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Questions & Answers about Odota vielä hetki.
What does odota mean and what is its grammatical form?
odota is the second-person singular imperative of the verb odottaa (“to wait”). You use it to tell or ask one person to wait.
What is vielä and why is it here?
vielä is an adverb meaning “still,” “yet,” or “just a bit.” In this sentence it softens the command, so you’re saying “wait just a little longer.”
Why is hetki in the nominative case instead of the partitive hetkeä?
Here hetki functions as an adverbial time expression rather than a direct object, so it stays in the nominative. Finnish often uses the base (nominative) form of short time words in fixed phrases. You could make it more explicit with the partitive plus aikaa (“odota vielä hetken aikaa”), but many native speakers simply say hetki.
Can I say Odota hetki without vielä?
Yes. Odota hetki means “wait a moment.” Dropping vielä makes it slightly more abrupt, but it’s perfectly grammatical.
How do I make the phrase more polite or address multiple people?