Minä juon kahvia sisällä.

I

Breakdown of Minä juon kahvia sisällä.

• kahvi: the coffee
• juoda: to drink
• sisällä: inside

Questions & Answers about Minä juon kahvia sisällä.

What does each word in Minä juon kahvia sisällä translate to?

Minä means I; juon is the first person singular present form of juoda, meaning drink; kahvia is the partitive form of kahvi, meaning coffee; and sisällä means inside or indoors, indicating where the action takes place.

Why is the subject pronoun Minä explicitly stated even though Finnish is often a pro-drop language?

While Finnish verb conjugations clearly indicate the subject, making the pronoun optional, beginners often include Minä for clarity. It can also be used for emphasis, to contrast subjects, or in contexts where additional clarity is needed.

Why is kahvia in the partitive case instead of the nominative kahvi?

In Finnish, the partitive case is used with verbs of consumption like juoda when referring to an indefinite amount or an action in progress. Using kahvia suggests that the speaker is drinking some coffee—not necessarily the entire quantity—which is typical for describing ongoing or uncompleted actions.

What role does the adverb sisällä play in the sentence?

Sisällä functions as an adverbial modifier specifying location. It tells us where the action of drinking is occurring—namely, inside or indoors—adding contextual detail to the sentence.

Is the word order in this sentence flexible, and can it be rearranged without altering the meaning?

Yes, Finnish has relatively free word order because the case endings mark the grammatical relationships. Although the standard order here is subject-verb-object-adverb, you can rearrange the words for emphasis or stylistic reasons without changing the overall meaning, as long as the cases remain clear.