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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?
To soften the request, you can use the conditional:
- Voisitko odottaa vielä hetken? (“Could you wait a moment longer?”)
To address a group or sound more formal, use the plural imperative: - Odottakaa vielä hetki.
How would I say “Wait a minute” instead of “wait a moment”?
Replace hetki with minuutti in the genitive, which is common for expressing duration:
- Odota vielä minuutin.
Or even more explicit: - Odota vielä minuutin ajan.
What’s the typical word order in this sentence?
Finnish allows flexible word order, but the neutral pattern here is Verb – Adverb – Time Expression (“odota” – “vielä” – “hetki”). Changing it can shift emphasis or sound marked.
How do I pronounce Odota vielä hetki?
Stress the first syllable of each word: O-do-ta VIEL-lä HET-ki. Pronounce the vowels clearly:
- o like the o in “or”
- i like the i in “sit”
- ä like the a in “cat”