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Questions & Answers about Me menemme sisälle, kun sataa.
Why is me included in this sentence? Can it be omitted?
In Finnish the personal pronoun me (“we”) is usually optional because the verb ending -mme in mennemme already tells you the subject is “we.” You include me for emphasis or clarity, but you can drop it:
- “Mennemme sisälle, kun sataa.”
If you want a more colloquial “let’s go,” you’d typically use the passive form instead (“Mennään sisälle, kun sataa.”).
What does mennemme mean and how is it formed?
mennemme is the first-person plural present tense of mennä (“to go”). It breaks down as:
- Stem: men- (from mennä)
- Ending: -mme (we)
Put together you get men- + -mme = menemme, spelled mennemme.
Why is there a double “n” in mennemme, and why a double “m”?
The verb mennä has a stem men-. When you add the ending -mme, you get menemme, but Finnish orthography requires doubling the consonant for clear pronunciation and to follow syllable rules, so you see mennemme (nn + mm).
What’s the difference between sisälle and sisällä?
These are two different locative cases:
- sisälle is the illative case (movement into something): “into the inside” / “indoors.”
- sisällä is the inessive case (static location): “inside” / “indoors” (where you already are).
Here you need sisälle because you’re going into the house.
Why is kun used here instead of jos?
- kun = “when” in the sense of “whenever/at the time that something happens” (a real event).
- jos = “if” in the sense of “in case it happens” (a hypothetical or conditional event).
So me menemme sisälle, kun sataa means “we go inside when it’s raining” (every time it rains), not “if it might rain.”
Why is there a comma before kun? Is it mandatory?
In Finnish, commas before subordinating words like kun are optional. You often see them in written Finnish for clarity, but you can also write:
- “Me menemme sisälle kun sataa.”
Why is sataa used without a subject pronoun like se?
Weather verbs in Finnish are impersonal. You simply say sataa (“it’s raining”) or tuulee (“it’s windy”) without adding se. Adding se would be ungrammatical here.
Can you start the sentence with the “when”-clause instead?
Yes. You can move the subordinate clause to the front without changing the meaning:
- “Kun sataa, me menemme sisälle.”
In that order, a comma after the first clause is also optional.