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Questions & Answers about Jokainen on ystävällinen.
What exactly does jokainen mean, and what kind of word is it?
Jokainen is an indefinite pronoun that means “everyone / everybody / each (person)”.
- Literally it’s close to “each one”.
- It can stand alone, like in Jokainen on ystävällinen (Everyone is friendly), or come before a noun, like jokainen ihminen (every person).
- Grammatically it is singular, even though it refers to a group of people.
Why is it on and not ovat? In English it’s “Everyone is friendly”, but why singular in Finnish?
The verb on is the 3rd person singular form of olla (to be), and it agrees with jokainen, which is grammatically singular.
- Jokainen on ystävällinen = Everyone is friendly (singular verb in both languages).
- Using ovat (3rd person plural) here would be incorrect: ✗ Jokainen ovat ystävällisiä is ungrammatical.
So:
- jokainen → singular → on
- he / he kaikki (they) → plural → ovat
What’s the difference between jokainen and kaikki?