sitten is a small word that quietly does at least four different jobs, and the fourth one — meaning "ago" — catches nearly every learner off guard. Most textbooks introduce it as "then", show you ensin… sitten… ("first… then…"), and move on. But the same word also draws an inference ("if X, then Y"), tags a question in conversation (mitä sitten?, "so then?"), and, paired with a stretch of time, flips to mean "ago" (viikko sitten, "a week ago"). This page covers those discourse and connective uses; the plainer time-adverb readings ("at that time, afterwards") are handled under time adverbs.
One housekeeping note first: in everyday speech sitten clips to sit (and sometimes sitte). You will hear and read sit constantly, but in standard writing you spell it out in full — sitten. Keep that split in mind for every example below.
Sequencer: "then, after that"
The bread-and-butter use. sitten chains events in order, almost always after an opening ensin ("first") — ensin… sitten… is the fixed frame for laying out steps. This is the "then" of instructions, plans, and narration.
Ensin syödään, sitten lähdetään.
First we'll eat, then we'll head off.
Käydään ensin kaupassa, ja sitten mennään kotiin.
Let's go to the shop first, and then head home.
Katson vielä tän ohjelman loppuun, sit meen nukkumaan.
I'll watch this show to the end, then I'll go to bed. (tän = tämän; sit = sitten; meen = menen)
In a stretch of storytelling, sitten (or ja sitten…) is the connective that keeps a narrative moving from one event to the next — the Finnish "and then…" of an anecdote.
Inferential "then": if X, then Y
sitten also draws a consequence out of a condition. After a jos ("if") clause, it introduces the result — "if it rains, then we'll stay in". Here it is a logical "then", not a temporal one. Note that Finnish often pairs the jos-clause with niin as well, and niin and sitten can even stack (niin sitten).
Jos sataa, sitten jäädään sisälle.
If it rains, then we'll stay inside.
Jos sä et ehdi, niin sitten mä hoidan sen itse.
If you don't have time, then I'll deal with it myself. (sä = sinä; mä = minä)
Jos se ei toimi, sitten kokeillaan jotain muuta.
If that doesn't work, then we'll try something else.
Discourse tag: "so then? / what then?"
In conversation, sitten attaches to a short question — most famously mitä sitten? ("so what? / what then?") and no mitä sitten? — to press for a consequence or to challenge one. It nudges the other person toward the "…and so?" of what they just said.
—En mä ehdi tänään. —No mitä sitten? Mennään huomenna.
—I don't have time today. —So then what? Let's go tomorrow. (no = 'well')
—Se saattaa maksaa vähän enemmän. —No entä sitten? Otetaan silti.
—It might cost a bit more. —So what then? Let's take it anyway. (entä = 'and what about'; silti = 'anyway')
Ai sä muutat Ouluun. No, mitäs sitten teet siellä?
Oh, you're moving to Oulu. So, what will you do there then? (mitäs = mitä + -s softener)
This is the same particle riding along inside the frame no niin and its relatives — the machinery of keeping a conversation moving.
The surprise: "ago"
Here is the one nobody expects. Placed after a span of time, sitten means "ago": viikko sitten = "a week ago", kaksi vuotta sitten = "two years ago". This has nothing to do with "then" as English hears it — it is a full-blown "ago". And crucially, it sits in the same spot English "ago" does: after the time phrase, never before it.
Muutin Suomeen kaksi vuotta sitten.
I moved to Finland two years ago.
Nähtiin viimeksi vain viikko sitten.
We last saw each other only a week ago.
Se tapahtui kolme päivää sitten, en muista tarkkaan.
It happened three days ago, I don't remember exactly.
Notice the case of the time word: with "one" you use the bare nominative (viikko sitten, vuosi sitten), but with two or more the counted noun goes into the partitive singular (kaksi vuotta sitten, kolme päivää sitten) — the same number rule that governs any counted noun (see time expressions).
Common Mistakes
❌ Sitten kaksi vuotta muutin Suomeen.
Wrong order for 'ago'. sitten must follow the time span, not lead it — front-position sitten reads as 'then'.
✅ Kaksi vuotta sitten muutin Suomeen.
Two years ago I moved to Finland.
❌ Reaching for 'aika sitten' or a preposition to say 'ago'.
Finnish has no preposition here; 'ago' IS sitten placed after the time phrase.
✅ Se oli kauan sitten.
That was a long time ago. (kauan sitten = 'long ago')
❌ Writing 'Ensin syödään, sit lähetään' in a formal text.
sit and lähetään are spoken clips; standard writing uses sitten and lähdetään.
✅ Ensin syödään, sitten lähdetään.
First we eat, then we leave. (full written forms)
❌ Hearing 'No mitä sitten?' as a request for the literal time 'when'.
mitä sitten? is a discourse challenge — 'so what? / what then?' — not a question about a moment in time.
✅ —Myöhästyin. —No mitä sitten, ei se mitään.
—I was late. —So what, it doesn't matter.
The thread tying all four uses together is consequence in some ordering — of events (sequence), of logic (inference), of conversation (the tag), or of time reckoned backward from now ("ago"). One word, four angles on "and after that…". Master the "ago" placement especially, because it is the use that stays invisible until you suddenly need it.
Key Takeaways
- sitten (spoken clip sit / sitte; written in full) covers "then" and, surprisingly, "ago".
- Sequencer: ensin… sitten… chains steps and drives narration ("first… then…").
- Inferential: after jos it introduces the result ("if X, then Y"), often stacked as niin sitten.
- Discourse tag: mitä sitten? / no mitä sitten? presses for or challenges a consequence ("so what then?").
- "Ago": placed after a time span — viikko sitten, kaksi vuotta sitten — with the counted noun in partitive from "two" up. The order is fixed, exactly like English "ago".
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- no niin: 'okay then'B1 — no niin is Finnish's all-purpose boundary marker — it opens a task ('right, let's…'), refocuses a group, scolds ('now then!'), and signals closure ('there we go'). Intonation alone stretches it from 'let's begin' to 'I told you so'.
- Markers in StorytellingC1 — How discourse markers structure a spoken Finnish story: openers (no, no niin), sequencers (sitten, ja sitten, ensin), continuers (niin, ja), reformulators (siis, eli) and closers (no niin, ja sillä selvä) — with an annotated anecdote.
- Time Adverbs: nyt, eilen, huomenna, pianA1 — The core Finnish time adverbs — nyt, eilen, tänään, huomenna — plus jo/vielä (already/still), and the frozen case forms like aamulla and keväällä.
- Cases in Time ExpressionsB1 — Finnish packs time onto the noun's case: essive for days, adessive for seasons, inessive for 'within', translative for deadlines, and -n for duration.
- Discourse Markers: An OverviewB1 — A map of the little Finnish words — no, niin, joo, siis, tota, niinku, kuitenkin — that organize conversation, sorted by function, with each marker deferred to its own page.