Breakdown of Älä häiritse minua nyt, ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään.
Questions & Answers about Älä häiritse minua nyt, ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään.
Älä is the 2nd person singular negative imperative. It corresponds to “don’t (you) …” in English.
- Pattern: älä + verb in imperative
- Älä häiritse. = Don’t disturb.
- Älä tule. = Don’t come.
For you (plural) or polite/plural you, Finnish uses a different form:
- Älkää häiritkö minua. = Don’t (you all) disturb me.
So älä is only for one person being addressed directly.
Häiritä is the basic dictionary (infinitive) form: to disturb.
In the negative imperative with älä, the verb takes the 2nd person singular imperative form, which ends in -e:
- (sinä) häiritse! = disturb!
- Älä häiritse! = don’t disturb!
So:
- infinitive: häiritä
- 2nd person singular imperative: häiritse
All three are forms of “I / me”:
- minä = I (nominative, subject form)
- minut = me (accusative, whole, completed object)
- minua = me (partitive, partial/ongoing object)
The verb häiritä (“to disturb, bother”) almost always takes its object in the partitive:
- häiritä + partitive → häiritä minua = to disturb me
So minua is required by the verb’s case government; it’s not a choice of “style” but of grammar.
You would not normally say häiritä minut in standard Finnish.
Yes, you can change the word order:
- Älä häiritse minua nyt (original)
- Älä häiritse nyt minua
- Älä nyt häiritse minua
All are grammatically fine. The difference is in emphasis and tone, not basic meaning.
Very roughly:
- Älä häiritse minua nyt – neutral, “don’t disturb me now.”
- Älä häiritse nyt minua – mild emphasis on nyt (“now”) versus some other time.
- Älä nyt häiritse minua – nyt right after älä often adds a slightly more emotional / exasperated tone, a bit like “Oh, don’t disturb me now.”
Finnish word order is flexible, but it affects which part is highlighted.
Nyt means “now”.
In this sentence it narrows the time frame:
Älä häiritse minua nyt = Don’t disturb me right now (implied: maybe it’s fine later).
Grammatically, nyt is optional. You could say:
- Älä häiritse minua, ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään.
That would mean “Don’t disturb me until the teacher comes in” in a more general way, not specifically “right now” vs later today.
Ennen on its own is used with a noun or nominal expression:
- ennen tuntia = before the class
- ennen opettajan tuloa = before the teacher’s arrival
When there is a full clause with its own verb, Finnish normally uses ennen kuin:
- ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään
= before the teacher comes in
So:
- ennen + noun:
- ennen tuntia, ennen ruokaa, ennen kesää
- ennen kuin + clause with a verb:
- ennen kuin syön, ennen kuin hän tulee, ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään
Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense often covers both present and future, and the time is understood from context or adverbs.
- opettaja tulee sisään
literally: “the teacher comes in”
in context: “the teacher will come in”
So:
- Huomenna opettaja tulee sisään.
= Tomorrow the teacher will come in.
You don’t add a special future form; you just use present tense plus a time expression if needed.
Finnish has no articles (a/an, the) at all.
- opettaja can mean a teacher, the teacher, or just “teacher” as a general concept, depending on context.
In this sentence, in a classroom context, it is naturally understood as “the teacher” (the one everyone knows about in that situation).
So you rely on context, not grammar markers like “the”.
Here, the subject of the clause is explicitly opettaja (“the teacher”):
- ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään
You could in theory say ennen kuin hän tulee sisään, but then hän would be some person already clear from context, not necessarily “the teacher”.
Finnish normally doesn’t use a separate pronoun when the subject is already expressed as a full noun in that clause. So:
- opettaja tulee sisään (normal)
- hän tulee sisään (he/she comes in – when “he/she” is already known)
- opettaja hän tulee sisään (unnatural / wrong in standard Finnish)
Sisään is a directional adverb: “in(wards), to the inside”. It expresses movement into an interior space.
Compare:
- sisään – into, in(wards)
- tulla sisään = to come in
- sisälle – also “(to) inside”, often very similar to sisään, sometimes feels a bit more concrete/local
- sisällä – inside (state, location, not movement)
- olen sisällä = I am inside
In this sentence, tulee sisään is a common fixed combination meaning “comes in / will come in” (into the room, etc.).
Finnish usually places a comma between a main clause and a subordinate clause like the one introduced by ennen kuin.
- Main clause: Älä häiritse minua nyt
- Subordinate clause: ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään
They are separated with a comma:
- Älä häiritse minua nyt, ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään.
You would also use a comma if you put the subordinate clause first:
- Ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään, älä häiritse minua.
For you (plural), both the negative word and the verb form change:
Älä häiritse minua nyt.
= Don’t disturb me now. (to one person)Älkää häiritkö minua nyt.
= Don’t disturb me now. (to several people)
Pattern:
- älkää + verb in plural imperative (-ko/‑kö form)
- älkää tulko (don’t come)
- älkää puhuko (don’t speak)
- älkää häiritkö (don’t disturb)
Grammatically it’s fine, but direct imperatives in Finnish, like in many languages, can sound a bit blunt depending on voice and context.
- To a close friend, in an annoyed moment, it’s natural:
Älä häiritse minua nyt…
For more politeness, Finns often soften the command, for example:
- Voisitko olla häiritsemättä minua nyt, ennen kuin opettaja tulee sisään?
= Could you avoid disturbing me now, before the teacher comes in?
So the given sentence is not inherently impolite, but it’s fairly direct, like English “Don’t disturb me now…”. Context and tone matter.