Minä tarvitsen lisää vettä.

I need more water.

Breakdown of Minä tarvitsen lisää vettä.

• minä: I
• tarvita: to need
• vesi: the water
• lisää: more

Questions & Answers about Minä tarvitsen lisää vettä.

Why does the sentence include Minä even though I’ve heard Finnish often drops subject pronouns?

While Finnish is a pro-drop language (meaning subject pronouns can often be omitted), Minä can be included for emphasis or clarity. Saying Minä tarvitsen lisää vettä places a bit more emphasis on the speaker. In everyday speech, you could simply say Tarvitsen lisää vettä and be perfectly understood.

What is the form tarvitsen, and how is it used?

Tarvitsen is the first-person singular present tense form of the verb tarvita (to need). In Finnish, personal endings usually show who does the action, so you don’t have to say Minä separately. The pattern is:

• (Minä) tarvitsen
• (Sinä) tarvitset
• (Hän) tarvitsee
  ...and so on.

Why do we use vettä instead of vesi here?

Vettä is the partitive case of vesi (water). The partitive case is often used to express an uncountable quantity or an incomplete amount. Since water is not usually counted in discrete units (unless you refer to specific glasses or bottles), you say vettä rather than vesi in this context.

What does lisää mean, and could we use enemmän instead?

Lisää generally means "more" when asking for an additional amount or quantity (for example, "more water"). You could say enemmän vettä in some contexts, but lisää is more common when requesting more of something. Enemmän can imply a greater comparison or a larger quantity relative to something else, while lisää is more about adding to what you already have.

How should I pronounce tarvitsen and the whole sentence?

In tarvitsen:
• Stress the first syllable: TAR-vit-sen.
• Roll the 'r' slightly.
• Keep each vowel sound distinct; Finnish vowels are typically pronounced clearly.

So the full sentence Minä tarvitsen lisää vettä is pronounced roughly as:
MEE-nah TAR-vit-sen LEE-saa VET-tah,
with slight trills on the 'r' and equal stress on the first syllable of each word.