Breakdown of Äiti keittää kahvia keittiössä.
kahvi
the coffee
keittiö
the kitchen
äiti
the mother
keittää
to brew
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Finnish grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Äiti keittää kahvia keittiössä.
Why doesn’t Finnish use articles like the or a/an in Äiti keittää kahvia keittiössä?
Finnish has no separate words for definite or indefinite articles. Instead, context and case endings show whether you mean “some coffee” or “the coffee.” Nouns normally appear without a/an or the.
Why is there no subject pronoun like she or hän in the sentence? How do you know who does the action?
In Finnish you usually drop the explicit subject pronoun. The verb ending -ää in keittää signals third person singular (“he/she/it”). You can add hän for emphasis or clarity, but it’s often unnecessary.
Why is kahvia in the partitive case instead of nominative kahvi?
When referring to an indefinite amount of something (for example, “some coffee”), Finnish uses the partitive case. The ending -a/ä on kahvi gives kahvia to indicate a non‐specific quantity.
Why is keittiössä in the inessive case, and what does -ssä mean?
The suffix -ssa/ssä marks the inessive case, meaning “inside” or “in.” So keittiö (kitchen) + -ssä becomes keittiössä, “in the kitchen.”
How does Finnish express “is making” vs. “makes”? There’s only keittää here.
Finnish does not distinguish between simple present and progressive tenses. The present form keittää covers both English “Mom makes coffee” and “Mom is making coffee,” with context indicating ongoing action.
How do you conjugate keittää in the present tense?
Here are the present‐tense forms of keittää (“to brew/boil”):
• minä keitän
• sinä keität
• hän keittää
• me keitämme
• te keitätte
• he keittävät
Why does keittiössä have double s (and why does keittää have double t)?
Finnish phonology distinguishes single vs. geminated (long) consonants. The inessive suffix is spelled -ssa/ssä, giving ss in keittiössä. Likewise, the stem keittä- includes tt, which is a separate consonant sound from a single t.