Minä vietän aikaa ystäväni kanssa puistossa.

I spend time with my friend in the park.

Breakdown of Minä vietän aikaa ystäväni kanssa puistossa.

• minä: I
• minun: my
• ystävä: the friend
• puisto: the park
• -ssa: in
• aika: the time
• kanssa: with
• viettää: to spend

Questions & Answers about Minä vietän aikaa ystäväni kanssa puistossa.

Why is minä used at the beginning of the sentence? Is it necessary?

Minä means I. Finnish verbs are conjugated for person, so the ending -än in vietän already tells you the subject is “I.” You can omit minä entirely in casual speech (Vietän aikaa ystäväni kanssa puistossa) unless you want extra emphasis or clarity.

What does vietän mean, and how is it formed?

Vietän is the first-person singular present tense of viettää (“to spend,” as in spending time). Conjugation: take the verb stem viet- (from viettää), remove the infinitive ending -ää, then add the personal ending -än → viet- + än = vietän.

Why is aikaa in the partitive case instead of aika?

Aikaa is the partitive singular of aika (“time”). In Finnish, when you talk about spending an indefinite amount or quantity (here, “some time”), you use the partitive. Verbs that signify ongoing or incomplete actions with their objects—especially measure words like time—demand the partitive.

What is ystäväni, and how is it formed?

Ystävä means “friend.” Adding the first-person singular possessive suffix -ni gives ystäväni, meaning “my friend.” You could also say minun ystäväni, but using the suffix is more idiomatic and common in everyday speech.

What role does kanssa play, and why does it follow ystäväni?

Kanssa is a postposition meaning with. In Finnish, postpositions always come after the word they modify. So ystäväni kanssa literally means “my friend with,” i.e. “with my friend.”

Why doesn’t kanssa change the case of the preceding noun?

As a comitative postposition, kanssa does not require the noun before it to take a special case—the noun remains in its normal form (here the nominative with a possessive suffix). That’s why you see ystäväni and not something like ystävääni.

What case is puistossa, and why is it used here?

Puistossa is the inessive case of puisto (“park”), marked by -ssa, and it means in the park. Finnish uses the inessive to express being located inside or within a place (static location).

Is the word order in Minä vietän aikaa ystäväni kanssa puistossa fixed, or can I rearrange elements?

Finnish word order is quite flexible. The neutral order is Subject–Verb–Object–Adverbial, but you can front-load any element for emphasis. For example:
• Puistossa vietän aikaa ystäväni kanssa (emphasizes the location)
• Ystäväni kanssa vietän aikaa puistossa (emphasizes whom you’re with)