Minä työskentelen paremmin kotona.

I work better at home.

Breakdown of Minä työskentelen paremmin kotona.

• minä: I
• kotona: at home
• työskennellä: to work
• paremmin: better

Questions & Answers about Minä työskentelen paremmin kotona.

Why does the sentence start with Minä? Is the pronoun necessary in Finnish?

In Finnish the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action. Työskentelen ends in -n, marking 1st person singular (“I work”). You can omit minä entirely:
• Työskentelen paremmin kotona
The pronoun minä is added only for emphasis or clarity (“I, personally, work better at home”).

How is työskentelen formed? Which person and tense does it show?

• Infinitive: työskennellä (“to work”)
• Verb type: 3 (ends in -llä/-llä)
To get the present tense 1st person singular, you:

1. Drop -llä → stem työskentele-
2. Add the present marker -le- (already in the stem)
3. Attach the personal ending -n → työskentelen (“I work”)

Could I use teen töitä paremmin kotona instead of työskentelen?

Yes. Teen töitä literally means “I do work” and is more colloquial. Both are correct:
• Minä työskentelen paremmin kotona (slightly more formal)
• Minä teen töitä paremmin kotona (more everyday speech)

What does paremmin mean, and how does it relate to hyvin and parempi?

• hyvin = “well” (positive adverb)
• paremmin = “better” (comparative adverb)
• parhaiten = “best” (superlative adverb)
parempi (without -n) is a comparative adjective (“better” before a noun). Here you need an adverb to modify työskentelen, so you use paremmin.

Why is it kotona here, and not kodissa or with a preposition like “in”?

• kotona is the essive case (koti + -na), meaning “in the state of home” → “at home.”
• kodissa is the inessive case (koti + -ssa), “inside the home” (the walls).
Finnish uses case endings instead of prepositions. For general “at home” contexts, the essive kotona is standard.

Is the word order fixed? Could I move paremmin or kotona around?

Finnish word order is quite flexible because cases and verb endings show grammatical roles. Examples with subtle emphasis shifts:
• Kotona työskentelen paremmin. (Emphasizes location: “It’s at home that I work better.”)
• Työskentelen kotona paremmin. (Neutral.)
• Työskentelen paremmin kotona. (Neutral.)
Moving adverbials or the subject pronoun changes what you highlight but not the core meaning.

Why are there no articles like “the” or “a” before koti?

Finnish has no definite or indefinite articles. Context or demonstratives (e.g. se, “that”) tell you whether something is specific. So you simply say koti for “home” without “the” or “a.”