Learn Hardcore Finnish: Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt. - He/She comes from the kitchen now.

Context usually tells you whether the person is male or female (or you just don’t specify). In casual spoken Finnish, people often use se (“it”) instead of hän for people, but hän is the standard written form.

Why is the verb tulee and not tulla or something else? What form is it?

The dictionary form is tulla = “to come”.

In the sentence Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt, the verb is tulee, which is:

person: 3rd person singular (“he/she/it”)
tense: present
mood: indicative

Mini conjugation of tulla (present indicative):

minä tulen – I come / I am coming
sinä tulet – you (sg) come / are coming
hän tulee – he/she comes / is coming
me tulemme – we come / are coming
te tulette – you (pl) come / are coming
he tulevat – they come / are coming

So tulee is just “comes / is coming” for hän.

Does Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt mean “he comes”, “he is coming”, or “he will come”?

All of these are possible translations depending on context. Finnish present tense is quite flexible:

He is coming from the kitchen now. (most natural here: ongoing action “right now”)
He comes from the kitchen now. (less natural in English, but possible in a fixed schedule context)
He will come from the kitchen now. (immediate future, something like “He’ll come… now”)

Finnish doesn’t have a special continuous tense like English (is coming). The simple present tulee covers:

present simple,
present continuous, and
near future.

Context (and sometimes extra adverbs) tells you which nuance is intended. In this sentence, with nyt, it’s typically understood as “is coming now”.

Why is there no word for “from the” before keittiöstä?

Finnish does not use separate words for “from” or “the” here. Instead, it uses case endings attached to the noun.

keittiö = kitchen (basic form)
keittiöstä = from (the) kitchen

The ending -stä expresses “from inside”, which in English you’d translate with a preposition (“from”) plus an article (“the”). Finnish has no articles (no a/an/the), so definiteness is understood from context.

So Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt literally is something like:

He/she comes kitchen‑FROM now.

What does the ending -stä in keittiöstä actually mean?

The ending -sta / -stä is the elative case, which generally means “from inside” a place.

With keittiö (kitchen):

keittiöön – into the kitchen (illative, movement into)
keittiössä – in the kitchen (inessive, location in)
keittiöstä – from the kitchen (elative, movement out of / from)

So keittiöstä specifically answers “from where?” – from the kitchen.

Why is it keittiöstä and not keittiosta or keittiösta? What’s with the ä?

This is about vowel harmony and spelling:

Finnish has front vowels: y, ä, ö
and back vowels: a, o, u

A word normally contains either front vowels or back vowels (plus neutral ones e, i). The case ending must harmonize with the vowels in the stem:

If the word has front vowels (ä, ö, y) → you use -stä
If it has back vowels (a, o, u) → you use -sta

keittiö has ö, a front vowel, so it takes -stä → keittiöstä.

keittiosta / keittiösta would simply be spelling errors.

Where can I put nyt in this sentence? Is Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt the only correct word order?

Word order in Finnish is fairly flexible. All of these can be grammatically correct:

Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt.
Hän tulee nyt keittiöstä.
Nyt hän tulee keittiöstä.

Differences are mainly about emphasis and information structure:

Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt.
- Neutral, slight focus at the end on nyt (“now, as opposed to some other time”).
Hän tulee nyt keittiöstä.
- Focus more on the action happening now, with keittiöstä just specifying from where.
Nyt hän tulee keittiöstä.
- Emphasis on “now” as a contrast (e.g., Now he’s coming from the kitchen (earlier he didn’t)).

For a beginner, Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt or Nyt hän tulee keittiöstä are good default choices.

Could I also say Hän on tulossa keittiöstä nyt? What’s the difference from Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt?

Yes, Hän on tulossa keittiöstä nyt is correct and common. The nuance is slightly different:

Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt.
- Simple present; can describe something happening very soon or right now.
- Often feels a bit more event‑like: he/she comes (arrives) from the kitchen now.
Hän on tulossa keittiöstä nyt.
- Literally: He/she is in the process of coming from the kitchen now.
- Very close to English “He/She is coming from the kitchen now” in a progressive / ongoing sense.

In practice, both can translate as “He/She is coming from the kitchen now.”
On tulossa puts more emphasis on the ongoingness of the movement.

Can I drop Hän and just say Tulee keittiöstä nyt?

Yes, Finnish is a pro‑drop language: the subject pronoun is often omitted because the verb ending shows who is doing the action.

So grammatically, Tulee keittiöstä nyt is fine and means:

(He/She/It) is coming from the kitchen now.

However:

In 3rd person, dropping the pronoun can make it less clear whether you mean he, she, or it, especially out of context.
When the subject is new information, or when you want to be clear, Finns typically keep hän.

In neutral written Finnish, Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt is a more typical complete sentence.

How would the sentence change if I say “I/you/we/they are coming from the kitchen now”?

You mainly change the subject pronoun and the verb ending:

Minä tulen keittiöstä nyt. – I am coming from the kitchen now.
Sinä tulet keittiöstä nyt. – You (singular) are coming from the kitchen now.
Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt. – He/She is coming from the kitchen now.
Me tulemme keittiöstä nyt. – We are coming from the kitchen now.
Te tulette keittiöstä nyt. – You (plural/formal) are coming from the kitchen now.
He tulevat keittiöstä nyt. – They are coming from the kitchen now.

The noun keittiöstä and the adverb nyt stay the same; only pronoun + verb form change.

Could Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt mean something habitual, like “He comes from the kitchen now (every day)”?

In principle, yes: Finnish present can express habitual actions, especially if you add an adverb like aina (“always”) or yleensä (“usually”).

For example:

Hän tulee keittiöstä aina nyt. – He always comes from the kitchen at this time now. (a bit clunky but possible)

However, in normal conversation, Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt with nyt strongly suggests a single, current event:

He/She is (right now) coming from the kitchen.

If you want to stress habit, you’d typically adjust the time expressions, e.g.:

Hän tulee keittiöstä aina iltapäivällä. – He/She always comes from the kitchen in the afternoon.

How do you pronounce Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt?

Key points for pronunciation:

Stress is always on the first syllable of each word:
- HÄN TU‑lee KEIT‑ti‑ös‑tä NYT
Double vowels and consonants are held longer:
- tulee: long ee at the end
- keittiöstä: double tt is pronounced longer; ö like German ö or French eu in peur
ä (in Hän) is like the a in British cat (but a bit clearer, more forward).
y (not in this sentence, but related) is like the French u or German ü.
Final t in nyt is clearly pronounced, not softened.

Rough IPA (approximate):

[hæn ˈtuleː ˈkeitːiøstæ ˈnyt]

Why is keittiöstä singular? How would I say “from the kitchens”?

keittiöstä is the singular elative (“from the kitchen”).

To say “from the kitchens”, you need the plural stem + plural elative ending -ista / -istä:

keittiö – kitchen
keittiöt – kitchens (nominative plural)
keittiöistä – from the kitchens (elative plural)

So:

Hän tulee keittiöistä nyt. – He/She is coming from the kitchens now.

(This would be used in a context where several separate kitchens are involved, which is less common, but grammatically correct.)

When should I use hän and when se for people in Finnish?

In standard written Finnish:

hän = he/she (for people)
se = it (for things, animals, etc.)

In informal spoken Finnish, people very often use se for people too, e.g.:

Se tulee keittiöstä nyt. – (Colloquial: “He/She is coming from the kitchen now.”)

But in:

writing (books, news, essays),
formal speech,
or when you’re learning,

it’s safest to use:

Hän tulee keittiöstä nyt. for a person.

Using hän will always be grammatically correct and appropriate in neutral/written contexts.