Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu puistossa.

There is a running competition in the park on the weekend.

Breakdown of Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu puistossa.

• olla: to be
• puisto: the park
• -ssa: in
• viikonloppuna: on the weekend
• juoksukilpailu: the running competition

Questions & Answers about Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu puistossa.

Why is viikonloppuna used instead of just viikonloppu to mean “on the weekend”?

Viikonloppuna is viikonloppu (weekend) in the essive case (ending -na/-nä).

Finnish often uses the essive to talk about points in time:

• maanantaina – on Monday
• jouluna – at Christmas
• viikonloppuna – on/at the weekend

So viikonloppu = “weekend” (basic form),
viikonloppuna = “during/on the weekend”.

Just viikonloppu on its own would not mean “on the weekend”; you need the -na ending here.

What exactly does the verb on mean in this sentence?

On is the 3rd person singular form of the verb olla (“to be”).

In this sentence, it’s used in an existential construction:

• Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu puistossa.
  = “On the weekend there is a running competition in the park.”

So:

• on = “is” in English here,
• and the whole pattern [place/time] + on + [thing] corresponds to English “There is …”.

Why isn’t there a word for “there” as in “There is a race…”?

Finnish doesn’t need a separate word like English “there” in this kind of sentence.

Instead, it uses the pattern:

• (Place/Time) + on + (thing)

Examples:

• Puistossa on koira. – There is a dog in the park.
• Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu. – There is a running competition on the weekend.

The adverbial (here: viikonloppuna, puistossa) plus on already carries the existential meaning “there is/are”, so no extra “there” is added.

Why is juoksukilpailu written as one long word? Can’t it be two words?

In Finnish, compound nouns are usually written as one word.

Juoksukilpailu = juoksu (“running”) + kilpailu (“competition”)
→ literally “running-competition”.

Other examples:

• koulubussi – school bus
• kahvinkeitin – coffee maker
• käsipallo – handball

Writing juoksu kilpailu as two words would look wrong to native speakers; it would feel like you’re just placing two separate nouns side by side instead of naming one specific type of competition.

What case is puistossa, and why does it mean “in the park”?

Puistossa is puisto (“park”) in the inessive case (ending -ssa/-ssä).

The inessive case usually corresponds to “in” or “inside”:

• talossa – in the house
• autossa – in the car
• kaupungissa – in the city
• puistossa – in the park

Depending on context, English might say “in” or “at”, but Finnish still uses -ssa/-ssä. So puistossa can be translated as “in the park” or “at the park” depending on what sounds more natural in English.

Why is it not puistoon or puistossa vs puistoon – what’s the difference?

• Puistossa (inessive) = in/at the park, location, where something is.
• Puistoon (illative) = into the park, movement, where something is going.

In this sentence we describe where the competition takes place, not where it is moving:

• Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu puistossa.
  = “On the weekend there is a running competition in the park.”

If you said:

• Mennään puistoon. – Let’s go to the park (movement into it).

What case is juoksukilpailu in, and why doesn’t it have an ending?

Juoksukilpailu here is in the nominative case (the basic dictionary form).

In Finnish existential sentences like this, the thing that “exists” is usually in the nominative:

• Puistossa on koira. – There is a dog in the park.
• Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu. – There is a running competition on the weekend.

So juoksukilpailu is the logical subject of the verb on, and the nominative form is used, with no extra ending.

Can I change the word order, for example: Puistossa on juoksukilpailu viikonloppuna?

Yes. Finnish word order is fairly flexible, especially for time and place expressions.

All of these are grammatically fine and mean essentially the same:

• Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu puistossa.
• Puistossa on juoksukilpailu viikonloppuna.
• Viikonloppuna puistossa on juoksukilpailu.

The most neutral, “default” pattern often puts time first, then verb, then subject, then place, but moving viikonloppuna and puistossa mostly just changes which part is slightly emphasized.

Why are there no words like “a” or “the” in this sentence?

Finnish has no articles (no equivalents of English a/an/the).

• juoksukilpailu can mean “a running competition” or “the running competition”, depending on context.
• puistossa can be “in a park” or “in the park”.

The listener figures out whether something is specific or general from context, not from a special word. So the same Finnish sentence can be translated in slightly different ways in English, all still correct in meaning.

How do I say “this weekend” or “next weekend” with this structure?

You keep the -na ending and add a modifier:

• tänä viikonloppuna – this weekend
• ensi viikonloppuna – next weekend
• viime viikonloppuna – last weekend

Then plug it into the same pattern:

• Tänä viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu puistossa.
  – This weekend there is a running competition in the park.
• Ensi viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu puistossa.
  – Next weekend there is a running competition in the park.

Could Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailu puistossa also mean there are multiple races?

Literally, juoksukilpailu is singular, so the most direct reading is “a running competition” (one event).

However:

• If you want to be clear that there are several, you’d normally use the plural and plural verb:
  Viikonloppuna on juoksukilpailuja puistossa. – There are running competitions in the park on the weekend.
• In casual speech, people might still use the singular to refer to an event that itself contains many separate races, but grammatically juoksukilpailu is singular.