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Questions & Answers about Mainos on tärkeä.
Why is there no article like a or the before mainos?
Finnish does not have articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is inferred from context. To specify “this advertisement,” you would say tämä mainos on tärkeä, but you never use a separate word for “a” or “the.”
What does on mean, and why is it used here?
on is the third person singular present form of the verb olla (“to be”). It corresponds to the English is and links the subject (mainos) to the adjective (tärkeä).
Why is mainos in the basic form (nominative) and not in another case?
As the subject of the sentence, mainos appears in the nominative case. In Finnish copula sentences with olla, the subject remains in nominative.
Why does tärkeä have no case ending and also appear in nominative?
In a copular clause, the predicate adjective agrees with the subject in both case and number. Since mainos is singular nominative, tärkeä is also singular nominative and takes no extra ending.
How would you change the sentence to plural?
You put both the noun and adjective into plural nominative, and use the plural of olla:
Mainokset ovat tärkeitä.
(“The advertisements are important.”)
Can the word order be changed?
Yes, Finnish word order is flexible. Mainos on tärkeä is the neutral Subject-Verb-Predicate order. You could say Tärkeä on mainos for poetic or emphatic effect, though it’s rare in everyday speech.
Why does tärkeä end with -ä instead of -a?
Finnish vowel harmony divides vowels into front (ä, ö, y) and back (a, o, u) groups. tärkeä uses front vowels, so it takes -ä. A back-vowel adjective like iso (“big”) would end in -a.
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