Kertalauseista

Kertalauseista is a term used in some Finnish grammars to describe a class of clauses that consists of a single predication, i.e., a single finite clause. The word is formed from kerta, meaning "time" or "occurrence," and lause, meaning "clause" or "sentence," with the suffix -ista indicating a plural genitive form used in Finnish grammar.

In these descriptions, kertalauseista denotes simple, one-clause sentences, as opposed to complex constructions that contain two or more clauses (including coordinated or embedded clauses). A kertalauseista sentence typically contains a finite verb and expresses one predication; the subject may be explicit or, in Finnish, can be inferred from verbal morphology. It may include modifiers or complements but does not contain subordinate clauses or additional clauses that introduce new predications.

Examples of kertalauseista include: "Koira makaa." (The dog is lying.) "Hän lukee kirjaa." (He/She reads a book.) "Aamu on kaunis." (The morning is beautiful.) "Olen väsynyt." (I am tired.) "Anna minulle vettä." (Give me water.) These examples illustrate single-clause statements that convey a complete proposition without layering subordinate or coordinate clauses.

Usage and significance: The term appears in discussions of Finnish syntax, language education, and corpus linguistics, where researchers distinguish basic predication units from more complex sentence types. Because Finnish allows subject omission via verbal morphology, the distinction aids in teaching, parsing, and computational processing of Finnish sentences.

Note: The term is not universally used; some grammars prefer the more general term yksinkertainen lause (simple sentence).