Learn Hardcore Finnish: Tämä kahvila on liian äänekäs.

tämä – this (demonstrative pronoun, singular, close to the speaker)
kahvila – café / coffee shop (literally a place related to kahvi “coffee”)
on – is (3rd person singular of olla, “to be”)
liian – too / too much / overly (used before adjectives and adverbs)
äänekäs – noisy, loud (typically about people, places, situations; not about machine volume settings etc.)

So the sentence structure is: This café – is – too – noisy.

Why is it tämä kahvila and not se kahvila or tuo kahvila?

Finnish has three common demonstratives, all often translated as this/that:

tämä – this (one right here, very near the speaker)
tuo – that (over there, visible but not right next to you)
se – that / it (already known from context, or not visually pointed at)

Tämä kahvila implies the café you are in or right next to.
If you are pointing across the street, you might say:

Tuo kahvila on liian äänekäs. – That café (over there) is too noisy.

If the café has already been mentioned and you’re just referring back to it, you could also use:

Se kahvila on liian äänekäs. – That café is too noisy. / The café is too noisy.

Why is it kahvila (basic form) and not something like kahvilassa or kahvilaan?

Here kahvila is the subject, not a location expression.

Tämä kahvila on liian äänekäs.
– This café is too noisy.
(kahvila = subject, so nominative case.)

If you want to emphasize “in this café, it is too noisy,” you would mark location:

Tässä kahvilassa on liian äänekästä.
– In this café, it is too noisy.

Here:

tässä kahvilassa = in this café (inessive case -ssa)
on liian äänekästä = there is too much noise / it is too noisy (impersonal structure with partitive äänekästä)

So:

Subject → basic form (kahvila)
Location “in the café” → kahvilassa

What is the role of on in this sentence, and can it be omitted?

On is the 3rd person singular form of olla (to be), equivalent to English is.

Tämä kahvila on liian äänekäs.
– This café is too noisy.

In this kind of sentence, on is required in standard Finnish. You can’t drop it:

❌ Tämä kahvila liian äänekäs. (incorrect)
✅ Tämä kahvila on liian äänekäs. (correct)

What does liian do exactly, and where does it go in the sentence?

Liian means too / overly / excessively and typically appears right before an adjective or adverb:

liian äänekäs – too noisy
liian kallis – too expensive
liian nopeasti – too quickly

In our sentence, it modifies äänekäs:

on liian äänekäs – is too noisy

You don’t put liian after the adjective:

❌ on äänekäs liian
✅ on liian äänekäs

You can also say liian paljon (too much), liian monta (too many), etc.

Why is äänekäs in this exact form? Should it change to agree with kahvila in any special way?

Here, äänekäs is a predicative adjective describing the subject kahvila.

With a singular subject like tämä kahvila, the adjective is in nominative singular:

Tämä kahvila on äänekäs. – This café is noisy.
Tuo baari on meluisa. – That bar is noisy.

If the subject were plural, you’d often use plural partitive for the adjective:

Nämä kahvilat ovat äänekkäitä. – These cafés are noisy.

So in this sentence, äänekäs is in its basic dictionary form because:

subject is singular,
it’s a regular predicate: [Subject] on [Adjective].

How do you pronounce liian äänekäs, especially the double vowels and ää?

Key points:

liian:
- lii has a long i: hold it a bit: lii-an
- two syllables: lii-an
äänekäs:
- ää is a long ä sound (like a very open “e” in bed, but longer)
- syllables: ää-ne-käs
- stress is always on the first syllable in Finnish: LII-an ÄÄ-ne-käs

So say it roughly like: LEE-ahn AAE-neh-kas (but with Finnish vowels, not English lee).

Is there a difference between äänekäs, meluisa, and kovaääninen? They all seem to mean “noisy.”

They all relate to noise, but with slightly different typical uses:

äänekäs
- Common, very general: noisy / loud (often about people or a place’s atmosphere)
- Tämä kahvila on liian äänekäs. – The café is too noisy.
meluisa
- From melu = noise; also “noisy,” often about places or children, sometimes slightly more about a noisy, rowdy environment.
- Naapurusto on meluisa. – The neighborhood is noisy.
kovaääninen
- Literally “loud-voiced”; often about a person or a sound source being loud.
- Hän on hyvin kovaääninen. – He/She speaks very loudly.

In your sentence, äänekäs is the most natural everyday choice.

Could the word order be different, like Tämä kahvila liian äänekäs on?

In normal, neutral Finnish, the word order in this type of sentence is:

[Subject] [verb] [adverb] [adjective]
Tämä kahvila on liian äänekäs.

You can move words around only in special, emphatic, or poetic contexts. Something like:

Tämä kahvila, liian äänekäs se on.

is possible for strong emphasis, but

❌ Tämä kahvila liian äänekäs on.

sounds wrong or at best very unnatural. For learners, stick to:

Tämä kahvila on liian äänekäs.

Is kahvila specifically “café” or could it also mean “coffee shop” or “coffee place”?

Kahvila is a place where you typically:

drink coffee or tea,
maybe eat pastries, light snacks, or small meals,
sit and chat or work.

In English, it’s usually translated as:

café
coffee shop

It does not mean the drink itself (that’s kahvi) and it’s not a bar (baari) or restaurant (ravintola), though a kahvila can sometimes serve food as well.

How would I say “This café is a bit noisy” or “very noisy” instead of “too noisy”?

You just replace liian with a different degree adverb:

Tämä kahvila on vähän äänekäs.
– This café is a bit noisy.
Tämä kahvila on aika äänekäs.
– This café is quite / rather noisy.
Tämä kahvila on todella / tosi äänekäs.
– This café is really / very noisy.

But liian äänekäs specifically implies “more noisy than I’d like / than is acceptable.”