Jos olen sairas, menen lääkäriin hakemaan lääkettä.

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Breakdown of Jos olen sairas, menen lääkäriin hakemaan lääkettä.

• olla: to be
• mennä: to go
• jos: if

Questions & Answers about Jos olen sairas, menen lääkäriin hakemaan lääkettä.

What does Jos mean, and is it the same as Kun?

Jos is the conjunction “if,” introducing a condition that may or may not occur. Kun means “when” in the sense of “at the time that” or “whenever” something regularly happens.

• Jos olen sairas = “If I am sick” (condition).
• Kun olen sairas = “When/whenever I am sick” (time clause).

They can overlap for habits, but jos always marks a possible condition, whereas kun marks a time reference.

Why is menen in the present tense? Isn’t there a future tense in Finnish?

Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense covers present, habitual and future actions. In a zero‐conditional sentence like this, the present tense expresses a general rule or habit:

• Jos olen sairas, menen… literally “If I am sick, I go…” but naturally “If I’m sick, I’ll go…”

Why isn’t there an article (like “the” or “a”) before lääkäriin?

Finnish has no articles. Definiteness or indefiniteness is inferred from context, not marked by words like “a” or “the.”

• lääkäriin can mean “to a doctor” or “to the doctor” depending on what the speaker and listener know.

What case is lääkäriin, and how is it formed?

lääkäriin is the illative case, expressing movement or something.Formation for this pattern (nouns ending in ):