Learn Hardcore Finnish: Villasukat ovat ihanat, kun lattia on kylmä talvella. - Wool socks are lovely when the floor is cold in winter.

If you said villa sukat as two words, it would sound wrong or at least very clumsy, as if you’re hesitating between two separate nouns. In Finnish, material + item is almost always a single compound:

villapaita = wool sweater
puuvillapaita = cotton shirt
nahkakengät = leather shoes

So villasukat follows the same pattern.

Why is it ovat and not on? I often see on used for “is/are”.

In standard Finnish, the verb olla (to be) agrees with the subject in number:

hän on = he/she is
se on = it is
villasukka on = the wool sock is
he ovat = they are
ne ovat = they are (things/animals)
villasukat ovat = the wool socks are

So here the subject is villasukat (plural), and the verb must also be plural: ovat.

In spoken Finnish you will often hear:

Villasukat on ihanat.

Using on with plural subjects is very common orally, but in written standard language ovat is the correct form.

Why does ihanat end in -t?

Ihanat is an adjective describing villasukat, and in Finnish adjectives agree with the noun in:

number (singular/plural)
case (nominative, partitive, etc.)

Here:

villasukat is plural, nominative case
so ihana must also be plural nominative → ihanat

Compare:

ihana villasukka = a wonderful wool sock (singular)
ihanat villasukat = wonderful wool socks (plural)

The -t at the end of ihanat is the plural nominative ending.

What is the difference between ihanat and ihania?

Both come from ihana (“lovely, wonderful, nice”) but they’re different forms:

ihanat = plural nominative
ihania = plural partitive

Very roughly:

Use ihanat when talking about the socks as a whole group or making a general statement:
- Villasukat ovat ihanat. = Wool socks are wonderful.
Use ihania in “partial” situations, for example:
- Minulla on ihania villasukkia. = I have some lovely wool socks.
  (Not “all socks in the world,” just some.)

In this sentence we’re making a general statement about wool socks in that situation, so ihanat is correct.

Could you say “Villasukat ovat ihanat, koska lattia on kylmä talvella” instead of kun? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Villasukat ovat ihanat, koska lattia on kylmä talvella.

The difference:

kun here = when (time)
- Focuses on the situation: “when the floor is cold in winter”
koska = because (reason)
- Focuses on the cause: “because the floor is cold in winter”

Meaning-wise, both make sense. The original with kun paints more of a picture of a recurring situation: whenever it’s winter and the floor is cold, wool socks are wonderful.

How does the kun-clause work? Why is the word order kun lattia on kylmä talvella, not something like kun on lattia kylmä?

In a kun-clause, Finnish generally keeps “normal” word order:

subject – verb – other elements

So:

lattia (subject)
on (verb)
kylmä (predicative adjective)
talvella (time adverbial)

→ kun lattia on kylmä talvella

Putting the verb first (kun on lattia kylmä) is possible but sounds marked/poetic or strongly emphasized. For everyday Finnish, kun lattia on kylmä talvella is the natural order.

Why is it lattia on kylmä (“the floor is cold”) and not kylmä lattia?

You have two different structures:

Attributive adjective: kylmä lattia
- Used when the adjective comes directly before a noun, as part of a noun phrase:
- kylmä lattia = a cold floor (as a thing)
Predicative adjective: lattia on kylmä
- Used with the verb olla (to be):
- lattia on kylmä = the floor is cold (describing its state right now)

In the sentence, we want a clause: “when the floor is cold in winter”, so we need a verb: lattia on kylmä.

If you said kun kylmä lattia talvella, it would be ungrammatical and incomplete; there’s no verb to hold the clause together.

Why is lattia in the basic form and not something like lattialla?

Because lattia is the subject of the verb olla in that clause:

lattia on kylmä = the floor is cold

When you see -lla/-llä, that’s a different case (adessive). For example:

lattialla on kylmä
literally: on the floor is cold
meaning: someone lying/being on the floor feels cold

So:

lattia on kylmä → describes the floor’s temperature
lattialla on kylmä → describes a person/being on the floor feeling cold

Here we’re talking about the floor itself being cold, so the plain nominative lattia is correct.

Why does talvella end in -lla? How does that mean “in winter”?

Talvella is talvi (winter) in the adessive case.

For time expressions, Finnish often uses:

-na/-nä (essive)
-ssa/-ssä (inessive)
-lla/-llä (adessive)

For seasons, the usual pattern is:

talvella = in (the) winter
keväällä = in (the) spring
kesällä = in (the) summer
syksyllä = in (the) autumn/fall

So in this sentence, talvella naturally means “in winter”. It’s just a conventional way Finnish expresses time, not literal “on winter”.

Could you move talvella earlier in the sentence, like kun talvella lattia on kylmä?

Yes. Finnish word order is quite flexible for adverbs like talvella. All of these are grammatically correct, with slightly different emphasis:

kun lattia on kylmä talvella
neutral: “when the floor is cold in winter”
kun talvella lattia on kylmä
mild emphasis on in winter: “when, in winter, the floor is cold”
talvella, kun lattia on kylmä, villasukat ovat ihanat
fronting the time context.

The meaning is basically the same; you just shift what you highlight in the sentence.

How do I know whether lattia means “the floor” or “a floor” when there is no article in Finnish?

Finnish doesn’t have articles (a/an, the) at all. The basic form lattia can correspond to:

the floor
a floor
just floor (general concept)

You determine which English article to use from context, not from any word in Finnish. In this case, we imagine a home, so English naturally uses the floor:

“when the floor is cold in winter”

But Finnish doesn’t need to mark that; lattia alone is enough.

Why is there a comma before kun?

In Finnish punctuation, a comma is normally used between:

the main clause and
a subordinate clause introduced by words like kun, koska, jos, että, etc.

So here:

main clause: Villasukat ovat ihanat
subordinate clause: kun lattia on kylmä talvella

That’s why it’s written:

Villasukat ovat ihanat, kun lattia on kylmä talvella.

Even if in English you might sometimes drop the comma (“Wool socks are wonderful when the floor is cold in winter”), in Finnish you usually keep it.