Questions & Answers about Minä kirjoitan nyt viestiä.
This lesson is about the -n object ending. Why does viesti have an -ä ending instead of an -n here?
Because the action is ongoing and not finished yet! The word nyt (now) tells us you are in the middle of writing. We only use the -n ending (the genitive-accusative object) when an action is meant to be fully completed. For ongoing, incomplete actions like "I am writing," we must use the partitive case, which gives us viestiä.
Why is the partitive ending -ä instead of -a for viestiä?
This is due to vowel harmony. The base word viesti contains the vowels i and e. Because it doesn't have any of the "back" vowels (a, o, u), it pairs with the "front" vowel ending -ä.
Do I have to use the word minä (I) at the beginning of the sentence?
No, you can simply say Kirjoitan nyt viestiä. Because the verb ending -n in kirjoitan already tells us that "I" am doing the action, the pronoun minä is optional and very frequently dropped in conversational Finnish.
Can I put nyt at the end of the sentence like in English: Minä kirjoitan viestiä nyt?
Yes, you can! Finnish word order is quite flexible. Putting nyt after the verb is a very common, neutral way to structure the sentence, but placing it at the end is also perfectly correct.
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