Minä keitän kahvia keittiössä.

I brew coffee in the kitchen.

Breakdown of Minä keitän kahvia keittiössä.

• minä: I
• kahvi: the coffee
• -ssa: in
• keittiö: the kitchen
• keittää: to brew

Questions & Answers about Minä keitän kahvia keittiössä.

Why is Minä used here? Is it necessary to include the pronoun?

Minä means “I.” In Finnish, the verb ending -n in keitän already marks first-person singular, so the pronoun is optional and often dropped in everyday speech. It’s included here for clarity or emphasis.

What tense and aspect does keitän express?

Keitän is the present tense of keittää (“to boil/make [coffee]”), first-person singular (“I make” or “I am making”). Finnish does not distinguish between simple and continuous aspect, so the same form covers “I make coffee” and “I am making coffee.”

Why is kahvia in the form kahvia, not kahvi?

The object kahvia is in the partitive case. Verbs that imply an ongoing activity or describe an indefinite amount (like making or drinking uncountable substances) require the partitive. Thus kahvia = “(some) coffee.”

What does keittiössä mean, and why is the ending -ssä used?

Keittiö means “kitchen.” The suffix -ssä marks the inessive case (“in something”). So keittiössä literally means “in the kitchen.”

Can I change the word order? For example, drop Minä or move phrases around?

Yes. Finnish has fairly free word order. You can say Keitän kahvia keittiössä (omit Minä) or Keitän keittiössä kahvia. Moving a word to the front shifts emphasis:
• Minä keitän kahvia keittiössä (emphatic subject)
• Keitän kahvia keittiössä (neutral)
• Keitän keittiössä kahvia (focus on where)

Are there any pronunciation or spelling quirks in this sentence?

• Vowel harmony: all vowels in each word are either front (ä, e, i, ö) or back (a, o, u); here we use front vowels consistently.
• Double letters: keit-tä-än, keit-ti-ös-sä. Finnish doubles consonants and vowels to indicate length; each must be fully pronounced (e.g. a slightly longer “t” in keittä-).