Finnish for "the cat is on the table" (literally "cat/is/on-table"). Apart from its use somewhere in the first couple of chapters of Finnish primers as an illustration of use the adessive case, an inconsequential phrase, except that, if uttered in an appropriately threatening tone of voice (which is the usual result when an English speaker tries to do a Finnish accent) it is quite effective as a means of scaring most cats off most tables. For variety and practice with Finnish case endings, you can also try the ablative case variation: Kissa pöydältä! - "Cat off (from on) the table!", while if your table has more than one cat, kissat ovat pöydällä may do the task in an agreeably correct fashion.

NB: make sure you give the double S its appropriate length. No guarantees apply otherwise, or in any event in the presence of smoked salmon.


Gn0sis informs me that the phrase is also a genuine Finnish idiom, meaning something along the same lines as "the ball's in your court": the cat's on the table, what are you going to do about it?

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