Questions & Answers about Minä herään aamulla.
How do we get herään from the dictionary form?
The dictionary form is herätä (to wake up), which is a Type 4 verb because it ends in -tä. To find the stem for Type 4 verbs, we drop the -tä and add an extra vowel matching the one just before it (so we add another -ä). This gives us the stem herää-. Finally, we add the personal ending -n for 'I', making it herään.
If I wanted to say 'I do not wake up', how would I change this?
To make a negative sentence, you use the negative verb en (I don't) along with the verb stem without any personal endings. Since the stem for herätä is herää-, 'I don't wake up' is simply minä en herää.
Why does aamu (morning) have the ending -lla here?
The ending -lla or -llä normally means 'on' or 'at' a place, but Finnish also uses it with times of the day to mean 'in the' or 'during the'. By adding -lla to aamu, we get aamulla, which means 'in the morning'.
Could I drop the word minä from this sentence?
Yes! Because the verb ending -n in herään already tells us exactly who is doing the action (I), it is very common and natural in spoken Finnish to leave out the pronoun and just say Herään aamulla.
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