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Questions & Answers about Minä teen kotitehtävän nyt.
Why is Minä included when Finnish often drops pronouns?
Minä means I. In Finnish, subject pronouns are usually optional because the verb ending already indicates person and number. Including Minä adds emphasis or clarity but isn’t required. You could simply say Teen kotitehtävän nyt, and it still means I’m doing the homework now.
How is the verb teen formed from tehdä?
Teen is the 1st person singular present tense form of tehdä (to do). You remove the infinitive ending -dä, then add the personal ending -n to the stem teh-: teh- + -n → teen. So teen means I do or I am doing.
What case is kotitehtävän, and why does it have an -n at the end?
Kotitehtävä is the basic form (nominative) meaning home assignment. Adding -n turns it into the accusative singular, used for a complete, definite object. So kotitehtävän means the homework (a specific assignment) as the direct object.
Could I instead say kotitehtävää? What’s the difference?
Yes. Kotitehtävää is the partitive singular form. Use the partitive to express an incomplete, ongoing, or indefinite action or quantity. Teen kotitehtävää nyt would be I’m doing homework now (not necessarily finishing a specific assignment), while Teen kotitehtävän nyt implies I’m doing the (entire) assignment now.
Why is nyt placed at the end? Can I put it elsewhere?
Finnish has flexible word order thanks to its case system. Minä teen kotitehtävän nyt is common. You can also say Nyt minä teen kotitehtävän to emphasize nyt (meaning now). The overall meaning doesn’t change; only the focus shifts.
I don’t see any article like the or a. How does Finnish handle articles?
Finnish doesn’t use articles. Definiteness is shown by context, word order, and grammatical cases (like accusative vs. partitive). Thus kotitehtävän can be understood as the homework, while kotitehtävä can mean a homework assignment or just homework, depending on context.