Puistossa on seitsemän koiraa.

to be

Breakdown of Puistossa on seitsemän koiraa.

• koira: the dog
• puisto: the park
• -ssa: in

Questions & Answers about Puistossa on seitsemän koiraa.

Why does puistossa end in -ssa, and what does it mean?

Puistossa is the inessive case of puisto (“park”), meaning in the park or in a park. The -ssa ending marks the location “inside” or “at” something.

Why is the verb on singular even though there are seven dogs?

In Finnish existential sentences (“there is/are”), you always use the third-person singular on, regardless of whether the subject is singular or plural. It simply means “there is/there are.”

Why is koiraa in the partitive singular and not koirat (nominative plural)?

When a numeral greater than one modifies a noun, Finnish puts the noun into the partitive singular. Therefore “seven dogs” is seitsemän koiraa, not seitsemän koirat.

Why are there no “the” or “a” before puisto?

Finnish has no articles (a, an, the). Context tells you whether something is definite or indefinite. Puistossa on seitsemän koiraa can be translated as “There are seven dogs in the park” or “There are seven dogs in a park,” depending on context.

Can I change the word order to Seitsemän koiraa on puistossa?