Tämä kaupunginosa on rauhallinen iltaisin.

This district is peaceful in the evenings.

Breakdown of Tämä kaupunginosa on rauhallinen iltaisin.

• olla: to be
• tämä: this
• rauhallinen: peaceful
• kaupunginosa: the district
• iltaisin: in the evenings

Questions & Answers about Tämä kaupunginosa on rauhallinen iltaisin.

What does the suffix -sin in iltaisin indicate, and what part of speech is iltaisin in this sentence?

iltaisin is an adverb formed with the suffix -sin (compare päivisin, aamuisin, öisin). This suffix turns a time noun into a habitual time expression, so iltaisin means “in the evenings” (regularly, repeatedly).

Why is kaupunginosa written as one word, and how is it built?

kaupunginosa is a compound of kaupungin (the genitive of kaupunki, “city”) + osa (“part”). In Finnish compounds, the first element appears in the genitive case, so literally it’s “part of the city,” i.e. a district or neighbourhood.

Why do we use Tämä here instead of Tuo or Se? What’s the difference?

Finnish has three basic demonstratives:

• tämä (“this”) for something near the speaker,
• tuo (“that”) for something farther away,
• se for a neutral or generic “it/that.”
  We choose tämä to convey “this particular neighbourhood (close to us).”

How do adjectives agree with nouns in Finnish, and why is rauhallinen unchanged here?

In Finnish, adjectives agree in case and number with the noun they modify. Here both Tämä kaupunginosa and rauhallinen are singular nominative, so the adjective stays in its base form rauhallinen. If the noun were plural, you’d say rauhalliset or rauhallisia depending on the context and case.

What’s the difference between using iltaisin and illalla?

• illalla is the adessive singular of ilta (“in the evening”), referring to one specific evening (“this evening/that evening”).
• iltaisin (the -sin adverb) expresses a habitual or repeated action in the evenings (“in the evenings” in general).

Why does rauhallinen have a double l?

The suffix -llinen (used to form adjectives from nouns, like ystävä → ystävällinen) automatically geminates the l, so rauha + llinen → rauhallinen.

How would you say “These districts are calm in the evenings” using the plural?

You would say Nämä kaupunginosat ovat rauhallisia iltaisin.

• kaupunginosat is the plural nominative of kaupunginosa,
• ovat is the 3rd-person plural of olla,
• rauhallisia is the plural partitive of rauhallinen, matching kaupunginosat.