Ystävä motivoi minua oppimaan suomea.

A friend motivates me to learn Finnish.

Breakdown of Ystävä motivoi minua oppimaan suomea.

• ystävä: the friend
• suomi: Finnish
• oppia: to learn
• minua: me
• motivoida: to motivate

Questions & Answers about Ystävä motivoi minua oppimaan suomea.

What does each word in the sentence Ystävä motivoi minua oppimaan suomea mean?

Breakdown:

• Ystävä = friend (nominative, subject)
• motivoi = (he/she/it) motivates, 3rd person singular present of motivoida
• minua = me (partitive case)
• oppimaan = to learn (3rd infinitive illative -maan, purpose form)
• suomea = Finnish (partitive case, object of learning)

Why is minua in the partitive case rather than the nominative minä?

Finnish uses the partitive for:

1. Objects of certain verbs (like motivoi)
2. Actions that are incomplete or ongoing
   Here, “motivates me” is an ongoing influence, so minua (partitive) is required.

Why is oppimaan used instead of the basic infinitive oppia?

After verbs that cause or encourage someone to do something (e.g. saa, pakottaa, kehottaa, motivoi), Finnish uses the third infinitive illative (-maan/-mään) to express purpose (“to do something”). The basic infinitive oppia can’t directly show “in order to learn” in this structure.

I see oppimaan ends in -maan. How do I know to use -maan instead of -mään?

It’s all about vowel harmony. If a word’s main vowels are back vowels (a, o, u), suffixes use the back set (-maan). If they’re front vowels (ä, ö, y), you’d use -mään. oppia has the back vowel o, so it takes -maan.

Why is suomea in the partitive case? Could it be suomi or suomeksi?

• suomea (partitive) is used because oppia takes a partitive object and learning a language is an indefinite, ongoing process.
• suomi (nominative) would just name the language, without the sense of “learning it.”
• suomeksi (essive) means “in Finnish” (as the language used), e.g. puhua suomeksi (“to speak in Finnish”), not “learn Finnish.”

If I want to say “my friend,” can I just add minun before ystävä, like Minun ystävä motivoi minua oppimaan suomea?

In Finnish you don’t use a separate possessive pronoun minun with the noun. Instead you add a possessive suffix to ystävä.
Correct: Ystäväni motivoi minua oppimaan suomea.

Could I replace oppimaan/oppia with opiskelemaan/opiskella (“to study”)?

Yes. Opiskelemaan is the third infinitive of opiskella, meaning “to study” (emphasizing the study process).
Example: Ystävä motivoi minua opiskelemaan suomea.

Is it okay to drop minua and simply say Ystävä motivoi oppimaan suomea?

You can omit personal pronouns when the meaning is clear, so Ystävä motivoi oppimaan suomea is grammatically fine. Including minua adds emphasis on “me” but isn’t strictly necessary.

Can I change the word order, for example Oppimaan suomea ystävä motivoi minua?

Finnish has relatively free word order to highlight different parts. However, the neutral, most common order is Subject–Verb–Object–Purpose. Rearranging to Oppimaan suomea ystävä motivoi minua is grammatical but sounds more formal or poetic and can feel unnatural in everyday speech.