Pieni ääni kuuluu keittiöstä.

A small sound is coming from the kitchen.

Breakdown of Pieni ääni kuuluu keittiöstä.

• pieni: small
• keittiö: the kitchen
• -sta: from
• ääni: the sound
• kuulua: to be heard

Questions & Answers about Pieni ääni kuuluu keittiöstä.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” in this sentence?

Finnish does not have articles like English a or the. Whether you mean something specific or not, you simply use the noun in the correct case. Context and word order tell you if it’s definite or indefinite.

Why is keittiö in the form keittiöstä?

keittiöstä is the elative case of keittiö, meaning “out of” or “from” the kitchen. In Finnish, when something comes from inside somewhere, you use the elative case with the ending -sta/-stä.

Why is ääni (= “sound”) not in the partitive case?

Here ääni is the subject of the intransitive verb kuulua, so it stays in nominative case (singular): ääni. The partitive would be ääntä, which you’d use for objects of certain verbs or incomplete amounts—but not for the subject of kuulua.

What kind of verb is kuulua, and how is it different from kuulla?

kuulua is an intransitive verb meaning “to be heard” or “to seem to come.” You say “something kuuluu” (“something is heard”).
kuulla is a transitive verb meaning “to hear” (I hear something); it takes an object in the partitive (e.g. kuulen ääntä).

Could I say Kuulen pienen äänen keittiöstä instead?

Yes, but with a nuance:

• Kuulen pienen äänen keittiöstä. uses kuulla (to hear) actively: “I hear a small sound from the kitchen.”
• Pieni ääni kuuluu keittiöstä. uses kuulua passively: “A small sound is being heard from the kitchen” (no specific listener is mentioned).

Why is the adjective pieni not changed to pienä?

Adjectives agree with their noun’s case. Because ääni is nominative singular here, pieni also takes nominative singular form. Pienä would be the essive case (“as small”), which is not what we need.

Can I change the word order?

Yes. Finnish word order is flexible for emphasis. You could say:

• Keittiöstä kuuluu pieni ääni. or
• Kuuluu keittiöstä pieni ääni.
  All mean roughly the same; the part you put first gets a slight emphasis.

How do I pronounce ääni and keittiöstä with the double vowels and the ö?

• ä is like the “a” in English cat, but held longer if doubled (ää).
• ö is like the vowel in British English bird (without the r), or the German ö.
• Double letters (ää, tt) mean you hold that sound or consonant longer than a single one.

What is the literal word‐by‐word translation of Pieni ääni kuuluu keittiöstä?

• Pieni = “small”
• ääni = “sound”
• kuuluu = “is heard” / “comes”
• keittiöstä = “from the kitchen”
  Literal: Small sound is heard from(=out of) kitchen.