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Minä katson harvoin televisiota.

Minä katson harvoin televisiota.
I rarely watch television.
From Lesson 74:Adverb formation (-sti)·Finnish

Breakdown of Minä katson harvoin televisiota.

minä
I
katsoa
to watch
televisio
television
harvoin
rarely, seldom

Questions & Answers about Minä katson harvoin televisiota.

This lesson is about making adverbs with -sti, so why does the word for 'rarely' end in -oin?
Harvoin is an important exception to the -sti rule. While the base adjective is harva (sparse or rare), the adverb form does not become 'harvasti'. Instead, it takes an irregular -in ending to become harvoin (rarely).
Why is the word for television in the partitive case (televisiota)?
The verb katsoa (to watch) is a partitive verb, meaning it requires its object to be in the partitive case. This is because watching is treated as an ongoing, incomplete action - you are watching some amount of programming, not finishing the entire concept of television.
Is it okay to move the adverb harvoin to the end of the sentence?
Yes, Finnish word order is quite flexible. You can absolutely say Minä katson televisiota harvoin. Placing harvoin directly after the verb just puts a slightly stronger emphasis on the frequency of the action.
Since the verb already ends in -n, do I have to say the pronoun minä?
You do not! Because the -n on katson clearly means 'I', dropping the pronoun is very common. Saying Katson harvoin televisiota sounds perfectly natural in everyday spoken Finnish.

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