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Questions & Answers about Omistaja sanoi, että portaikko maalataan seuraavalla viikolla.
Why is maalataan in the passive voice?
In this sentence, maalataan is the Finnish passiivi (“passive”) form of maalata. Finnish often uses the passive to focus on the action or result (painting the staircase) without naming the doer. It literally means “it is painted,” and with the time expression it’s understood as “will be painted.”
How do you express future time when Finnish doesn’t have a separate future tense?
Finnish uses the present (or passive) form plus a time adverb to indicate future actions. Here, maalataan is formally present/passive, but because of seuraavalla viikolla, we interpret it as “will be painted next week.”
Why is the verb at the end of the subordinate clause?
In Finnish, subordinate clauses introduced by että follow a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order, placing the verb at the very end. Hence: että portaikko maalataan seuraavalla viikolla.
What is the function of että here, and do you always need a comma before it?
että is a conjunction meaning “that,” used to introduce indirect speech or subordinate clauses. In standard Finnish, you place a comma before että to mark the start of the clause, though in very casual writing it sometimes gets dropped.
Why do we say seuraavalla viikolla and not seuraava viikko?
seuraavalla viikolla uses the adessive case (-lla/-llä) on viikko to express “during/on next week.” Time expressions meaning “at/in/on [time]” require this case. seuraava viikko in nominative is just a noun phrase (“the next week”), not a time adverbial.
What case is viikolla, and why is it used?
viikolla is the adessive case of viikko, marked by -lla. Finnish uses the adessive to express “on” or “in” when talking about time: seuraavalla viikolla = “during/on next week.”
Why is there no article before Omistaja in Finnish?
Finnish has no definite or indefinite articles (“a/ the”). Specificity comes from context. Omistaja here is understood as “the owner” because the context tells us which owner.
What is the difference between portaikko, portaat, and porras?
• porras (singular) = “step”
• portaat (plural of porras) = “stairs/steps”
• portaikko = “staircase” (the entire structure). The suffix -ikko often turns a group or collection into a singular noun.