Learn Hardcore Finnish: Lapsi on ujo uudessa ryhmässä, mutta opettaja on ahkera ja ystävällinen. - The child is shy in the new group, but the teacher is hard‑working and friendly.

Finnish does not have articles like a/an or the. The bare noun can mean a child / the child or a teacher / the teacher, depending on context.

Lapsi on ujo…
→ can be understood as “The child is shy…” or “A child is shy…”
…mutta opettaja on…
→ “but the teacher is…” or “but a teacher is…”

Context (what has already been mentioned, what both speakers know, etc.) tells you whether the noun should be translated with a or the in English.

What does on mean in this sentence, and why is it used twice?

On is the 3rd person singular form of the verb olla (to be).

Lapsi on ujo… = The child is shy…
…mutta opettaja on ahkera ja ystävällinen. = …but the teacher is hardworking and friendly.

You need on for each separate clause:

Clause 1: Lapsi on ujo uudessa ryhmässä
Clause 2: (mutta) opettaja on ahkera ja ystävällinen

In everyday speech the second on is sometimes dropped (…mutta opettaja ahkera ja ystävällinen), but in standard written Finnish it is normally included.

Why is the adjective ujo (shy) in its basic form, not declined like uudessa?

There are two different adjective roles here:

Predicative adjective after olla (to be):
- Lapsi on ujo.
  Here ujo describes the subject (lapsi) but follows the verb on.
  Predicative adjectives stay in the nominative (basic form), so ujo does not change.
Attributive adjective in front of a noun:
- uusi ryhmä → uudessa ryhmässä
  Here uusi comes before ryhmä and must agree with it in case, so it becomes uudessa.

So:

Lapsi on ujo → ujo stays basic (predicative).
uudessa ryhmässä → both words are in the inessive case (attribute + noun).

What case is uudessa ryhmässä, and what does it literally mean?

Both uudessa and ryhmässä are in the inessive case, which typically means in something.

uusi ryhmä = a/the new group (basic forms)
uudessa ryhmässä = in the new group

So the whole phrase Lapsi on ujo uudessa ryhmässä literally is:

The child is shy in the new group.

Why do both uusi and ryhmä change in uudessa ryhmässä?

In Finnish, when an adjective directly modifies a noun (is “attached” to it in front of it), they normally agree in case and number.

Basic form: uusi ryhmä (new group)
Inessive:
- uusi → uudessa
- ryhmä → ryhmässä

So both become inessive:

uudessa ryhmässä = in the new group

You cannot say uusi ryhmässä or uudessa ryhmä here; both parts need the same case.

How does uusi become uudessa?

The adjective uusi (new) has a stem uude- that appears in most cases.

Nominative: uusi
Inessive (in): uude-
- ssa → uudessa

This pattern (changing -si to -de- in the stem) is regular for many -si adjectives:

uusi → uudessa (in the new)
kaunis (beautiful) → kauniissa (in the beautiful) — here the stem is kaunii-, so the pattern is slightly different, but the idea is that the “stem” used for cases can differ from the nominative.

What is the ending -ssä in ryhmässä?

The ending -ssa/ssä marks the inessive case, usually translated as in.

ryhmä = group
ryhmässä = in the group

The choice -ssa vs -ssä comes from vowel harmony:

Front vowels (y, ä, ö) → -ssä
Back vowels (a, o, u) → -ssa

Since ryhmä has y and ä (front vowels), it takes -ssä:

ryhmä + ssä → ryhmässä

Why is there a comma before mutta?

In Finnish, as in English, mutta (but) usually connects two clauses (two mini-sentences). A comma is used before it:

Lapsi on ujo uudessa ryhmässä, mutta opettaja on ahkera ja ystävällinen.

Clause 1: Lapsi on ujo uudessa ryhmässä
Clause 2: opettaja on ahkera ja ystävällinen

Because both parts have their own subject and verb, they are separated by a comma.

What do ahkera and ystävällinen literally mean?

ahkera = diligent, hardworking
- Used to describe someone who works a lot, studies hard, puts effort in.
ystävällinen = friendly, kind
- Built from ystävä (friend) + -llinen, a suffix that can mean “having the quality of / characterized by”.
- So it’s like “friend-like” → friendly, kind.

In the sentence:

opettaja on ahkera ja ystävällinen = the teacher is hardworking and friendly.

Why are ahkera and ystävällinen not inflected at the end of the sentence?

They are predicative adjectives after the verb on (is), just like ujo earlier.

opettaja on ahkera (the teacher is hardworking)
opettaja on ystävällinen (the teacher is friendly)

Predicative adjectives usually stay in the nominative singular when they describe a singular subject in the nominative:

Opettaja on ahkera ja ystävällinen.

They would only change form if the subject were in another case or in the plural, for example:

Opettajat ovat ahkeria ja ystävällisiä.
(The teachers are hardworking and friendly.)

Can lapsi mean both “boy” and “girl”?

Yes. Lapsi simply means child, without specifying gender. Finnish does not grammatically mark gender in nouns like lapsi, and the 3rd person singular pronoun hän also does not distinguish he vs she.

If you need to specify, you use other words (e.g. poika = boy, tyttö = girl), but lapsi by itself is neutral.

How would I turn this statement into a yes/no question in Finnish?

To make a yes/no question with olla, you usually use the -ko/-kö question clitic on the verb and move it to the front:

Statement: Lapsi on ujo uudessa ryhmässä.
Question: Onko lapsi ujo uudessa ryhmässä?
= Is the child shy in the new group?

Similarly:

Onko opettaja ahkera ja ystävällinen?
= Is the teacher hardworking and friendly?