Minä haluan perua tilauksen.

I want to cancel the order.

Breakdown of Minä haluan perua tilauksen.

• minä: I
• haluta: to want
• tilaus: the order
• perua: to cancel

Questions & Answers about Minä haluan perua tilauksen.

Why is Minä included here? Isn't it unnecessary?

Minä means I and marks the subject. In Finnish you usually drop the pronoun because the verb ending -n in haluan already indicates first-person singular. So Minä is optional and often omitted in everyday speech. You can just say Haluan perua tilauksen and it still means “I want to cancel the order.”

What form is perua? Why isn’t it perun or another conjugated form?

perua is the first infinitive (dictionary form) of the verb “to cancel.” After verbs of desire like haluta (to want), you use the infinitive of the next verb rather than a fully conjugated form. Hence:

• haluan (1 sg. present of haluta) + perua (infinitive) = “I want to cancel.”

Why is the object tilauksen in the genitive case, not the partitive?

In Finnish, a direct object of a complete (telic) action takes genitive/accusative. You’re canceling the entire order, so you use tilauksen (genitive singular). If you were cancelling only part of an order (or speaking indefinitely), you’d use the partitive:

• Partial/indefinite: Haluan perua tilausta.
• Complete: Haluan perua tilauksen.

Can I also say Minä haluan peruuttaa tilauksen? What’s the difference between perua and peruuttaa?

Yes, you can. Both verbs mean “to cancel,” but:

• perua is a bit more formal/concise and very common in instructions or written notices (e.g. “perua tilaus”).
• peruuttaa is slightly more colloquial and also has the sense “to reverse” (like backing a car).
  Functionally, in this context they’re interchangeable.

Does the case of tilauksen change if I make the sentence negative?

Yes. Negative sentences in Finnish take a partitive object:

• Positive: (Minä) haluan perua tilauksen. (genitive = whole object)
• Negative: (Minä) en halua perua tilausta. (partitive = object under negation)

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Haluan tilauksen perua?

Finnish word order is quite flexible, but the neutral order is S-V-O. With a modal-like verb plus infinitive, the infinitive most commonly follows the main verb directly (haluan perua tilauksen). Moving tilauksen before perua for emphasis is possible:

• Haluan tilauksen perua.
  This is grammatical and shifts focus onto which thing you want to cancel, but it sounds slightly more marked than the default order.