Learn Hardcore Finnish: Minua harmittaa, että puhelu kesti liian kauan. - I am annoyed that the call lasted too long.

With many Finnish “emotion / feeling” verbs (like harmittaa, huolettaa, väsyttää, pelottaa), the person who feels the emotion is put in the partitive case, not in the nominative:

Minua harmittaa. = I am annoyed / It annoys me.
Häntä väsyttää. = He/She is tired / He/She feels sleepy.

So minua is required by the verb harmittaa; *minä harmittaa would be ungrammatical.

What case is minua, and what is this case used for?

Minua is the partitive singular of minä.

The partitive case has many uses, but here it’s used for the experiencer of a feeling with certain verbs:

Minua harmittaa – I’m annoyed.
Minua väsyttää – I’m tired (sleepy).
Minua pelottaa – I’m scared.

In these structures, the partitive marks “the one affected” by an impersonal state or feeling.

What kind of verb is harmittaa, and what does it literally mean?

Harmittaa is a regular type 1 verb (harmittaa, harmittaa, harmitti, harmittanut), but it’s used in an impersonal / experiencer construction.

Semantically, it means something like:

harmittaa = to annoy, to cause annoyance, to be a source of regret

So Minua harmittaa, että… literally corresponds to:

It annoys me that… or
I’m annoyed that… / I regret that…

Grammatically, the verb is in 3rd person singular, and the experiencer (the person who is annoyed) is in the partitive (minua).

Why is harmittaa in the 3rd person singular if I am the one who is annoyed?

Finnish often expresses feelings with an impersonal construction:

Minua harmittaa
- Literally: It annoys (me).
- Natural English: I’m annoyed.

The verb harmittaa doesn’t agree with minä; instead, it behaves like there’s an impersonal “it” as subject (though there’s no visible se in the sentence). That’s why the verb is in the 3rd person singular by default.

Other similar patterns:

Minua väsyttää. – I’m sleepy.
Minua paleltaa. – I’m cold (I feel cold).

So, even though English ties the verb directly to I (I am annoyed), Finnish uses It annoys me as the underlying structure: [It] harms / annoys + me (in partitive).

Could I say olen harmittunut instead of minua harmittaa? What’s the difference?

You can say both, but they’re not identical in tone.

Minua harmittaa, että puhelu kesti liian kauan.
- Very common, neutral way to say I’m annoyed that the call lasted too long.
- Slightly more colloquial / everyday.
Olen harmittunut siitä, että puhelu kesti liian kauan.
- Sounds more formal, “emotionally explicit,” or written.
- Often used in more careful speech or writing (complaints, official contexts).

In practice:

Use minua harmittaa in everyday, spoken Finnish.
Use olen harmittunut (siitä, että …) if you want a slightly more formal or “stated” emotion, like in a letter of complaint or a public statement.

Can I say Se puhelu harmittaa minua instead? Is it correct?

Se puhelu harmittaa minua is grammatically possible, but it’s not the most natural choice here.

Subtle differences:

Se puhelu harmittaa minua.
- Literally: That call annoys me.
- Focus is on the call itself as the “annoying thing”.
- Feels a bit stiff or unusual in everyday speech in this context.
Minua harmittaa, että puhelu kesti liian kauan.
- Focus is on your feeling about the fact that the call lasted too long.
- Very natural and idiomatic.

Finnish generally prefers the impersonal structure Minua harmittaa, että… to talk about being annoyed by some fact or situation.

Why is there a comma before että?

In Finnish, you almost always put a comma before the conjunction että when it begins a subordinate clause:

Minua harmittaa, että puhelu kesti liian kauan.
Tiedän, että hän tulee. – I know that he/she is coming.

This is stricter than in English. In English you might write:

I know that he is coming. (often without a comma)

In Finnish, that comma is standard punctuation: main clause Minua harmittaa, then subclause että puhelu kesti liian kauan.

What does että do in this sentence exactly?

Että is a conjunction meaning that, introducing a content clause (a clause that functions like a “thing” you’re annoyed about).

Structure:

Minua harmittaa = I’m annoyed
että puhelu kesti liian kauan = that the call lasted too long

Together:

Minua harmittaa, että puhelu kesti liian kauan.
- I’m annoyed that the call lasted too long.

So että here simply links your feeling to the content or reason for that feeling.

Why is puhelu in the basic form (nominative) and not puhelua?

Puhelu is in the nominative because it’s the subject of the verb kesti:

puhelu kesti – the call lasted

You use partitive (puhelua) for the object or for certain aspectual meanings (like incomplete / ongoing actions), but here:

the call is a complete event in the past,
and puhelu is simply the subject of kesti,

so it stays in the nominative.

What tense is kesti, and what is the basic form of this verb?

Kesti is the past tense (imperfect), 3rd person singular form of the verb kestää.

kestää – to last, to take (time), to endure
puhelu kestää – the call lasts / takes (time)
puhelu kesti – the call lasted / took (time)

So puhelu kesti liian kauan means the call lasted too long.

Why is it liian kauan and not liikaa kauan?

Liian and liikaa both relate to “too much,” but they are used differently:

liian modifies adjectives and adverbs:
- liian pitkä – too long (adj)
- liian nopeasti – too quickly
- liian kauan – too long (in time)
liikaa is a quantifier, used mostly with nouns / partitive:
- liikaa ruokaa – too much food
- join liikaa – I drank too much.

Here kauan is an adverb (for a long time), so we need liian:

liian kauan = too long (time-wise)

What’s the difference between kauan, kauemmin, and pitkään?

All three relate to duration, but with slightly different nuances:

kauan – for a long time
- puhelu kesti kauan – the call lasted a long time.
kauemmin – longer (for a longer time)
- Puhelu kesti kauemmin kuin odotin. – The call lasted longer than I expected.
pitkään – also for a long time, often used with states/activities:
- Odotin pitkään. – I waited for a long time.
- Puhelu kesti pitkään. – The call lasted a long time.

In this sentence, liian kauan is very natural, but liian pitkään would also be possible and close in meaning.

Can I change the word order, for example: Että puhelu kesti liian kauan harmittaa minua?

Yes, Finnish allows fairly flexible word order, and Että puhelu kesti liian kauan harmittaa minua is grammatically correct.

However, typical and most natural is:

Minua harmittaa, että puhelu kesti liian kauan.

Alternative orders can sound more formal, emphatic, or stylistically marked. For example:

Se, että puhelu kesti liian kauan, harmittaa minua.
- Literally: The fact that the call lasted too long annoys me.
- Very natural in written or slightly formal language.

In everyday speech, you’ll most commonly hear the original order.