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Meitä naurattaa, kun ystävä kertoo vitsin.

Meitä naurattaa, kun ystävä kertoo vitsin.
We feel like laughing when a friend tells a joke.
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Questions & Answers about Meitä naurattaa, kun ystävä kertoo vitsin.

Why is it Meitä naurattaa and not Me nauramme?

Finnish has a special pattern for “feeling” or “being affected” by something:

(partitive experiencer) + verb in 3rd person singular

  • Meitä naurattaa = We feel like laughing / It makes us laugh
  • Literally: [Something] makes us laugh.
  • The grammatical subject is vague or left out; meitä is not the grammatical subject, it’s the experiencer.

Me nauramme simply means we laugh, a straightforward description of the action, without the nuance “we get the giggles / we feel like laughing”.

So:

  • Meitä naurattaa, kun… = we are amused / we feel laughter coming when…
  • Me nauramme, kun… = we (actually) laugh when…

Both are possible, but the original emphasizes the feeling / reaction.

Why is meitä used and not me?

Meitä is the partitive form of me (we/us).

With verbs like naurattaa, väsyttää, harmittaa, kiinnostaa, etc., the person who experiences the feeling is in the partitive case, not in the nominative:

  • Minua naurattaa = I feel like laughing.
  • Sinua väsyttää = You feel tired.
  • Häntä harmittaa = He/She is annoyed.
  • Meitä naurattaa = We feel like laughing.

So the pattern is:
(partitive form of the person) + emotion/feeling verb (3rd person singular)

That’s why you need meitä, not me.

What exactly does naurattaa mean? Is it just “to laugh”?

Naurattaa is not the basic verb “to laugh”; that is nauraa.

  • nauraa = to laugh

    • Me nauramme = We laugh.

  • naurattaa = to make someone feel like laughing / to cause laughter

    • Minua naurattaa = I feel like laughing / Something makes me laugh.
    • Meitä naurattaa = We feel like laughing / It makes us laugh.

So naurattaa always involves someone being made to laugh (or wanting to laugh), and that someone appears in the partitive: minua, sinua, meitä etc.

Why is naurattaa in the 3rd person singular instead of agreeing with meitä?

Because in this structure meitä is not the grammatical subject.

In Finnish, verbs like naurattaa, väsyttää behave like this:

  • Minua väsyttää. = I feel tired (literally: [Something] tires me.)
  • Häntä naurattaa. = He/She feels like laughing (literally: [Something] makes him/her laugh.)

The verb stays in 3rd person singular regardless of who is experiencing the feeling:

  • Minua naurattaa.
  • Sinua naurattaa.
  • Häntä naurattaa.
  • Meitä naurattaa.
  • Heitä naurattaa.

So it does not agree with the experiencer; it’s essentially an impersonal verb form.

What is the difference in meaning between Meitä naurattaa, kun… and Me nauramme, kun…?

They are close, but not identical:

  • Meitä naurattaa, kun ystävä kertoo vitsin.

    • Focus: the feeling of amusement.
    • Natural translation: We feel like laughing / It makes us laugh when a friend tells a joke.
    • Suggests that the friend’s joke causes the feeling of wanting to laugh.

  • Me nauramme, kun ystävä kertoo vitsin.

    • Focus: the action of laughing.
    • Natural translation: We laugh when a friend tells a joke.
    • More neutral, like describing a typical reaction or routine.

In everyday speech, Meitä naurattaa is more expressive and emotional.

Why is it kun ystävä kertoo vitsin and not kun ystävä kertoo vitsi?

Vitsi means “joke” in the basic nominative form.
Here we have vitsin, which is the genitive/accusative form and functions as the object of kertoo (tells).

Finnish object rules (simplified):

  • If you are talking about a whole, completed thing (a specific joke), the object is often in genitive/accusative:

    • kerron vitsin = I tell a joke (one whole joke).

  • If the action is ongoing, incomplete, or indefinite, you might use partitive:

    • kerron vitsiä = I’m telling (some) joke(s) / telling a joke (without focus on it being a complete whole).

Here, the friend is telling a specific complete joke, so:
ystävä kertoo vitsin = a friend tells a (whole) joke.

Why is ystävä singular? In English we might say “when friends tell a joke”.

Finnish ystävä is singular, so literally: “when a friend tells a joke”.

If you wanted friends (plural), you’d say:

  • kun ystävät kertovat vitsin = when friends tell a joke.

But Finnish often leaves things more general; ystävä can be understood as “a friend” in a generic sense, similar to saying in English, “When a friend tells a joke, we laugh.”

So the sentence is about any friend in general, not necessarily one specific or several specific friends.

What is the role of kun here? Does it mean “when” or “because”?

Kun usually means “when” (temporal) or “because” (causal), depending on context.

In this sentence:
Meitä naurattaa, kun ystävä kertoo vitsin.
the most natural reading is temporal:

  • We feel like laughing *when a friend tells a joke.*

There may also be a slight causal sense (the friend’s joke causes the laughter), but grammatically it is the “when” usage.

For pure “because”, Finnish often uses koska:

  • Meitä naurattaa, koska ystävä kertoo vitsin. = We feel like laughing because a friend tells a joke.
Why is there a comma before kun?

In Finnish, a comma is typically used before kun when it introduces a subordinate clause, very much like how you often put a comma before “when” in English when the clause follows the main clause.

  • Meitä naurattaa, kun ystävä kertoo vitsin.
    • Main clause: Meitä naurattaa
    • Subordinate (when-)clause: kun ystävä kertoo vitsin

Therefore, the comma is standard and correct here.

Could you break down the forms of each word?

Sure:

  • Meitä

    • Base form: me (we)
    • Case: partitive plural
    • Role: experiencer of the feeling.

  • naurattaa

    • Base verb: naurattaa (to cause someone to laugh / to make someone feel like laughing)
    • Form: 3rd person singular, present tense.

  • kun

    • Subordinating conjunction: when.

  • ystävä

    • Base form: ystävä (friend)
    • Case: nominative singular
    • Role: subject of kertoo.

  • kertoo

    • Base verb: kertoa (to tell)
    • Form: 3rd person singular, present tense.

  • vitsin

    • Base form: vitsi (joke)
    • Case: genitive/accusative singular
    • Role: object of kertoo.
Can I say Me nauramme, kun ystävä kertoo vitsin instead? Is it still correct?

Yes, Me nauramme, kun ystävä kertoo vitsin is grammatically correct.

Difference in nuance:

  • Meitä naurattaa = we feel amused / something makes us laugh (more emotional, spontaneous).
  • Me nauramme = we laugh (plain description of an action).

In many everyday contexts both would be understood similarly, but Meitä naurattaa sounds more like a natural reaction to something funny.

Are there other verbs that work like naurattaa with partitive pronouns?

Yes, many feeling/psychological verbs work the same way:

  • Minua väsyttää. = I feel tired.
  • Sinua janottaa. = You are thirsty.
  • Häntä harmittaa. = He/She is annoyed.
  • Meitä jännittää. = We are nervous/excited.
  • Heitä pelottaa. = They are afraid.

Pattern:
(partitive of person) + verb (3rd person singular)

So Meitä naurattaa fits into a broader, very common Finnish structure.