Breakdown of Tämä on auto, jonka ostin viime vuonna.
Questions & Answers about Tämä on auto, jonka ostin viime vuonna.
Joka is the basic relative pronoun (who / which / that).
In Finnish, it changes form according to case, just like nouns do.
In jonka ostin, the relative pronoun is in the genitive form jonka because in the relative clause it is the object of ostin:
- Ostin auton. = I bought a car.
- auton is the genitive object.
- … auton, jonka ostin. = … the car that I bought.
- jonka replaces auton, so it also appears in genitive.
So:
- joka – nominative (subject: the car that is outside)
- jonka – genitive (object: the car that I bought)
- jota – partitive (object in partitive: the car that I was buying / used to buy)
In Tämä on auto, the word auto is a predicative (a complement of the verb olla = to be).
With olla, when you are identifying or classifying something, the predicative is usually in the nominative:
- Tämä on auto. – This is a car.
- Hän on opettaja. – He/She is a teacher.
- Tuo on talo. – That is a house.
You don’t need auton or autoa here. Auton would be genitive (of the car), and autoa would be partitive (used for other functions, like incomplete/partial things, or in some negative sentences).
Jonka refers to auto.
The structure is:
- Tämä on auto, jonka ostin viime vuonna.
- Tämä = this
- auto = car
- jonka = which / that (refers back to auto)
So the meaning is:
This is [the] car [which] I bought last year.
The relative clause jonka ostin viime vuonna gives more information specifically about auto.
Yes, in standard written Finnish the comma is necessary here.
You must put a comma before most subordinate clauses, including relative clauses introduced by words like joka / mikä / että / koska, etc.
- Tämä on auto, jonka ostin viime vuonna.
- Tämä on talo, jossa asun. – This is the house in which I live.
So the comma shows that jonka ostin viime vuonna is a separate (subordinate) clause describing auto.
The subject I is contained in the verb ending -in in ostin.
Finnish is a pro-drop language: you usually leave out the personal pronoun when it’s clear from the verb ending.
- ostin = I bought (1st person singular, past)
- ostat = you buy
- osti = he/she bought
You could say jonka minä ostin viime vuonna, but that sounds more emphatic, like stressing that I was the one who bought it. In neutral speech, minä is normally omitted.
Time expressions in Finnish often use a case ending instead of a preposition.
- vuosi = year (basic form)
- vuonna = in (the) year → adessive case
So:
- viime vuonna = last year (literally: in the last year)
- vuonna 2020 = in 2020
Some related forms:
- viime vuoteen asti = until last year (vuoteen = illative into the year)
- viime vuodelta = from last year (vuodelta = elative/adessive variant from the year)
In your sentence we mean in that year, so viime vuonna is correct.
Yes, that is correct, and it changes the nuance a bit.
Tämä on auto, jonka ostin viime vuonna.
- This is a/the car that I bought last year.
- More like identifying what this thing is, with new information.
Tämä on se auto, jonka ostin viime vuonna.
- This is the car that I bought last year (you know which one I mean).
- se auto suggests a specific, already-known car (shared knowledge, something already mentioned or pointed out in the conversation).
So se auto makes it sound more like “that particular car we’ve talked about.”
Both can translate as this or that, but there is a nuance:
- tämä = this (near me / just mentioned / strongly pointed to)
- se = that / it (more neutral, often used for “it” in general)
In many contexts, Finns actually prefer se where English would say this:
- Se on auto. = That/It is a car. (very normal sounding)
- Tämä on auto. can sound like you’re physically pointing at something very near, or emphasising this one right here.
In your sentence, Tämä on auto, jonka ostin viime vuonna, the speaker is probably pointing at a specific car close by and presenting it: This is the car I bought last year.
Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but in subordinate clauses (like jonka ostin viime vuonna), the most neutral order is:
[relative pronoun/conjunction] + [subject] + [other elements] + [verb]
In your clause:
- jonka = relative pronoun (object of ostin)
- (minä) = subject, understood from ostin
- ostin = verb
- viime vuonna = time expression
So: jonka ostin viime vuonna is the natural order.
You might see variations for emphasis, but something like jonka viime vuonna ostin sounds marked or poetic. For learners, it’s best to stick with jonka ostin viime vuonna.
Jonka and jota are different cases of the same word joka.
- jonka = genitive (like auton)
- jota = partitive (like autoa)
In your sentence, I bought the whole car, a complete, finished action, so the object is genitive: auton → jonka.
You would use jota if the verb wants a partitive object, for example:
Unfinished or ongoing action:
- Ostin autoa. – I was buying a car / some car (process not presented as complete)
- Tämä on auto, jota ostin viime vuonna. – This is a car that I was buying last year. (strange in normal context, but grammatically correct if you mean the buying was in progress or repeated.)
Some verbs always take partitive:
- Rakastan autoa. – I love the car.
- Tämä on auto, jota rakastan. – This is the car that I love. (here jota is required by rakastaa)
So jonka ostin is right, because ostaa with a complete purchase uses a genitive object.
You could say:
- Tämä on auto, jonka olen ostanut. – This is a car that I have bought.
But combining it with viime vuonna is less natural; Finns usually say jonka ostin viime vuonna.
Difference:
- jonka ostin (viime vuonna) – simple past; a completed action in the past, very normal with a specific time.
- jonka olen ostanut – perfect tense; focuses more on the result (“I have bought it (at some point)”); you normally don’t attach a precise time expression like viime vuonna to the perfect.
So for last year as a clear past time, jonka ostin viime vuonna is the most idiomatic choice.