Lehti on pöydällä parvekkeella.

The newspaper is on the table on the balcony.

Breakdown of Lehti on pöydällä parvekkeella.

• olla: to be
• pöytä: the table
• -llä: on
• -lla: on
• parveke: the balcony
• lehti: the leaf

Questions & Answers about Lehti on pöydällä parvekkeella.

Why does pöytä become pöydällä? Where does the d come from?

Finnish nouns often change their stem slightly when you add case endings. This is called consonant gradation.

• The basic form is pöytä (table).
• The stem used with many cases is pöydä-, not pöytä-.
• Then you add the adessive ending -llä to that stem:

pöytä → pöydä- + -llä → pöydällä

So the t in pöytä becomes d in pöydä- when a vowel follows. This type of change (t → d) is very common in Finnish word stems.

What case are pöydällä and parvekkeella, and what do they mean literally?

Both pöydällä and parvekkeella are in the adessive case.

• pöytä (table) → pöydällä

  • adessive singular
  • basic meaning: on the table / at the table

• parveke (balcony) → parvekkeella

  • adessive singular
  • basic meaning: on the balcony / at the balcony

The adessive case (ending -lla / -llä) often corresponds to English on or at.

Why are there two words with -lla in a row (pöydällä parvekkeella)? How does that work?

Finnish can chain locations by putting several nouns in locative cases one after another. Each one narrows down where something is.

In Lehti on pöydällä parvekkeella:

• pöydällä = on the table
• parvekkeella = on the balcony

Together they mean:

• The newspaper is on the table, and that table is on the balcony.

So you can think of it as:

lehti → on the table → (which is) on the balcony

Finnish doesn’t need extra words like “which is” or “that is”; the two locative forms next to each other are enough.

Why is it parvekkeella and not parvekkeessa? What’s the difference?

The difference is between two location cases:

• Adessive (-lla/-llä): parvekkeella

  • literally on/at the balcony
  • used for surfaces and many “open” or “external” locations

• Inessive (-ssa/-ssä): parvekkeessa

  • literally in the balcony
  • used for being inside something

A balcony is usually thought of as an open external place, not an interior space, so Finnish normally uses the adessive:

• parvekkeella = on the balcony (standing/sitting/placed there)
  Using parvekkeessa (in the balcony) would sound strange in normal contexts, as if the balcony were some kind of enclosed space.

Why isn’t there any word for “the” or “a” before lehti?

Finnish has no articles at all—no equivalent of English “a/an” or “the”.

So Lehti on pöydällä parvekkeella can be translated depending on context as:

• The newspaper is on the table on the balcony.
• A newspaper is on the table on the balcony.

The Finnish sentence itself doesn’t force either interpretation. The definiteness or indefiniteness comes from context, not from a specific word.

What exactly does lehti mean here? “Leaf” or “newspaper”?

The word lehti is ambiguous in Finnish. It can mean:

• leaf (of a tree or plant)
• newspaper
• magazine (especially in compounds like aikakauslehti “magazine”)

In isolation, Lehti on pöydällä parvekkeella could mean either:

• The leaf is on the table on the balcony.
• The newspaper is on the table on the balcony.

Usually context (what you were talking about before) makes it clear. In everyday speech in a home context, lehti often means newspaper or magazine.

What does on mean here? Is it the preposition “on”?

No—on here is not the preposition “on”. It is the third person singular form of the verb “to be” (olla).

• olla = to be
• on = is

So the structure is:

• Lehti (the newspaper)
• on (is)
• pöydällä (on the table)
• parvekkeella (on the balcony)

English splits this into two words (is on), but Finnish uses:

• on (is)
• plus the case ending -lla (on/at) on pöytä and parveke

Could you say the same thing with a different word order? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, Finnish allows flexible word order, but it changes the emphasis, and sometimes the type of sentence.

1. Lehti on pöydällä parvekkeella.

   • Neutral statement about where the newspaper is.

2. Parvekkeella pöydällä on lehti.

   • More like “On the table on the balcony, there is a newspaper.”
   • This feels more like introducing the existence of a newspaper there.

3. Pöydällä parvekkeella on lehti.

   • Also existential-like: “On the table on the balcony, there is a newspaper.”

All are grammatically correct.

• Lehti on… tends to answer: “Where is the newspaper?”
• Parvekkeella… on lehti tends to answer: “What is there on the balcony table?”

Could you leave out parvekkeella or pöydällä? What would the sentence mean then?

Yes, you can remove one of the location phrases, and you just get a less specific location.

• Lehti on pöydällä.

  • The newspaper is on the table.
  • No information about where that table is.

• Lehti on parvekkeella.

  • The newspaper is on the balcony (somewhere there).
  • No information about whether it’s on a table, a chair, the floor, etc.

• Lehti on pöydällä parvekkeella.

  • Combines both: on the table that is on the balcony.

Why don’t we say something like pöytä parvekkeella with a relative clause, like in English “the table that is on the balcony”?

Finnish usually avoids relative clauses (“which is… / that is…”) when simple case forms can express the same thing.

In English you might say:

• The newspaper is on the *table that is on the balcony.*

Finnish instead stacks locative cases:

• Lehti on pöydällä parvekkeella.
  → literally: The newspaper is on-the-table on-the-balcony.

The listener understands:

• pöydällä tells where the lehti is,
• parvekkeella tells where the pöytä is.

This chaining is natural and common in Finnish.

When do I generally use -lla/-llä instead of -ssa/-ssä for location?

Very roughly:

• -ssa / -ssä (inessive) = in

  • being inside something
  • e.g. talossa = in the house

• -lla / -llä (adessive) = on / at

  • being on a surface or at a place
  • e.g. pöydällä = on the table
  • asemalla = at the station

So:

• pöydällä (on the table) – surface
• parvekkeella (on/at the balcony) – an open outer place, not enclosed

Using parvekkeessa (in the balcony) would sound wrong in normal usage, because a balcony is not thought of as an interior space you are “inside” of.