Minä kierrätän vanhan tietokoneen.

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Breakdown of Minä kierrätän vanhan tietokoneen.

• vanha: old
• tietokone: the computer
• kierrättää: to recycle

Questions & Answers about Minä kierrätän vanhan tietokoneen.

Why is the subject pronoun Minä included in the sentence even though Finnish verbs already indicate the subject?

Finnish verbs carry information about the subject through their conjugation, so the subject pronoun can often be omitted. However, including Minä (meaning I) can add emphasis or clarity, especially when the speaker wants to stress that they alone are performing the action.

What does the verb kierrätän mean, and how is it formed?

Kierrätän is the first-person singular present tense form of the verb kierrättää, which means to recycle. The ending -än signals that the subject is I performing the action right now.

How is the object vanhan tietokoneen structured, and why are both words inflected?

In the phrase vanhan tietokoneen (meaning the old computer), the noun tietokone has been inflected to tietokoneen. This form is used to mark the object when it is definite and complete. The adjective vanha also takes a corresponding inflection to become vanhan, which agrees with the case of the noun. This agreement indicates that both words together form a definite object being fully recycled.

Why is the object in the accusative form rather than in the partitive?

Finnish distinguishes between actions performed on whole, definite objects and those involving an indefinite or partial amount. When an action targets a whole, specific item—as in recycling an entire computer—the object appears in the accusative case. In this sentence, tietokoneen is in the accusative, which shows that the speaker is recycling the whole, old computer, not just a part of it.

What is the typical word order in a Finnish sentence like this, and is it flexible?

Finnish usually follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order, which you see in Minä kierrätän vanhan tietokoneen. However, Finnish word order is flexible. Changing the order can emphasize different parts of the sentence, but the grammatical relationships remain clear due to case markings on nouns and adjectives.