Questions & Answers about Illalla kerään lelut lattialta.
Why does illalla mean in the evening? What is the ending -lla doing here?
Illalla is ilta (evening) + the case ending -lla (adessive singular).
The adessive case -lla / -llä usually means on / at, and with times it is used to mean at / in (a part of the day):
- illalla = in the evening / at night
- aamulla = in the morning
- yöllä = at night
- päivällä = in the daytime
So literally illalla is “at evening”, which we translate naturally as in the evening.
How do we know that kerään means I pick up / I collect? Where is the “I”?
In Finnish, the personal ending is attached to the verb, so a separate subject pronoun is usually not needed.
- Dictionary form: kerätä = to pick up, to collect
- Stem in the present: kerää-
- 1st person singular ending: -n
So:
- kerää + n → kerään = I pick up / I collect
The subject pronoun minä (I) is optional and normally left out unless you want to emphasize it:
- Kerään lelut lattialta. = I pick up the toys from the floor.
- Minä kerään lelut lattialta. = I (as opposed to someone else) pick up the toys from the floor.