Minä lisään vettä ruokaan.

Breakdown of Minä lisään vettä ruokaan.

minä
I
ruoka
the food
vesi
the water
lisätä
to add
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Questions & Answers about Minä lisään vettä ruokaan.

Why is the subject pronoun Minä explicitly included even though the verb ending indicates the subject?
In Finnish, the verb ending already specifies the subject (in this case, first-person singular with -n in lisään) so the subject pronoun can be omitted. However, beginners often include Minä for added clarity or emphasis, and it can help reinforce the connection between the subject and the verb.
Why is the noun vesi transformed into vettä in this sentence?
Vettä is the partitive form of vesi. In Finnish, the partitive case is commonly used with non-count nouns or when describing an incomplete or undetermined amount. Here, it emphasizes that some (unspecified) water is being added, rather than a fully quantified object.
What is the function of the ending in ruokaan, and why is this case used?
Ruokaan is in the illative case, which is used to indicate motion or direction "into" something. The ending -aan shows that the action of adding water is directed toward the food, much like saying "into the food" in English.
How is the verb lisään conjugated and what does that tell us about the sentence structure?
Lisään is the first-person singular form of the verb lisätä (to add) in the present tense. The -n ending on the verb clearly indicates that the subject performing the action is I. This conjugation matches and confirms the explicit subject Minä provided at the beginning of the sentence.
Is the word order in this sentence fixed, or can it change in Finnish?
While Minä lisään vettä ruokaan follows a typical subject-verb-object (SVO) order, Finnish word order is quite flexible. The cases on the nouns (partitive for vettä and illative for ruokaan) show their grammatical roles, which means the words can be rearranged without losing clarity. Changes in word order might be used to emphasize a particular part of the sentence.