Breakdown of Tapasimme jossain keskustassa, mutta en muista missä.
Questions & Answers about Tapasimme jossain keskustassa, mutta en muista missä.
Tapasimme comes from the verb tavata = to meet.
Grammatically, tapa-simme is:
- past tense (imperfect)
- 1st person plural (“we”)
- affirmative (no negative marker)
So tapasimme means “we met” (once / at some specific time in the past).
In the present tense, it would be:
- me tapaamme = we meet / we are meeting
In Finnish, the personal ending on the verb already shows the subject:
- tapa-simme → the -mme ending means “we”
Because of that, Finnish usually drops the pronoun when it’s clear from the verb.
You can say Me tapasimme jossain keskustassa, and it is:
- grammatically correct
- a bit more emphatic (like “We met somewhere in the center (not someone else)”)
But in a neutral sentence, just Tapasimme… is more typical.
Yes, jossain means “somewhere (in some place)”, but keskustassa tells you which general area that “somewhere” is in.
- jossain = somewhere
- keskustassa = in the city center / downtown (inessive case: “in”)
Put together:
- jossain keskustassa ≈ somewhere in the city centre
So it’s not redundant; it’s like saying in English:
- “We met somewhere downtown”
not just “We met somewhere” and not just “We met downtown”.
Functionally here, they mean the same thing: “somewhere (in)”.
- jossain – a shorter, more colloquial form
- jossakin – a slightly more formal / full form
Both are understood everywhere, and both can be used in this sentence:
- Tapasimme jossain keskustassa…
- Tapasimme jossakin keskustassa…
In everyday speech and informal writing, jossain is more common.
keskusta is the noun “(city) centre / downtown”. Finnish uses cases instead of prepositions like “in” or “to”.
- keskusta – basic form (nominative) = “(the) centre”
- keskustassa – inessive (“in”) = “in the center”
- keskustaan – illative (“into / to”) = “to the center”
In this sentence you are describing location, not movement:
- You are saying where you met, not where you were going, so you need the inessive:
- keskustassa = in the city center.
If you talked about going there, you’d say:
- Menimme keskustaan = We went to the city center.
Yes, Tapasimme keskustassa jossain… is grammatically fine, but it sounds a bit less natural than jossain keskustassa in this particular sentence.
Typical, natural options:
- Tapasimme jossain keskustassa, mutta en muista missä.
- Tapasimme keskustassa jossain, mutta en muista missä. (OK, but slightly marked)
The difference is mostly rhythm and emphasis:
- jossain keskustassa feels like one unit: somewhere-in-the-centre.
- keskustassa jossain puts the main focus first on in the centre, then adds somewhere as an afterthought.
But both are understandable and correct.
Finnish has two common words translated as “but”:
- mutta – general “but”
- vaan – “but rather / but instead”, used after a negative to correct or contrast something
In this sentence:
- The first clause is not negative: Tapasimme jossain keskustassa… (We met…)
- There is no correction like “not X, but Y”
So mutta is the right choice:
- Tapasimme jossain keskustassa, mutta en muista missä.
= We met somewhere in the centre, but I don’t remember where.
Example where vaan would be used:
- Emme tavanneet keskustassa, vaan kotona.
= We didn’t meet in the city centre, but rather at home.
Finnish negation uses a special negative verb (en / et / ei / emme / ette / eivät) plus the main verb in its “connegative” form.
For muistaa (to remember), the negative forms are:
- (minä) muistan → en muista (I don’t remember)
- (sinä) muistat → et muista
- (hän) muistaa → ei muista
- (me) muistamme → emme muista
- (te) muistatte → ette muista
- (he) muistavat → eivät muista
So:
- en = I don’t
- muista = remember (neutral form used with negation)
That’s why it’s en muista, not ei muistan.
Here missä (“where”) introduces an indirect question / content clause:
- Literally it stands for “where (we met)”, but Finnish can leave out the repeated part when it’s obvious from context.
Full version (more explicit, but usually not needed):
- Tapasimme jossain keskustassa, mutta en muista, missä tapasimme.
Natural spoken/written Finnish drops the repeated part:
- …mutta en muista, missä.
= “…but I don’t remember where (we met).”
English does the same:
- “We met somewhere in the city centre, but I don’t remember where.”
(no need to repeat “we met”)
The choice between missä / mistä / mihin depends on the type of location:
- missä = where? (in / at some place) → static location
- mistä = from where? (out of / from some place) → source
- mihin = to where? (to / into some place) → destination
In Tapasimme jossain keskustassa, the meeting happened in a place, not going to or from it. So the implied question is:
- Missä tapasimme? → Where did we meet?
Therefore the correct form in the second clause is:
- …mutta en muista missä.
Yes, that is completely natural:
- Tapasimme jossain keskustassa, mutta en muista tarkalleen missä.
Here tarkalleen (or tarkkaan) means “exactly / precisely”.
So the nuance becomes:
- “We met somewhere in the centre, but I don’t remember exactly where.”
It emphasizes that you have a vague idea (city centre) but not the exact spot.