Breakdown of Teltta on kevyt kantaa polkua pitkin metsään.
Questions & Answers about Teltta on kevyt kantaa polkua pitkin metsään.
On kevyt kantaa is not “is light and carries”. It’s a very common Finnish pattern:
- [noun] + on [adjective] + [infinitive]
- Roughly: X is ADJECTIVE to VERB
So:
- Teltta on kevyt kantaa ≈ “The tent is light to carry.”
Here:
- teltta = the tent (subject)
- on = is
- kevyt = light (adjective)
- kantaa = to carry (1st infinitive)
So kantaa is an infinitive dependent on the adjective kevyt, similar to English easy to carry, hard to move, nice to read etc.
Finnish can use either the nominative or the partitive for a predicate adjective or noun, depending on meaning and context.
In Teltta on kevyt, kevyt is:
- Nominative singular, agreeing with the subject teltta.
- Used because we’re talking about a clear, bounded quality: The tent is (a) light (one).
The partitive kevyttä would suggest something more like:
- An incomplete state,
- Or a mass‑type meaning,
- Or some kind of “to some extent” nuance.
For physical, clear, countable descriptions like:
- Teltta on kevyt. – The tent is light.
- Auto on kallis. – The car is expensive.
the nominative adjective (kevyt, kallis) is the normal choice.
Finnish has several infinitive forms. After adjectives like kevyt, helppo, vaikea, mukava, the 1st infinitive in -a/-ä (the dictionary form) is standard:
- kevyt kantaa – light to carry
- helppo ymmärtää – easy to understand
- mukava lukea – nice to read
The other forms would sound odd or change the structure:
- kantamaan (illative of the 3rd infinitive) is used after certain verbs like alkaa, joutua, ruveta etc., not after adjectives:
- Aloin kantamaan telttaa. – I started carrying the tent.
- kantamista (partitive of kantaminen) would express more the activity or act of carrying, not this “easy/light to carry” pattern.
So with adjectives describing how easy/difficult/pleasant something is, use the 1st infinitive:
- Teltta on kevyt kantaa.
- Tämä kirja on vaikea lukea.
The subject is implicit, just like in English “This is easy to carry”:
- We don’t say “easy for me to carry” unless we want to add emphasis.
- The generic “someone” / “you” / “one” is understood.
In Finnish:
- Teltta on kevyt kantaa.
→ “The tent is light to carry (for a person / for anyone).”
If you want to make the “carrier” explicit, you can add a complement:
- Minun on kevyt kantaa telttaa. – It is easy/light for me to carry the tent.
- Sinun on helppo kantaa teltta. – It is easy for you to carry the tent.
But in the original sentence the generic idea “for a person” is enough, so it’s left unsaid.
The reason is the word pitkin:
- pitkin is a postposition (not a normal preposition) that means “along”, “down (the length of)”.
pitkin always takes its noun in the partitive:
- tietä pitkin – along the road
- jokea pitkin – along the river
- rantoja pitkin – along the shores
- polkua pitkin – along the path
So:
- polku (path) → polkua (partitive) because of pitkin.
Finnish has both prepositions (before the noun) and postpositions (after the noun).
- Prepositions: ennen taloa (before the house), ilman rahaa (without money).
- Postpositions: talon jälkeen (after the house), tien varrella (by the road).
Pitkin is a postposition, so it normally comes after its noun:
- polkua pitkin – along the path
- tietä pitkin – along the road
In everyday standard Finnish, you keep pitkin after the noun like this.
Metsään is the illative case, which indicates movement into something:
- metsä – forest
- metsään – into the forest
So:
- polkua pitkin metsään = “along the path into the forest”.
Compare:
- metsässä – in the forest (static location, inessive case)
- metsään – into the forest (movement, illative case)
So:
- Olen metsässä. – I am in the forest.
- Menen metsään. – I go into the forest.
In your sentence, we’re moving the tent along the path into the forest, so metsään is correct.
The word metsään is the illative form of metsä. For many words ending in -a/-ä, the illative is formed by:
- Dropping the final -a/-ä
- Adding -an/-än and lengthening the preceding vowel
For metsä:
- stem: metsä-
- illative ending: -än
- vowel lengthening: ä → ää
- result: metsään
So:
- kylä → kylään – into the village
- huone → huoneeseen – into the room (different pattern)
- maa → maahan – into the land (another pattern with -han)
The key point: metsään = “into the forest” (illative).
Both are possible in modern Finnish:
- polkua pitkin metsään
- pitkin polkua metsään
They both mean “along the path into the forest”.
Traditionally, pitkin is described as a postposition, so polkua pitkin is often given as the most typical pattern, but in actual usage you will see both orders:
- pitkin tietä
- tietä pitkin
The meaning and the cases stay the same; the difference is mostly stylistic and about rhythm/emphasis.
No, not in normal Finnish. Kevyt kantaa is the natural structure; kevyt kantamaan is not idiomatic here.
Why:
- After adjectives like kevyt, helppo, vaikea, mukava, the expected complement is the 1st infinitive:
- kevyt kantaa, helppo ymmärtää, mukava lukea.
- kantamaan is an illative form of the 3rd infinitive, used mainly after certain verbs:
- Alan kantamaan telttaa. – I start carrying the tent.
- Joudun kantamaan telttaa. – I end up having to carry the tent.
So you should keep:
- Teltta on kevyt kantaa polkua pitkin metsään.
Teltta on kevyt kantaa polkua pitkin metsään.
- Teltta – tent (subject)
- on – is
- kevyt – light
- kantaa – to carry (1st infinitive)
- polkua – (the) path (partitive singular; required by pitkin)
- pitkin – along (postposition)
- metsään – into the forest (illative singular of metsä)
Very literal rendering:
- Teltta on kevyt kantaa – “The tent is light to carry”
- polkua pitkin – “along the path”
- metsään – “into the forest”
→ “The tent is light to carry along the path into the forest.”