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Questions & Answers about Elokuva on surullinen.
What does Elokuva mean?
Elokuva is a noun in the nominative singular meaning “movie” or “film.”
What is the role of on in this sentence?
on is the third-person singular present tense of the verb olla (“to be”). Here it functions as the copula “is,” linking the subject elokuva with the adjective surullinen.
What does surullinen mean and what part of speech is it?
surullinen is an adjective meaning “sad.” As a predicative adjective it describes the state or quality of the subject elokuva.
Why is surullinen in this form (ending in -inen) and not inflected further?
In predicative position after olla, Finnish adjectives agree with the subject in number and case. Since elokuva is singular nominative, the adjective stays in the nominative singular (surullinen), which also happens to be its dictionary form.
How would I make Elokuva on surullinen negative?
Finnish uses a negative auxiliary ei plus the verb’s connegative. For olla, the connegative is ole:
- Elokuva ei ole surullinen.
How can I ask “Is the movie sad?” in Finnish?
Attach the question particle -ko to the verb and invert verb + subject:
- Onko elokuva surullinen?
How do I say “The movies are sad” (plural) in Finnish?
You change both verb and adjective to agree with a plural subject:
- Elokuvat ovat surullisia.
(Here surullisia is plural partitive, the most common predicative form.)
You may also hear Elokuvat ovat surulliset, using nominative plural surulliset, but surullisia is more typical in everyday speech.
Can I change the word order to emphasize a different part of the sentence?
Finnish is fairly flexible, but the neutral order is Subject–Verb–Predicate:
- Elokuva on surullinen.
To emphasize “sad,” you could front the adjective (it sounds poetic or archaic): - Surullinen elokuva on.
Or more naturally add a demonstrative: - Tämä elokuva on surullinen.
How do I pronounce Elokuva on surullinen, and where is the stress?
Finnish stress always falls on the first syllable of each word. Approximate breakdown:
- ELO-ku-va (stress on ELO)
- on
- SU-rul-li-nen (stress on SU)
In IPA roughly: /ˈelokuʋɑ on ˈsurullinen/.
How do I say “very sad” in Finnish?
Use an adverb like todella (“really”) or erittäin (“extremely”) before the adjective:
- Elokuva on todella surullinen.
- Elokuva on erittäin surullinen.