Breakdown of Mä vastaan sun viestiin.
viesti
message
vastata
to answer
sä
you (spoken, incl. sun, sua)
mä
I (spoken, incl. mun, mua, mulla, mulle)
Questions & Answers about Mä vastaan sun viestiin.
What do mä and sun stand for in standard Finnish?
Mä is the spoken language (puhekieli) version of minä (I). Sun is the spoken version of sinun, which is the genitive form meaning 'your'. In standard written language (kirjakieli), this sentence would begin Minä vastaan sinun...
Why is the word for message in the illative case (viestiin)?
The verb vastata (to answer) requires the illative case. In Finnish, you do not just answer a message, you answer 'into' a message. That is why viesti takes the -in ending here.
What happened to the possessive suffix on the word for message?
In standard Finnish, 'to your message' would be sinun viestiisi (adding the -si possessive suffix). However, in spoken Finnish, people usually drop the possessive suffix and just rely on the genitive pronoun (sun) to show ownership, resulting in simply sun viestiin.
The English translation says 'I will answer', but isn't vastaan in the present tense?
Yes! Finnish does not have a dedicated future tense. You use the present tense for future actions, and the context makes it clear whether it is happening right now or later.
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