Säädä termostaattia vähän.

to adjust

Breakdown of Säädä termostaattia vähän.

• vähän: little (not much)
• termostaatti: the thermostat

Questions & Answers about Säädä termostaattia vähän.

What does säädä mean here, and what verb form is it?

Säädä is the singular imperative of säätää, which means to adjust, regulate, tune, set.

So säädä means:

• adjust!
• set!
• regulate!

In this sentence, it is a command or instruction directed at one person. Finnish usually leaves out the subject you, so Säädä termostaattia vähän means something like Adjust the thermostat a little.

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Why is it termostaattia and not termostaatti or termostaatin?

This is one of the most important grammar points in the sentence.

Termostaattia is in the partitive case. Finnish often uses the partitive object when the action is:

• partial
• incomplete
• ongoing
• or affects the object only to some extent

Here, the idea is not set the thermostat completely/finally, but rather adjust it a bit. That is why the object is termostaattia.

Compare:

• Säädä termostaattia vähän. = Adjust the thermostat a little.
• Säädä termostaatti 22 asteeseen. = Set the thermostat to 22 degrees.

In the second sentence, the action has a clear result, so you would normally use the total object, not the partitive.

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Is the sentence talking about changing the thermostat itself, or changing the setting?