Tämä päivä on aika pitkä.

This day is quite long.

Breakdown of Tämä päivä on aika pitkä.

• olla: to be
• tämä: this
• päivä: the day
• pitkä: long
• aika: quite

Questions & Answers about Tämä päivä on aika pitkä.

Why does the sentence use tämä päivä instead of tänään?

Both are related to today, but they behave differently:

• tämä päivä = this day (literally a noun phrase: this + day).
  
  • You’re talking about the day as a whole, as if it were an object or period you can describe.
• tänään = today (an adverb).
  
  • You’re talking about when something happens, not what the day itself is like.

So:

• Tämä päivä on aika pitkä. – You are describing the day itself as long.
• Tänään päivä on aika pitkä. – Possible, but more like “Today the day is quite long”, emphasizing the time more than the day as an entity.

In everyday speech, English “Today is quite long.” often corresponds naturally to Tämä päivä on aika pitkä. in Finnish.

Why is päivä in the basic form (nominative) and not something like päivän?

In Tämä päivä on aika pitkä, the structure is:

• Tämä päivä – subject (nominative)
• on – verb “to be”
• aika pitkä – predicate (what the subject is like)

Subjects in Finnish normally appear in the nominative (basic) form, so päivä stays as päivä.

You’d use päivän (genitive) in structures like:

• Tämän päivän jälkeen – after this day
• Tämän päivän ohjelma – today’s program / the program of this day

But with olla (“to be”) + descriptive adjective, the subject stays nominative: Tämä päivä on pitkä.

What exactly is aika doing here? I thought aika means “time”.

You’re right that aika as a noun means time.

But in Tämä päivä on aika pitkä, aika is used as a degree adverb meaning roughly “quite / pretty / rather”.

So:

• aika pitkä ≈ quite long, pretty long

This is very common in spoken and informal written Finnish. Grammatically, it’s the same word form as the noun aika, but here its function is to modify the adjective pitkä, not to mean “time”.

Does aika make the adjective stronger or weaker? Is it more like “a bit long” or “very long”?

aika is somewhere in the middle, and slightly vague on purpose. It’s usually:

• stronger than a little / somewhat
• weaker than really / very

So aika pitkä is usually understood as “quite long / pretty long”, not “just a bit long” and not “extremely long”.

Nuance can change with tone of voice, but as a default:

• pitkä – long
• aika pitkä – quite long
• hyvin pitkä / todella pitkä / tosi pitkä – very / really long

Can aika move somewhere else, like Tämä päivä on pitkä aika?

No, that would change the meaning completely.

• Tämä päivä on aika pitkä. – aika modifies pitkä → The day is quite long.
• Tämä päivä on pitkä aika. – pitkä modifies aika → This day is a long time.

The second sentence sounds odd unless you have a very specific context where “this day” is being talked about as a duration.

As a degree word, aika normally stands right before the adjective it modifies:

• aika pitkä matka – quite a long trip
• aika kylmä ilma – quite cold air

Why is pitkä used for time here? Doesn’t pitkä mean “tall” or “long” in space?

pitkä is the general word for long and also for tall (for people/vertical things). It’s used for both space and time.

Examples:

• Space:
  
  • pitkä pöytä – a long table
  • pitkä mies – a tall man
• Time:
  
  • pitkä elokuva – a long movie
  • pitkä päivä – a long day

So in Tämä päivä on aika pitkä, you’re talking about the duration of the day feeling long.

Why is it pitkä and not something like kauan?

Because you’re describing a noun (päivä) with an adjective.

• pitkä is an adjective (“long”), used with nouns:
  
  • pitkä päivä, pitkä matka, pitkä kirja
• kauan is an adverb (“for a long time”), used with verbs:
  
  • Odotin kauan. – I waited for a long time.
  • Se kestää kauan. – It lasts a long time.

So:

• Päivä on pitkä. – The day is long. (adjective + noun)
• Päivä kestää kauan. – The day lasts a long time. (adverb + verb)

Does pitkä mean “tall” here?

No. Here pitkä is understood as long in time, because the context is a day.

The same word pitkä covers both “long” and “tall” in Finnish. The interpretation depends on what you’re describing:

• pitkä mies – tall man
• pitkä tie – long road
• pitkä päivä – long day (in duration)

Can the verb on be left out, like in some other languages? Could I say Tämä päivä aika pitkä?

In standard written Finnish, you should keep the verb on:

• Tämä päivä on aika pitkä.

In very colloquial speech, people sometimes drop on in short comments, especially in the 3rd person:

• Tää päivä aika pitkä. (spoken, colloquial, not recommended in writing)

For learners and in any normal writing, always include on in sentences like this.

What is the difference between tämä and tää?

Both correspond to English “this”, but:

• tämä – standard, used in writing and neutral speech
• tää – colloquial, very common in spoken Finnish

So colloquial speech might be:

• Tää päivä on aika pitkä.

But in a textbook, essay, or formal context, use:

• Tämä päivä on aika pitkä.

Is there any meaning difference between Tämä päivä on aika pitkä and Tämä päivä on pitkä?

Yes, but it’s subtle.

• Tämä päivä on pitkä.
  
  • Plain statement: the day is (objectively) long.
• Tämä päivä on aika pitkä.
  
  • Softer, more subjective: the day feels quite long, maybe longer than expected.

Adding aika makes it sound more like a personal evaluation and slightly less absolute.

Why is pitkä in the basic form and not something like pitkää?

The adjective agrees with the case and number of the noun it describes.

Here:

• Tämä päivä – subject in nominative singular
• The predicate adjective pitkä also appears in nominative singular.

So:

• Päivä on pitkä. – singular, nominative
• Päivät ovat pitkät. – plural, nominative

You’d use pitkää (partitive) in different structures, for example:

• Odotan pitkää päivää. – I expect a long day.
• Se oli pitkää ja vaikeaa. – It was long and difficult. (different type of sentence)

How should I pronounce ä and the words tämä, päivä, pitkä?

Key points:

• ä is like the a in English “cat”, but usually a bit clearer and tenser.
• Stress is always on the first syllable in Finnish.

Word by word:

• tämä – TÄ-mä
  
  • tä like “ta” in tap, but with your tongue a bit forward; mä like “ma” in mama but shorter.
• päivä – PÄI-vä
  
  • päi like “pai” with ä-quality (closer to English “pad” + “i” glide), vä like “va” in lava but shorter.
• pitkä – PIT-kä
  
  • pit like English “pit”, kä like “ca” in cat but with that Finnish ä.

All syllables are pronounced clearly; no reduced vowels like in English “today”.