Learn Hardcore Finnish: Tytär kutsuu ryhmän kotiin pelaamaan. - The daughter invites the group home to play.

Tytär is nominative singular; it’s the subject of the sentence, so it stays in the base form. Tyttären would be genitive singular (the daughter’s), used for possession (e.g., tyttären koti “the daughter’s home”). Note that the noun is slightly irregular:

nominative: tytär
genitive: tyttären
plural nominative: tyttäret
partitive plural: tyttäriä

What form is kutsuu, and why does it have double u?

Kutsuu is the 3rd person singular present indicative of the verb kutsua (to invite/call). Kutsua is a type 1 verb; the present stem is kutsu-, and the 3rd person singular ending is -u, so you get kutsu + u = kutsuu (long uu). It can express present or near-future (“invites / is inviting / will invite” from context).

Past: kutsui
Negative: ei kutsu

Why is ryhmän in -n? Could it be ryhmää instead?

Ryhmän is the total object (formally genitive singular) because the action is bounded/completed: the daughter invites the whole group. In a normal positive clause with a finite verb, a singular total object appears in the genitive (-n).

With negation, the object becomes partitive: Tytär ei kutsu ryhmää.
Ryhmää (partitive) in an affirmative sentence can signal an unbounded or ongoing activity (e.g., “is calling for the group” as a process) or a different meaning of the verb (see next Q&A). For a straightforward, complete invitation, ryhmän is the natural choice.

Does kutsua mean both “invite” and “call,” and does that affect the object case?

Yes. Kutsua can mean:

“to invite” someone: typically takes a total object in affirmative clauses, e.g., kutsuu ryhmän.
“to call (out to), summon”: often takes the partitive when describing an ongoing process, e.g., kutsuu ryhmää “(she) is calling for the group.” Context and object case help disambiguate.

Does ryhmän mean “the group” or “a group”?

Finnish has no articles, so ryhmän can be “the group” or “a (certain) group” depending on context. If you want to emphasize indefiniteness, you can add a determiner like jonkin ryhmän (“some group”) or erään ryhmän (“a certain group”). If the group is known in the discourse, English will often render it as “the group.”

What case is kotiin, and what are the related “home” forms?

Kotiin is the illative singular (“to/into home”). The core “home” trio is:

kotona = at home (inessive)
kotiin = to home (illative)
kotoa = from home (elative)

With possessive suffixes:

kotiini = to my home
kotiisi = to your home
kotiinsa = to his/her (own) home

Does kotiin necessarily mean “to her own home”? Should it be kotiinsa?

Kotiin by itself often implies the speaker’s or subject’s home from context, but it is not explicit about whose home. Kotiinsa explicitly means “to his/her own home.” So:

Tytär kutsuu ryhmän kotiin = “The daughter invites the group home” (likely her home, but not explicit).
Tytär kutsuu ryhmän kotiinsa = unambiguously “to her own home.”

What is pelaamaan, and why not pelata or pelaa?

Pelaamaan is the illative of the MA-infinitive (the “third infinitive”), used to express purpose: “in order to play.” After verbs of causing/asking/encouraging or motion, Finnish commonly uses this form to mean “to do (something).”

Dictionary form: pelata (to play)
Purpose: pelaamaan (to go/come/invite to play)
Finite present pelaa (“plays”) would be ungrammatical here.

Is kutsua joku tekemään a general pattern?

Yes. A very common pattern is:

kutsua joku tekemään X = invite someone to do X Other verbs that take the same -maan/-mään purpose construction include:
mennä syömään (go to eat)
tulla juttelemaan (come to chat)
pyytää joku auttamaan (ask someone to help)

Could this sentence mean “invites (someone) to the group’s home to play” because of ryhmän kotiin?

Not as it stands. Here, ryhmän is the object of kutsuu, and kotiin is a separate place complement, so it reads “invites the group home.” If you wanted “to the group’s home,” you’d need to keep an explicit object and make “the group’s home” a destination, e.g.:

Tytär kutsuu heidät ryhmän kotiin pelaamaan. = “The daughter invites them to the group’s home to play.”

Is there a more idiomatic way to say “invite (someone) over”?

Yes, kutsua kylään is a set phrase meaning “to invite (someone) over (for a visit).” So you could say:

Tytär kutsuu ryhmän kylään pelaamaan. This focuses on the visit itself. Kotiin specifies the home as the destination.

Can I change the word order?

Yes. Finnish word order is flexible and used for emphasis/information structure. All of these are grammatical, with slight changes in focus:

Tytär kutsuu ryhmän kotiin pelaamaan. (neutral)
Tytär kutsuu ryhmän pelaamaan kotiin. (places “to play” closer to the verb)
Ryhmän tytär kutsuu kotiin pelaamaan. (fronting the object for focus)
Kotiin pelaamaan tytär kutsuu ryhmän. (strong focus on destination/purpose) The default SVO is typically clearest for learners.

How do I make the yes/no question version?

Attach the clitic -ko/-kö to the verb and invert the intonation:

Kutsuuko tytär ryhmän kotiin pelaamaan? = “Is the daughter inviting the group home to play?”

How does negation work here?

Use the negative auxiliary ei plus the main verb in its stem form, and change a total object to partitive:

Tytär ei kutsu ryhmää kotiin pelaamaan. = “The daughter does not invite the group home to play.”

How would I say “The daughter invites them home to play”?

Use the 3rd-person plural object pronoun in the accusative:

Tytär kutsuu heidät kotiin pelaamaan.

How do the forms change with plural subjects or objects?

Plural subject: Tyttäret kutsuvat ryhmän kotiin pelaamaan. (“The daughters invite the group…”)
Plural object (total): Tytär kutsuu ryhmät kotiin pelaamaan. (“The daughter invites the groups…”) Note that the plural total object is nominative plural (ryhmät), not ryhmiä (which is partitive plural).

When would I use leikkimään instead of pelaamaan?

Use leikkiä (“to play” in the sense of children’s free play) for kids’ make-believe or general play; pelata is for games/sports with rules (board games, video games, football). So:

Kids: kutsuu lapset leikkimään
Games/sports: kutsuu ryhmän pelaamaan (cards, video games, football, etc.)

How can I specify what they will play?

Add a complement after pelaamaan:

pelaamaan korttia (to play cards; partitive)
pelaamaan jalkapalloa (to play football; partitive)
pelaamaan shakkia (to play chess; partitive) Example: Tytär kutsuu ryhmän kotiin pelaamaan korttia.

Any pronunciation tips for these forms?

kutsuu has a long uu; hold it: [kutsuː].
ryhmän has front vowels (y, ä) and an audible h: [ryhmæn].
kotiin has a long ii: [kotiːn].
tytär is [tytær] with front-rounded y and front ä.