Questions & Answers about Pyyhin lattian märällä liinalla.
Why is there no word for I in Pyyhin lattian märällä liinalla?
Finnish verbs encode the subject in their endings, so adding minä (I) is optional. Pyyhin already means “I wipe” or “I am wiping,” and you only include minä if you want extra emphasis on the subject.
What tense is pyyhin? Is it present or past?
Pyyhin is present tense, first person singular (“I wipe” / “I am wiping”). Finnish has only two simple tenses: present and imperfect. To say “I wiped,” you would use the imperfect of pyyhkiä, which is pyyhkin.
Why is the object lattian not just lattia?
Here the floor is a definite, total object, so it takes the accusative case—which in singular looks like the genitive: lattian. If you meant only part of the floor (“I wipe some of the floor”), you’d use the partitive lattiaa instead.
Why are both märällä and liinalla in this form, and what case is that?
This is the adessive case (-lla/-llä), used to express the instrument or means (“with something”). Both the adjective märkä and the noun liina take adessive singular endings: märällä liinalla = “with a wet cloth.”