Questions & Answers about Tämä nimi on kaunis.
Word by word:
- tämä = this
- nimi = name
- on = is (3rd person singular of the verb olla, to be)
- kaunis = beautiful
So the literal structure is: This name is beautiful.
In grammar terms: subject (tämä nimi) + verb (on) + predicative adjective (kaunis).
Yes. On is the 3rd person singular present tense of olla (to be).
Finnish does not have different forms for am / is / are; instead, the verb changes by person:
- olen = I am
- olet = you (sg) are
- on = he/she/it is; this/that is; the name is, etc.
- olemme = we are
- olette = you (pl) are
- ovat = they are
In Tämä nimi on kaunis, the subject is 3rd person singular (tämä nimi), so the verb form is on.
Finnish has no articles at all. There is no direct equivalent of English a/an or the.
Whether English uses a or the is usually understood in Finnish from:
- context
- word order
- whether you’ve already mentioned the thing
- sometimes from demonstratives like tämä (this), se (that / it)
So:
- Tämä nimi on kaunis.
= This name is beautiful.
Could also be understood as This is a beautiful name / This is the beautiful name depending on context.
Finnish simply doesn’t mark definiteness or indefiniteness with a separate word.
All three can translate as this/that/it, but they’re used differently:
tämä = this (here, near me)
- Tämä nimi on kaunis. = This name (that we’re talking about / pointing at) is beautiful.
tuo = that (over there, a bit farther away)
- Tuo nimi on kaunis. = That name (over there / not so close) is beautiful.
se = that / it (often something already known in the conversation, not physically pointed at)
- Se nimi on kaunis. = That name (we mentioned earlier) is beautiful.
In everyday speech, se is extremely common and often replaces tämä when the context is clear. But tämä is the “textbook” this (near) demonstrative.
The neutral, basic word order in Finnish for this kind of sentence is:
- Subject – Verb – Predicative
→ Tämä nimi on kaunis.
Where kaunis is a predicative adjective (a description linked with on).
You can definitely put kaunis before nimi when the adjective directly modifies the noun:
- kaunis nimi = a beautiful name
- Tällä lapsella on kaunis nimi. = This child has a beautiful name.
But with olla (to be) linking subject and description, the usual pattern is:
- Tämä nimi on kaunis.
Other orders like Kaunis nimi on tämä are possible but sound emphatic or poetic: It is this name that is beautiful. They’re not the neutral way to say it.
Yes, and it’s very natural.
- Tämä nimi on kaunis. = This name is beautiful.
- Tämä on kaunis nimi. = This is a beautiful name.
The meaning is almost the same. The nuance:
- Tämä nimi on kaunis explicitly names the subject (nimi = name).
- Tämä on kaunis nimi uses tämä as a pronoun (this), then classifies it as a beautiful name.
In practice, both work for talking about a particular name. Tämä on kaunis nimi is probably the more common everyday way to say This is a beautiful name when you’re reacting to hearing the name.
They are inflected, and in this sentence they do have a case form – the nominative, which just happens to look like the basic dictionary form.
- nimi (name) → nimi (nominative singular, used for the subject)
- kaunis (beautiful) → kaunis (nominative singular, used as a predicative adjective)
In a simple X is Y sentence:
- Subject: nominative
- Predicative (the word describing the subject): also nominative
So:
- Tämä nimi (nominative subject)
- on (is)
- kaunis (nominative predicative)
They would change in other cases:
- nimen (of the name) – genitive
- nimessä (in the name) – inessive
- kaunista nimeä (a beautiful name – object/partitive) – etc.
No, not in normal Finnish.
- kaunis = nominative singular adjective
- kaunista = partitive singular adjective
With a single countable subject like nimi (a name), the predicative adjective after olla stays in nominative in a straightforward statement:
- Tämä nimi on kaunis. ✅
Using kaunista (partitive) here would sound wrong or at best very odd, because nimi is not a mass/uncountable thing.
Partitive predicatives are used more with:
- mass nouns:
- Vesi on kylmää. = The water is cold.
- describing an incomplete quantity/state, or with some verbs.
But with a single name and a basic “X is Y” sentence, you want kaunis.
You need plural forms for this, name, and the verb:
- nämä = these
- nimet = names (plural of nimi)
- ovat = are (3rd person plural of olla)
A natural sentence:
- Nämä nimet ovat kauniita. = These names are beautiful.
Here:
- Nämä nimet – plural subject (nominative plural)
- ovat – 3rd person plural verb
- kauniita – partitive plural of kaunis, very commonly used in this type of plural predicative.
You may also see Nämä nimet ovat kauniit, with kauniit (nominative plural), but kauniita is very common and perfectly correct for learners to use.
Finnish negation uses a separate negative verb ei, and olla appears in a special form:
- Tämä nimi ei ole kaunis.
= This name is not beautiful.
Structure:
- Tämä nimi – subject
- ei – negative verb (3rd person singular; same form for he/she/it/this name)
- ole – basic form of olla used after ei
- kaunis – predicative adjective (still nominative)
So “is not” is ei ole.
Approximate pronunciation (with English hints):
Tämä → [TAH-ma]
- ä is like a in cat, but a bit more open.
- Stress on the first syllable: TÄ-mä.
nimi → [NIH-mih]
- Short i like in sit.
- Stress: NI-mi.
on → [on]
- Like on in on top, but with a pure o sound, not diphthonged.
kaunis → [KOW-nis]
- au is a diphthong, roughly like ow in cow.
- i short; s is always [s], never [z].
- Stress: KAU-nis.
Overall stress pattern: in Finnish, stress is always on the first syllable of each word: TÄ-mä NI-mi on KAU-nis.
No. Finnish has no grammatical gender:
- No masculine/feminine/neuter for nouns
- No gender agreement with adjectives
- The 3rd person pronoun hän covers both he and she
So kaunis stays kaunis regardless of whether:
- the name is used for a boy, a girl, or anything else
- you are talking about a man, woman, object, etc.
Tämä nimi on kaunis works identically for a girl’s name or a boy’s name.
In standard written Finnish, you must have the verb on in this kind of sentence:
- Tämä nimi on kaunis. ✅
- Tämä nimi kaunis. ❌ (incorrect in standard language)
In some spoken/colloquial Finnish, people sometimes drop on when it’s very obvious, especially with se on (it is):
- Se ihan kiva. (colloquial) ≈ It’s pretty nice.
But as a learner, you should always include on in sentences like this, especially in writing and in any formal or neutral context:
- Tämä nimi on kaunis. is the correct and safe form.