Learn Finnish: Opiskelijoille suositellaan ainakin sata grammaa proteiinia päivässä. - At least a hundred grams of protein a day is recommended for students.

Both words mean "at least" and are often interchangeable when talking about quantities. However, vähintään is strictly for mathematical minimums or strict limits. ainakin adds a slight subjective tone or emphasis, suggesting "at the very least this much, though more would be good." Here, it makes the recommendation feel a bit more encouraging rather than a strict medical limit.

Why is the number "sata" in the nominative case rather than the partitive, since it's the object of the recommendation?

The verb suositellaan is in the passive voice. In Finnish, the total object of a passive verb takes the nominative case instead of the normal object cases. Because it's an exact quantity acting as a full object, sata stays nominative.

Why are both "grammaa" and "proteiinia" in the partitive case?

They are partitive for two different reasons in a chain. First, grammaa is partitive because it directly follows a number greater than one (sata). Second, proteiinia is partitive because it follows a unit of measurement (grammaa).

Why does the sentence use the inessive case "päivässä" to say "a day"?

When expressing a rate or how much happens within a certain time frame (like "per day" or "a week"), Finnish typically uses the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä). It literally means "in a day", which is how Finnish handles these frequency and rate expressions.