Breakdown of Hiljainen ilta puistossa on rentouttava.
olla
to be
puisto
the park
-ssa
in
ilta
the evening
hiljainen
quiet
rentouttava
relaxing
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Questions & Answers about Hiljainen ilta puistossa on rentouttava.
What case is puistossa, and why is it used here?
puistossa is the inessive case (suffix -ssa/-ssä), which indicates location “in” something. Here it means “in the park.”
How does rentouttava function in this sentence?
rentouttava is a present active participle used as an adjective, meaning “relaxing” (literally “that which relaxes”).
How do you form the present active participle rentouttava from the verb rentouttaa?
- Take the 3rd-person singular present form rentouttaa.
- Remove the final -a → rentoutt-.
- Add the participle ending -ava → rentouttava.
Why is the verb on necessary in this sentence?
on is the 3rd-person singular of olla (“to be”). Finnish requires this copula in the present tense to link the subject and predicate; you cannot omit it here.
How do you express “a” or “the” in Finnish?
Finnish has no articles. You simply say Hiljainen ilta; context tells you if it’s “a quiet evening” or “the quiet evening.”
Do adjectives like hiljainen agree with nouns in Finnish? How do you decline hiljainen?
Yes, adjectives agree in case and number with the noun. Hiljainen is an -inen adjective. To form its stem, replace -nen with -se- → hiljais-, then add case endings:
- Nom. sg. hiljainen
- Gen. sg. hiljaisen
- Inessive sg. hiljaisessa
- etc.
Is word order important here? Can you move the words around?
Finnish has relatively free word order because of its case system. You could also say:
- Puistossa hiljainen ilta on rentouttava.
- Rentouttava on hiljainen ilta puistossa.
The core meaning stays the same, but different word orders shift the emphasis.