Breakdown of Kun ruuhka alkaa, asema on täynnä ihmisiä.
olla
to be
kun
when
täynnä
full
alkaa
to start
ihminen
the person
ruuhka
the rush
asema
the station
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Questions & Answers about Kun ruuhka alkaa, asema on täynnä ihmisiä.
What does kun mean here and why is it used at the beginning of the sentence?
kun is a conjunction meaning “when” in a temporal sense. It introduces a time clause that sets the context for something that happens regularly or inevitably. In Finnish, time clauses like “when X happens, Y happens” use kun without any extra particles.
Why are there no words for “the” or “a” before ruuhka and asema?
Finnish has no articles (no equivalents of “the” or “a”). Nouns stand alone, and their definiteness or indefiniteness is understood purely from context.
Why is ruuhka in the nominative case instead of another case?
In the subordinate clause Kun ruuhka alkaa, ruuhka is the subject of the verb alkaa (“to begin”), so it takes the nominative case (the default case for subjects).
What kind of word is täynnä, and how does it function in the sentence?
täynnä is a predicative adjective meaning “full.” It follows the verb on (“is”) and links to what something is full of. It doesn’t inflect in attributive position but remains unchanged after on.
Why is ihmisiä in the partitive plural form, not the nominative plural ihmiset?
After adjectives and verbs that express a state of having or containing something (like täynnä), the thing contained takes the partitive case. Here ihmisiä (partitive plural of ihminen) indicates that the station is full of people.
How do you pronounce ruuhka correctly, especially the double vowels?
ruuhka is pronounced [ˈruː.ɦkɑ]. The double uu indicates a long u sound ([uː] in IPA), and the hk cluster has a slight h before the k.
Why is the word order Kun ruuhka alkaa, asema on täynnä ihmisiä and not something like Kun ruuhka alkaa, on asema täynnä ihmisiä?
Finnish word order is flexible but the neutral main‐clause structure is Subject–Verb–Object/Complement (SVO). After the time clause Kun ruuhka alkaa, the main clause follows SVO: asema (subject), on (verb), täynnä ihmisiä (complement).
Could you express the same idea differently, for example, using asemalla?
Yes. A common alternative is Kun ruuhka alkaa, asemalla on paljon ihmisiä (“When rush hour begins, there are many people at the station”). Here asemalla is the adessive case (“at the station”) and paljon ihmisiä means “lots of people,” which shifts the nuance slightly from “the station is full of” to “there are many people at the station.”