olla varaa

Finnish

Etymology

olla (“to have”) + varaa (“means”)

Verb

olla varaa

1. (impersonal + adessive) to afford (to incur, stand, or bear without serious detriment, to have sufficient funds for)

   Uskon, että meillä on varaa tarvittavaan lisätuntiin.

   I think we can afford the extra hour it will take.

   Meillä on nyt varaa vain pieneen autoon.’’

   We can only afford to buy a small car at the moment.

Conjugation

This impersonal verb is always used in the third person singular, but may be inflected in tense (such as present or past) and mood (such as indicative or conditional). The 'subject' of the verb is inflected in the adessive case. To see the conjugated forms of the verb, see olla. varaa is not inflected.