Talking About the Weather – Ilma Sää Keli
April 9, 2019
September 2, 2024
Whether you want to be able to understand the weather forecast (sääennuste), or will be talking about the weather yourself, the following expressions will be useful to you!
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| Ilma on kaunis. | The weather is beautiful. |
| On kaunis ilma. | The weather is beautiful. |
| On kaunis päivä. | It’s a beautiful day. |
| On pilvinen päivä. | It’s a cloudy day. |
| On kylmä ulkona. | It’s cold outside. |
| On melko kylmä päivä. | It’s a fairly cold day. |
| Aurinko paistaa. | The sun is shining. |
| On oikein kuuma. | It’s really hot. |
| On pilvistä. | It’s cloudy. |
| On liukasta. | It’s slippery. |
| Sataa. | It rains. |
| Sataa vettä. | It rains. (“It rains water”) |
| Sataa lunta. | It snows. (“It rains snow”) |
| Sataa räntää. | It rains wet snow. |
| Sataa rakeita. | It hails. |
| Ei sada | It doesn’t rain. |
| Eilen satoi. | It rained yesterday. |
| Tuulee. | It’s windy. |
| Tuulee oikein kovasti. | It’s very windy. |
| On myrsky. | There’s a (wind)storm. |
| On ukonilma. | There’s a thunderstorm. |
| Salamoi. | There’s lightning. (“It lightens”) |
| On kaksi astetta pakkasta. | It’s minus two degrees. |
| On miinus kaksi astetta. | It’s minus two degrees. |
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| aste | degree |
| aurinko | sun |
| halla | frost |
| helle | heat wave |
| hurrikaani | hurricane |
| kostea | humid |
| lumi | snow |
| pilvi | cloud |
| pouta | dry weather |
| räntä | wet snow |
| sade | rain |
| sadekausi | rain season |
| sadekuuro | rain shower |
| tihkusade | drizzle |
| salama | lightning |
| sateenkaari | rainbow |
| selkeä | clear |
| sumu | mist |
| sää, ilma, keli | weather |
| taivas | sky |
| tulva | flood |
| tuuli | wind |
| ukkonen | thunder |
| viileä | chilly |
Please note:
- When saying “On pilvistä” or “On kylmä” you won’t use a subject! Don’t add “se” in front of these phrases (e.g.
Se on pilvistä.) - In Finnish, it can rain water, it can rain snow or it can rain hail. There is no separate verb for “to snow” or “to hail”.
- The opposite is true as well: Finnish does have some verbs that English doesn’t have. For example, there is a verb that means “to wind” (tuulla), as well as one that means “to lighten” (salamoida).
Questions for Talking about the Weather
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| Millainen ilma tänään on? | What kind of weather is it today? |
| Onko kaunis ilma tänään? | Is the weather beautiful today? |
| Paistaako aurinko? | Does the sun shine? |
| Sataako? | Is it raining? |
| Sataako lunta? | Is it snowing? |
| Luvattiinko sadetta? | Did they predict rain? |
| Tuuleeko? | Is there wind? |
| Kuinka monta astetta on? | How many degrees is it? |
| Kuinka kylmä on? | How cold is it? |
| Onko pakkasta? | Is it freezing? |
The Usage of Weather Adjectives
| Nominative | English | Partitive | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| On pilvinen päivä. | It’s a cloudy day. | On pilvistä. | It’s cloudy. |
| On sateinen päivä. | It’s a rainy day. | On sateista. | It’s rainy. |
| On tuulinen päivä. | It’s a windy day. | On tuulista. | It’s windy. |
| On aurinkoinen päivä. | It’s a sunny day. | On aurinkoista. | It’s sunny. |
| On sumuinen päivä. | It’s a misty/foggy day. | On sumuista. | It’s misty/foggy. |
If this article feels easy to you, how about you check out our article on Finnish winter vocabulary next?
Could you also add how to say “It is plus two degrees”? I think I have read somewhere that it is “On kaksi astetta lämmintä”, but I’m not sure because “lämmin” means warm and it’s not exactly warm when it’s only two degrees! 🙂
Great question!
Plenty warm when it’s two degrees! 😉 Using “lämmintä” is the general way to express any temperature above zero, so even if it’s 45 degrees hot, we’ll still use “lämmintä“.
The use of “lämmintä” and “pakkasta” is of course limited to situations where it could be unclear which of the two is meant. “On 45 astetta lämmintä” is the correct way to say that it’s +45 degrees celsius, but you won’t generally be unsure whether they mean +45 or -45 in that situation, so we just say “on 45 astetta“.
“On plus kaksi astetta” is possible. I generally try to keep my students from using it at all because it’s not the most common expression. It’s such a small thing, but helps towards sounding more fluent in Finnish.
This phrase came to mind: “Lämpötila on vähän plussan puolella.” The temperature is a little bit on the plus side, so maybe +2 or +3.
Pilvinen means cloudy(adj.), Why don’t we say “On pilvinen”, but say “On pilvista(partitive case)”, really don’t understand why we have to use partitive case
This question stumps many Finnish teachers when a student asks them. You can see in this article (the last section) that my example says “On pilvinen päivä” vs. “On pilvistä“. A päivä is a concrete thing, so we use the basic form there. With “pilvistä” you don’t have a concrete thing in the sentence.
In sentences where the verb is “olla”, concrete things usually get the basic form, while abstract or uncountable things get the partitive case. The “concrete vs. abstract” way of looking at things in Finnish is something you should be familiar with if you’ve already studied the complement.
If you’re still in the beginning of your studies, asking “why” is perhaps unneccesary in this situation. It’s a small thing to just use the partitive without analazing it.
Is weather (ilma) considered a specific thing in Finnish? Because it’s always Ilma on kaunis, Ilma on kuuma etc., that is, nominative. I would say that weather is rather abstract and it is not countable. On the other hand, when ilma means air, then it uses partitive. That is understandable because it is a material noun.
Yes, ilma and sää are considered specific things in Finnish: they are limited to the situation of a certain day/period.
Ilma/sää ARE (from a Finnish perspective) countable. Anything that there is only ONE of is considered countable (eg. “Taivas on sininen”, “Avaruus on valtava”).
Thanks for bringing up ilma meaning air! That is indeed easier to understand.
Thanks for your awesome answer, I also read the complement page, and now fully understand why we say “On pilvista”.
I know asking why for learning Finnish as a beginning learner might not be unnecessary, but thanks to uusikielemme for Finnish grammar, I always found the answer in here.
Hi, which one should I use when I say, last year it was rainy? or yesterday was rainy? is it nominative or partitivi?
because A päivä is a concrete thing, so we use the basic form there. are yesterday (eilen, huomena, viime) considered concrete?
esim.
Eilen oli pilvinen or Eilen oli pilvistä?
Viime vuonna oli aurinkoinen? or Viime vuonna oli aurinkoista?
Maanantaina on pilvistä or maanantaina on pilvinen?
syksy on tuulinen or syksy on tuulista?
when I use sää in my sentence I should always use nominative because sää is considered a concrete thing right?
Viime vuonna sää oli aurinkoinen.
Eilen sää oli tuulinen.
Viime vuonna sää oli sateinen.
Great questions!
Eilen oli pilvinen or Eilen oli pilvistä? > The “concrete” aspect only matters to nouns (päivä oli pilvinen, yö oli pilvinen) “Eilen oli pilvistä” has an adverb telling us at what time it was cloudy, not a noun, so you use the partitive case.
The same is true for “Viime vuonna oli aurinkoista“, where “viime vuonna” is an adverb rather than a noun, thus requiring the partitive case. The noun vuosi can be used here: “Kulunut vuosi on ollut pilvinen” (the past year has been cloudy) Also see: “Maanantaina on pilvistä” (It’s cloudy on Monday) vs. “Maanantai on pilvinen” (Monday is cloudy).
Syksy is less absolute, you could technically use both here: “Syksy on tuulinen” (Autumn is windy – We’re speaking of one autumn in particular) vs. “Syksy on tuulista (aikaa)” (Autumn is a period marked with windy times – We’re talking about autumns in general).
Sää + nominative, yes. Note that we can also use the genitive for the time you’re including: Viime vuoden sää oli aurinkoinen (Last year’s weather was sunny) rather than Viime vuonna sää oli aurinkoinen “Last year, the weather was sunny”. Likewise: Eilisen sää oli tuulinen (Yesterday’s weather was windy) vs. Eilen sää oli tuulinen (Yesterday, the weather was windy).
I still struggling to understand, maybe you can help me to figure out it: so why in sentence “ on kylmä” or ”on kuuma” there is no partitive case but in sentences ”on pilvistä” or ”on pakkasta” there is?
I’ve been wondering about the same theme. My guess is that ”kuuma” and ”kylmä” are not only the weather conditions but also same time feelings of a person who goes out.
Thus: ”Minulla on kuuma” ~ ”Ulkona on kuuma”
But on the other hand you CANNOT say:
”Minulla on pilvinen” or ”Minulla on pakkanen”
Perhaps that’s the explanation.