Learn Hardcore Finnish: Aamulla lainaan taas uuden kirjan ja selaan muutaman sivun bussissa. - In the morning I borrow a new book again and skim a few pages on the bus.

Aamulla means “in the morning.” It’s the temporal adverbial form of aamu (morning), created by adding the inessive ending -lla/-llä (here -lla) to indicate “during/in the morning.”

What is the nuance of taas in this sentence?

Taas means “again” or “once more.” It signals that the speaker has borrowed a new book before and is doing it again this morning.

What does lainaan mean, and how is it formed?

Lainaan is the first-person singular present tense of the verb lainata (“to borrow” or “to lend,” depending on context). The conjugation goes: minä lainaan, sinä lainaat, hän lainaa, etc. Here it means “I borrow.”

Does lainaan mean “I lend” or “I borrow”?

In Finnish, lainata can mean both “to lend” and “to borrow,” but context decides. In this sentence lainaan uuden kirjan translates as “I borrow a new book,” because the speaker is taking the book from someone/somewhere.

Why is uuden kirjan in the accusative/genitive case instead of the partitive?

Uuden kirjan is in the accusative (which looks like the genitive singular -n) because the action is complete and the object is a whole, countable thing. If you said lainaan kirjaa, it would suggest you’re borrowing some unspecified portion of the book, which doesn’t make sense.

How does uusi kirja change to uuden kirjan?

Uusi kirja (“new book”) is nominative. To form the singular genitive (used here as the accusative), uusi becomes uuden, and kirja becomes kirjan.

What does selaan mean here, and what verb is it from?

Selaan is the first-person singular present of selata, which means “to leaf through,” “to skim,” or “to browse.” So selaan muutaman sivun = “I browse/flip through a few pages.”

Why is it muutaman sivun instead of muutamia sivuja or muutama sivu?

Muutama is a special Finnish numeral pronoun that is always singular in form but means “a few.” It requires the following noun in singular genitive/accusative (sivun), so you get muutaman sivun. You wouldn’t use partitive sivuja here.

What case is bussissa, and what does it imply?

Bussissa is the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä), meaning “inside the bus” or “on the bus.” It tells us where the browsing happens.

Could you say bussilla instead of bussissa, and what would change?

You could say bussilla, which is the adessive case (-lla/-llä) meaning “by bus” or “with a bus.” But selaan bussilla would imply you use the bus as an instrument—“I browse using the bus”—which sounds odd. Bussissa correctly conveys “while on the bus.”