Learn Hardcore Finnish: Huomenna meillä on pieni sanakoe uusista sanoista. - Tomorrow we have a small vocabulary test on new words.

So meillä on pieni sanakoe is literally “at us there is a small vocabulary test,” which is naturally translated as “we have a small vocabulary test.”

Does meillä here mean “at our place (house)” or something like “we (as a group)”?

Literally, meillä is “at us / with us” (adessive case of me = we).

Its exact meaning depends on context:

In a school context, meillä on sanakoe usually means “our class / our group has a test.”
In a home context, Meillä on koira could mean “We have a dog” or “At our place there is a dog.”

In your sentence, it naturally means “our class / we (students) have a small vocab test.” It doesn’t focus on a physical location like “at our house.”

Why is the verb on (3rd person singular) used when the English meaning is “we have”?

Grammatically, the subject of the sentence is pieni sanakoe (a small vocabulary test), not meillä.

The underlying structure is:

(Huomenna) meillä on pieni sanakoe.
→ Tomorrow, at us, there is a small vocabulary test.

Since pieni sanakoe is singular, the verb olla is in 3rd person singular: on.
The English translation shifts it to “we have,” but Finnish keeps the verb agreeing with the test, not with meillä.

Why is there no word for “a” in pieni sanakoe?

Finnish doesn’t have articles like “a / an / the.”
Nouns appear without any article, and the context tells you whether the meaning is:

“a small vocabulary test”
or “the small vocabulary test”

So pieni sanakoe can correspond to either “a small vocab test” or “the small vocab test,” depending on what has been mentioned or is understood from context.

What exactly does sanakoe mean, and how is it formed?

Sanakoe is a compound noun:

sana = word
koe = test, exam, experiment

Together: sanakoe = “vocabulary test / word test.”

Compound nouns like this are extremely common in Finnish. Other examples:

sanakirja = sana (word) + kirja (book) → dictionary
ajokoe = ajo (driving) + koe (test) → driving test

Why are uusista sanoista in the -sta/-stä form? What does that case mean here?

Uusista sanoista is in the elative plural:

uusi → uusista (from/about new…)
sana → sanoista (from/about words…)

The elative (-sta/-stä) often indicates:

“from” something (literal or abstract), or
“about / on the topic of” something.

In the context of tests and questions, Finnish often uses elative for the content/topic:

sanakoe uusista sanoista = a vocab test on the new words
koe verbeistä = a test on verbs
kysymys politiikasta = a question about politics

So uusista sanoista means the test is about / based on the new words.

Why do both uusista and sanoista end in -sta? Why does the adjective change too?

In Finnish, adjectives must agree with the noun they modify in:

number (singular/plural)
case (nominative, genitive, elative, etc.)

Here the noun phrase is “new words” in elative plural:

noun: sana → sanoista (elative plural)
adjective: uusi → uusista (elative plural)

So you get uusista sanoista = from/about the new words.
Both words change to show they belong together grammatically.

Could you say uusilla sanoilla instead of uusista sanoista? Would that mean the same?

No, it would not mean the same.

uusista sanoista (elative) = “from/about the new words” → good for content of a test
uusilla sanoilla (adessive plural) = “with the new words” (using them as a tool/instrument)

So:

pieni sanakoe uusista sanoista = a small vocab test on the new words
puhun uusilla sanoilla = I speak with new words (I use new words when I speak)

For tests and quizzes about some material, elative (-sta/-stä) is the normal choice.

Can I change the word order, for example Meillä on huomenna pieni sanakoe uusista sanoista?

Yes. Finnish word order is relatively flexible, and different orders just shift emphasis slightly.

All of these are grammatical:

Huomenna meillä on pieni sanakoe uusista sanoista.
– Emphasizes “tomorrow”.
Meillä on huomenna pieni sanakoe uusista sanoista.
– Neutral; many would say it this way too.
Huomenna on pieni sanakoe meillä.
– Puts “at our place / in our class” at the end for emphasis.

The basic information stays the same: there will be a small vocab test tomorrow on the new words.

What nuance does pieni add to sanakoe? Is it always about physical size?

Pieni literally means “small / little,” but with things like tests it often implies:

short in length
not very serious
not very difficult
an attempt to make it sound less scary

So pieni sanakoe can be understood as “a little vocab quiz” rather than a big, formal exam. The teacher might be softening the idea of the test.