Minä nauran ystäväni kanssa.

I laugh with my friend.

Breakdown of Minä nauran ystäväni kanssa.

• minä: I
• minun: my
• ystävä: the friend
• kanssa: with
• nauraa: to laugh

Questions & Answers about Minä nauran ystäväni kanssa.

Why is the pronoun Minä used here, and can it be omitted?

Minä means “I.” Finnish verbs are conjugated to show the subject, so nauran already means “I laugh.” You can omit Minä and simply say
Nauran ystäväni kanssa
Including Minä adds emphasis or clarity.

How do we get nauran from nauraa, and what does it tell me?

The verb nauraa is “to laugh.” For the first‐person singular present tense you remove the -a/-ä ending and add -n, giving nauran which means “I laugh.”

What case is ystäväni in, and what is the suffix -ni for?

ystäväni is in the nominative case with the possessive suffix -ni, meaning “my friend.” You attach -ni directly to ystävä (friend) to show that the friend belongs to you.

Why is kanssa used, and why does it come after ystäväni instead of before?

kanssa means “with” and is a postposition in Finnish, so it always follows the noun or noun‐phrase:
ystäväni + kanssa = “with my friend.”
The noun stays in its normal case (here nominative); you don’t put ystävä into a special case for kanssa.

Why are there no words like a or the in this sentence?

Finnish has no articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is conveyed by context, word order or other words—not by separate words like “a” or “the.”

Can I change the word order, for example put ystäväni kanssa at the beginning?

Yes. Finnish word order is quite flexible.
Ystäväni kanssa nauran
is equally grammatical – it just emphasizes with my friend more than the standard S-V-O order.

How would I say “I laugh with you” using kanssa?

For pronouns you attach the possessive suffix to kanssa:
Nauran kanssasi
(“I laugh with you”).
You can also say Nauran sinun kanssasi, but the sinun is optional because -si on kanssa already means “with you.”

What if I laugh with more than one friend—how do I say “I laugh with my friends”?

You use the plural form of ystävä with the possessive suffix. The common expression is:
Nauran ystävieni kanssa
which means “I laugh with my friends.”