Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika on yleensä kello yhdeksän.

Children’s bedtime is usually at nine o’clock.

Breakdown of Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika on yleensä kello yhdeksän.

• olla: to be
• yleensä: usually
• kello: the clock
• lasten: the children's
• nukkumaanmenoaika: the bedtime
• yhdeksän: nine

Questions & Answers about Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika on yleensä kello yhdeksän.

Why is it lasten and not lapset at the beginning?

Lasten is the genitive plural form of lapsi (child), meaning “of the children” or “children’s.”

• lapset = children (plural, nominative; used as the subject)
• lasten = of the children / children’s (plural genitive; used to show possession)

In this sentence, lasten nukkumaanmenoaika literally means “the children’s going-to-sleep time” → “the children’s bedtime.”

So lasten is used because it describes whose bedtime it is (possession), not because “children” is the subject. The grammatical subject is nukkumaanmenoaika (bedtime), which is singular.

What exactly does the long word nukkumaanmenoaika mean, and how is it built?

Nukkumaanmenoaika is a compound noun. Literally, it is:

• nukkua = to sleep
• nukkumaan = “to go to sleep” / “for sleeping”
  
  • this is the 3rd infinitive illative form of nukkua
• meno = going, departure
• nukkumaanmeno = going to sleep / going to bed
• aika = time

Put together:

• nukkumaanmeno
  • aika → nukkumaanmenoaika
    = “time of going to sleep” → bedtime

So the whole phrase Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika literally means “the children’s time of going to sleep.”

Why is nukkumaanmenoaika written as one word instead of several separate words?

Finnish very often creates compound nouns by writing elements together as one long word when they form a single concept.

• English: bedtime (already a compound in English)
• Finnish: nukkumaanmenoaika (three-part compound)

If you wrote it separately as nukkumaan meno aika, it would look unnatural and could be confusing. Finnish readers expect these to be written together when they function as one noun:

• nukkumaanmenoaika = a single, specific thing (bedtime)
• same pattern as:
  • kotiintuloaika = coming-home time (curfew)
  • ruokailuaika = meal time

So: when in doubt, if the words together name one tight concept, Finnish tends to combine them.

Why is the verb on (is) used, not ovat (are), even though we are talking about children?

The verb agrees with the grammatical subject, not with the “owner.”

• Subject: nukkumaanmenoaika (bedtime) – this is singular.
• lasten is just a possessive modifier (“of the children”), not the subject.

So the structure is:

• Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika = the children’s bedtime (one thing)
• on = is
• yleensä kello yhdeksän = usually nine o’clock

Grammatically, it’s: [The children’s bedtime] is usually nine o’clock.
Since “bedtime” is singular, Finnish uses on, not ovat.

What part of speech is yleensä, and where can it appear in the sentence?

Yleensä is an adverb meaning “usually / generally / in general.”

It’s quite flexible in its position. All of these are grammatical and natural, with slightly different emphasis:

• Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika on yleensä kello yhdeksän.
• Yleensä lasten nukkumaanmenoaika on kello yhdeksän.
• Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika yleensä on kello yhdeksän. (a bit more marked/emphatic)

The version in your sentence is the most neutral. In general, adverbs like yleensä often go:

• just after the verb: on yleensä
• or at the beginning of the sentence: Yleensä …

How does kello yhdeksän work here? Why is there no word for “at” like in English “at nine o’clock”?

In Finnish, time expressions often work without a preposition. Instead, the structure or case ending carries the meaning.

Here, the structure is like:

• nukkumaanmenoaika on kello yhdeksän
  literally: “the bedtime is nine o’clock”

So kello yhdeksän is functioning as the predicative complement (what the time is), not as a separate “at nine o’clock” phrase.

Compare:

• Kello on yhdeksän. = The time is nine o’clock.
• Kotiintuloaika on kello yhdeksän. = Curfew is nine o’clock.
• Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika on kello yhdeksän. = The children’s bedtime is nine o’clock.

English inserts “at,” but Finnish doesn’t need an extra word here because it’s essentially “is nine o’clock”, not “is at nine o’clock.”

Can I also say “Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika on yleensä kello yhdeksältä”? What is the difference from kello yhdeksän?

Yes, you can say:

• Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika on yleensä kello yhdeksältä.

Here, kello yhdeksältä uses the ablative case (-lta/-ltä) and literally means “from nine o’clock”, but in time expressions it corresponds to English “at nine o’clock.”

The nuance:

• kello yhdeksän
  
  • more like “the bedtime is nine o’clock” (as a fixed time)
• kello yhdeksältä
  
  • more like “the children go to bed at nine o’clock”

Both are commonly used in practice, and often they are interchangeable in everyday speech. In many contexts, kello yhdeksältä feels more directly like “at nine o’clock (that’s when the action happens).”

What exactly is the form nukkumaan here? Why not just use nukkua?

Nukkumaan is a special verb form: the 3rd infinitive in the illative case. It often means “to go (in order) to do something / for doing something.”

• nukkua = to sleep (the basic infinitive)
• mennä nukkumaan = to go to sleep / to go to bed
• nukkumaanmeno = going to sleep, going to bed
• nukkumaanmenoaika = time of going to sleep

So nukkumaan is used because the idea is going to sleep, not just “sleep” in general. The combination nukkumaan + meno is a very natural way to form a noun meaning “going to sleep,” which can then combine with aika (“time”).

Is there a simpler way to say this using a verb instead of the long noun -aika?

Yes. Instead of talking about “bedtime” as a noun, you can describe what the children do:

• Lapset menevät yleensä nukkumaan kello yhdeksältä.
  = The children usually go to bed at nine o’clock.

Comparison:

• Lasten nukkumaanmenoaika on yleensä kello yhdeksän.
  
  • more formal / descriptive, focuses on the time as a concept
• Lapset menevät yleensä nukkumaan kello yhdeksältä.
  
  • more dynamic, everyday style, focuses on the action of going to bed

Both are correct; you just choose the one that fits the style you want.

How would the sentence change if I wanted to talk about just one child instead of several children?

You would make “child” singular, in the singular genitive:

• Lapsen nukkumaanmenoaika on yleensä kello yhdeksän.
  = The child’s bedtime is usually nine o’clock.

Changes:

• lasten (children’s, plural genitive) → lapsen (child’s, singular genitive)
• The rest of the sentence stays the same, because the subject nukkumaanmenoaika (bedtime) is still singular.