Questions & Answers about Juon usein kylmää vettä.
Why is it kylmää vettä instead of just kylmä vettä?
In Finnish, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe. This means they have to be in the exact same case. Because the noun is in the partitive case (vettä), the adjective "cold" must also take the partitive ending to become kylmää.
Why do we use the partitive case for the water here?
Water is a "mass noun"—an uncountable substance. When a mass noun is the object of an action, like the thing you are drinking, it takes the partitive case. This shows you are drinking an unspecified amount of water, rather than all the water in the world.
The dictionary says "water" is vesi. How does it become vettä?
Many older Finnish words ending in -si, like vesi (water) or uusi (new), follow a special pattern when you add endings. To form the partitive case, the -si changes to -ttä. So, vesi becomes vettä.
Where is the word for "I" (minä) in this sentence?
The verb juon (I drink) already ends in -n, which is the personal ending for "I". Because the verb clearly tells us who is doing the action, it is very common in Finnish to leave out the words minä (I) and sinä (you).