Ensimmäinen porras on liukas.

The first step is slippery.

Breakdown of Ensimmäinen porras on liukas.

• olla: to be
• liukas: slippery
• ensimmäinen: first
• porras: the step

Questions & Answers about Ensimmäinen porras on liukas.

What does Ensimmäinen mean exactly, and what kind of word is it?

Ensimmäinen means first as an ordinal number (like first, second, third in English).

Grammatically, Finnish treats ordinal numbers a lot like adjectives:

• It agrees with the noun in number and case.
  
  • ensimmäinen porras – the first step (singular, nominative)
  • ensimmäisellä portaalla – on the first step (singular, adessive)
  • ensimmäiset portaat – the first stairs/steps (plural, nominative)

So in this sentence, ensimmäinen is an ordinal functioning like an adjective modifying porras.

Why is there no word for the in Ensimmäinen porras on liukas?

Finnish has no articles (no the, no a/an).

Definiteness is understood from:

• Context
  In a real situation, if you say Ensimmäinen porras on liukas, people will naturally interpret it as The first step is slippery, not A first step is slippery.
• Sometimes word order, stress, or additional words can also help, but you do not add any article-like word.

So Ensimmäinen porras can mean:

• the first step
• a first step

English has to choose; Finnish does not. Context does the job.

Why is porras used here, and how is it different from askel or rappu?

All three are related to stairs but used slightly differently:

• porras

  • Literally: a step of a staircase or rung of a ladder.
  • Very common in the plural: portaat = (a set of) stairs.
  • Your sentence focuses on one particular step:
    
    • Ensimmäinen porras on liukas. – The first step is slippery.

• askel

  • Means a step in the sense of the movement (a stride) or sometimes a step as a unit of movement.
  • More about stepping than the physical stair.
  • Ota varovainen askel. – Take a careful step.

• rappu / rappuset / rappukäytävä

  • rappuset: colloquial for stairs (a flight of steps).
  • rappu or rappukäytävä: stairwell, staircase in a building, or building entrance section (like “staircase A, B, C”).

In your example, porras is the natural choice because you are talking about one individual step of the stairs.

Why is porras in the basic (nominative) form here? Shouldn’t it be something like portaalla if it’s about a surface?

Here porras is the subject of the sentence:

• Ensimmäinen porras – the first step (subject)
• on – is (verb)
• liukas – slippery (predicative adjective)

In such “X is Y” sentences, both the subject and the complement usually appear in the nominative case:

• Porras on liukas. – The step is slippery.
  
  • porras: nominative singular (subject)
  • liukas: nominative singular (predicative)

If you wanted to say on the first step, for example in Be careful on the first step, then you would use a locative case:

• Ole varovainen ensimmäisellä portaalla.
  
  • ensimmäisellä – adessive singular of ensimmäinen
  • portaalla – adessive singular of porras

So:

• Ensimmäinen porras on liukas. – The first step is slippery. (subject description)
• Ensimmäisellä portaalla on liukasta. – It is slippery on the first step. (location description)

What form is liukas, and how would it change in other forms?

In the sentence Ensimmäinen porras on liukas, liukas is:

• an adjective meaning slippery
• in nominative singular, because it describes the singular subject porras.

Some useful forms:

• Basic forms:

  • liukas – slippery (singular, nominative)
  • liukasta – slippery (partitive singular; e.g. on liukasta = it is slippery)

• Plural describing a plural subject:

  • Portaat ovat liukkaat. – The stairs are slippery.
    
    • liukkaat – nominative plural.

• Comparative and superlative:

  • liukkaampi – more slippery
    
    • Tämä porras on liukkaampi. – This step is more slippery.
  • liukkain – (the) slipperiest
    
    • Tämä on liukkain porras. – This is the slipperiest step.

So in your sentence, liukas is just the simple base form, matching a singular subject in a plain “X is Y” statement.

Why are both porras and liukas in the same case (nominative)?

Finnish copular sentences (with olla = to be) usually put:

• the subject in nominative
• the predicative (the thing that says what the subject is) also in nominative, when it is a noun or adjective.

Examples:

• Porras on liukas. – The step is slippery.
  
  • subject: porras (nominative)
  • predicative adjective: liukas (nominative)
• Tämä porras on ensimmäinen. – This step is the first one.
  
  • subject: tämä porras (nominative)
  • predicative adjective: ensimmäinen (nominative)

When both words refer to the same thing, they normally stand in the same number and case in this construction.

What does on mean here, and how is the verb olla conjugated?

On is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb olla (to be).

A quick overview of olla in the present tense:

• minä olen – I am
• sinä olet – you are (singular)
• hän on – he/she is
• se on – it is (also used for animals and things in spoken Finnish)
• me olemme – we are
• te olette – you are (plural / polite)
• he ovat – they are (people)
• ne ovat – they are (often animals/things in spoken Finnish)

In Ensimmäinen porras on liukas, the subject is Ensimmäinen porras (3rd person singular), so you use on.

Can the word order change, for example to Liukas on ensimmäinen porras?

Yes, Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but the default neutral order is:

• Subject – Verb – Complement/Adjective
  → Ensimmäinen porras on liukas.

Other orders are possible and usually change the focus or emphasis:

• Liukas on ensimmäinen porras.
  
  • More like: Slippery is the first step.
  • Sounds marked and emphasizes liukas (“it is slippery that the first step is”).
  • Could be used if you are contrasting slipperiness with some other property or with other steps.

In everyday, neutral speech, Ensimmäinen porras on liukas is the natural version. The more you move things around, the more it starts to sound like you are highlighting or contrasting information.

How would you say The first step is very slippery in Finnish?

You can just add an adverb of degree:

• Ensimmäinen porras on todella liukas. – The first step is really/very slippery.
• Ensimmäinen porras on tosi liukas. – More colloquial tosi for “very.”
• Ensimmäinen porras on hyvin liukas. – Literally “well slippery,” often used like “very.”

Structure is the same; you only insert an adverb before liukas.

How do you say The stairs are slippery instead of The first step is slippery?

For the stairs (as a set of steps), Finnish typically uses the plural of porras:

• Portaat ovat liukkaat. – The stairs are slippery.
  
  • portaat – plural nominative of porras (subject)
  • ovat – 3rd person plural of olla
  • liukkaat – plural nominative of liukas, agreeing with portaat

So:

• Ensimmäinen porras on liukas. – The first step is slippery.
• Portaat ovat liukkaat. – The stairs are slippery.

How would you say on the first step, as in Be careful on the first step?

You need a locative case to express on in Finnish. For a single step, that is the adessive case:

• Ensimmäisellä portaalla – on the first step

Example sentence:

• Ole varovainen ensimmäisellä portaalla.
  
  • Be careful on the first step.

Breakdown:

• ensimmäinen → ensimmäisellä (adessive singular)
• porras → portaalla (adessive singular, with consonant gradation: rr → rt in some forms)

So Ensimmäinen porras on liukas (subject in nominative) is different from ensimmäisellä portaalla (location in adessive).

What is the difference between ensimmäinen and ensimmäiset?

They are different in number:

• ensimmäinen – first (singular)
  
  • ensimmäinen porras – the first step
• ensimmäiset – first (plural)
  
  • ensimmäiset portaat – the first stairs / the first steps

The adjective/ordinal agrees with the noun:

• singular noun → ensimmäinen porras
• plural noun → ensimmäiset portaat

In your original sentence, the subject is one step, so Ensimmäinen porras on liukas uses the singular ensimmäinen.