Breakdown of Lepäämme kotona sen sijaan että menisimme apteekkiin.
kotona
at home
mennä
to go
levätä
to rest
apteekki
pharmacy
Questions & Answers about Lepäämme kotona sen sijaan että menisimme apteekkiin.
Why does this sentence use the conditional menisimme instead of just the regular present tense menemme?
The phrase sen sijaan että introduces an action that you are choosing not to do. Because the action of going to the pharmacy is hypothetical rather than real, Finnish requires the conditional marker -isi- in the verb that follows it.
In English we say 'instead of going'. Can I use a basic dictionary form of the verb here instead of conjugating it as menisimme?
No, you cannot use an infinitive after this conjunction. The word että always starts a new clause, which means it needs a fully conjugated verb that matches the subject. Here, it takes the -mme ending for 'we'.
Why is 'at home' translated as kotona? Shouldn't it use the regular 'in' ending to become kodissa?
The word koti (home) is a very common exception. To say 'at home', Finnish uses an old location ending -na (the essive case) to make kotona, rather than the standard -ssa ending.
Why does the word apteekki change to apteekkiin in this sentence?
Because the hypothetical action is going into a specific location, it requires the illative case. For a word ending in a single vowel like apteekki, you form this by doubling that final vowel and adding -n.