| Grammar Notes: Sentence Breakdown: Ilma on savuinen ja kaupunki on kiireinen. 1. Ilma - This word means "air". It is a common noun and the subject of the first clause. In Finnish, nouns do not necessarily require an article as they do in English. 2. on - This is the third person singular form of "olla", which means "to be". It is used here as the verb in both the first and the second clause of the sentence. 3. savuinen - This adjective means "smoky". It describes the noun "ilma". The "-inen" suffix is commonly used in Finnish to form adjectives. 4. ja - This conjunction means "and". It is used to connect the two independent clauses in the sentence. 5. kaupunki - This noun means "city". It is the subject of the second clause of the sentence. 6. kiireinen - This adjective means "busy". It describes the noun "kaupunki". Like "savuinen", the "-inen" suffix here is used to form an adjective. Infinitives and Grammar Forms: - olla - "to be" (Infinitive form of "on"). General Grammar Tip: - Finnish uses adjectives to directly modify nouns, similar to English. However, unlike English, adjectives and nouns in Finnish must agree in number and case. The example sentence uses basic nominative case, which is straightforward as it's the form found in dictionaries. Related Words: - täynnä - means "full". It can be used to describe places, like "kaupunki on täynnä ihmisiä" (the city is full of people). - raikas - means "fresh". It could describe "ilma", for example "ilma on raikas" (the air is fresh). |
