kertaa

Kertaa is the partitive singular form of the Finnish noun kerta, which means “time,” “occurrence,” or “occasion.” In standard Finnish, kertaa is used when describing how many times an event happens, typically after numerals or in phrases that express repetition.

Common usages include phrases such as ensimmäistä kertaa (for the first time), toista kertaa (for the second time), and kolmatta kertaa (for the third time). In these expressions, kertaa appears in its partitive form after ordinal or cardinal numerals to denote frequency. The construction is widely understood in everyday speech and is also common in written Finnish, including journalism, literature, and instructional materials.

Origin and linguistic notes: The word kerta is a basic Finnish noun with cognates in other Finnic languages. The form kertaa is specifically the partitive singular used in counting repetitions. Finnish nouns undergo various inflections to indicate case and number, and kertaa is one of the standard forms applicable when expressing multiplicity of occasions. This usage is stable across contemporary Finnish and remains a routine way to talk about how many times something occurs.