Absolute superlatiivi in Finnish

[SmotritelTerve]

I translated the following sentence:

Silloin päätin, että en enää ikinä mene ulkomaille, kun Suomessa on kesä parhaimmillaan.

parha + immi + llaan - "at best"

I have a question about suffix "-llaan".
Could you please explain me its meaning and its role in the sentence?

[Varislintu]

My amateur explanation:

Parhaimmillaan, if taken literally, means "on its bests". (Parhaimmat=>parhaimmillaan.) That, coupled with olla, is a construction in Finnish that expresses how something is at its best. You can use it to describe other ultimate states, too:

Matti oli huonoimmillaan. (Matti was the worst he had ever been.) [for example healthwise]

Päivä oli kirkkaimmillaan. (The day was at its brightest.)

[SmotritelTerve]

Kiitos!

another question:

so is it possible to use "immi" with singular nouns?

[Varislintu]

Kiitos!

another question:

so is it possible to use "immi" with singular nouns?

Hmm, let me think...

Do you mean nouns or adjectives? The noun can be singular, as in the examples above, even when coupled with an adjective that is plural (-immi-). However, the way I see it, the adjective itself can't be conjugated with -immi- and still be singular.

I found this page, and even though it could be clearer, it does list -immi- as one of the plural conjugations of the superlative:

http://www11.edu.fi/ymmarra/index.php?m ... ailuasteet

[SmotritelTerve]

Kiitos !

I supposed it should be like : kun Suomessa on kesät parhaimmillaan

[Varislintu]

Kiitos !

I supposed it should be like : kun Suomessa on kesät parhaimmillaan

Ah, I see. No, kesä can be in singular, because parhaimmat doesn't really refer to kesä, but rather something rather abstract that kesä "owns" (-aan) and is "on" (-lla). What exactly is figuratively referred to in this construction, I'm not sure.