Learn Hardcore Finnish: Minä menen ylös.

Menen ylös. = “I go up / I’m going up.” (perfectly natural)
Minä menen ylös. = same meaning, but minä is more emphatic: I (as opposed to someone else) am going up.

So in everyday speech and writing, you’ll very often hear/see just Menen ylös.

Why is it menen and not mennä in this sentence?

Mennä is the infinitive form, meaning “to go”.
In a normal finite clause with a subject, Finnish uses a conjugated verb, not the infinitive.

infinitive: mennä = “to go”
1st person singular present: menen = “I go / I’m going”

You use mennä mainly after another verb (e.g. haluan mennä = “I want to go”), in dictionaries, etc.
In Minä menen ylös., you must conjugate it: menen.

How is mennä conjugated in the present tense?

Here’s the full present indicative of mennä (“to go”):

minä menen = I go / I’m going
sinä menet = you go / you’re going (singular, informal)
hän menee = he/she goes / is going
me menemme = we go / we’re going
te menette = you go / you’re going (plural or polite)
he menevät = they go / they’re going

The stem is mene-, and the personal endings attach to that stem.

In English there’s a difference between “I go up” and “I’m going up”. Does Finnish Menen ylös cover both?

Yes. Finnish doesn’t normally distinguish between simple and continuous the way English does.

Menen ylös. can mean:
- “I go up” (habitual / general)
- “I’m going up (now).” (right now, one-time action)

The exact meaning comes from context and sometimes from added words (e.g. nyt = now, yleensä = usually).

What exactly does ylös mean, and how is it different from words like ylhäällä or ylöspäin?

Ylös is a directional adverb, meaning “(to) up” or “upwards” — movement towards a higher position.

Common related forms:

ylös = up (to a higher place), e.g. Menen ylös. – “I’m going up.”
ylhäällä = up / up above / at a high place (static location), e.g. Olen ylhäällä. – “I am up (there).”
ylöspäin = upwards (often a bit more “in the direction of up,” sometimes more abstract), e.g. Katso ylöspäin. – “Look upwards.”

So use:

ylös for motion toward up,
ylhäällä for being at an up position,
ylöspäin when you focus more on the direction than on reaching a particular upper place.

Why can’t I say Minä menen ylhäällä to mean “I go up”?

Because ylhäällä describes a location, not a direction of movement.

ylös = to up (movement toward a higher place)
ylhäällä = up / up above (already at a high place, no movement implied)

So:

Menen ylös. = I go up (I move upward).
Olen ylhäällä. = I am up / I’m upstairs / I’m at a higher place.

Saying Menen ylhäällä would sound like “I go while I’m (already) up,” which is not what you want here.

Where can ylös appear in the sentence? Is Ylös minä menen also possible?

Finnish word order is relatively flexible, so several orders are correct, with slightly different emphases:

Menen ylös. – neutral: “I’m going up.”
Minä menen ylös. – neutral, but stressing the subject (I am the one going up).
Ylös menen. – focuses on ylös: “Up is where I’m going.”
Ylös minä menen. – quite emphatic: “Up is where I am going.” (could contrast with someone else going somewhere else)

For a basic, neutral sentence, Menen ylös. or Minä menen ylös. is the best choice.

How would I change Minä menen ylös to say “I went up” or “I will go up”?

You keep ylös and change the verb tense:

I went up.
- Minä menin ylös. / Menin ylös.
  (past tense of mennä is menin in 1st person singular.)
I will go up.
Finnish usually uses the present for future, so normally:
- Menen ylös (huomenna / kohta / pian). = “I will go up (tomorrow / soon).”

You can also use more explicit future-style constructions (e.g. aion mennä ylös = “I’m going to go up”), but the simple present with a time expression is most common.

How do I pronounce Minä menen ylös?

Key points:

Stress is always on the first syllable of each word: MI-nä ME-nen Y-lös.
ä is like the a in “cat” (front, open vowel), not like English “ah”.
ö is like German ö, or somewhat like the vowel in British English “bird” (but shorter and rounded).
Consonants are pronounced clearly; there is no silent letter.
Vowels are short here (each letter = one sound), so don’t lengthen them.

Rough approximation: “MEE-nah MEH-nen EUH-los”, but with Finnish-style pure vowels.

Is Minä ever capitalized specially like English “I”, or is it only uppercase at the beginning of the sentence?

Minä is only capitalized according to normal sentence rules:

At the beginning of a sentence: Minä menen ylös.
In the middle of a sentence: Luulen, että minä menen ylös.

Finnish does not capitalize the 1st person pronoun the way English capitalizes I.

Why doesn’t this sentence have any articles like “a” or “the”?

Finnish simply does not have articles (a, an, the). The language expresses definiteness and specificity using:

word order,
context,
sometimes pronouns or other structures.

So Minä menen ylös. can correspond to English “I go up,” “I go upstairs,” or “I go up there,” depending on the situation, without needing any articles.

Could I say something like Menen ylös portaita to be more specific, like “I’m going up the stairs”?

Yes, you can add more detail after ylös:

Menen ylös portaita. = “I’m going up (the) stairs.”
Menen ylös toiseen kerrokseen. = “I’m going up to the second floor.”
Menen ylös katolle. = “I’m going up to the roof.”

Ylös gives the general direction “up,” and the following expression tells what you’re going up (stairs, hill, etc.) or to where you’re going.

Is there a difference between Minä menen ylös and Minä nousen ylös?

Yes, there is a nuance:

mennä ylös = “go up” (change your location to a higher place: up the stairs, upstairs, a hill, etc.)
nousta ylös = “get up / rise up” (stand up, get out of bed, rise to a higher position)

Examples:

Menen ylös portaita. = I go up the stairs.
Nousen ylös sängystä. = I get up out of bed.

So Minä menen ylös. is about going somewhere higher, while Minä nousen ylös. is more like rising / getting up from a lower posture or position.