Breakdown of Illallinen keskeytyi, kun puhelin soi.
Questions & Answers about Illallinen keskeytyi, kun puhelin soi.
Keskeyttää is transitive—“to interrupt” (someone actively does the interrupting) and takes a direct object.
Keskeytyä is intransitive—“to be interrupted” or “to come to an interruption.” It doesn’t take a direct object; its subject is the thing that gets interrupted.
In this sentence, kun is a subordinating conjunction meaning “when” (temporal).
• kuin is used in comparisons (e.g. “bigger than”).
• koska means “because” (causal).
Since we want “when the phone rang,” we use kun.
Yes. In standard written Finnish, you separate the main clause and the subordinate clause with a comma:
Illallinen keskeytyi, kun puhelin soi.
If the subordinate clause comes first, you also use a comma:
Kun puhelin soi, illallinen keskeytyi.
Yes. Finnish has flexible word order. The two most neutral forms are:
1) Illallinen keskeytyi, kun puhelin soi.
2) Kun puhelin soi, illallinen keskeytyi.
The version Keskeytyi illallinen, kun puhelin soi is grammatically correct but sounds poetic or marked.