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Questions & Answers about Tämä kerta on parempi.
Is this the most natural way to say “This time is better,” or should I use something else?
Grammatically it’s fine, but the most idiomatic way is usually the adverbial expression Tällä kertaa:
- Tällä kertaa on parempi. = It’s better this time.
- Tämä kerta on parempi. = This particular instance is better. (Grammatical, but less common as a subject in everyday Finnish.) You’ll also see Tällä kerralla, which is correct too, though Tällä kertaa is by far the most common fixed phrase.
Why is it parempi and not something like “more good”?
Finnish forms comparatives with the suffix -mpi, not with a separate “more.” The adjective hyvä (good) is irregular:
- positive: hyvä
- comparative: parempi (better)
- superlative: paras (best)
Do I need to use kuin when I say “better than …”?
Yes. Use kuin after comparatives:
- Tämä kerta on parempi kuin viime kerta.
- Tällä kertaa on parempi kuin viimeksi.
What’s the difference between parempi and paremmin?
- parempi = comparative adjective, modifies nouns: Tämä kerta on parempi.
- paremmin = comparative adverb, modifies verbs/clauses: Tällä kertaa meni paremmin. (“It went better this time.”)
What case is kerta here, and why isn’t anything in the partitive?
In Tämä kerta on parempi, kerta is in the nominative (it’s the subject) and parempi is a nominative predicative agreeing with it. You wouldn’t use partitive here because you’re talking about one complete, countable instance. Partitive predicatives show up with mass-like meanings or certain verbs, not with a count noun like kerta in this structure.
Can I drop on (the verb “is”) like you sometimes can in other languages?
No. In standard Finnish you include on: Tämä kerta on parempi. Omitting it is limited to headlines, notes, or very colloquial/elliptical speech.
How do I say “last time,” and how would I compare to it?
- Noun phrase: viime kerta (“the last time”): Viime kerta oli vaikea.
- Adverb: viimeksi (“last time/previously”): Tällä kertaa on parempi kuin viimeksi.
How do I say “This time is the best”?
Use the superlative paras:
- Tämä kerta on paras.
- With the adverbial: Tällä kertaa on parasta. (Impersonal “it’s best this time,” context-dependent)
Why do I often see Tällä kertaa even though the noun looks like partitive (kertaa)?
Tällä kertaa is a fixed, very common expression where the demonstrative tällä is adessive (“on this”) and kertaa is partitive. It’s idiomatic. You can also say Tällä kerralla, which uses adessive on both words and is fully correct, just less frequent in this fixed phrase.
What are some useful forms of kerta?
- Nominative sg.: kerta (time/occasion)
- Genitive sg.: kerran (also an adverb: “once”)
- Partitive sg.: kertaa (e.g., kaksi kertaa “twice”)
- Adessive sg.: kerralla (e.g., viime kerralla “the last time,” kerralla “at one go”)
- Nominative pl.: kerrat Common phrases:
- joka kerta (every time), toinen kerta (second time), monta kertaa (many times), ensimmäinen kerta (first time)
Could I say Tänä kertana like I say tänä vuonna (“this year”)?
No. Tänä kertana is unidiomatic/wrong. Use Tällä kertaa for “this time.”
Can I change the word order for emphasis?
Yes, but use it sparingly and in the right contexts:
- Neutral: Tämä kerta on parempi.
- Emphatic focus on “better”: Parempi on tämä kerta. (stylistic/literary or contrastive) Colloquially you might also hear fronting with Tällä kertaa, e.g., Tällä kertaa on parempi.
How do I pronounce the sentence?
- Tämä [ˈtæ.mæ] (front vowel ä like in “cat” but longer/clearer)
- kerta [ˈker.tɑ]
- on [on]
- parempi [ˈpɑ.rem.pi] Primary stress is always on the first syllable of each word.
What’s the opposite of parempi if I want to say it’s worse?
Use huonompi (from huono, bad):
- Tämä kerta on huonompi.
- Impersonal/adverbial: Tällä kertaa meni huonommin.
When should I use tämä vs se here?
- tämä kerta = “this time” (near, current, what we’re focusing on now)
- se kerta = “that time” (more distant in time or context, previously mentioned) Both are definite; Finnish has no articles.
I’ve seen kerta used like “since/because” in some sentences. Is that the same word?
Yes, colloquially kerta can mean “since/because” (especially in some dialects), e.g., Kerta et tulit, syödään. That’s informal. In your sentence, kerta is the noun “time/occasion.”