Questions & Answers about Tämä katu on suora.
The sentence breaks down like this:
- Tämä = this (demonstrative pronoun, nominative singular)
- katu = street (noun, nominative singular)
- on = is (3rd person singular of the verb olla = to be)
- suora = straight (adjective, nominative singular)
So structurally it’s: This street is straight.
Both katu and suora are in the nominative singular:
- katu is the subject (what we’re talking about).
- suora is the predicate adjective (what we say about the subject).
In Finnish, in sentences of the type X is Y where Y is a describing word, the adjective agrees with the subject in:
- number: singular/plural
- case: here, nominative
So we get:
- Tämä katu on suora. – This street is straight.
- Nämä kadut ovat suoria. – These streets are straight.
- kadut = plural subject (nominative plural)
- suoria = plural adjective (partitive plural here; with plural subjects both suorat and suoria are possible with a subtle nuance, but suoria is very common)
They say different things:
Tämä katu on suora.
= This street is straight.
Here tämä katu is the whole subject: this street.Tämä on katu.
= This is a street.
Here tämä alone is the subject (this), and katu is a noun that tells what it is (a street).
So:
- Tämä katu on suora. → describing a known street and giving a property (it is straight).
- Tämä on katu. → identifying what this thing is (it is a street, not e.g. a road, path, etc.).
All three can translate as this/that, but the nuance is:
- tämä = this (here, near me/us)
- tuo = that (there, visible but further away)
- se = that / it (often more neutral, can refer to something known from context, often not being pointed at)
Examples:
- Tämä katu on suora. – This street (right here) is straight.
- Tuo katu on suora. – That street (over there) is straight.
- Se katu on suora. – That street is straight. (we both know which one we mean from context)
In everyday speech, se is extremely common, even where English would say this.
In standard written Finnish, you must use the verb on:
- Tämä katu on suora. ✅ (correct standard Finnish)
- Tämä katu suora. ❌ (incorrect in standard language)
The verb olla (to be) is normally required in present-tense sentences of the type X is Y.
In colloquial spoken Finnish, people sometimes drop on in short, very informal sentences (especially with tämä on, se on, etc.), but this is not recommended for learners in writing. For learning purposes, always include on.
Yes, you can, but the focus changes slightly:
Tämä katu on suora.
Literally: This street is straight.
→ The known street (this one) has the property of being straight.Tämä on suora katu.
Literally: This is a straight street.
→ You first identify this as a street, and then describe it as straight. It sounds more like giving a classification.
Both are grammatical and natural; context decides which feels more appropriate. In many real situations, either works fine.
Finnish has no articles (a, an, the). The sentence:
- Tämä katu on suora.
can be translated only with context:
- This street is straight. (most natural translation)
- It does not distinguish “This street is straight” vs “This is a straight street” by articles; the structure of the sentence plays that role instead (see previous question).
You infer definiteness/indefiniteness from word order, context, and whether you’re identifying something or describing a known thing.
Tämä is in the nominative case, because here it’s part of the subject: Tämä katu (this street).
The demonstrative tämä changes form depending on case:
- tämä – nominative (subject/basic form): Tämä katu on suora.
- tämän – genitive: Pidän tämän kadun nimestä. (I like the name of this street.)
- tässä – inessive (in this): Asun tässä kadussa. (actually, more idiomatic: Asun tällä kadulla. – on this street)
So tämä is used here because we need the nominative subject form.
The plural sentence is:
- Nämä kadut ovat suoria.
Breakdown:
- Nämä = these (plural of tämä)
- kadut = streets (nominative plural of katu)
- ovat = are (3rd person plural of olla)
- suoria = straight (adjective, here in plural partitive; also suorat is possible with a slightly more “complete, definite” feel)
So:
- singular: Tämä katu on suora. – This street is straight.
- plural: Nämä kadut ovat suoria. – These streets are straight.
Yes. Finnish primarily uses adjectives before the noun when you’re just describing it as an attribute:
- suora katu – a straight street
Compare:
- Tämä katu on suora. – This street is straight. (full sentence)
- suora katu – a straight street (a noun phrase, not a full sentence)
- Tämä on suora katu. – This is a straight street.
So katu on suora is a sentence (the street is straight), while suora katu is just a noun phrase (a straight street).
An approximate English-based guide:
- Tämä ≈ TAE-ma
- ä like in cat, bad (but a bit purer and tenser)
- katu ≈ KAH-too
- a like in father (short)
- u like in boot but shorter
- on = on, like English on but shorter and more closed
- suora ≈ SWO-ra
- uo is a diphthong, something like uo in quota (but said as one smooth sound)
- r is tapped or rolled (like Spanish r)
Stress is always on the first syllable in each word:
- TÄ-mä KA-tu ON SUO-ra
Both refer to ways for vehicles/people to move, but:
- katu = street (usually inside a town or city, with buildings along it)
- Tämä katu on suora. – This street is straight.
- tie = road (often longer-distance, between places, outside city centers)
- Tämä tie on suora. – This road is straight.
There’s overlap in casual usage, but katu is the more natural word for a city street.