Learn Finnish: Kannattaa nukkua vähintään kahdeksan tuntia yössä. - One should sleep at least eight hours a night.

Kannattaa nukkua vähintään kahdeksan tuntia yössä.

One should sleep at least eight hours a night.

Breakdown of Kannattaa nukkua vähintään kahdeksan tuntia yössä.

Questions & Answers about Kannattaa nukkua vähintään kahdeksan tuntia yössä.

Why is there no subject like 'you' or 'one' in this sentence?

This sentence uses the generic zero-person construction. To express "one does something" or a general "you do something", Finnish simply drops the subject and uses the third-person singular verb. Here, starting with kannattaa creates a general recommendation for anyone.

Why use kannattaa instead of pitää or täytyy for 'should'?

Pitää and täytyy express a strong necessity, like "must" or "have to". Kannattaa, on the other hand, literally means "it is worthwhile" or "it pays off". When you want to give general advice or say "one should", kannattaa is much more natural than stating a strict obligation.

Why is the word for hour (tunti) in the partitive case (tuntia)?

As a quick refresher: in Finnish, any basic number greater than one requires the noun that follows it to be in the partitive singular. That is why kahdeksan (eight) is followed by tuntia, which is the partitive of tunti.

Why is the inessive case used for yössä (in a night) instead of a direct translation for 'per'?

The inessive case ending -ssa or -ssä (meaning "in") is commonly used in Finnish to express "per" or "a" when talking about time periods and frequency. So yössä literally means "in a night", but translates smoothly to "per night" or "a night".