Learn Hardcore Finnish: Onneksi bussi ei ollut myöhässä.

Morphologically, it comes from the noun onni (luck, happiness) plus the ending -ksi, which is the translative case in Finnish. Historically, it meant something like “into luck / to luck,” but in modern Finnish it is felt and used simply as an adverb.

Other related forms:

onni = luck, happiness
onnea! = congratulations! / good luck!
Onneksi olkoon! = Congratulations! (literally “may it be for luck”)

In this sentence, Onneksi functions just like English “fortunately” at the start of a sentence.

Can Onneksi only appear at the start of the sentence, or can I move it?

You can move Onneksi around, and the sentence will still be grammatical. The most common options and their feel:

Onneksi bussi ei ollut myöhässä.
Neutral, very typical: “Fortunately, the bus wasn’t late.”
Bussi ei onneksi ollut myöhässä.
Also common. The focus can feel a bit more on the bus and the fact that, concerning the bus, at least it wasn’t late.
Bussi ei ollut onneksi myöhässä.
Possible but less typical; onneksi sounds a bit more loosely attached, often used in speech with intonational emphasis.

All these mean roughly the same; Finnish adverbs like onneksi, valitettavasti (unfortunately), todennäköisesti (probably) can move fairly freely for emphasis. Sentence-initial Onneksi is the safest, most textbook-like choice.

Why is there no word for “the” in bussi? How do I know it’s “the bus” and not “a bus”?

Finnish has no articles (no words like a, an, the). The bare noun bussi can mean “a bus” or “the bus,” depending on context.

Näen bussin. = I see a bus / I see the bus.
Bussi ei ollut myöhässä. = The bus wasn’t late (usually understood as a specific bus you’re expecting).

Context decides whether you mean a specific bus or just any bus. In this sentence, because it’s naturally about a particular bus you were going to take, English uses “the bus,” but Finnish doesn’t mark that difference on the noun.

How does the negative past ei ollut work? Why not something like one word for “wasn’t”?

Finnish forms negation with a special negative verb ei plus the main verb in a special non‑personal form (often called the connegative form).

For olla (to be), in the past tense:

Affirmative: bussi oli = the bus was
Negative: bussi ei ollut = the bus was not / wasn’t

Here:

ei is the negative verb, 3rd person singular (agreeing with bussi)
ollut is the past connegative form of olla

The full paradigm of the negative verb in present tense is:

en (I don’t)
et (you don’t)
ei (he/she/it doesn’t)
emme (we don’t)
ette (you pl. don’t)
eivät (they don’t)

In the past, the person is still marked on ei, and ollut stays the same:

en ollut, et ollut, ei ollut, emme olleet, ette olleet, eivät olleet

So ei ollut literally is “(he/she/it) not was.”

Why is it myöhässä and not something like myöhäinen or myöhäistä?

The Finnish way to say “be late” is the fixed expression olla myöhässä.

olla myöhässä = to be late
bussi on myöhässä = the bus is late
bussi ei ollut myöhässä = the bus was not late

myöhässä is the adessive case form of myöhä (an old/adverbial base related to “late”). With olla, many states or locations are expressed with special cases, not simple adjectives:

olla kotona = be at home (inessive)
olla töissä = be at work (inessive plural form)
olla lomalla = be on vacation (adessive)
olla myöhässä = be late (adessive)

myöhäinen is an adjective meaning “late” in a more literal time sense (a late hour, a late mail delivery), not the idiomatic “(someone) is late.”
You would not say bussi ei ollut myöhäinen for “the bus wasn’t late”; that sounds more like “the bus wasn’t of a late type/time,” and is unnatural here.

What case is myöhässä, and what does that case normally mean?

myöhässä is in the adessive case (ending -lla / -llä, but here with consonant gradation you see -ssä; historically from myöhä + ssä, but synchronically you just learn myöhässä as-is).

The adessive typically has meanings like:

“on” (surface): pöydällä = on the table
“at” a place: asemalla = at the station
some abstract states: lomalla = on holiday, myöhässä = late

With olla, the adessive can describe a state or situation someone/something is “on/at”:

Olen myöhässä. = I’m late.
Olemme lomalla. = We’re on holiday.

So here bussi ei ollut myöhässä literally feels like “the bus was not in a ‘late’ state / at lateness.”

What tense is ei ollut? Could it also mean “hasn’t been late”?

ei ollut is the simple past (also called imperfect) in Finnish.

Finnish simple past often covers both English simple past and present perfect, depending on context. So:

Bussi ei ollut myöhässä.
In most contexts: “The bus wasn’t late.”
In a narrative about a specific event, it can also correspond to English “The bus hasn’t been late (so far / that time),” but English usually picks one tense more precisely.

If you wanted a clear present perfect sense (“hasn’t been late [up to now]”) you might add a time expression:

Bussi ei ole ollut myöhässä tänä viikkona.
= The bus hasn’t been late this week.

So here, without extra context, ei ollut is best translated as “wasn’t.”

Could I say Onneksi bussi ei myöhästynyt instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, Onneksi bussi ei myöhästynyt is correct, but the nuance changes a bit.

bussi ei ollut myöhässä
= the bus was not in a late state (it was on time, or at least not late).
bussi ei myöhästynyt
= the bus did not become late / get delayed.
(verb myöhästyä = to be delayed, to arrive late)

In many contexts they translate the same in English (“fortunately the bus wasn’t late”), but:

olla myöhässä focuses on the state of being late or not.
myöhästyä focuses on the event of getting delayed or arriving late.

Both are idiomatic; olla myöhässä is very common for talking about whether something was late at the time you needed it.

Why does ei look the same for “he/she/it doesn’t” and “the bus doesn’t”? Does it agree with bussi in any way?

Yes, ei agrees in person and number with the subject, but all third-person singular subjects (he, she, it, the bus, the train, etc.) use the same form ei.

Present tense negative verb forms:

en (I don’t)
et (you sg. don’t)
ei (he/she/it doesn’t; bussi ei, hän ei)
emme (we don’t)
ette (you pl. don’t)
eivät (they don’t)

So:

Bussi ei ole myöhässä. = The bus is not late.
Bussit eivät ole myöhässä. = The buses are not late.

In past:

Bussi ei ollut myöhässä.
Bussit eivät olleet myöhässä.

The agreement shows up in the form of ei / eivät and in plural past participle ollut / olleet.

Is bussi singular or plural here? If I wanted to say “buses,” how would the sentence change?

In Onneksi bussi ei ollut myöhässä, bussi is singular (“the bus”).

For plural (“the buses”), you would change both the subject and the negative verb / past participle:

Onneksi bussit eivät olleet myöhässä.
= Fortunately, the buses weren’t late.

Changes:

bussi → bussit (plural nominative)
ei → eivät (3rd person plural negative)
ollut → olleet (plural past participle with olla)

How do you pronounce Onneksi bussi ei ollut myöhässä? Anything tricky for an English speaker?

Key points:

Stress is always on the first syllable of each word:
ON-neksi BUS-si ei OL-lut MYÖ-häs-sä
Double consonants are held longer than single ones:
- nn in onneksi
- ss in bussi, myöhässä
- ll in ollut
So bussi is not like English “busy”; it’s more like “booss‑see” with a clear double s.
y in myöhässä is a front rounded vowel, like French u in lune or German ü in Tür.
ö in myö‑ is like German ö in schön.

Rough approximation for English speakers (not exact):
ON-nehk-see BOOS-see ey OL-loot MYEU-hass-sah

Speaking slowly and clearly holding the double consonants already makes it sound much more Finnish.

Could I leave out bussi and just say Onneksi ei ollut myöhässä?

Yes, in the right context you can omit bussi if it’s obvious what you’re talking about.

For example, if you were just talking about the bus, then:

Onneksi ei ollut myöhässä.
= Fortunately (it) wasn’t late.

Finnish often drops subjects when they’re contextually clear. However, as a standalone sentence with no prior context, Onneksi bussi ei ollut myöhässä is clearer and more natural for learners.