Breakdown of Pyyhin lattian märällä liinalla.
märkä
wet
-lla
with
lattia
the floor
pyyhkiä
to wipe
liina
the cloth
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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.”
Why does pyyhkiä lose the k in pyyhin?
This is consonant gradation. The infinitive pyyhkiä has a strong-grade cluster hk, but in the present tense weak grade simplifies hk to h, giving pyyhin.
Why is the adjective märällä placed before the noun liinalla?
In Finnish the normal order is adjective + noun. Even though cases allow you to move words around, adjectives typically precede the nouns they modify, as in märällä liinalla.
Could the words in Pyyhin lattian märällä liinalla be in a different order?
Yes. Finnish has a relatively free word order because cases mark grammatical roles. You could say Märällä liinalla pyyhin lattian or Lattian pyyhin märällä liinalla, and the core meaning “I am wiping the floor with a wet cloth” remains clear.
Why does Finnish have no article like the before lattian?
Finnish does not use definite or indefinite articles. Definiteness is conveyed by context and by case marking. The accusative lattian already signals that you mean a specific floor (“the floor”).
Why is the adessive ending -llä in märällä and not -lla?
Vowel harmony dictates that front vowels (ä, ö, y) pair with front vowel endings. Since märkä has the front vowel ä, its adessive ending is -llä, producing märällä.