Questions & Answers about Tässä viestissä on linkki.
Tässä is the inessive case of tämä (this).
- tämä = this (basic dictionary form)
- tässä = in this / here (in this place/thing)
Because the sentence talks about something being inside the message, Finnish uses a location form (tässä) rather than the plain demonstrative (tämä).
Viestissä is viesti (message) in the inessive case, which means in something.
- viesti = message
- viestissä = in the message
The ending -ssa/-ssä is the inessive ending. It corresponds most often to English in.
This is vowel harmony. Finnish chooses -ssä if the word contains front vowels (ä, ö, y).
Since viesti contains e (a neutral vowel), the choice depends on the “frontness” of the word pattern, and Finnish uses -ssä here: viestissä.
(Practical rule: you’ll often just learn the inessive as a whole form; with ä/ö/y you can be confident it will be -ssä.)
Finnish doesn’t use an expletive there. Instead, it typically uses:
- a location first (Tässä viestissä = in this message)
- then the verb on (is/exists)
- then the thing that exists (linkki)
So Tässä viestissä on linkki is literally like In this message is a link, meaning There is a link in this message.
Both are possible but the focus changes.
Tässä viestissä on linkki.
Natural “existential” style: you’re introducing new information (a link) and stating its location.Linkki on tässä viestissä.
More like identifying where a specific link is: The link is in this message.
It sounds like the link is already known in the conversation.
So the original word order fits best when you’re simply informing someone that the message contains a link.
In Finnish existential sentences, the “thing that exists” is often:
- nominative singular when it’s one whole, countable item: on linkki = there is a link
- partitive when it’s incomplete/uncountable/indefinite quantity, or in negatives
Examples:
- Tässä viestissä on linkki. = There is a (one) link in this message.
- Tässä viestissä on linkkejä. = There are (some) links in this message. (partitive plural)
- Tässä viestissä ei ole linkkiä. = There is no link in this message. (negative → partitive)
Linkki is a common loanword meaning link (especially a web link). It behaves like a normal Finnish noun:
- singular: linkki
- plural: linkit (basic plural)
- “some links”: linkkejä (partitive plural)
So you might also see: Tässä viestissä on kaksi linkkiä = There are two links in this message.
The inessive ending is -ssa/-ssä, so it adds ss as part of the ending:
- viesti
- -ssä → viestissä
Nothing irregular is happening here; the double s is just the normal shape of the inessive ending.
Yes. Viestissä on linkki means There is a link in the message (or The message contains a link).
Adding tässä makes it more specific: in this message (the one we’re looking at / this one you just received).
Finnish often avoids a direct “have” structure in this kind of sentence and prefers the location/existence pattern you see here.
But you can use sisältää (to contain) if you want:
- Tämä viesti sisältää linkin. = This message contains a link.
Notice linkin is the accusative/genitive-like form used for a total object in an affirmative clause with sisältää.
- tässä = in this / here in this specific thing or spot (often very specific, “right here”)
- täällä = here (in this general area/place)
With viestissä you normally use tässä, because you mean in this message, not “in this area.”
Täällä viestissä sounds unnatural; you’d typically say either Tässä viestissä (in this message) or just Täällä on linkki (There is a link here), depending on what “here” refers to.