Naapurin lapset ovat joskus liian äänekkäitä myöhään illalla.

The neighbor’s children are sometimes too noisy late in the evening.

Breakdown of Naapurin lapset ovat joskus liian äänekkäitä myöhään illalla.

• olla: to be
• lapsi: the child
• liian: too
• joskus: sometimes
• illalla: in the evening
• myöhään: late
• naapurin: the neighbor's
• äänekäs: noisy

Questions & Answers about Naapurin lapset ovat joskus liian äänekkäitä myöhään illalla.

What is the function of naapurin here, and how is it different from naapuri or naapurit?

Naapurin is the genitive form of naapuri (neighbor). Genitive is used to show possession or association.

• naapuri = a neighbor / the neighbor (basic form)
• naapurit = neighbors (plural nominative)
• naapurin = the neighbor’s / of the neighbor

So naapurin lapset literally means the neighbor’s children or the children of the neighbor.

In practice, naapurin can also be understood a bit more loosely as next door / of the people next door, not necessarily focusing on whether it’s exactly one neighbor or a neighboring family.

Why is there no word for the or a in naapurin lapset?

Finnish has no articles like the or a/an. Definiteness and indefiniteness are expressed through context, word order, and sometimes case, not through a separate word.

Naapurin lapset can mean:

• the neighbor’s children (most natural here), or
• (some) neighbor’s children (if context is more vague).

The sentence as a whole and the shared situation usually make it clear which one is meant. In a real conversation, this sentence would normally be understood as the neighbor’s children that both speakers know about.

Why is it lapset ovat and not lapset on?

Standard Finnish requires the verb to agree with the subject in number:

• lapsi on = the child is
• lapset ovat = the children are

So with plural lapset, the standard form is ovat.

In colloquial spoken Finnish, you will very often hear:

• lapset on joskus liian äänekkäitä

Here on is used with a plural subject, but this is colloquial, not standard written Finnish. The example sentence is in standard Finnish, so it correctly uses ovat.

Why is äänekkäitä in this form and not äänekkäät?

The base adjective is äänekäs (noisy, loud). In a sentence like this, an adjective used as a complement of olla (to be) usually agrees with the subject:

• Lapset ovat äänekkäät.
  The children are loud. (nominative plural)

But when you add liian (too), the adjective typically appears in the partitive plural:

• Lapset ovat liian äänekkäitä.

Here:

• äänekkäitä is partitive plural of äänekäs
• liian + adjective often pushes that adjective into the partitive, especially when it describes a degree or amount of a quality.

Very roughly:

• äänekkäät = treating being loud as a clear, categorical property of the whole group.
• äänekkäitä = more about having loudness to a certain degree; with liian, that degree is too much.

In everyday Finnish, liian äänekkäitä is the natural choice.

How does äänekäs become äänekkäitä? The spelling looks irregular.

This is a regular type of consonant and vowel change for adjectives ending in -käs.

Base form: äänekäs
Stem used for many forms: äänekkää-

Then add endings:

• nominative plural: äänekkäät
• partitive plural: äänekkäitä

Changes involved:

1. käs → kkää- in the stem (consonant gradation + vowel change pattern for this adjective type).
2. For partitive plural, add -itä to the stem äänekkää-:
   • äänekkää-
     • -itä → äänekkäitä.

So although it looks odd at first, it follows a standard pattern for Finnish adjectives of this type.

What does liian mean exactly, and how is it different from paljon or liikaa?

• liian = too (excessive degree of an adjective or adverb)
  • liian äänekäs = too loud
  • liian kallis = too expensive
• paljon = a lot / much / many
  • paljon lapsia = many children
  • hän puhuu paljon = he/she talks a lot
• liikaa = too much (usually with verbs or nouns)
  • hän huutaa liikaa = he/she shouts too much
  • liikaa melua = too much noise

So:

• liian äänekkäitä = too loud (describing how they are)
• Not liikaa äänekkäitä, which would be ungrammatical here.

Where does joskus usually go in a sentence like this? Could I move it?

Joskus means sometimes. In this sentence:

• Naapurin lapset ovat joskus liian äänekkäitä myöhään illalla.

its position (after the verb) is very natural. But Finnish word order is flexible, and you can move joskus for different emphasis:

• Joskus naapurin lapset ovat liian äänekkäitä myöhään illalla.
  Emphasis on sometimes it happens.
• Naapurin lapset joskus ovat liian äänekkäitä myöhään illalla.
  Possible, but sounds a bit marked/emphatic.

The most neutral choices are:

• Naapurin lapset ovat joskus ...
• Joskus naapurin lapset ovat ...

Does joskus always mean "sometimes"? Can it also mean "one day" or "someday"?

Joskus has two common uses:

1. sometimes (in the sense of occasionally)

   • Käyn joskus elokuvissa. = I sometimes go to the movies.

2. (at) some point in time / someday

   • Haluan joskus asua ulkomailla. = I want to live abroad someday.

In your sentence, because myöhään illalla and liian äänekkäitä clearly refer to a recurring situation, joskus means sometimes (occasionally), not someday.

What exactly does myöhään illalla mean, and what are the cases used?

Myöhään illalla literally means late in the evening.

• myöhään = late (adverb)
• ilta = evening (noun, nominative)
• illalla = inessive singular of ilta → in the evening

So:

• myöhään (adverb of time) + illalla (in the evening)
  → together: late in the evening.

Depending on context and how people speak, it can overlap with English late at night, especially if people go to bed early; but strictly speaking it’s late in the evening.

Could I say illalla myöhään instead of myöhään illalla?

Yes, you can. Both are grammatical:

• myöhään illalla
• illalla myöhään

They mean the same thing: late in the evening.
The difference is minimal; myöhään illalla is a bit more common as a fixed phrase, but both are natural.

You can also simplify:

• myöhään (late) – if the context already tells you it’s about the evening
• myöhään yöllä (late at night), if you specifically mean the night, not the evening.

Why is it myöhään and not myöhä or something else?

Myöhään is the standard adverb meaning late in a temporal sense.

Many Finnish adjectives form an adverb with -sti, but myöhä is not used that way. Instead, Finnish directly uses the fixed adverb myöhään:

• myöhässä = late / delayed (state of being late, often with verbs like olla)
• myöhään = at a late time (when something happens)

In your sentence you want when the children are too loud, so myöhään illalla (late in the evening) is correct.

Is there any subtlety in using äänekkäitä instead of something like kovaa or meluisia?

All of these are possible but have slightly different flavors:

• äänekäs / äänekkäitä = loud, noisy (focused on volume of sounds/voices)
• meluisa / meluisia = noisy (often more like there is a lot of commotion / noise)
• kova (sound) / kovaa (adverb) = loud (as in high volume; soida kovaa = to sound loud)

So:

• liian äänekkäitä = too loud (in how they act/speak/shout)
• liian meluisia = too noisy (environment/atmosphere feels noisy)
• huutavat liian kovaa = they shout too loudly

In the given sentence, liian äänekkäitä is a very natural way to complain about how loud the children are.

If I change the subject, does the form of äänekäs change accordingly?

Yes. The predicate adjective generally agrees with the subject in number and (when not in partitive) in case. For example:

• Lapsi on liian äänekäs.
  The child is too loud.
• Lapset ovat liian äänekkäitä.
  The children are too loud. (partitive plural)
• Naapuri on usein äänekäs.
  The neighbor is often loud.
• Naapurit ovat joskus liian äänekkäitä.
  The neighbors are sometimes too loud.

So you change:

• äänekäs for singular subjects
• äänekkäitä (or äänekkäät in some contexts) for plural subjects, depending on whether you use partitive or nominative.