Questions & Answers about Tämä juoma on lämmin.
- Tämä = this (demonstrative pronoun pointing at something near the speaker)
- juoma = drink / beverage (a noun derived from the verb juoda = to drink)
- on = is (3rd person singular present of olla = to be)
- lämmin = warm (adjective describing temperature)
So the sentence structure is literally This drink is warm.
Finnish demonstratives change form according to case:
- Tämä is nominative case (the “basic” form), used for the subject of the sentence.
- Tämän is genitive case (often corresponding to English of this / this …’s).
In this sentence, Tämä juoma is the subject (this drink), so it must be in the nominative: Tämä, not Tämän.
You would use Tämän in something like Tämän juoman väri = the color of this drink.
- Juoma here is the subject, so it’s in nominative singular, the default subject form.
- Juoman is genitive (often of the drink / the drink’s).
- Juomaa is partitive (used for “some drink”, incomplete amounts, or certain verb patterns).
Because we’re simply saying this drink (as a whole) is warm, nominative juoma is correct: Tämä juoma on lämmin.
On is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb olla (to be):
- minä olen = I am
- sinä olet = you (sg) are
- hän / se on = he / she / it is
- me olemme = we are
- te olette = you (pl) are
- he / ne ovat = they are
The subject Tämä juoma is 3rd person singular (this drink → it), so you must use on (is).
Yes, in Finnish, adjectives usually agree with the noun in number and case.
Here:
- Subject: Tämä juoma (singular, nominative)
- Predicate adjective: lämmin (singular, nominative)
In copula sentences with olla (to be), a simple descriptive adjective normally appears in the same number and nominative case as the subject:
- Juoma on lämmin = The drink is warm.
- Juomat ovat lämpimät = The drinks are warm.
So lämmin matches singular nominative juoma.
Word order is fairly flexible in Finnish, but the neutral version here is:
- Tämä juoma on lämmin.
Other orders are possible with different emphasis:
- Juoma on lämmin. – More general: The drink is warm. (No explicit this.)
- Tämä juoma on lämmin. – Stresses this particular drink (maybe in contrast to others).
- Lämmin on tämä juoma. – Stylistic / poetic; puts focus on lämmin (Warm is this drink).
- On lämmin juoma. – Feels incomplete or odd in normal speech; sounds more like a fragment or a special stylistic structure.
For everyday speech, stick with Tämä juoma on lämmin.
You need plural forms for both the demonstrative, the noun, and usually the adjective:
- Nämä juomat ovat lämpimiä.
- Nämä = these
- juomat = drinks (plural)
- ovat = are (3rd person plural of olla)
- lämpimiä = warm (plural partitive; often used to describe properties of a group in general)
If you want to emphasize a specific set of warm drinks as definite items, you may also see:
- Nämä juomat ovat lämpimät.
In practice, lämpimiä is more common as a neutral descriptive predicate: “These drinks are (all) warm.”
Yes, the choice between lämmin (nominative) and lämmintä (partitive) changes the nuance:
Juoma on lämmin.
- Describes a specific drink (a glass, a cup) as a whole object that is warm.
Juoma on lämmintä.
- Treats juoma more like a substance (like “the drink-stuff” or “this kind of drink”) and says the substance is warm.
You’re more likely to say Juoma on lämmin for “this cup is warm”. You’d meet Juoma on lämmintä when talking about some drink as a mass or in certain abstract / generic statements.
Finnish has no articles like English a, an, the.
- Tämä juoma can mean this drink, this beverage, this (particular) drink, depending on context.
- Definiteness and indefiniteness are shown by context, word choice (like tämä, se, yksi), or word order—not by separate words like a/the.
So you don’t need (and can’t add) an article in Tämä juoma on lämmin.
All three can be translated as some form of this / that / it, but with nuances:
- tämä = this (near the speaker)
- tuo = that (visible but further away / not close to either speaker or listener)
- se = it / that (often previously mentioned or assumed from context; can be physical or abstract)
Examples:
- Tämä juoma on lämmin. – This drink (right here with me) is warm.
- Tuo juoma on lämmin. – That drink over there is warm.
- Se juoma on lämmin. – That drink / The drink (we both know which) is warm.
So yes, Se juoma on lämmin is grammatical and natural when the drink is already known in the conversation.
Main points:
- Stress is always on the first syllable of each word: TÄ-mä JUO-ma on LÄM-min.
- ä is like the a in “cat”, but a bit clearer and more fronted.
- j is like English y in “you”: juo- sounds like “ywo” (with a pure Finnish o).
- Double m in lämmin means a long / strong m; hold it slightly longer: läm-min (not lä-min).
- Finnish vowels are pure (no diphthonging like English “ei”, “ou”).
Spoken smoothly: TÄ-mä JUO-ma on LÄM-min.
You can add adverbs before lämmin:
- Tämä juoma on hyvin lämmin. – This drink is very warm.
- Tämä juoma on todella lämmin. – This drink is really warm.
- Tämä juoma on tosi lämmin. – This drink is very/really warm (colloquial style).
- Tämä juoma on liian lämmin. – This drink is too warm.
The basic structure stays the same; you just modify lämmin.
Negative (present):
- Tämä juoma ei ole lämmin. – This drink is not warm.
- ei = negative verb
- ole = negative form of olla
- Adjective lämmin stays the same.
Past tense (affirmative):
- Tämä juoma oli lämmin. – This drink was warm.
- oli = past tense of on.
Past tense negative:
- Tämä juoma ei ollut lämmin. – This drink was not warm.
The rest of the sentence structure stays unchanged.
Yes, in spoken Finnish you often hear reduced forms:
- Tää juoma on lämmin. – Common everyday speech
- tää ≈ tämä in spoken language
In very informal speech, on can sometimes be shortened or slurred (e.g. “Tää juoma on lämmin” said quickly), but you still normally keep on; you don’t drop it entirely as in some other languages.