Uni auttaa minua heräämään aikaisin.

Sleep helps me wake up early.

Breakdown of Uni auttaa minua heräämään aikaisin.

• aikaisin: early
• herätä: to wake up
• minä: me
• auttaa: to help
• uni: the sleep

Questions & Answers about Uni auttaa minua heräämään aikaisin.

Why is Uni in the nominative case and not in partitive?

Because Uni is the subject of the sentence (“Sleep” is doing the helping). In Finnish, the subject always appears in the nominative case.

Why is minua in the partitive and not minut in the accusative?

The verb auttaa (“to help”) takes its object in the partitive. So even though it’s a complete, bounded action, the person being helped is marked in the partitive: auttaa minua = “helps me.”

What is heräämään, and why isn’t it just the basic infinitive herätä?

Heräämään is the third infinitive in the illative case (stem + -maan/-mään), used after verbs like auttaa to express purpose or result (“help … to wake up”). The basic infinitive herätä is the first infinitive and would not fit in this construction.

What’s the difference between herätä and herätä in context—aren’t they the same verb?

Actually, herättää (with a long double -tt-) is the causative form meaning “to wake someone else up,” while herätä (one -t-) is intransitive “to wake up oneself.” We use heräämään because you’re talking about waking yourself up, not waking someone else.

Why is aikaisin used instead of an adjective form like aikainen?

Aikaisin is the adverb “early,” modifying the verb heräämään. Aikainen is an adjective (“early” as in “an early bird”), so it wouldn’t correctly modify the action of waking up.

Could I omit minua and just say Uni auttaa heräämään aikaisin?

Yes, you can drop minua if context makes it clear who’s doing the waking. Finnish often omits pronouns when they’re understood. However, including minua adds clarity or emphasis.

Why is auttaa in the third person singular?

Verbs in Finnish agree with their subject. Since Uni (“sleep”) is third person singular, the verb is auttaa, not auttamme or autat.