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Joki on puhdas.

Joki on puhdas.
The river is clean.
FromLesson 14inHardcore Finnish
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Breakdown of Joki on puhdas.

olla
to be
puhdas
clean
joki
the river
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Questions & Answers about Joki on puhdas.

What does each word in Joki on puhdas mean, and what are their parts of speech?
  • Joki is a noun meaning river.
  • on is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb olla (“to be”), so here it means is.
  • puhdas is an adjective meaning clean.
Why aren’t there any articles like “a” or “the” in this sentence?

Finnish does not have definite or indefinite articles. A bare noun like joki can mean “a river,” “the river,” or simply “river” – context tells you which.

What case are joki and puhdas in, and why do they match?

Both are in the nominative singular case.

  • Joki is the subject in its basic (nominative) form.
  • puhdas is a predicative adjective describing the subject and must agree in case and number, so it also appears as nominative singular.
Why is on used here, and what is its infinitive?

on is the present‐tense form of the copular verb olla (“to be”) for 3rd person singular. The infinitive is olla. In English we say “is”; in Finnish you use on to link subject and predicate.

How would you turn Joki on puhdas into a question?

You use the interrogative form onko plus subject and predicate:
Onko joki puhdas?
Literally “Is the/a river clean?”

How do you make the sentence negative?

You swap on for the negative verb ei and add the infinitive ole:
Joki ei ole puhdas.
= “The/a river is not clean.”

How do you say “Rivers are clean” (i.e. plural)?

Pluralize both noun and adjective and use ovat, the 3rd person plural of olla:
Joet ovat puhtaat.

  • joet = rivers (nominative plural)
  • ovat = are
  • puhtaat = clean (nominative plural adjective)
What’s the difference between puhdas joki and joki on puhdas?
  • puhdas joki is an attributive phrase meaning “a/the clean river,” with the adjective directly before the noun.
  • joki on puhdas is a full sentence (predicate) meaning “the/a river is clean,” with the adjective after the copula on.
Can I change the word order for emphasis?
Yes. Finnish is relatively flexible. Neutral word order is Subject–Verb–Predicate (Joki on puhdas). To emphasize “river,” you could say Joki puhdas on, or to stress “clean,” Puhdas joki on – but the basic SVO is most common for a plain statement.