Learn Hardcore Finnish: Vanhempani ovat parhaillaan syömässä illallista olohuoneessa. - My parents are currently eating dinner in the living room.

In standard Finnish, when you add a possessive suffix (-ni, -si, -nsa etc.), you usually don’t need the separate pronoun (minun, sinun, etc.):

Vanhempani ovat kotona. = My parents are at home.
Minun vanhempani ovat kotona. – also possible, but more emphatic (e.g. my parents, not someone else’s).

Why is the verb ovat used instead of on?

Because the subject is grammatically plural.

vanhempani (my parents) is plural → requires ovat (3rd person plural of olla, to be):
- He ovat kotona. – They are at home.
- Vanhempani ovat kotona. – My parents are at home.

The possessive suffix -ni does not make the subject singular; it only adds possession (my). The grammatical number still follows the base noun vanhemmat (parents) → plural → ovat.

What does parhaillaan mean, and is it necessary?

parhaillaan means “at the moment / right now / currently”.

It adds emphasis that the action is happening exactly now. It’s not grammatically necessary. You could say:

Vanhempani ovat syömässä illallista olohuoneessa.
= My parents are eating dinner in the living room.

Adding parhaillaan just strengthens the “right now” meaning:

Vanhempani ovat parhaillaan syömässä illallista olohuoneessa.
= My parents are (right) now in the middle of eating dinner in the living room.

parhaillaan can also move in the sentence:
Vanhempani ovat olohuoneessa parhaillaan syömässä illallista. (same meaning, different emphasis).

What grammatical form is syömässä, and what does it do?

syömässä is the third infinitive in the inessive case of the verb syödä (to eat).

Pattern:

Basic verb: syödä
3rd infinitive: syömä
Inessive case ending: -ssä
→ syömässä

The construction olla + verb in -massa/-mässä is used to express an ongoing activity, roughly like English “to be doing something”:

Olen lukemassa kirjaa. – I am reading a book.
Hän on nukkumassa. – He/She is sleeping.
Vanhempani ovat syömässä illallista. – My parents are eating dinner.

So ovat syömässä ≈ “are (in the process of) eating”.

What is the difference between ovat syömässä illallista and syövät illallista?

Both describe eating dinner, but their feel is a bit different:

Vanhempani syövät illallista olohuoneessa.
→ Simple present: “My parents eat / are eating dinner in the living room.”
Neutral statement about what is happening (or regularly happens).
Vanhempani ovat (parhaillaan) syömässä illallista olohuoneessa.
→ Emphasises the ongoing process right now. Closer to English “are in the middle of eating dinner”.

In many contexts, both can translate as English present continuous are eating, but ovat syömässä sounds more explicitly “in progress right now”.

Why is illallista in the partitive case, not illallinen?

illallista is the partitive singular form of illallinen (dinner).

Reasons it’s partitive here:

Ongoing process / incomplete action:
With verbs like syödä (to eat), when you focus on the ongoing action (“they are eating”) rather than a finished, counted object, Finnish tends to use the partitive object.
- He syövät illallista. – They are eating dinner (in progress).
- He söivät illallisen. – They ate the dinner (completed event, whole dinner).
Indefinite amount / unbounded “mass”:
Dinner here is more like an indefinite meal or mass of food, not a clearly delimited unit.

So in ovat syömässä illallista, the combination of progressive-like construction and unbounded object leads to the partitive illallista.

What is the difference between illallinen and illallista in meaning?

They are forms of the same word illallinen (dinner), but used differently:

illallinen = nominative / basic form
- Illallinen on valmis. – Dinner is ready.
- Meillä on juhlaillallinen. – We have a festive dinner.
illallista = partitive singular
- Syömme illallista. – We are eating dinner.
- Haluatko illallista? – Do you want (some) dinner?

Very roughly:

illallinen – dinner as a “thing” / whole event.
illallista – some dinner / dinner as an ongoing or partial thing (especially as an object of eating).

What does olohuoneessa mean grammatically?

olohuoneessa means “in the living room”.

olohuone = living room
-ssa/-ssä = inessive case ending (“in, inside”)
→ olohuoneessa = in the living room

The inessive case (-ssa/-ssä) is used for locations inside something:

talossa – in the house
koulussa – at school / in the school
kaupassa – in the shop
olohuoneessa – in the living room

Can the word order of this sentence be changed, and does it change the meaning?

Yes, Finnish word order is flexible, and changes mostly affect emphasis, not the basic meaning.

Original:

Vanhempani ovat parhaillaan syömässä illallista olohuoneessa.

Possible variants:

Vanhempani ovat olohuoneessa parhaillaan syömässä illallista.
– Emphasises the place a bit more (they’re in the living room doing this).
Olohuoneessa vanhempani ovat parhaillaan syömässä illallista.
– Stronger focus on “In the living room…” as the starting point of information.
Parhaillaan vanhempani ovat syömässä illallista olohuoneessa.
– Focus on “Right now, my parents are…”.

The core meaning “my parents are currently eating dinner in the living room” stays the same. Word order indicates what the speaker wants to highlight.

Is parhaillaan redundant if we already have ovat syömässä?

It’s not redundant, but it adds extra emphasis.

ovat syömässä already tells you the action is ongoing (“are eating”).
parhaillaan adds a nuance of “just now / at this very moment”.

So:

Vanhempani ovat syömässä illallista.
– My parents are eating dinner (currently).
Vanhempani ovat parhaillaan syömässä illallista.
– My parents are right now in the middle of eating dinner.

Both are correct; parhaillaan is optional intensification.

Could you express the same idea with a simpler present tense, without ovat syömässä?

Yes. You can say:

Vanhempani syövät illallista olohuoneessa.

This is completely natural and often used. It usually translates to English as “My parents are eating dinner in the living room.”

So you have at least two natural options:

Vanhempani syövät illallista olohuoneessa.
Vanhempani ovat (parhaillaan) syömässä illallista olohuoneessa.

Both are correct. The second one feels a bit more like stressing the ongoing process.

What would a more colloquial (spoken) version of this sentence look like?

In everyday spoken Finnish, several forms often change:

minun vanhempani → mun vanhemmat
ovat → on (even with a plural subject in colloquial speech)
syömässä → syömäs (dropping final -ä)
illallista → often shortened pronunciation, but usually written the same
olohuoneessa → olkkarissa (colloquial word for living room)

A natural spoken-style version might be:

Mun vanhemmat on nyt syömäs illallista olkkarissa.

Meaning is essentially the same: My parents are (now) eating dinner in the living room.