Älymittari lähettää tiedot automaattisesti.

Finnish very often makes compound nouns, where English might use two words.

• äly = intelligence, smartness
• mittari = meter, gauge

So älymittari literally means smart meter.

This is extremely common in Finnish. Instead of writing separate words, Finnish usually joins them into one compound word.

Lähettää is the 3rd person singular present tense form, meaning sends or transmits.

The subject is älymittari, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• minä lähetän = I send
• sinä lähetät = you send
• hän/se lähettää = he/she/it sends

So in Älymittari lähettää tiedot automaattisesti, the verb matches the singular subject älymittari.

Because tiedot is the plural form.

• tieto = a piece of information, a fact, information
• tiedot = the information, the data, the details

In many contexts, Finnish uses tiedot where English might say the data or the information. It often refers to a set of information rather than just one item.

So here lähettää tiedot means sends the data/information.

This is a very common learner question, because Finnish object forms do not always match English expectations.

Here, tiedot is the total object in the plural. In practice, that means it has the same form as the nominative plural.

Why? Because the sentence describes a complete action: the smart meter sends all the data / the data as a whole.

Compare the idea:

• lähettää tiedot = send the data completely
• lähettää tietoja = send some data / send data in an ongoing, incomplete, or partial sense

So in this sentence, tiedot shows that the object is understood as a complete whole, not just an indefinite amount.

Automaattisesti means automatically.

It comes from automaattinen = automatic.
Finnish often makes adverbs from adjectives by adding -sti:

• nopea = fast → nopeasti = quickly
• varma = certain → varmasti = certainly
• automaattinen = automatic → automaattisesti = automatically

So automaattisesti is an adverb describing how the smart meter sends the data.

Finnish has no articles, so there is no direct equivalent of English a/an or the.

That means a noun like älymittari can mean:

• a smart meter
• the smart meter
• smart meter in a general sense

The exact meaning depends on context.

The same is true for tiedot. Depending on context, it can mean:

• the data
• data
• the information

English speakers often look for articles, but Finnish simply does not use them.

The basic word order here is very natural:

• Älymittari = subject
• lähettää = verb
• tiedot = object
• automaattisesti = adverb

So this is a normal subject–verb–object sentence.

However, Finnish word order is more flexible than English, because case endings help show grammatical roles. You could move words around for emphasis, for example:

• Älymittari lähettää tiedot automaattisesti. = neutral
• Tiedot älymittari lähettää automaattisesti. = emphasis on the data
• Automaattisesti älymittari lähettää tiedot. = emphasis on automatically

Even so, the original version is the most neutral and standard.

Because lähettää specifically means to send, to dispatch, or to transmit.

That makes it a very natural choice for devices, systems, messages, and data.

For example:

• lähettää viestin = send a message
• lähettää sähkönkulutustiedot = send electricity consumption data

By contrast, antaa usually means give, which would sound different in meaning.

So älymittari lähettää tiedot is the natural Finnish way to say that the meter transmits the data.

A rough pronunciation guide for an English speaker is:

AE-luu-mit-ta-ri LA-het-taa TIE-dot au-to-MAAT-ti-ses-ti

A few useful points:

• ä is somewhat like the vowel in British cat, but more front and clear
• double letters matter:
  • tt is longer than t
  • aa is a long vowel
• stress is always on the first syllable of each word:
  • Älymittari
  • LÄhettää
  • TIEdot
  • AUtomaattisesti

Finnish pronunciation is usually very regular, so once you know the sounds, the spelling is reliable.

Yes, but it would change the nuance.

• lähettää tiedot = sends the data, sends all the relevant data as a complete whole
• lähettää tietoja = sends data, sends some data, sends bits of information, or sends data in a more indefinite sense

In a sentence about how a smart meter works, tiedot is very natural because it suggests the meter sends the required data as a complete package.

So tietoja is grammatically possible in some contexts, but it would not mean exactly the same thing.