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Questions & Answers about Kirja on lyhyt.
What are the grammatical roles of each word in Kirja on lyhyt?
Kirja is the subject (a noun in the nominative singular). On is the verb “to be” in the 3rd person singular present tense. Lyhyt is an adjective functioning as a predicate adjective, also in the nominative singular to agree with kirja.
Why is there no equivalent of “the” or “a/an” in Kirja on lyhyt?
Finnish does not have articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness (whether you mean “the book” or “a book”) is inferred from context rather than from separate words like the or a/an.
How do adjectives agree with nouns in Finnish?
Adjectives in Finnish agree with the noun they modify in case and number, but not in gender (Finnish has no grammatical gender). Here both kirja and lyhyt are in the nominative singular, so neither carries an extra ending.
What case are kirja and lyhyt in this sentence?
They are both in the nominative singular. The nominative is used for the subject of a clause and for predicate nouns/adjectives after olla (“to be”).
How do you make this sentence negative?
Use the negative verb ei + the main verb in its non-personal form. Thus:
Kirja ei ole lyhyt.
This means “The book is not short.”
How do you turn Kirja on lyhyt into a question?
Replace on with its interrogative form onko (and keep the normal word order). So:
Onko kirja lyhyt?
This means “Is the book short?”
How do you say “The books are short” in Finnish?
Change kirja to the nominative plural kirjat, on to the 3rd person plural ovat, and lyhyt to the nominative plural lyhyet. The result is:
Kirjat ovat lyhyet.
Can you change the word order in Finnish for emphasis?
Yes. Finnish is quite flexible. You could say Lyhyt on kirja to emphasize “it is short (as for a book),” but the neutral, unmarked order is Subject–Verb–Predicate: Kirja on lyhyt.
How would you say “The book was short” in Finnish?
Use the past tense of olla (“to be”), which is oli in the 3rd person singular. So you say:
Kirja oli lyhyt.