olla otsaa

Finnish

Etymology

Literally, “to have forehead”

Verb

olla otsaa

1. (idiomatic, impersonal + adessive) to have the nerve [with first infinitive ‘to do’] (do something that the speaker considers impudent)

   Hänellä oli otsaa pyytää lainaa, vaikka ei ollut maksanut edellisestä edes korkoja.

   He had the nerve to ask for a new loan, even though he had not even paid the interest on the old one.

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.