Questions & Answers about Minä hengitän rauhallisesti.
Roughly, word by word:
- Minä = I
- hengitän = breathe / am breathing (hengittää = to breathe, -n = I / first person singular)
- rauhallisesti = calmly, in a calm way (an adverb derived from rauhallinen = calm)
So the whole sentence means “I (am) breathe(-ing) calmly.” in English.
Hengittää is the basic dictionary form (the infinitive: to breathe).
In a real sentence, Finnish verbs are usually conjugated to show who does the action.
To say “I breathe”, you conjugate hengittää in the present tense, 1st person singular:
- infinitive: hengittää (to breathe)
- minä hengitän = I breathe / I am breathing
So hengitän is the conjugated form that matches minä.
The -n ending marks first person singular (I) in the present tense.
Very often in Finnish present tense:
- puhua (to speak) → minä puhu
- n = puhun (I speak)
- syödä (to eat) → minä syö
- n = syön (I eat)
- hengittää (to breathe) → minä hengitä
- n (with a small stem change) = hengitän
Because the ending -n already shows the subject “I”, you can leave out minä.
You don’t need to say Minä. The verb ending -n already tells us it’s “I”.
- Minä hengitän rauhallisesti.
- Hengitän rauhallisesti.
Both mean “I breathe calmly / I am breathing calmly.”
Using Minä usually adds emphasis or contrast, for example:
- Minä hengitän rauhallisesti, mutta sinä et.
I breathe calmly, but you don’t.
In a neutral context, Hengitän rauhallisesti is perfectly natural.
The meaning is the same (both say that you yourself breathe calmly).
The nuance:
Hengitän rauhallisesti.
– neutral, simple statement, like answering “What are you doing?”Minä hengitän rauhallisesti.
– more contrastive or emphatic:
– might imply “I, for my part, breathe calmly (unlike others)”
– you may use it when stressing who is doing the action.
In everyday speech, dropping the pronoun is very common.
Rauhallinen is an adjective = calm (describing a noun):
- rauhallinen ihminen = a calm person
- rauhallinen ilta = a calm evening
To describe how you do something (an adverb: calmly), Finnish often adds -sti to the adjective stem:
- rauhallinen → rauhallisesti = calmly
- nopea (fast) → nopeasti (quickly)
- hidas (slow) → hitaasti (slowly)
So rauhallisesti is the correct form because it describes how you breathe.
The base adjective is rauhallinen (calm).
- Take the adjective: rauhallinen
- Use its stem rauhallise- (this shows up in some cases: rauhallisen, etc.)
- Add -sti → rauhallise
- sti = rauhallisesti
Function: an adverb describing manner → in a calm way, calmly.
That is consonant gradation, a common sound change in Finnish.
Infinitive: hengittää with tt
1st person singular: hengitän with single t
Pattern: tt → t when the consonant moves into a certain position in the word (the “weak grade”).
You see similar patterns in other verbs:
- ottaa (to take) → minä otan (I take)
- puhuttaa (to cause to speak) → se puhuttaa (it causes people to talk)
So the verb stem changes slightly when conjugated, and that’s regular Finnish phonology, not irregularity specific to this word.
Hengitän is first person singular present.
The full present tense of hengittää:
- minä hengitän – I breathe
- sinä hengität – you (sg) breathe
- hän hengittää – he/she breathes
- me hengitämme – we breathe
- te hengitätte – you (pl) breathe
- he hengittävät – they breathe
Note how tt reappears in some forms due to consonant gradation.
Finnish does not normally distinguish between simple and continuous present like English does.
- Minä hengitän rauhallisesti.
can mean:
- I breathe calmly. (general habit)
- I am breathing calmly (right now). (current action)
Context tells which meaning is intended. Finnish typically uses just the present tense for both.
Finnish uses a special negative verb (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät) plus the main verb in a short form (without the personal ending).
For Minä hengitän rauhallisesti:
- Minä en hengitä rauhallisesti.
or simply - En hengitä rauhallisesti.
Changes:
- hengitän → hengitä (no -n; the person is shown by en)
- rauhallisesti stays the same
Meaning: I do not breathe calmly.
Yes, Finnish word order is flexible, but the emphasis changes.
Neutral:
- Minä hengitän rauhallisesti.
- Hengitän rauhallisesti.
Emphatic / stylistic variants:
- Rauhallisesti hengitän.
– Emphasizes how you breathe (“calmly is how I breathe”). - Rauhallisesti minä hengitän.
– Strongly emphasizes I and calmly (e.g. in contrast to someone else, or poetic/dramatic style).
Basic safe order for learners: [subject] [verb] [adverb] → (Minä) hengitän rauhallisesti.
In Minä hengitän rauhallisesti.:
- Minä is in the nominative case (the basic subject form, no visible ending).
- hengitän is a conjugated verb, so no case suffix; it carries person and tense instead.
- rauhallisesti is an adverb, not a noun, so it doesn’t have a case ending either; its -sti is an adverb-forming ending, not a case.
So you don’t really see the usual Finnish case endings (-ssa, -sta, -lle, etc.) here.
Some key points:
- Minä: mi (like mi in middle but shorter) + nä (like na in nap, but with ä, a front vowel).
- hengitän:
- he: like he in help
- ng: a single [ŋ] sound, like ng in sing
- i: like i in sit (short)
- tän: t
- ä (front vowel like in German Mädchen) + n
- rauhallisesti:
- rau: roughly like row but with Finnish a and u; the h is clearly pronounced, and au is a diphthong (a-u in one syllable)
- hal: h
- short a
- ll (double l is held a bit longer)
- short a
- li: short li
- ses: se
- s
- ti: ti
Stressed syllables: in Finnish, stress is always on the first syllable of each word:
- MInä HENgitän RAUhallisesti.