Minä puran laatikot olohuoneessa.

I unpack the boxes in the living room.

Breakdown of Minä puran laatikot olohuoneessa.

• minä: I
• -ssa: in
• olohuone: the living room
• laatikko: the box
• purkaa: to unpack

Questions & Answers about Minä puran laatikot olohuoneessa.

Why is Minä used here? Is it required?

Minä is the first-person singular pronoun (“I”). Finnish verbs are conjugated for person, so the sentence already shows it’s “I” unpacking. You can omit Minä and simply say: • Puran laatikot olohuoneessa. Including Minä adds emphasis or clarity (e.g. “It’s me who’s unpacking the boxes”).

How do I get puran from the infinitive purkaa, and why isn’t it puraan?

The infinitive is purkaa (“to unpack/disassemble”). To form the present tense, first-person singular:

1. Drop one -a from the infinitive ending -aa, giving the stem purk-.
2. Add the personal ending -an, giving puran.
   You don’t keep both a’s in the stem, so it never becomes puraan.

Why is the object laatikot and not laatikoita?

Finnish distinguishes a full object (accusative) from a partial object (partitive): • Laatikot (accusative) is used when the action is viewed as complete — you unpack all the boxes.
• Laatikoita (partitive) would imply an incomplete or ongoing action — you unpack some of the boxes or haven’t finished.

There’s no “the” or “a” before boxes or living room. Does Finnish use articles?

Finnish has no definite or indefinite articles. Context tells you whether something is specific.
• Minä puran laatikot olohuoneessa. can mean “I’m unpacking the boxes in the living room” (specific boxes) or just “I unpack boxes in the living room” depending on context.

Why is olohuoneessa one word, and how does it form?

Olohuone (“living room”) is a compound of olo (“state/being”) + huone (“room”). Finnish builds compounds by joining words without spaces. To say “in the living room,” you add the inessive case suffix -ssa/ssä directly:
olohuone + ssa → olohuoneessa

What does the suffix -essa in olohuoneessa indicate? Are there other locative cases?

The suffix -ssa/–ssä is the inessive case, meaning “inside” or “in.” Finnish has several locative (location) cases: • Inessive -ssa/ssä = “in”
• Elative -sta/stä = “out of”
• Illative -seen (or vowel lengthening) = “into”
• Adessive -lla/llä = “on/at”
• Ablative -lta/ltä = “off/from”
• Allative -lle = “onto/to”

How flexible is the word order? Could I say Olohuoneessa puran laatikot?

Yes. Finnish relies on case endings rather than word order, so you can reorder to shift emphasis: • Minä puran laatikot olohuoneessa. (neutral)
• Olohuoneessa puran laatikot. (emphasize location)
• Laatikot puran olohuoneessa. (emphasize the boxes)
However, Subject–Verb–Object is the most common neutral order.

How do I turn this into a yes/no question?

Attach the question particle -ko/–kö to the verb. For first-person singular: • Puranko laatikot olohuoneessa?
means “Am I unpacking the boxes in the living room?”
For second person: Puraatko laatikot olohuoneessa? (“Are you…”), and so on.

What other meanings does the verb purkaa have?

Besides “to unpack,” purkaa can also mean: • “to dismantle” or “take apart” (e.g. furniture: purkaa sänky).
• “to cancel” or “terminate” (e.g. agreement: purkaa sopimus).
Context tells you which meaning applies.

What is the opposite of purkaa (“to unpack”) in Finnish?

The typical opposite is pakata (“to pack”). Conjugated in first-person singular present tense, it’s minä pakan or more commonly minä pakkaan, because pakata stem ends in pakkaa-. For example:
• Minä pakkaan laatikot olohuoneessa. (“I’m packing the boxes in the living room.”)