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Laina-aika lyhenee, jos varausjono on pitkä.

Laina-aika lyhenee, jos varausjono on pitkä.
The loan period gets shorter if the reservation queue is long.
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Questions & Answers about Laina-aika lyhenee, jos varausjono on pitkä.

Why is laina-aika written with a hyphen? Isn’t Finnish usually written as one long compound word?

Finnish compounds are usually written as one word, but a hyphen is often used when the end of the first part and the beginning of the second part have the same vowel, especially a + a, to make the boundary clear and readability better.
So laina + aika → laina-aika.
Without the hyphen (laina-aika vs lainaaika), it can look harder to parse.

What exactly is the grammar of laina-aika?

It’s a compound noun:

  • laina = loan / borrowing
  • aika = time / period
    Together: laina-aika = the loan period (the time you’re allowed to keep something).

In this sentence it’s in the nominative singular, acting as the subject.

What form is lyhenee, and how does it work?

Lyhenee is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb lyhentyä = to become shorter / to shorten (by itself).
So the structure is:

  • laina-aika (subject) + lyhenee (changes state: becomes shorter)

This is an intransitive “change-of-state” verb: the loan period shortens (not “someone shortens it” in this wording).

Could I also say something like lyhentää here?

Yes, but it changes the structure and focus.

  • Laina-aika lyhenee = the loan period shortens (by rule/automatically; result-focused)
  • Kirjasto lyhentää laina-aikaa = the library shortens the loan period (agent-focused)

So lyhentää would require an explicit doer and the object typically in partitive: laina-aikaa.

Why is there a comma before jos?

In Finnish, you generally put a comma between a main clause and a subordinate clause, including jos (if) clauses.
So: Laina-aika lyhenee, jos … is standard punctuation.

Is the word order fixed? Could jos come first?

Both are possible. You can also start with the jos clause:

  • Jos varausjono on pitkä, laina-aika lyhenee.

Meaning stays the same; it just changes what comes first in the sentence (often used for emphasis or flow).

What does varausjono mean grammatically, and why is it one word?

Varausjono is a compound noun:

  • varaus = reservation/hold
  • jono = queue/line
    Together: varausjono = reservation queue (the list of people waiting due to reservations).

No hyphen is needed because the word boundary is clear: varaus + jono → varausjono.

Why is it varausjono on pitkä (nominative pitkä) and not pitkää?

Because pitkä is a predicate adjective describing the subject varausjono. With a singular nominative subject, the predicate adjective is typically nominative singular too:

  • varausjono (nom. sg.) + on
    • pitkä (nom. sg.)

You often see partitive in predicate position in other situations (e.g., with quantities, mass nouns, or certain meanings), but here it’s a straightforward “X is long” statement.

What tense is this sentence in, and does it imply future?

It’s in the present tense:

  • lyhenee = shortens
  • on = is

Finnish present tense is commonly used for general rules and habitual facts, so it can feel like “will shorten” in English when describing what happens under a condition.

Is jos always followed by the verb in a special form (like a conditional mood)?

No. Finnish jos does not require a special verb form. You typically use normal indicative forms:

  • jos varausjono on pitkä (if the queue is long)

Finnish does have a conditional mood (ending often -isi-), but that’s for “would” meanings, not automatically for if clauses. For example:

  • Jos se olisi pitkä, … = If it were long, … (hypothetical)
Could the sentence include niin (like “then”)?

Yes. Finnish can optionally include niin in the main clause, especially when the jos clause comes first:

  • Jos varausjono on pitkä, niin laina-aika lyhenee.

It’s similar to English “If…, then…”, but it’s often omitted in neutral style.