Breakdown of Lepää sängyssäsi, kunnes haava on parantunut.
olla
to be
sänky
the bed
levätä
to rest
kunnes
until
parantua
to get better, to heal (recover)
haava
wound
Questions & Answers about Lepää sängyssäsi, kunnes haava on parantunut.
Do I always need a comma before kunnes?
Yes. kunnes (until) is a subordinate conjunction, meaning it starts a subordinate clause. In Finnish, you almost always separate a main clause (Lepää sängyssäsi) from a subordinate clause (kunnes haava on parantunut) with a comma.
Why is the kunnes clause in the perfect tense (on parantunut) instead of the present tense (parantuu)?
Using the perfect tense (on parantunut, has healed) emphasizes that the action must be completely finished before the resting can stop. You could also use the present tense here (kunnes haava parantuu, until the wound heals), but the perfect tense is very common with kunnes to highlight the completion of an event.
The verb lepää looks different from its dictionary form. What is happening here?
Lepää is the imperative (command) form of levätä (to rest). Because levätä is a type 4 verb, it undergoes reverse consonant gradation when conjugated. The weak v in the dictionary form becomes a strong p in the stem, giving us lepää.
How are the endings on sängyssäsi stacked?
It starts with the noun sänky (bed). First, we add the inessive case ending -ssä (in), which triggers consonant gradation and changes the nk to ng, making it sängyssä. Finally, we add the second-person singular possessive suffix -si (your) to the end.
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