresses many relationships by adding case endings to nouns. The inessive suffix -ssä alone means “in.”
How would I say “Information is on the system” (i.e. on top of it) in Finnish?
You would use the postposition päällä with the system in genitive: Tieto on järjestelmän päällä. Here järjestelmän is the genitive form of järjestelmä and päällä means “on.”