Breakdown of Kirjoitan uuden sanan vihkoon ja merkitsen sen viereen lyhyen merkityksen.
Questions & Answers about Kirjoitan uuden sanan vihkoon ja merkitsen sen viereen lyhyen merkityksen.
Kirjoitan is the 1st person singular, present tense, indicative form of the verb kirjoittaa (to write).
- kirjoittaa = dictionary (infinitive) form
- kirjoitan = I write / I am writing
Finnish does not have a separate continuous form like English (I am writing), so the same form kirjoitan can correspond to both:
- Kirjoitan. = I write. or I am writing.
Context tells you whether it is a general habit or something happening right now. In your sentence, it’s more like a description of a habitual action: When I learn a word, I write it in a notebook and note a short meaning beside it.
Uuden sanan is in the (genitive) accusative form and functions as the object of kirjoitan (I write).
- uusi sana = a new word (basic nominative form)
- uuden sanan = a new word as a complete object (I write a new word – I finish writing it)
Breakdown:
- uusi → uuden (genitive singular of the adjective)
- sana → sanan (genitive singular of the noun)
In Finnish, a total/complete object in the singular often appears in a form that looks like the genitive, especially with a completed action or a fully affected object. So:
- Kirjoitan uuden sanan. = I write (down) a new word (and I complete it).
If the action were incomplete/ongoing, you might see the partitive instead:
- Kirjoitan uutta sanaa. = I am (in the process of) writing a new word. (The action is not finished.)
In your sentence, the idea is a complete, habitual action, so uuden sanan is natural.
Vihkoon means “into the notebook” or “in a notebook (when writing into it)”.
It comes from:
- vihko = notebook
- vihko → vihkoo
- n → vihkoon (illative case: into the notebook)
Key points:
- The illative case (often ending in -n, and for many words with an extra -hV- in the middle, e.g. talo → taloon, koulu → kouluun) expresses movement into something.
- So vihkoon answers “Where to?” → into a notebook / into the notebook.
Contrast with:
- vihkossa = in the notebook (static location, inessive case)
- vihkoon = into the notebook (movement, illative case)
Because you are writing into the notebook, Finnish uses the illative: vihkoon.
Merkitsen is the 1st person singular, present tense of merkitä, which in this context means “to mark, to note, to write down (as a note/mark)”.
- kirjoitan = I write (the actual word itself into the notebook)
- merkitsen = I mark / note (something beside it, e.g. a short meaning, a symbol)
So your sentence describes two related actions:
- Kirjoitan uuden sanan vihkoon – I write the new word into the notebook.
- (ja) merkitsen sen viereen lyhyen merkityksen – and I mark a short meaning next to it.
You could use kirjoitan in the second clause too (kirjoitan sen viereen lyhyen merkityksen), but merkitä emphasizes that it’s more like adding a note/mark, not writing a full text.
Sen viereen literally means “next to it” / “beside it”.
It is a combination of:
- sen = “that / it” (genitive form of se)
- vieri = side
- viereen = to the side (of something), illative form of vieri
So:
- vieressä = next to, beside (static)
- viereen = to next to, beside (movement)
Sen viereen is therefore “to the side of it” → next to it.
The sen refers back to uuden sanan (“the new word”).
In Finnish, these location words like vieressä / viereen / vierestä behave like postpositions, and they attach to a noun or pronoun in the genitive:
- kirjan viereen = next to the book
- sen viereen = next to it
That’s why it’s two words rather than one.
Lyhyen merkityksen means “a short meaning”, in the sense of a brief explanation or definition of the word.
Grammatically:
- lyhyt → lyhyen (genitive/accusative form of the adjective short)
- merkitys → merkityksen (genitive/accusative form of the noun meaning)
Together, lyhyen merkityksen is the (total) object of merkitsen:
- merkitsen (mitä?) lyhyen merkityksen
- I note / mark a short meaning.
Again, Finnish uses this genitive-like accusative form for a complete object.
Note on nuance:
- merkitys = meaning (semantic meaning)
- In context, this is similar to English “a short explanation/definition”. Many Finns might also say
lyhyen selityksen (a short explanation) or lyhyen käännöksen (a short translation), depending on what you actually write.
In Finnish, when two clauses share the same subject and are joined by ja (“and”), the subject is normally stated only once and omitted from the second clause. The verb form already shows who the subject is.
Your sentence has:
- Kirjoitan uuden sanan vihkoon
- ja merkitsen sen viereen lyhyen merkityksen.
Both kirjoitan and merkitsen are 1st person singular, so Finnish knows the subject is “I” in both parts. There is no need to say minä again.
You could explicitly say:
- Minä kirjoitan … ja minä merkitsen …
but that sounds more emphatic or sometimes a bit stiff in normal speech.
Yes, the word order is flexible, and Kirjoitan vihkoon uuden sanan ja merkitsen sen viereen lyhyen merkityksen is also correct.
Basic possibilities:
- Kirjoitan uuden sanan vihkoon
- Kirjoitan vihkoon uuden sanan
Both mean I write a new word into (my) notebook.
Subtle differences:
- The original order uuden sanan vihkoon keeps the object (what you write) closer to the verb.
- vihkoon uuden sanan slightly highlights the destination first (where you are writing), then what you write.
In everyday language, both orders are natural; the meaning does not really change here.
You could, but it would change the aspectual meaning of the sentence.
Kirjoitan uuden sanan (genitive/accusative)
→ I write a new word (as a complete object, the action is seen as finished).Kirjoitan uutta sanaa (partitive)
→ I am writing a new word (focusing on the ongoing process, not on completion).
Similarly:
- merkitsen lyhyen merkityksen
→ I mark a short meaning (complete act). - merkitsen lyhyttä merkitystä
→ I am in the process of marking / noting a short meaning (very unusual here; sounds odd because marking a short meaning is a quick, complete action).
In your sentence, you’re describing a routine of complete actions (you write the whole word, then the whole explanation), so the genitive/accusative objects uuden sanan and lyhyen merkityksen are the natural choice.
Grammatically, the verbs kirjoitan and merkitsen are in the present indicative. Finnish present tense covers several uses:
- habitual: what you usually do
- current ongoing: what you are doing now
- generic: general truths/instructions
Given the context (a description of how you study vocabulary), the main interpretation is habitual:
- Kirjoitan uuden sanan vihkoon ja merkitsen sen viereen lyhyen merkityksen.
→ When I learn a new word, I write it in a notebook and note a short meaning beside it.
English can translate this with either present simple (I write, I note) or present continuous (I’m writing, I’m noting) depending on style, but Finnish uses the same present form for both, and the habitual aspect is understood from context.
Yes, there are several natural variations. For example:
Kirjoitan uuden sanan vihkoon ja kirjoitan sen viereen lyhyen selityksen.
→ I write the new word in a notebook and write a short explanation next to it.Kirjoitan uuden sanan vihkoon ja merkitsen viereen lyhyen käännöksen.
→ I write the new word in a notebook and mark a short translation next to it.Kirjoitan uudet sanat vihkoon ja merkitsen niiden viereen lyhyet merkitykset.
→ I write new words in a notebook and mark short meanings next to them.
Very informal spoken Finnish might also use shortened verb forms like merkkaan instead of merkitsen, but merkitsen is the standard written form.