Breakdown of Sen sijaan että ottaisin särkylääkettä, kokeilen tätä yrttiä.
tämä
this
ottaa
to take
sen sijaan että
instead of
särkylääke
painkiller
kokeilla
to try (test out)
yrtti
herb
Questions & Answers about Sen sijaan että ottaisin särkylääkettä, kokeilen tätä yrttiä.
Why is ottaisin in the conditional mood when the English translation just says 'taking'?
In Finnish, the phrase sen sijaan että (instead of) introduces an action that you are not actually going to do. Because this action is hypothetical and contrary to fact, Finnish requires the conditional mood marker -isi-. Literally, it translates closer to 'Instead of the fact that I would take...'
Can I just use a noun directly after sen sijaan että, for example 'sen sijaan että särkylääkettä'?
No, sen sijaan että must always be followed by a full clause containing a conjugated verb. If you just want to say 'instead of a painkiller' using only a noun, you drop että and put the noun in the genitive case before the postposition sijaan, giving you särkylääkkeen sijaan.
Why is särkylääkettä (painkiller) in the partitive case here?
In this context, medicine is treated as an uncountable substance. You are taking an unspecified amount of medicine ('some painkiller') rather than a complete, countable object, so it takes the partitive case.
Why is tätä yrttiä (this herb) in the partitive case?
The English translation says 'I will try', but kokeilen is in the present tense. Is there a future tense form?
Finnish does not have a dedicated future tense grammar structure. You simply use the present tense (kokeilen) and rely on the context of the sentence to show that the action will happen in the future.
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