Minä ostin uuden tietokoneen viime kuussa.

I bought a new computer last month.

Breakdown of Minä ostin uuden tietokoneen viime kuussa.

• minä: I
• uusi: new
• ostaa: to buy
• tietokone: the computer
• viime: last
• kuukausi: the month

Questions & Answers about Minä ostin uuden tietokoneen viime kuussa.

Why is the subject pronoun Minä explicitly used even though the verb already indicates the subject?

In Finnish, verb conjugations inherently reflect the subject, so including Minä (“I”) is optional. It is often added for emphasis, clarity, or stylistic reasons, especially for learners who are still becoming accustomed to implicit subjects.

What tense is the verb ostin in, and how is it formed in Finnish?

The verb ostin is in the simple past (preterite) tense. Finnish forms the past tense by altering the verb stem and adding specific endings—in this case, the ending -in signifies that the action (“buying”) happened in the past.

Why is the adjective uusi modified to uuden in this sentence?

Adjectives in Finnish must agree with the noun they describe in case, number, and sometimes other properties. Here, tietokoneen (computer) is in the accusative case as the complete object of the action, so uusi changes to uuden to match that case.

What case is tietokoneen in, and why is this form used for the object?

Tietokoneen is in the accusative case, which in many contexts of singular objects looks like the genitive form. This case is used because the sentence describes a completed action (“I bought a computer”), and the accusative marks the object as a whole entity that was fully acquired.

What does the phrase viime kuussa mean, and why is kuussa in that particular form?

Viime kuussa translates to “last month.” The noun kuukausi (“month”) appears as kuussa, which is its inessive form. The inessive case indicates “in” a time or place, so it expresses the idea of the purchase having occurred “in the month” that was last.

Is the word order in this sentence similar to English, and can it be rearranged?

The basic word order here is subject–verb–object followed by the time expression, which aligns with standard English structure (“I bought a new computer last month”). However, thanks to Finnish’s rich case system, word order is relatively flexible, and elements can often be rearranged for emphasis without causing ambiguity.