Liikuntatunnilla pelaamme koripalloa ja opimme uusia sääntöjä.

In PE class we play basketball and learn new rules.

Breakdown of Liikuntatunnilla pelaamme koripalloa ja opimme uusia sääntöjä.

• uusi: new
• ja: and
• -lla: in
• oppia: to learn
• sääntö: the rule
• pelata: to play
• koripallo: the basketball
• liikuntatunti: the PE class

Questions & Answers about Liikuntatunnilla pelaamme koripalloa ja opimme uusia sääntöjä.

What does the ending -lla in liikuntatunnilla mean, and why is it used here?

The ending -lla/-llä marks the adessive case in Finnish. One of its common meanings is “on / at (a place or event)”.

• Liikuntatunti = PE lesson / physical education class
• Liikuntatunnilla = at PE class, in PE class, during PE

With words like tunti (lesson, class), Finnish very often uses the adessive -lla to mean “during the lesson / in class”:

• matikantunnilla – in math class
• enkuntunnilla – in English class

So Liikuntatunnilla pelaamme… literally is “At the PE class we play…”, which in natural English becomes “In PE class we play…”.

Using -ssa/-ssä (inessive, “in”) here – liikuntatunnissa – would sound strange or wrong in this meaning; tunti normally takes -lla for “in class / during the lesson”.

Where is the word “we” in the Finnish sentence? Why isn’t it written?

Finnish usually doesn’t need subject pronouns like “I, you, we” because the verb ending already shows the person.

• pelaamme = we play
• opimme = we learn

The ending -mme on the verbs tells you the subject is “we” (me), so the pronoun is optional:

• (Me) pelaamme koripalloa. – We play basketball.
• (Me) opimme uusia sääntöjä. – We learn new rules.

You would add me only for emphasis or contrast:

• Me pelaamme koripalloa, emme jalkapalloa.
  We play basketball, not football.

What forms are pelaamme and opimme, and how are they formed from the dictionary forms?

The dictionary (infinitive) forms are:

• pelata – to play
• oppia – to learn

In the sentence, both verbs are in the present tense, 1st person plural (“we”):

• pelaamme = we play
• opimme = we learn

Both use the personal ending -mme for “we”.

Very roughly:

• pelata → pelaa- + mme → pelaamme
• oppia → opi- + mme → opimme

So the pattern you see is:

• stem of the verb + -mme = “we (do something)”

Why is koripalloa in the partitive case instead of just koripallo?

Koripalloa is the partitive singular of koripallo (“basketball”).

Finnish often uses the partitive case for objects when:

1. The action is ongoing, incomplete, or unbounded, or
2. You are talking about an indefinite amount of something.

Playing a sport is treated like an ongoing activity, not something you “finish” completely. So you use the partitive:

• pelaamme koripalloa – we play (some) basketball
• pelaan tennistä – I play tennis
• pelaavat shakkiakin – they (even) play chess

Using koripallo (nominative) as a direct object here would sound wrong or at least very unusual. With pelata + sport, partitive is the normal, idiomatic choice.

Why is it uusia sääntöjä and not something like uudet säännöt?

Uusia sääntöjä is partitive plural and suggests an unspecified number / some new rules.

Breakdown:

• uusi – new
• uusia – new (partitive plural)
• sääntö – rule
• sääntöjä – rules (partitive plural)

So uusia sääntöjä literally means “(some) new rules” and fits well with the idea that you are learning some new rules, not all possible rules.

Compare:

• Opimme uusia sääntöjä.
  We (are) learn(ing) some new rules. (indefinite, process-like)

• Opimme uudet säännöt.
  We learn(ed) the new rules. (a specific, complete set of rules)

In this sentence, uusia sääntöjä matches the idea of learning some number of new rules in class, not a fixed, completed set.

Why does uusia come before sääntöjä, and why do they have the same type of ending?

In Finnish, adjectives normally come before the noun they describe, and they must agree with the noun in case and number.

Here:

• sääntöjä – partitive plural of sääntö
• uusia – partitive plural of uusi (agreeing with sääntöjä)

Both are plural and partitive because:

• There is more than one rule, and
• The verb oppia plus “some rules” gives an indefinite, partial meaning, which triggers the partitive.

Other examples:

• uusi sääntö – a new rule (singular, nominative)
• uuden säännön – of the new rule (singular, genitive)
• uusissa säännöissä – in the new rules (plural, inessive)

In each case, the adjective (uusi-) matches the noun’s case and number.

What kind of word is liikuntatunti? Is it just liikunta + tunti?

Yes. Liikuntatunti is a compound noun:

• liikunta – physical exercise
• tunti – hour, lesson, class

Together: liikuntatunti = PE lesson / PE class.

A key point with Finnish compounds:

• Only the last part gets the main case ending:
  • liikuntatunti – PE lesson
  • liikuntatunnilla – in/at PE class (adessive)
  • liikuntatunnille – to PE class (allative)

So you don’t say liikunnan tunnilla here; the standard word for a PE class is the single compound liikuntatunti, which then inflects on the last part: liikuntatunnilla.

Can the word order be different, like Pelaamme koripalloa liikuntatunnilla ja opimme uusia sääntöjä?

Yes, that word order is grammatical. Finnish word order is fairly flexible.

Your options include:

• Liikuntatunnilla pelaamme koripalloa ja opimme uusia sääntöjä.
  – “In PE class, we play basketball and learn new rules.”
  (Emphasis on when/where: during PE class.)

• Pelaamme koripalloa ja opimme uusia sääntöjä liikuntatunnilla.
  – Similar basic meaning, but the location/time comes at the end and is a bit less foregrounded.

Placing Liikuntatunnilla at the start makes the setting (“in PE class”) the topic of the sentence: As for what happens in PE class… Then the rest tells you what you do there.

What is the function of ja in this sentence, and why is there no comma before it?

Ja simply means “and”. Here it is a coordinating conjunction that links two verbs (two actions) that share the same subject and setting:

• pelaamme koripalloa – we play basketball
• opimme uusia sääntöjä – we learn new rules

Together:
…pelaamme koripalloa ja opimme uusia sääntöjä.
= “we play basketball and (we) learn new rules.”

In Finnish, you normally don’t put a comma before ja when it links:

• Two parts of the same main clause, or
• Two similar phrases in a list.

So there is no comma needed in this sentence.

Where are the words for “a” and “the” in this Finnish sentence?

Finnish does not use articles like “a / an” or “the” at all.

Definiteness and indefiniteness are expressed through:

• Context
• Case forms
• Word order
• Demonstrative words like se (“it / that”) or ne (“they / those”), when needed

In this sentence:

• koripalloa can mean basketball or some basketball (there is no “a/the”)
• uusia sääntöjä can mean new rules or some new rules
• liikuntatunnilla is just in PE class (again, no article)

If you really want to point to specific rules, you can add a demonstrative:

• Opimme ne uudet säännöt. – We learn the new rules / those new rules.

But there is never a separate little word that corresponds directly to English “a” or “the”.