Vieras istuu olohuoneessa.

The guest sits in the living room.

Breakdown of Vieras istuu olohuoneessa.

• -ssa: in
• olohuone: the living room
• istua: to sit
• vieras: the visitor

Questions & Answers about Vieras istuu olohuoneessa.

What exactly does vieras mean? Is it a guest or a stranger?

Vieras can mean several related things in Finnish:

• guest (someone invited)
  
  • Vieras istuu olohuoneessa. → A / the guest is sitting in the living room.
• stranger (someone you don’t know)
  
  • Tuolla on vieras. → There is a stranger over there.
• foreign / unfamiliar as an adjective
  
  • vieras kieli → a foreign language
  • tämä on minulle vierasta → this is unfamiliar to me

In your sentence, Vieras istuu olohuoneessa, context usually makes it clear whether it’s a guest or a stranger. On its own, most people will probably first think guest, especially in a home context like the living room.

Why is there no word for a or the in the sentence?

Finnish does not have articles like English a / an / the.

• Vieras istuu olohuoneessa. can mean:
  • A guest is sitting in the living room.
  • The guest is sitting in the living room.

Whether it feels like a or the is understood from context, not from a specific word.
For example, if you already talked about a certain guest, listeners will interpret it as the guest; if it’s mentioned for the first time, it often feels like a guest.

What form of the verb is istuu, and how is istua conjugated?

Istuu is:

• verb: istua (to sit)
• tense: present
• person/number: 3rd person singular (he/she/it sits, is sitting)

Present indicative conjugation of istua:

• minä istun – I sit / I am sitting
• sinä istut – you sit / you are sitting (singular)
• hän istuu – he/she sits / is sitting
• me istumme – we sit / are sitting
• te istutte – you sit / are sitting (plural / formal)
• he istuvat – they sit / are sitting

So in Vieras istuu olohuoneessa, istuu matches the 3rd person singular subject vieras.

Does istuu mean sits or is sitting?

The Finnish present tense covers both English:

• simple present (sits)
• present continuous / progressive (is sitting)

So:

• Vieras istuu olohuoneessa. can be translated both as:
  • The guest sits in the living room. (general/habitual)
  • The guest is sitting in the living room. (right now)

In most concrete, here-and-now situations, English speakers will naturally translate it as “is sitting”.

There is a more explicitly “ongoing” structure olla istumassa (e.g. Vieras on olohuoneessa istumassa), but it’s much less common and more restricted; istuu alone is the normal choice.

What does olohuoneessa consist of, and what does the ending -ssa mean?

Olohuoneessa breaks down like this:

• olo – being, state (here part of a compound)
• huone – room
• olohuone – living room
• -ssa – inessive case ending: in, inside

So olohuoneessa literally means “in (the) living room”.

Finnish often expresses what English does with prepositions (in, on, at) using case endings like -ssa / -ssä instead of a separate word.

Why is it olohuoneessa and not just olohuone?

Olohuone is the basic noun: living room.

To say in the living room, Finnish uses an inessive case ending:

• olohuone → olohuoneessa = in the living room

Without the ending:

• Vieras istuu olohuone.
  would be incorrect, because the location relation “in” is missing.

The case ending -ssa plays the role that “in” plays in English.

Why is it -ssa and not -ssä in olohuoneessa?

Both -ssa and -ssä are the same grammatical case: inessive (“in, inside”).
Which one you use is decided by vowel harmony.

• Words with back vowels (a, o, u) take -ssa
• Words with front vowels (ä, ö, y) take -ssä
• Mixed words follow the “dominant” group (normally back vowels, unless only front vowels occur)

Olohuone contains o, o, u, e → it has back vowels (o, u) → so it takes -ssa:

• olohuone + ssa → olohuoneessa

Could the word order be Olohuoneessa istuu vieras instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, both are grammatically correct:

1. Vieras istuu olohuoneessa.

   • neutral, subject-first: The guest is sitting in the living room.
   • vieras is in a neutral focus position.

2. Olohuoneessa istuu vieras.

   • more like an existential / “there is” type sentence:
     There is a guest sitting in the living room.
   • often used to introduce the guest as new information.
   • focuses on the location first, then tells who is there.

So changing the word order changes the emphasis and information structure, not the basic grammar.

Why is the subject vieras in basic form (nominative) and not in some other case?

In Finnish, the normal subject of a simple sentence in the present tense is in the nominative (dictionary) form.

• Vieras – nominative singular
• istuu – 3rd person singular
• (missä?) olohuoneessa – inessive (location)

You would see a different subject case, for example, in some existential sentences or with partitive subjects, but here it’s a straightforward nominative subject + verb structure.

If you change the word order to Olohuoneessa istuu vieras, the word vieras is still grammatically a nominative subject, even though it comes at the end.

Is there any hidden word for he/she/it? Where is the pronoun?

There is no separate he/she/it pronoun in this sentence, and none is needed.

• In Finnish, if the subject is a noun (here: vieras), you normally do not also add a pronoun.
• The English pronoun (he / she) is simply understood from the context:
  • Vieras istuu olohuoneessa. → He/She is sitting in the living room. (the guest)

If you only had a pronoun as subject, you would say:

• Hän istuu olohuoneessa. – He/She is sitting in the living room.

But you don’t say Hän vieras istuu…; that would be wrong.

How would I say The guests are sitting in the living room?

You need to make both the subject and the verb plural:

• vieras → vieraat (plural nominative: guests)
• istuu → istuvat (3rd person plural: are sitting)
• olohuoneessa stays the same

So:

• Vieraat istuvat olohuoneessa.
  → The guests are sitting in the living room.

What’s the difference between Vieras istuu olohuoneessa and Vieras on olohuoneessa?

• Vieras istuu olohuoneessa.

  • specifically says the guest is sitting there.
  • action / posture: The guest is sitting in the living room.

• Vieras on olohuoneessa.

  • just says the guest is (located) there, without specifying what they’re doing.
  • The guest is in the living room.
    (standing, sitting, lying, etc. – unspecified)

So istuu adds the idea of sitting, while on (from olla, to be) only expresses being in that place.

Is olohuone always written as one word? Can I write it as olo huone?

Olohuone is a compound noun and must be written as one word.

• olohuone – correct → living room
• olo huone – incorrect as a normal word; it would look like two separate words, olo and huone, which is not how the concept “living room” is written.

Finnish often combines nouns into single-word compounds:

• kirjahylly – book + shelf → bookcase
• ruokapöytä – food + table → dining table
• olohuone – living + room → living room

Are there any prepositions in this sentence, or is everything done with endings?

In Vieras istuu olohuoneessa, there are no prepositions.
The meaning that English expresses with “in” is expressed by the case ending:

• olohuone – living room
• olohuoneessa – in the living room (inessive case)

Finnish tends to use:

• case endings (like -ssa/-ssä, -lla/-llä, -sta/-stä)
• postpositions (words that come after the noun)

instead of English-style prepositions (words that come before the noun). Here, the location is fully handled by the -ssa ending.