ORF Life 5d ago Original

Venetsian taidebiennaali peruutettiin lauantaina.

The Venice Art Biennale was canceled on Saturday.

Finnish · A1 level

Simple Finnish

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1.

61. taidebiennaali oli tarkoitus avata tänä vuonna.

The 61st Art Biennale was supposed to open this year.
2.

Israelin osallistumista vastustettiin.

Israel's participation was protested against.
3.

27 maata sulki paviljontinsa perjantaina.

27 countries closed their pavilions on Friday.
4.

Venetsian laguunissa oli uusi taidenäyttely.

There was a new art exhibition in the Venetian lagoon.
5.

Uudessa näyttelyssä oli vedenalainen teema.

The new exhibition had an underwater theme.
6.

Paviljonki seisoi vedessä.

The pavilion stood in the water.
7.

Taide oli tärkeä osa biennaalia.

Art was an important part of the biennale.
8.

Biennaali on suuri taidenäyttely.

The biennale is a big art exhibition.

Key Words

Word	English	Form
peruuttaa peruutettiin	to cancel was canceled	Passive past tense (imperfect)
avata avata	to open	First infinitive (dictionary form)
laguuni laguunissa	lagoon in the lagoon	Inessive case (location inside)
paviljonki paviljonki	pavilion	Nominative singular
seisoa seisoi	to stand stood	Past tense (imperfect)
taide taide-	art art (as a prefix)	Compound word prefix

0. Venetsian taidebiennaali peruutettiin lauantaina.

This sentence uses the passive past tense ('peruutettiin'). In Finnish, the passive is often used to describe actions without specifying who performed them, similar to English 'was canceled.' The passive past is formed by adding '-ttiin' or '-tiin' to the verb stem. For example, 'syödä' (to eat) becomes 'syötiin' (was eaten). This structure is common in news headlines and formal writing.

4. Venetsian laguunissa oli uusi taidenäyttely.

The inessive case ('-ssa/-ssä') is used here to indicate location inside something, like 'in the lagoon.' It is one of the six Finnish locative cases. To form it, add '-ssa' to words ending in a vowel (e.g., 'katu' → 'kadussa' = in the street) or '-ssä' to words ending in a consonant (e.g., 'talo' → 'talossa' = in the house). This case is essential for describing where something is.

6. Paviljonki seisoi vedessä.

This sentence uses the past tense ('seisoi') to describe a completed action. Finnish past tense is formed by adding '-i' to the verb stem, often with vowel changes (e.g., 'puhua' → 'puhui' = spoke). The past tense is used for actions that happened at a specific time in the past, like 'stood.' It’s a key structure for storytelling and describing past events.