Turvallisuus on tärkeää työpaikalla.

Safety is important at the workplace.

Breakdown of Turvallisuus on tärkeää työpaikalla.

• olla: to be
• tärkeä: important
• turvallisuus: the safety
• työpaikalla: at the workplace

Questions & Answers about Turvallisuus on tärkeää työpaikalla.

Why is the adjective tärkeä in the partitive form tärkeää instead of the nominative tärkeä?

In Finnish, when you use an adjective complement after the verb olla (“to be”) in a general, indefinite statement, you typically use the partitive singular of that adjective. This expresses that the quality is seen as an unbounded or abstract property. So tärkeää (partitive) conveys “(is) important” in a broad sense. If you were talking about a specific, bounded situation or item, you might see the nominative (tärkeä), but for general statements like “Safety is important,” partitive is the norm.

What is the role of the verb on in this sentence?

On is the 3rd-person singular present form of the verb olla, which means “to be.” It functions exactly like the English “is.” Here it links the subject (turvallisuus) with its property (tärkeää).

Why does työpaikalla end with -lla, and what case is that?

Työpaikalla uses the adessive case, marked by -lla. In Finnish, location can be shown with cases instead of prepositions. Adessive (–lla/–llä) often means “at” or “on.” So työpaikalla translates to “at the workplace.”

What’s the difference between työpaikalla (adessive) and työpaikassa (inessive)?

• työpaikalla (adessive, –lla): “at the workplace,” focusing on presence at the location.
• työpaikassa (inessive, –ssa): “in the workplace,” emphasizing being inside the building or area.
  In everyday speech, työpaikalla is more common when you mean “at work.”

Why is there no article (“the”) before turvallisuus like in English?

Finnish does not have articles (neither “a” nor “the”). Nouns stand on their own, and definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context. Turvallisuus by itself can mean “safety” or “the safety,” depending on the situation.

Can the word order in Turvallisuus on tärkeää työpaikalla be changed?

Yes. Finnish has relatively free word order for emphasis or style. The neutral order is Subject–Verb–Predicate–Adverbial. You could say:

• Työpaikalla turvallisuus on tärkeää (emphasizes “at the workplace”)
• Tärkeää on turvallisuus työpaikalla (emphasizes “important”)
  The core grammatical relationships stay clear thanks to the case endings.

How is turvallisuus formed, and what does it literally mean?

Turvallisuus (“safety/security”) comes from the adjective turvallinen (“safe”) plus the noun-forming suffix -uus. You can break it down as:

1. turva = “protection”;
2. turva + -llinen = turvallinen = “secure/safe”;
3. turvallinen + -uus = turvallisuus = “safety; security.”

How do you pronounce Turvallisuus on tärkeää työpaikalla?

Finnish pronunciation is mostly phonetic. Break it into syllables and stress the first syllable of each word:
TUR-val-li-suus on TÄR-ke-ää TYÖ-pai-kal-l-a

• Turvallisuus: TUR-val-li-suus
• tärkeää: TÄR-ke-ää
• työpaikalla: TYÖ-pai-kal-l-a
  Vowels are short or long by length (double vowels like uu, ää are long).