Learn Hardcore Finnish: Yritän hengittää rauhallisesti, jotta stressi pysyy pienenä. - I try to breathe calmly so that the stress stays small.

The MA-infinitive (the form in -maan / -mään, like hengittämään) is used after some other verbs (like mennä, tulla, ruveta, etc.), often to express going/starting to do something:

menen nukkumaan – I’m going to sleep
rupean opiskelemaan – I start studying

But with yrittää, the normal pattern is:

yrittää + 1st infinitive
yritän hengittää, not yritän hengittämään

What is the form “hengittää”, and how is it related to “hengitys”?

hengittää is the basic verb form (1st infinitive) meaning “to breathe”.
hengitys is a related noun meaning “breathing, respiration”.

Some related forms:

Hengitän. – I breathe / I am breathing.
Hän hengitti. – He/she breathed.
Hengitys on rauhallista. – The breathing is calm.

So in the sentence:

Yritän hengittää rauhallisesti...
I try to breathe calmly...

you have the verb hengittää (to breathe), not the noun hengitys (breathing).

Why is it “rauhallisesti” and not “rauhallinen”?

Finnish usually forms adverbs from adjectives by adding -sti:

rauhallinen – calm (adjective)
rauhallisesti – calmly (adverb)

Other examples:

hidas → hitaasti – slow → slowly
nopea → nopeasti – fast → quickly

In “yritän hengittää rauhallisesti”, the word modifies how you breathe (the manner), so you need an adverb:

rauhallisesti hengittää – to breathe calmly
rauhallinen hengitys – calm breathing (adjective + noun)

So:

rauhallinen hengitys – a calm breath / calm breathing
hengittää rauhallisesti – to breathe calmly

What does “jotta” mean here, and how is it different from “että” or “koska”?

In this sentence:

...jotta stressi pysyy pienenä.

jotta means “so that” / “in order that” and expresses purpose or desired result.

Yritän hengittää rauhallisesti, jotta stressi pysyy pienenä.
→ I try to breathe calmly so that the stress stays low.

Differences:

jotta – purpose/result
- Teen tämän, jotta sinä voisit levätä.
  I do this so that you can rest.
että – more neutral “that”; often just introduces a subordinate clause, not necessarily purpose.
- Tiedän, että olet väsynyt. – I know that you are tired.
- You can sometimes use että instead of jotta, but jotta is clearer for purpose.
koska – “because” (reason, not purpose)
- Hengitän rauhallisesti, koska olen stressaantunut.
  I breathe calmly because I am stressed.

So jotta answers “for what purpose / with what intended result?”.

Why is it “stressi pysyy pienenä” and not “stressi pysyy pieni”? What is “pienenä”?

Pienenä is the adjective pieni (small) in the essive case (ending -nä / -na).

With verbs like pysyä (to stay/remain), you often use the essive to describe the state something stays in:

pysyä pienenä – to stay small
pysyä rauhallisena – to stay calm
pysyä lämpimänä – to stay warm

So:

stressi pysyy pienenä
→ the stress stays small / low

Using plain pieni (stressi pysyy pieni) is not correct in standard Finnish for this construction; the verb pysyä expects that state in essive.

Why is the ending “-nä” and not “-na” in “pienenä”?

The essive ending is -na / -nä, and it follows vowel harmony:

Front vowels (ä, ö, y) → -nä
Back vowels (a, o, u) → -na

The word pieni belongs to the front-vowel type (it contains e, i, both neutral, and no back vowels), so it takes -nä:

pieni → pienenä (as small)
hyvä → hyvänä (as good)
suuri → suurena (as big – suuri has u, so back-vowel → -na)

Therefore, pienenä is the correct essive form for pieni.

Why isn’t it “stressini pysyy pienenä” if the meaning is “my stress stays low”?

Finnish doesn’t always mark possession when English would say “my” or “your”. In many contexts, it’s clear from the situation whose stress is being talked about.

Yritän hengittää rauhallisesti, jotta stressi pysyy pienenä.
→ In context, this usually means so that (my) stress stays low.

You can say:

...jotta stressini pysyy pienenä. – so that my stress stays low.

This sounds a bit more explicit and sometimes slightly more formal or emphatic. But in everyday speech, dropping the possessive when it’s obvious is very common:

Pää särkee. – My head hurts.
Jalka on kipeä. – My leg is sore.
Stressi kasvaa. – (My) stress is increasing.

So “stressi” without a possessive suffix is normal here.

Why is “pysyy” in the present tense? Can it also refer to the future?

Yes. Finnish present tense is used for:

Current actions / states
General truths / habits
Future situations (very often)

In this sentence:

Yritän hengittää rauhallisesti, jotta stressi pysyy pienenä.

it can mean:

Right now: I am trying to breathe calmly so that the stress stays low (now).
General/habitual: I try to breathe calmly so that the stress stays low (in general).
Near-future/expected: I try to breathe calmly so that the stress will stay low.

Finnish usually doesn’t need a separate future tense; context makes it clear.

Could I put “jotta stressi pysyy pienenä” at the beginning of the sentence?

Yes. Finnish word order is quite flexible, especially with subordinate clauses. You can say:

Yritän hengittää rauhallisesti, jotta stressi pysyy pienenä.
Jotta stressi pysyy pienenä, yritän hengittää rauhallisesti.

Both are correct. The second version emphasizes the result/purpose (keeping stress low) a bit more by mentioning it first.

Why is it “stressi pysyy pienenä” and not something like “stressiä pysyy pienenä” with partitive?

With the verb pysyä (to remain/stay), the subject is normally in the nominative case:

Stressi pysyy pienenä. – The stress stays small.
Sää pysyy hyvänä. – The weather stays good.
Ruoka pysyy lämpimänä. – The food stays warm.

The partitive (stressiä) is not used as the subject here. Partitive is used for other things, for example:

On vähän stressiä. – There is a little stress.
Minulla on stressiä. – I have some stress.

So in this structure: > subject (nominative) + pysyä + state (essive)

you correctly say “stressi pysyy pienenä”.