Leima puuttuu tästä paperista.

The stamp is missing from this paper.

Breakdown of Leima puuttuu tästä paperista.

• tämä: this
• -sta: from
• puuttua: to be missing
• leima: stamp
• paperi: paper

Questions & Answers about Leima puuttuu tästä paperista.

What does puuttuu mean here, and how is it used in Finnish?

Puuttuu is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb puuttua, meaning to be missing / to be lacking.

A key point is that Finnish often expresses “X is missing from Y” with:

• X (nominative)
  • puuttuu
    • Y (elative -sta/-stä)

So Leima puuttuu tästä paperista is literally “A/the stamp is missing from this paper.”

Related examples:

• Nimi puuttuu listasta. = The name is missing from the list.
• Yksi sivu puuttuu kirjasta. = One page is missing from the book.

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Why is leima in the basic form (nominative) and not in the partitive like leimaa?

With puuttua, the “missing thing” is typically the grammatical subject, so it appears in the nominative (or plural nominative).

• Leima puuttuu… (singular subject → verb puuttuu)

You’ll see the partitive more with other “lack” expressions, especially ei ole in existential-type structures:

• Tässä paperissa ei ole leimaa. = There is no stamp on/in this paper.

Both are natural, but they frame the situation differently:

• Leima puuttuu tästä paperista. = focuses on the stamp being missing
• Tässä paperissa ei ole leimaa. = focuses on the paper not having a stamp

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Why does it say tästä paperista (elative, “from this paper”) instead of tässä paperissa (“in this paper”)?

Because puuttua commonly takes the elative case (-sta/-stä) to mark the source/container that something is missing from.

• tästä paperista = “from this paper (out of it / lacking from it)”

If you use the inessive tässä paperissa, the structure usually changes to an “existence” pattern:

• Tässä paperissa ei ole leimaa. = There isn’t a stamp on/in this paper.

So it’s not that paperista means someone physically removed it; it’s just the normal case choice with puuttua.

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Could I also say Leima puuttuu tältä paperilta? What’s the difference?

Yes, Leima puuttuu tältä paperilta can be possible, but it shifts the image slightly.

• paperista (elative) tends to treat the paper as a kind of “container/source” you’re missing something from.
• paperilta (ablative) treats it more like a “surface/origin point” (like “off the paper”).

With a stamp, both can make sense depending on context (stamp on the paper vs part of the document). In many everyday cases, paperista is the more standard choice with puuttua.

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What does tästä mean exactly, and why is it tästä and not tämä?

tästä is the elative form of tämä (“this”). It means from this.

• Base form: tämä = this (thing)
• Elative: tästä = from this

It agrees in case with paperista (also elative), so together:

• tästä paperista = from this paper

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How does word order work here? Could I say Tästä paperista puuttuu leima?

Yes, Tästä paperista puuttuu leima is also correct.

Word order affects emphasis:

• Leima puuttuu tästä paperista. = emphasis on leima (the stamp)
• Tästä paperista puuttuu leima. = emphasis on tästä paperista (this paper)

Finnish word order is flexible, but the “neutral” default often puts known context first and new/important info later—or vice versa depending on what you want to highlight.

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Does Leima puuttuu tästä paperista mean “the stamp is missing” or “a stamp is missing”? There’s no “the/a”.

Finnish has no articles (a/an/the), so leima can be understood as:

• the stamp (if it’s contextually specific/expected), or
• a stamp (if it’s introducing the idea)

In real use, this sentence often implies a specific expected stamp (so English would frequently use the): “The stamp is missing from this paper.”

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How do I negate this sentence?

Finnish negation uses the negative verb ei + the main verb in a special form (connegative).

• Leima ei puutu tästä paperista. = The stamp is not missing from this paper.

For plural:

• Leimat eivät puutu tästä paperista. = The stamps are not missing from this paper.

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How would this change in the past tense?

Past tense (imperfect) of puuttua is puuttui (singular) / puuttuivat (plural).

• Leima puuttui tästä paperista. = The stamp was missing from this paper.
• Leimat puuttuivat tästä paperista. = The stamps were missing from this paper.

Negated past:

• Leima ei puuttunut tästä paperista. = The stamp wasn’t missing from this paper.

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What if more than one stamp is missing—how does agreement work?

Then the subject becomes plural, and the verb agrees in number:

• Leimat puuttuvat tästä paperista. = The stamps are missing from this paper.

Finnish verb agreement is straightforward here:

• singular leima → puuttuu
• plural leimat → puuttuvat