Learn Hardcore Finnish: Joulu on minulle tärkeä.

With adjectives like tärkeä and the verb olla (to be), Finnish often marks the person who feels or experiences something with the allative:

Joulu on minulle tärkeä.
→ Literally: Christmas is important to me.

So instead of saying I am… something, Finnish often says something is… to me:

Se on minulle vaikeaa. – It is difficult for me.
Urheilu on hänelle tärkeää. – Sport is important to him / her.

What exactly does the ending -lle in minulle mean?

The ending -lle is the allative case. Its core meanings are:

Direction “onto / to”:
- pöytä → pöydälle – onto the table
- Suomi → Suomelle – to Finland (in some abstract uses)
“To / for someone” (dative‑like role):
- minä → minulle – to/for me
- sinä → sinulle – to/for you
- lapsi → lapselle – to/for the child

In sentences with olla and a psychological or evaluative meaning, the allative often marks the experiencer:

Tämä työ on minulle tärkeä. – This job is important to me.
Kesä on meille paras vuodenaika. – Summer is the best season for us.

Could I say Joulu on minusta tärkeä instead of minulle tärkeä? What is the difference?

You can say both, but they are not identical in nuance.

minulle (allative)
Focuses on personal relevance / emotional importance to you.
→ Christmas is important to me (it matters to me personally, emotionally, practically).
minusta (elative, from minä → minusta)
Often expresses opinion, evaluation: in my view, as I see it.
→ In my opinion, Christmas is important.

So:

Joulu on minulle tärkeä.
= It has special significance for me personally.
Joulu on minusta tärkeä.
= I think Christmas is important (you are giving an opinion, which might be more general or less emotional).

They can overlap in everyday speech, but this is the typical difference.

Can I use tärkeää instead of tärkeä? What changes?

Yes, you might also hear or read:

Joulu on minulle tärkeää.

Here, tärkeää is the partitive singular form of tärkeä.

In predicative position (after olla), both nominative (tärkeä) and partitive (tärkeää) are possible, but they often carry slightly different nuances:

Nominative (tärkeä)
– More concrete, specific, or individual:
– Tämä juhla on minulle tärkeä. – This particular celebration is important to me.
Partitive (tärkeää)
– More abstract, general, or “matter‑of‑fact”:
– Raha on tärkeää. – Money is important (in general).
– Terveys on tärkeää. – Health is important.

With Joulu, which can be seen both as a specific holiday and as an abstract phenomenon, both are grammatically possible:

Joulu on minulle tärkeä.
→ Sounds like Christmas as my special, concrete celebration is important.
Joulu on minulle tärkeää.
→ Slightly more abstract or general: the idea or phenomenon of Christmas is important to me.

In practice, tärkeä is very natural here and probably the more common choice in this exact sentence.

Why is Joulu written with a small j in Finnish, even though English uses a capital in Christmas?

Finnish capitalization rules are different from English.

In Finnish, names of holidays and festivals are not capitalized unless they start the sentence:
- joulu – Christmas
- pääsiäinen – Easter
- vappu – May Day
- juhannus – Midsummer

So Joulu on minulle tärkeä. is capitalized only because it comes at the beginning of the sentence. In the middle of a sentence, it would be joulu:

Minulle joulu on tärkeä.

Why is there no word for a or the in Joulu on minulle tärkeä?

Finnish simply does not have articles like a, an, the.

The bare noun joulu can cover several English possibilities:

Christmas is important to me.
The Christmas holiday is important to me.

Whether it feels like a or the in English depends entirely on context, not on a specific Finnish word. Finnish uses word order, context, and sometimes pronouns or adjectives to clarify specificity, but not articles.

Can I change the word order, for example Minulle joulu on tärkeä or Joulu on tärkeä minulle?

Yes, Finnish word order is flexible, and all of these are grammatically correct:

Joulu on minulle tärkeä.
– Fairly neutral. Topic: Christmas; new information: that it is important to me.
Minulle joulu on tärkeä.
– Puts more emphasis on minulle (for me):
– For me, Christmas is important (maybe not for everyone, but for me it is).
Joulu on tärkeä minulle.
– Also possible; feels a bit more emphatic or contrastive on minulle in speech (depending on intonation).

All three are understandable and correct. The differences are about focus and emphasis, not grammar.

Is the verb on always necessary? Can I just say Joulu minulle tärkeä?

In standard Finnish, the verb olla (to be) is required here:

Joulu on minulle tärkeä. ✅
Joulu minulle tärkeä. ❌ (not standard)

In spoken colloquial Finnish, the verb on is sometimes dropped in third person plural or very informal speech, but even then, in a short sentence like this, people usually keep it.

For learners, you should always include on in this kind of sentence.

How do you pronounce Joulu on minulle tärkeä?

Approximate pronunciation (with main stress on the first syllable of each content word):

Joulu → [ˈjou̯.lu]
- jou as in yo
  - u glide (like English yo
    - oo quickly)
- lu as in loo but shorter.
on → [on]
- Like English on, but with a pure o sound.
minulle → [ˈmi.nul.le]
- Stress on mi-.
- Double ll is a long consonant; hold it slightly longer: nul-le.
tärkeä → [ˈtær.ke.æ] (very rough English-based approximation)
- ä is like the a in cat but more front and tense.
- Three syllables: tär-ke-ä, with stress on tär-.
- Each vowel is clear and separate; do not reduce them like in English.

Said normally, it flows as:

JOU-lu on MI-nul-le TÄR-ke-ä.

What is the dictionary/base form of minulle and tärkeä, and how are they formed?

minulle
- Base (dictionary) form: minä – I
- Case: allative (-lle) → minä → minulle (to/for me)
tärkeä
- It is already in its base form (nominative singular).
- Meaning: important.
- Other forms include:
  - tärkeitä (partitive plural)
  - tärkeitä asioita – important things
  - tärkeänä (essive) – as important
  - tärkeälle (allative) – to the important (one/thing)

So in Joulu on minulle tärkeä, only minulle is inflected; tärkeä is the basic dictionary form.

Is minulle closer to to me or for me in English?

It can correspond to both, depending on context.

In this sentence:

Joulu on minulle tärkeä.
→ Most natural English: Christmas is important to me.

In other sentences, it might feel more like for me:

Onko tämä hyvä sinulle? – Is this good for you?
Se on liian vaikeaa minulle. – That is too difficult for me.

So it is best to think of minulle as the general “to/for me” form, and let context decide the most natural English preposition.

Is there a more colloquial way to say this in spoken Finnish?

Yes. In informal spoken Finnish, you will often hear:

Joulu on mulle tärkee.

Changes compared to the standard form:

minulle → mulle
– Common spoken shortening (especially in southern/urban varieties).
tärkeä → tärkee
– The final -ä is often reduced in speech, giving -ee.

Spoken vs. standard:

Standard: Joulu on minulle tärkeä.
Colloquial: Joulu on mulle tärkee.

As a learner, it is useful to understand the colloquial form, but you can safely use the standard form when speaking and writing.