Breakdown of Minä mietin, milloin koe alkaa ja kuinka kauan se kestää.
Questions & Answers about Minä mietin, milloin koe alkaa ja kuinka kauan se kestää.
Mietin is the 1st person singular form of miettiä, which means something like to think about, to ponder, or to wonder.
In this sentence, Minä mietin, milloin koe alkaa..., it’s best translated as “I’m wondering / I’m thinking about when the exam starts…”.
Comparison with similar verbs:
ajattelen (from ajatella)
- More like “I think (that)…” in the sense of having an opinion or a general mental process.
- Ajattelen, että koe on huomenna. = I think (that) the exam is tomorrow.
mietin (from miettiä)
- Emphasizes pondering, considering, reflecting, wondering about something.
- Mietin, milloin koe alkaa. = I’m wondering / considering when the exam starts.
ihmettelen (from ihmetellä)
- Means to be puzzled, to marvel, to find something strange.
- Ihmettelen, miksi koe on niin aikaisin. = I’m puzzled about why the exam is so early.
So mietin fits well when you have an indirect question: you’re mentally asking yourself something.
In Finnish, a comma is usually placed before a subordinate clause, and clauses introduced by words like että, jos, kun, koska, milloin, kuinka, etc. are often such clauses.
Here, Minä mietin is the main clause, and milloin koe alkaa ja kuinka kauan se kestää is a subordinate clause (an indirect question) that functions as the object of mietin.
So the structure is:
- Main clause: Minä mietin
- Subordinate clause: milloin koe alkaa ja kuinka kauan se kestää
Finnish punctuation rules generally require a comma before this kind of subordinate clause, hence:
Minä mietin, milloin koe alkaa ja kuinka kauan se kestää.
In Finnish, the neutral word order in statements and in many questions is Subject–Verb–(Other parts).
So:
- koe alkaa = the exam starts
When you add the question word milloin (when), you usually put it at the beginning, and then keep normal statement order after it:
- Milloin koe alkaa? = When does the exam start?
In the indirect question:
- … milloin koe alkaa
the order stays the same as in the direct question. Finnish does not do extra inversion like English does with do/does.
You could sometimes say Milloin alkaa koe?, but that is more marked and emphasizes koe (often sounding a bit more literary or stylized). The most natural neutral order is milloin koe alkaa.
Both milloin and koska can be translated as when, but they are used differently.
milloin is used in questions (both direct and indirect):
- Milloin koe alkaa? = When does the exam start?
- Minä mietin, milloin koe alkaa. = I’m wondering when the exam starts.
koska is used mainly in subordinate clauses of time, often meaning when or because:
- Koe alkaa, koska kello on yhdeksän. = The exam starts because it is nine o’clock.
- Tulin kotiin, koska oli myöhä. = I came home because it was late.
- In some dialects and informal speech, koska can introduce a time clause like when, but not as a question word.
In your sentence we clearly have an indirect question (I’m wondering when…), so milloin is the correct choice.
Kuinka kauan literally means how long (in time) and is the standard way to ask about duration:
- Kuinka kauan se kestää? = How long does it last?
Other variants:
kuinka pitkään
- Also means how long (for how long); very close in meaning.
- Kuinka pitkään se kestää? is perfectly natural.
kauanko
- A shorter, more colloquial form of kuinka kauan.
- Kauanko se kestää? = How long does it last?
In your sentence, kuinka kauan se kestää is the neutral, standard form.
You could also say kuinka pitkään se kestää or kauanko se kestää without changing the basic meaning.
Finnish doesn’t have a dedicated future tense like English. The present tense often covers both present and future meanings, and context tells you which one is intended.
koe alkaa can mean:
- the exam is starting (now), or
- the exam will start (at some future time)
se kestää can mean:
- it lasts / is lasting, or
- it will last
In your sentence, the context of wondering about a scheduled event makes it clear we’re talking about the future. Therefore:
- milloin koe alkaa = when the exam starts / will start
- kuinka kauan se kestää = how long it lasts / will last
This use of the present for the future is completely normal in Finnish.
Se is the basic third-person singular pronoun meaning it / that. Finnish does not have grammatical gender, so se is used for inanimate objects, and often even for people in spoken language.
In kuinka kauan se kestää, se refers back to koe (the exam):
- Minä mietin, milloin koe alkaa ja kuinka kauan se kestää.
= I’m wondering when the exam starts and how long it (the exam) lasts.
You could also say:
- … ja kuinka kauan koe kestää.
Both are grammatically correct. Using se avoids repeating koe and sounds very natural.
Yes, you can. In Finnish, the personal pronoun is often omitted, because the verb ending already shows the person.
- mietin ends in -n, which marks 1st person singular (I).
So:
- Minä mietin, milloin koe alkaa…
and - Mietin, milloin koe alkaa…
are both correct. The version without minä is actually more common in everyday speech and writing, unless you need to emphasize I (as opposed to someone else).
In this context, you normally should not drop se.
The verb kestää needs a subject:
- Se kestää kaksi tuntia. = It lasts two hours.
- Koe kestää kaksi tuntia. = The exam lasts two hours.
If you say kuinka kauan kestää, it sounds incomplete or very stylistic, and usually it would be interpreted as a more impersonal expression like:
- Kauan kestää! = It’s taking a long time! (kind of like “This is taking forever!”)
But in your sentence, where you are clearly referring back to koe, the normal and clear options are:
- kuinka kauan se kestää, or
- kuinka kauan koe kestää.
So keep the se (or koe) there.
This is a key difference between English and Finnish.
In English:
- Direct question: When does the exam start? (inversion: does the exam start)
- Indirect question: I wonder when the exam starts. (no inversion inside the clause)
In Finnish, the same word order is used in both direct and indirect questions:
Direct:
- Milloin koe alkaa? = When does the exam start?
- Kuinka kauan se kestää? = How long does it last?
Indirect:
- Minä mietin, milloin koe alkaa.
- Minä mietin, kuinka kauan se kestää.
No extra inversion or helping verbs like do/does appear in Finnish. Once you put the question word (like milloin, kuinka) at the beginning of the clause, the rest is in standard statement order (koe alkaa, se kestää).
All three are in the present tense, but with different persons:
mietin
- Verb: miettiä (to think, to ponder)
- Form: 1st person singular present
- Means: I think / I am thinking / I wonder
alkaa
- Verb: alkaa (to start, to begin)
- Form: 3rd person singular present
- Subject: koe (the exam)
- Means: (it) starts
kestää
- Verb: kestää (to last, to endure)
- Form: 3rd person singular present
- Subject: se (referring to koe)
- Means: (it) lasts
So grammatically:
- Minä mietin = I (subject) + think (1sg verb)
- koe alkaa = the exam (subject) + starts (3sg verb)
- se kestää = it (subject) + lasts (3sg verb)
Kuinka and miten are both question words that can often be translated as how.
In many contexts they are interchangeable:
- Kuinka kauan se kestää?
- Miten kauan se kestää?
Both mean: How long does it last?
Slight nuances:
- kuinka is a bit more formal or neutral in many standard phrases.
- miten is very common in everyday speech.
In your sentence, kuinka kauan is the standard textbook form, but in real conversation you’ll also hear miten kauan or kauanko.
In both clauses koe is the subject of the verb:
- koe alkaa = the exam starts
- (koe) (referred to by se) kestää = (the exam) lasts
Subjects in Finnish typically appear in the nominative case, which is the basic dictionary form. That’s why you see koe without any ending.
If we changed the role of koe, its form would change, for example as an object:
- Suoritan kokeen huomenna. = I will take the exam tomorrow.
(kokeen = object, genitive case)
But here it’s the subject of alkaa and kestää, so it stays as koe in the nominative.