Breakdown of Viime kuussa laskin, että säästötilillä on jo tarpeeksi rahaa pientä matkaa varten.
Questions & Answers about Viime kuussa laskin, että säästötilillä on jo tarpeeksi rahaa pientä matkaa varten.
Finnish normally marks time when something happens with the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä).
- kuussa is the inessive of kuu (moon/month).
- viime kuussa literally means “in the last month.”
You can’t leave the word uninflected here; viime kuu by itself would sound incomplete in this context.
Compare:
- viime kuussa = last month
- tässä kuussa = this month
- ensi kuussa = next month
There is also viime kuun (genitive), but that is used differently, e.g.:
- viime kuun palkka = last month’s salary
- viime kuun lopussa = at the end of last month
Finnish usually leaves out subject pronouns because the person is shown by the verb ending.
- laskin = I calculated
- stem: laske- (to count, to calculate)
- past tense marker: -i-
- 1st person singular ending: -n
So laskin already tells you “I calculated”.
If you say minä laskin, it’s correct but adds emphasis, like “I was the one who calculated …”.
The verb laskea has several meanings:
- to count: Laskin rahat. = I counted the money.
- to calculate: Laskin, että… = I calculated/figured out that…
- to lower/let down: Laskin verhot alas. = I lowered the curtains.
In this sentence laskin = “I calculated / I figured out” (often also just “I worked out / I realized” through calculation).
The noun laskin means “calculator” and is derived from the same verb laskea: literally “a thing that calculates.”
So:
- laskin (verb) = I calculated
- laskin (noun) = a calculator
Context tells you which one is meant.
Finnish uses a special possessive construction with the verb olla:
- X-lla on Y = X has Y, literally “On X there is Y”.
Examples:
- Minulla on rahaa. = I have money. (At me is money.)
- Tilillä on rahaa. = The account has money. (On the account is money.)
In your sentence:
- säästötilillä on rahaa
= “The savings account has money”
= “There is money in the savings account.”
So the account is treated as the possessor.
You could say Minulla on säästötilillä rahaa, but that shifts the focus to you having money (located on the account), rather than simply stating what’s on the account itself.
Finnish uses adessive (-lla/-llä) with many abstract “locations”, including bank accounts.
- säästötilillä on rahaa
literally: “On the savings account there is money.”
For bank accounts, the standard pattern is:
- tilillä on 500 euroa = There are 500 euros in the account.
- pankkitililläsi on miinusta = Your bank account is in the red.
So even though in English we say “in the account”, Finnish uses -lla, not -ssa.
Compare with a real physical container:
- lompakossa on rahaa = There is money in the wallet. (-ssa, true container)
- tilillä on rahaa = There is money on the account. (-lla, abstract location)
jo means “already”.
In the sentence it shows that, by last month, the amount of money had reached the “enough” level:
- … että säästötilillä on jo tarpeeksi rahaa …
= “… that there is already enough money …”
Typical placements of jo:
- Before the word it modifies:
- Jo tiedän. = I already know.
- Siellä on jo tarpeeksi rahaa. = There is already enough money there.
- It can also move for emphasis, but your sentence’s placement is the most neutral.
Contrast with vielä:
- Onko siellä jo tarpeeksi rahaa? = Is there already enough money?
- Ei siellä ole vielä tarpeeksi rahaa. = There isn’t enough money yet.
tarpeeksi means “enough (in quantity)”, and it behaves like an adverb. It normally requires its object to be in the partitive.
- tarpeeksi rahaa = enough money
- tarpeeksi aikaa = enough time
- tarpeeksi ruokaa = enough food
rahaa is the partitive of raha. The partitive is used for:
- Indefinite amounts / mass nouns
- Onko sinulla rahaa? = Do you have (any) money?
- With certain adverbs like tarpeeksi, paljon, vähän, liikaa
- paljon rahaa = a lot of money
- liikaa työtä = too much work
So tarpeeksi rahaa is the standard, correct combination.
tarpeeksi is an adverb, not an adjective.
Clues:
- It doesn’t change form: you don’t get tarpeeksia, tarpeeksessa, etc.
- It can modify adjectives, verbs, or nouns:
Examples:
- tarpeeksi rahaa = enough money
- tarpeeksi iso = big enough
- tarpeeksi aikaisin = early enough
- Nukuin tarpeeksi. = I slept enough.
If you need an adjective, you use related forms like:
- riittävä määrä rahaa = a sufficient amount of money
- riittävä = sufficient, adequate (adjective)
The postposition varten requires the preceding word to be in the partitive case.
- pieni matka (nominative) → pientä matkaa (partitive)
So:
- pientä matkaa varten = for a small/short trip
Both words are in the partitive singular:
- pieni → pientä
- matka → matkaa
Adjectives must agree in case with the noun they describe, so you can’t say pieni matkaa varten or pieni matka varten.
With pronouns and nouns in modern Finnish, varten is effectively used with the partitive.
Common patterns:
- minua varten = for me
- sinua varten = for you
- lapsia varten = for children
- joulua varten = for Christmas (for the purpose of Christmas)
- pitkää matkaa varten = for a long trip
- pientä matkaa varten = for a small trip
So as a learner, you can safely remember:
[partitive] + varten = “for (the purpose/benefit of) …”
Finnish chooses the tense in the että-clause based on when the situation is true, not just to match the main verb.
- Viime kuussa laskin, että säästötilillä on jo tarpeeksi rahaa.
= Last month I calculated that there is already enough money (and the statement is still true now).
Using on suggests the situation still holds at the time of speaking.
If you want to stress that it was true then, but not necessarily now, you can say:
- Viime kuussa laskin, että säästötilillä oli jo tarpeeksi rahaa.
= I calculated that there was already enough money (at that time).
So both on and oli are possible; they just give slightly different nuances about the time frame of “there being enough money.”
Both can be translated as “a short trip,” but the nuance differs slightly.
- pieni matka
- literally “small trip”
- more about overall size/scale: not a big deal, maybe not expensive, modest in scope.
- lyhyt matka
- literally “short trip”
- focuses on distance or duration (physically or in time).
In practice:
- A quick weekend in a nearby city: both pieni matka and lyhyt matka could work.
- A commute of 5 minutes: more naturally lyhyt matka.
- Talking about budget or ambition (“just a little trip, nothing major”): pieni matka fits well.
In your sentence, pientä matkaa varten nicely suggests a modest, small-scale trip.
Yes, you can say it, and both are correct, but they’re not identical.
Viime kuussa laskin…
= Last month I calculated…
→ Anchors the action to the calendar month (the previous named month).Kuukausi sitten laskin…
= I calculated (exactly/about) a month ago…
→ Anchors it to “one month before now”, regardless of which month that was.
Often they’re close in meaning, but if today is, say, the 2nd of the month, then:
- viime kuussa = during the previous calendar month
- kuukausi sitten = specifically about 30 days ago
Yes.
- säästötilillä on rahaa
= there is money on the savings account (context usually implies it’s yours). - säästötililläni on rahaa
= there is money on my savings account.
Here, -ni is the 1st person singular possessive suffix:
- tili → tilini = my account
- säästötili → säästötilini
- säästötililläni = on my savings account
So you could say:
- Viime kuussa laskin, että säästötililläni on jo tarpeeksi rahaa pientä matkaa varten.
That sentence explicitly states that the account is yours.