Learn Hardcore Finnish: Uimahallissa on suuri uima-allas, jossa lapset leikkivät. - In the swimming hall there is a large swimming pool where the children play.

Uimahallissa on suuri uima-allas, jossa lapset leikkivät.

In the swimming hall there is a large swimming pool where the children play.

Breakdown of Uimahallissa on suuri uima-allas, jossa lapset leikkivät.

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Questions & Answers about Uimahallissa on suuri uima-allas, jossa lapset leikkivät.

What does the ending -ssa in uimahallissa mean, and why is it used here?

The ending -ssa is the inessive case, which usually means in / inside something.

uimahalli = swimming hall / indoor swimming pool complex
uimahallissa = in the swimming hall

So Uimahallissa on suuri uima-allas literally:
In the swimming hall is a big swimming pool.

Finnish often uses a location in a case form + on to express “there is … in/at X”. Here the location is inside the building, so the inessive -ssa is used.

Why is the word order Uimahallissa on suuri uima-allas and not Suuri uima-allas on uimahallissa?

Both are grammatically correct, but they mean different things pragmatically:

Uimahallissa on suuri uima-allas.
Typical existential sentence: There is a big swimming pool in the swimming hall.
The focus is on introducing the pool as new information.
Suuri uima-allas on uimahallissa.
More like: The big swimming pool is in the swimming hall.
Here, suuri uima-allas is treated as known or already identified, and you are saying where it is.

So Finnish word order helps signal what is new vs. known information, not just grammatical subject/object.

Why is it suuri uima-allas and not something like suurta uima-allasta or suuren uima-altaan?

Suuri uima-allas is in the nominative case, because in this kind of existential sentence it functions as the newly mentioned thing (logically the “subject”).

In Finnish existential sentences:

A single, countable whole thing is usually in the nominative:
- Pöydällä on kirja. – There is a book on the table.
- Uimahallissa on suuri uima-allas. – There is a big pool in the swimming hall.
The partitive (suurta uima-allasta) would be used if you talked about an indefinite amount or something not seen as a whole, e.g.
- Pihalla on lapsia. – There are (some) children in the yard.
  But for “one big pool” as a whole, nominative is natural.

Suuren uima-altaan would be genitive and would attach to a different structure, for example:

Näen suuren uima-altaan. – I see the big swimming pool.

Why is uima-allas written with a hyphen, and what does uima mean here?

Uima-allas is a compound noun:

uima – a derived form from the verb uida (to swim), used like swimming-
allas – pool / basin

So uima-allas literally means swimming pool.

The hyphen is used because otherwise you would get three a’s in a row: uimaallas.
Finnish often adds a hyphen in compounds to avoid awkward triple vowels and to keep the word easier to read.

What exactly is jossa, and how does it relate to joka and missä?

Jossa is the inessive form of the relative pronoun joka.

joka = who / which / that (relative pronoun)
missä = where (question word, also inessive)
jossa = in which / where (relative pronoun form)

So:

uima-allas, jossa lapset leikkivät
= the swimming pool *in which / where the children are playing*

Compare:

Missä lapset leikkivät? – Where are the children playing? (direct question)
Uima-allas, jossa lapset leikkivät – the pool *where the children are playing* (relative clause)

You cannot replace jossa with missä in this sentence, because here you need a relative pronoun (which/that), not a question word.

Why is it lapset and not lapsia?

Lapset is the nominative plural of lapsi (child). It is used because:

In the relative clause lapset leikkivät, lapset is the subject, so nominative is normal.
It refers to a specific, identifiable group of children (the ones in that pool).

Lapsia is the partitive plural and suggests an indefinite or partial group:

Uima-altaassa leikkii lapsia. – There are (some) children playing in the pool.
Here the children are not a clearly defined set.

In the original sentence, we are more like saying:

…the pool where *the children are playing.* (those particular children)

What form is leikkivät, and how is it related to the infinitive leikkiä?

Leikkivät is:

3rd person plural, present tense, indicative of the verb leikkiä (to play).

Basic pattern (present tense, active):

minä leikin – I play / am playing
sinä leikit – you play
hän leikkii – he/she plays
me leikimme – we play
te leikitte – you (pl.) play
he leikkivät – they play

So lapset leikkivät = the children play / are playing.

Does Finnish distinguish between are playing and play in a sentence like lapset leikkivät?

No. Finnish present tense covers both English:

present simple (they play) and
present continuous/progressive (they are playing).

So lapset leikkivät can mean:

the children play (general, habitual)
the children are playing (right now)

Context tells you which interpretation is intended. In this sentence, with an actual pool and a concrete scene, English speakers would naturally choose are playing.

Could the sentence use iso instead of suuri, like Uimahallissa on iso uima-allas? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

Uimahallissa on iso uima-allas.

Both iso and suuri mean big/large, and in many contexts they are near-synonyms.

Very rough feel:

iso – a bit more colloquial / everyday
suuri – slightly more formal / neutral / written

In this sentence, either is fine; it doesn’t really change the factual meaning.

Why is there a comma before jossa? Could I leave it out?

In standard written Finnish, you normally put a comma before a relative clause starting with joka / jossa / mitä / etc.

So:

…uima-allas, jossa lapset leikkivät.

Leaving out the comma is considered incorrect or at least non‑standard in normal prose. The comma clearly marks that jossa lapset leikkivät is a separate clause describing uima-allas.

Why isn’t there a Finnish word directly corresponding to English there (like there is) in this sentence?

English uses there is / there are; Finnish expresses this with a location phrase + on.

Uimahallissa on suuri uima-allas.
literally: In the swimming hall is a big swimming pool.

Here:

uimahallissa – gives the place (functions like “there”)
on – literally is

So Finnish doesn’t need an extra pronoun like there; the case-marked location (uimahallissa) already plays that role.

Why is it uimahallissa and not uimahallissä? How does that -ssa / -ssä choice work?

The choice between -ssa and -ssä follows vowel harmony.

Words with back vowels (a, o, u) take -ssa
Words with front vowels (ä, ö, y) take -ssä
Mixed words follow the last non‑neutral vowel (a/o/u vs ä/ö/y)

Uimahalli has a and u, which are back vowels, so you use:

uimahalli + ssa → uimahallissa

If the word had only front vowels (e.g. kirjasto → kirjastossa, pöytä → pöydässä), then you would see -ssä.