Learn Hardcore Finnish: Ottelun lopussa koko katsomo juhli voittoa laulamalla yhdessä. - At the end of the match the whole stand celebrated the victory by singing together.

Ottelun
- Base form (dictionary form): ottelu = “match, game”
- Case: genitive singular (-n)
- Meaning in the phrase: “of the match”
lopussa
- Base form: loppu = “end”
- Form: inessive singular (-ssa/-ssä)
- Meaning: “in the end / at the end”
- Together: ottelun lopussa = “at the end of the match”
koko
- Base form: koko = “whole, entire”
- Functions as a specifier before a noun
- Meaning: “the whole / the entire”
katsomo
- Base form: katsomo = “stand(s), spectator area; (by extension) the crowd in the stands”
- Case: nominative singular
- Subject of the sentence
- koko katsomo = “the whole crowd (in the stands)”
juhli
- Base form: juhlia = “to celebrate”
- Form: past tense, 3rd person singular
- Meaning: “(he/she/it) celebrated” → here: “(the crowd) celebrated”
voittoa
- Base form: voitto = “victory, win
- Case: partitive singular (-a/-ä)
- Object of juhli → “(celebrated) the victory”
laulamalla
- Base form: laulaa = “to sing”
- Form: 3rd infinitive in the adessive (-malla/-mällä)
- Typical meaning: “by doing X / by means of doing X” → “by singing”
yhdessä
- Base form: yhdessä = “together” (already an adverb form)
- Adverb modifying laulamalla → “by singing together”

Why is it ottelun lopussa and not something like ottelu lopussa for “at the end of the match”?

Finnish expresses “at the end of X” with a fixed pattern:

[GENITIVE] + loppu + inessive (-ssa)
X:n lopussa = “at the end of X”

So:

ottelun = of the match (genitive)
lopussa = in the end (inessive)

Together: ottelun lopussa = “at the end of the match”.

Why not ottelu lopussa?

ottelu lopussa on its own is incomplete; you could say Ottelu on lopussa = “The match is at its end / is almost over”, where ottelu is the subject and lopussa is a predicative.
But when you want “at the end of the match” as a time expression (answering “when?”), you use ottelun lopussa with the genitive.

So ottelun lopussa is the natural way to say “at the end of the match” as a time phrase.

What is the difference between ottelun lopussa and ottelun lopulla?

Both are possible, but the nuance is slightly different:

ottelun lopussa
- Literally “in the end of the match”
- Suggests the very end, the time when the match is finishing or has just finished.
- Often feels a bit more “point-like”: you’re really at the end.
ottelun lopulla
- Literally “on the end of the match” (adessive -lla)
- Means “towards the end of the match”, in the later part, but not necessarily at the final moment.
- A bit more vague: sometime during the last phase.

In your sentence, since the crowd usually celebrates when the result is already known, ottelun lopussa (“at the end”) fits very well. Using ottelun lopulla would shift the meaning more toward “in the later stages of the match”.

Why is it koko katsomo (“whole stand/crowd”) and not a plural like kaikki katsomot or something with kaikki?

A few points:

katsomo is singular
- katsomo literally means “stand(s), spectator section” (the seating structure).
- By metonymy, koko katsomo often means “everyone in the stands / the whole crowd” as a single unit.
- Grammatically, it’s singular, so the verb is also singular (koko katsomo juhli).
koko vs kaikki
- koko + singular noun = the whole X / the entire X
  - koko katsomo = “the whole stand / the entire crowd in the stand”
- kaikki + plural noun = all (the) Xs
  - kaikki katsojat = “all (the) spectators” (explicitly plural people)
- kaikki can also stand alone as a pronoun: Kaikki juhlivat. = “Everyone celebrated.”
Alternatives:
- Koko katsomo juhli = The whole stand / whole crowd celebrated.
- Kaikki katsojat juhlivat = All the spectators celebrated.

Your sentence chooses koko katsomo to treat the spectators as one unified group.

What exactly is juhli? Which verb is it, and what tense/person is it?

juhli comes from the verb juhlia (“to celebrate”).

Conjugation:

Dictionary form: juhlia
Present, 3rd person singular: hän juhlii = “he/she/it celebrates”
Past, 3rd person singular: hän juhli = “he/she/it celebrated”

In your sentence:

Subject: koko katsomo (singular)
Verb: juhli (past, 3rd person singular)

So koko katsomo juhli = “the whole crowd celebrated”.

Note: The form juhli could, in other contexts, also be 1st person singular past (“I celebrated”), but here the subject koko katsomo clearly makes it 3rd person.

Why is voittoa in the partitive case and not voiton?

The verb juhlia (“to celebrate”) normally takes its object in the partitive case:

juhlia jotakin = “to celebrate something”
- juhlia voittoa = “to celebrate a/the victory”
- juhlia syntymäpäivää = “to celebrate a birthday”
- juhlia häitä = “to celebrate a wedding”

So voittoa is:

Base form: voitto = “victory, win”
Case: partitive singular (-a)
Required by the verb juhlia → it’s one of those so‑called “partitive verbs”.

Could you ever say juhlia voiton?

It is possible but much rarer and sounds marked; it would usually emphasize a very definite, bounded victory, almost like stressing “that particular, complete victory”.
In everyday language, juhlia voittoa is the natural choice.

What is laulamalla grammatically, and how does it mean “by singing”?

laulamalla is a special infinitive form:

Base verb: laulaa = “to sing”
Stem for the 3rd infinitive: laulama-
Add adessive ending -lla/-llä → laulamalla

This form is called the third infinitive in the adessive and is commonly used to express “by doing X / by means of doing X”.

Examples:

Hän oppi suomea lukemalla. = He/She learned Finnish by reading.
He voittivat ottelun taistelemalla loppuun asti. = They won the match by fighting to the end.
Koko katsomo juhli voittoa laulamalla yhdessä. = The whole crowd celebrated the victory by singing together.

So laulamalla very directly corresponds to English “by singing”.

Could we also say juhli voittoa laulaen yhdessä instead of laulamalla yhdessä? Is there a difference?

Yes, laulaen exists and is grammatically correct, but the nuance and style differ:

laulamalla (3rd infinitive, adessive)
- Very common, neutral, everyday Finnish for “by singing, by means of singing”.
- Clear “means / method” meaning.
laulaen (the -en form, a kind of adverbial participle)
- Tends to sound more literary or stylistic.
- Often expresses an action happening at the same time: “(while) singing”.
- Example: He tulivat laulaen. = “They came (while) singing.”

In Koko katsomo juhli voittoa laulaen yhdessä, the meaning would be close to “The whole crowd celebrated the victory, singing together.” It’s not wrong, but in everyday, neutral style, laulamalla yhdessä is more typical and clearly “by singing together”.

What does yhdessä add here? Isn’t it obvious that many people are singing?

yhdessä explicitly expresses “together”:

laulamalla just says “by singing” – it does not by itself say whether one person or many people are singing.
yhdessä clarifies that it was a shared, collective action: they sang together, in unison or as a group.

Compare:

He juhlivat voittoa laulamalla. = They celebrated the victory by singing (maybe separately, maybe not in unison).
He juhlivat voittoa laulamalla yhdessä. = They celebrated the victory by singing together (emphasis on doing it jointly).

Finnish often uses yhdessä when you want to highlight the idea of togetherness; it is not automatically implied just because the subject is plural or a group.

Could we use kanssa instead of yhdessä, like laulamalla toistensa kanssa?

You can, but it changes the feel of the sentence:

yhdessä = “together”, simply stating that the action is shared.
- laulamalla yhdessä = “by singing together”.
kanssa = “with” (postposition), combining with a genitive or the possessive form:
- toisen kanssa = “with another/each other” (singular)
- toistensa kanssa = “with each other” (plural, reflexive)

Possible phrase:

Koko katsomo juhli voittoa laulamalla yhdessä.
Koko katsomo juhli voittoa laulamalla toistensa kanssa. (less natural, more awkward)

In practice:

For a simple “together”, yhdessä is the natural, concise choice.
kanssa is more often used to specify exactly with whom:
- Lauloimme voittoa kaverien kanssa. = “We sang to celebrate the victory with (our) friends.”

Is the word order fixed? Could I move parts of the sentence around?

Finnish word order is relatively flexible, though there are preferred patterns. Your sentence:

Ottelun lopussa koko katsomo juhli voittoa laulamalla yhdessä.

General tendencies:

Time expressions (Ottelun lopussa) often come first.
Then the subject (koko katsomo), then the verb (juhli), then the object and adverbials.

Other correct variants (with slightly different emphasis) include:

Koko katsomo juhli voittoa ottelun lopussa laulamalla yhdessä.
Koko katsomo ottelun lopussa juhli voittoa laulamalla yhdessä.
Ottelun lopussa voittoa juhli koko katsomo laulamalla yhdessä. (emphasizes “victory” more)

All of these are grammatical, but the original order is very natural and neutral. Changes in order mainly affect which part is emphasized or treated as “old vs. new” information.

How would the sentence change if we replaced koko katsomo with a clearly plural noun like fanit (“the fans”)?

You would then need the plural form of the verb:

Original:
- Koko katsomo juhli voittoa…
- Subject is grammatically singular, so juhli (3rd singular past).
With fanit:
- Ottelun lopussa fanit juhlivat voittoa laulamalla yhdessä.
- fanit = “the fans” (nominative plural)
- Verb must agree: juhlivat (3rd person plural past).

So:

koko katsomo juhli (singular subject, singular verb)
fanit juhlivat (plural subject, plural verb)

The rest (voittoa laulamalla yhdessä) stays the same.