Learn Hardcore Finnish: Satamassa on monta venettä tänään. - There are many boats in the harbor today.

Satamassa is the inessive form of satama (“harbor”). The suffix -ssa marks the inessive case, which expresses “in” or “at” a location. So satamassa means “in/at the harbor.”

Why is venettä in the partitive case?

The partitive case (here venettä, partitive plural of vene) is used after quantity expressions like monta (“many”), and whenever you refer to an incomplete or unspecified amount. Saying “monta venettä” literally means “many boats” in an indefinite sense, so the noun takes the partitive.

Why is monta used instead of monet or monia?

Monet is the nominative plural of moni (“many”), used when the entire group is the subject (e.g., Monet veneet ovat valmiina = “Many boats are ready”). When you count or quantify and thus use the partitive after it, you typically use monta. Monia is also a partitive form, but Finnish grammar prefers monta with numbers or amount expressions.

What role does on play in this sentence?

On is the third-person singular form of the verb olla (“to be”). In existential sentences like this, on means “there is/there are,” indicating existence or presence of something: “There are many boats…”

Why is there no article (“the” or “a”) in Finnish?

Finnish does not use definite or indefinite articles. The language relies on context and case endings to convey the same nuances. So satamassa can mean “in a harbor,” “in the harbor,” or “at the harbor,” depending on context.

Why is tänään placed at the end, and could it go elsewhere?

Finnish word order is quite flexible. Putting tänään (“today”) at the end emphasizes the time or simply sounds natural in speech. You could also say Tänään satamassa on monta venettä or Satamassa tänään on monta venettä with essentially the same meaning.