Learn Hardcore Finnish: Välitunti on lyhyt, mutta se piristää.

Se refers back to välitunti (“recess”). Finnish has no grammatical gender: se is “it” (third person singular, typically inanimate). For people, standard Finnish uses hän (“he/she”), though in everyday speech se is often used for people too. Here, for an inanimate noun like välitunti, se is the normal choice.

Can I drop the se and just say “Välitunti on lyhyt, mutta piristää.”?

Yes. Because the subject is the same as in the first clause, Finnish can omit it: Välitunti on lyhyt, mutta piristää. Including se makes the subject explicit and is very common and slightly more emphatic. Both versions are natural.

Is piristää transitive? Where’s the object?

Yes, piristää is transitive (“to cheer up, to refresh, to invigorate”). In mutta se piristää, the object is understood/generic (“it cheers you/people up” = “it’s refreshing”). You can add an explicit object:

Se piristää minua. “It cheers me up.” (partitive object for ongoing/generic effect)
Se piristi minut. “It cheered me up (completely).” (accusative-like total object)

So Finnish allows the object to be omitted when it’s generic or obvious from context.

What’s the difference between piristää and piristyä?

piristää = transitive: “to cheer (someone) up.” Example: Kahvi piristää minua.
piristyä = intransitive: “to cheer up, perk up (oneself).” Example: Minä piristyn kahvista. In your sentence, välitunti causes the cheering up, so piristää is the right verb.

Why is there a comma before mutta?

In Finnish, a comma is used before coordinating conjunctions like mutta (“but”) when they join two (main) clauses: Välitunti on lyhyt, mutta se piristää. If mutta only connects two adjectives in one clause, there’s no comma: Välitunti on lyhyt mutta piristävä.

Could I use vaikka instead of mutta?

Yes, but you must change the structure because vaikka (“although/even though”) introduces a subordinate clause:

Vaikka välitunti on lyhyt, se piristää.

Why is it lyhyt and not something like “lyhy”?

Lyhyt is the nominative singular form of the adjective “short.” In copula sentences like X on lyhyt, the predicative adjective agrees with the subject in number and case. With a plural subject you’ll see either:

Välitunnit ovat lyhyet (nominative plural; definite-set feel), or
Välitunnit ovat lyhyitä (partitive plural; very common descriptive style). Both are widely accepted.

How would I say this in the past tense? And what about the plural?

Past: Välitunti oli lyhyt, mutta se piristi.
Plural (present): Välitunnit ovat lyhyet/lyhyitä, mutta ne piristävät.

How do I pronounce the vowels y and ä, and the long ää in piristää?

ä: front “a” (like German “ä” or the vowel in British “cat,” but more fronted).
y: front rounded vowel (like French “u” or German “ü”).
Double letters mark length, so ää is a long ä. Stress is always on the first syllable: VÄ-li-tun-ti; LY-hyt; PI-ris-tää.

Why does välitunti contain both ä and u if Finnish has vowel harmony?

Because välitunti is a compound: väli (“between, interval”) + tunti (“hour”). Vowel harmony applies within roots, but compounds can contain both front (ä, ö, y) and back (a, o, u) vowels across the component boundary. Also, i and e are neutral vowels.

Where are the English articles “a/the”? How do I make that distinction?

Finnish has no articles. Välitunti can mean “a recess” or “the recess” depending on context. To be explicit, Finnish uses other means:

tämä välitunti = “this recess”
se välitunti = “that/the recess (already known)”
yksi välitunti = “one/a recess”

What are the key forms of olla (“to be”) used here?

Present: hän on (“he/she/it is”)
Past: hän oli (“was”)
Negative: hän ei ole (“is not”) Full present paradigm: minä olen, sinä olet, hän on, me olemme, te olette, he ovat.

How is piristää conjugated?

Present:

minä piristän, sinä piristät, hän piristää, me piristämme, te piristätte, he piristävät Past: piristi Perfect: on piristänyt Negative (3rd sg.): ei piristä

Can I say “It’s refreshing” with an adjective instead of a verb?

Yes:

Välitunti on lyhyt mutta piristävä. (“Recess is short but refreshing.”) No comma here because mutta connects two adjectives within one clause. You can also say: Se on piristävää. (“It is refreshing,” with a partitive predicative for a general/descriptive property.)

Where can I put words like “still/however” in this sentence?

Common placements:

Välitunti on lyhyt, mutta silti se piristää.
Välitunti on lyhyt, mutta se silti piristää.
Välitunti on lyhyt, mutta se kuitenkin piristää. Use silti/kuitenkin with (or after) mutta; they aren’t conjunctions by themselves.