Lääkäri sanoo, että pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat.

The doctor says that a little rest and a warm drink help.

Breakdown of Lääkäri sanoo, että pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat.

• pieni: small
• ja: and
• lämmin: warm
• auttaa: to help
• että: that
• lääkäri: the doctor
• sanoa: to say
• lepo: the rest
• juoma: the drink

Questions & Answers about Lääkäri sanoo, että pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat.

Why is there a comma before että?

In Finnish, you normally put a comma before että when it introduces a subordinate (dependent) clause.

• Lääkäri sanoo, että … = Main clause, then että-clause.
• The comma clearly separates the two:
  
  • Main clause: Lääkäri sanoo – The doctor says
  • Subordinate clause: että pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat – that a little rest and a warm drink will help.

Unlike English, where the comma before that is usually not used, Finnish almost always uses a comma before että in this kind of structure.

What exactly does että do here? Is it like English “that”, and can it be omitted?

Yes, että is a conjunction that works much like English that in reported speech or indirect statements.

• Lääkäri sanoo, että pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat.
  → The doctor says *that a little rest and a warm drink help.*

Important differences from English:

• In English, you can often omit that: The doctor says (that) a little rest…
• In Finnish, että cannot be omitted here.
  
  • ✗ Lääkäri sanoo pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat. (wrong)
  • ✓ Lääkäri sanoo, että pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat. (correct)

So että is required to mark the start of the subordinate clause.

Why is auttavat plural and not auttaa?

The subject of the verb auttavat is pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma – that is, two things joined by “and”.

• pieni lepo = a little rest
• lämmin juoma = a warm drink
• Together: pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma → a compound subject (plural idea)

In Finnish, the verb agrees with a compound subject in the third person plural:

• Pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat.
  → literally: A little rest and a warm drink *help.*

If there were only one subject, it would be auttaa:

• Pieni lepo auttaa. – A little rest helps.
• Lämmin juoma auttaa. – A warm drink helps.

What form is auttavat, and what is the dictionary (basic) form?

• The dictionary (basic) form is auttaa – to help.
• auttavat is:
  • present tense
  • 3rd person plural
  • indicative mood

Conjugation (present indicative) looks like this:

• minä autan – I help
• sinä autat – you help (sg.)
• hän auttaa – he/she helps
• me autamme – we help
• te autatte – you help (pl.)
• he auttavat – they help

Here it matches the plural subject (pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma).

Why is the verb at the end: pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat? Is that the normal word order?

Yes, Subject–Verb order with some modifiers before the subject is very normal in Finnish:

• pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttavat
  (subject) (verb)

This is essentially S–V (subject–verb) order, like English:

• A little rest and a warm drink help.

You could, in some contexts, move the verb forward:

• Auttavatko pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma? – Do a little rest and a warm drink help? (question)
• Auttavat pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma. – possible, but has a special emphasis (e.g. as an answer: What helps? A little rest and a warm drink (do).)

In neutral statements, subject before verb is the default.

Why are pieni and lämmin in these forms? How do they agree with lepo and juoma?

pieni and lämmin are adjectives describing the nouns lepo and juoma.

• pieni lepo – small / little rest
• lämmin juoma – warm drink

In Finnish, adjectives agree with the noun in:

• Case
• Number
• (and) sometimes other features

Here:

• Both lepo and juoma are singular, nominative → so their adjectives are also singular, nominative:
  • pieni (not pientä, pienen, etc.)
  • lämmin (not lämmintä, lämpimän, etc.)

If the case changed, the adjective would change with it:

• Partitive: pientä lepoa, lämmintä juomaa
• Genitive: pienen levon, lämpimän juoman

So the forms you see are the “basic” nominative singular forms matching lepo and juoma.

Why are lepo and juoma in the basic form (nominative) and not partitive like lepoa or juomaa?

Here, lepo and juoma act as subjects of the verb auttavat, so by default they are in nominative singular:

• lepo (nominative) – rest
• juoma (nominative) – drink

You would use partitive (lepoa, juomaa) for things like:

• expressing an indefinite quantity:
  
  • vähän lepoa – a bit of rest
  • hieman juomaa – some drink
• certain verb complements, and other specific structures

If you changed the sentence to talk explicitly about quantity, the case would shift:

• Lääkäri sanoo, että vähän lepoa ja lämmin juoma auttavat.
  → The doctor says that *a bit of rest and a warm drink help.*

In the original, pieni lepo and lämmin juoma are just normal subjects, so nominative is used.

Does pieni lepo literally mean “small rest”? Is it the usual way to say “a little rest”?

Literally, pieni lepo is “small rest”, but idiomatically it means a little rest / a short rest.

In Finnish, describing rest, break, etc., with pieni is very common:

• Otappa pieni lepo. – Have a little rest.
• Tarvitsen pienen tauon. – I need a short break.

You could also use other expressions:

• vähän lepoa – a little rest (with partitive, more “some rest”)
• lyhyt lepo – a short rest (more descriptive of duration)

In this sentence, pieni lepo is natural and sounds like what a doctor might actually say.

What form is sanoo, and why is it not sanoi?

• Dictionary form: sanoa – to say
• sanoo is:
  • present tense
  • 3rd person singular
  • indicative mood

Conjugation (present):

• minä sanon – I say
• sinä sanot – you say
• hän sanoo – he/she says
• me sanomme – we say
• te sanotte – you (pl.) say
• he sanovat – they say

sanoi is the past tense (3rd person singular):

• Lääkäri sanoi, että… – The doctor said that…

The sentence uses sanoo because it’s reporting what the doctor is (generally / now) saying, in the present.

In English I’d say “the doctor says…”. How do I know lääkäri here is “the doctor” and not “a doctor”, since Finnish has no articles?

Finnish has no separate words for “a/an” or “the”. The noun lääkäri by itself can correspond to:

• a doctor
• the doctor
• sometimes even doctors (in a generic sense, with plural verb)

Which one is meant comes from context, not from the form of the word:

• If you’re already talking about your doctor, then lääkäri will be understood as the doctor.
• If you just introduce a person:
  
  • Lääkäri sanoo, että… could mean A doctor says that… (e.g. some doctor you heard on TV).

So the form lääkäri is neutral; English has to choose “a” or “the”, Finnish doesn’t.

What is the subject of sanoo? Could I drop lääkäri and just say Sanoo, että…?

The subject of sanoo is lääkäri:

• Lääkäri sanoo, että… – The doctor says that…

In standard written Finnish, you generally must mention or otherwise identify the subject:

• Just Sanoo, että… is incomplete in normal standard language unless lääkäri is obviously implied from the previous context and stylistically you’re using an ellipsis.

You can:

• Replace lääkäri with a pronoun if already known:
  
  • Hän sanoo, että… – He/She says that…

In very colloquial spoken Finnish, people might drop the pronoun but then the verb form often changes (e.g. Sanoo että… used as a storytelling style), but that’s beyond basic learner level and not what you should imitate at first.

How do I pronounce the ä and the double vowels like in lääkäri and sanoo?

Key points:

1. ä

   • Similar to the vowel in English “cat” or “bad”, but a bit more front and pure.
   • In lääkäri: lää-kä-ri.

2. Double vowels (like ää, oo)

   • They mark long vowels, which are held about twice as long as single vowels.
   • lääkäri: the ää is long → LÄÄ-kä-ri.
   • sanoo: oo is long → sa-NOO.

3. Stress

   • Always on the first syllable in Finnish.
   • LÄÄ-kä-ri, SA-noo, PIE-ni, LÄM-min, JUO-ma, AUT-ta-vat.

Length (short vs. long) can change meaning in Finnish, so it’s important to clearly distinguish, for example, sano vs. sanoo.

What’s the difference between juoda and juoma?

• juoda is the verb – to drink.

  • Dictionary form: juoda
  • Example: Haluan juoda teetä. – I want to drink tea.

• juoma is a noun – a drink, a beverage.

  • In the sentence: lämmin juoma – a warm drink.

Related forms:

• juomaa – partitive of juoma (some drink)
• juominen – the act of drinking (drinking as a noun)

So lämmin juoma is “warm drink”, not “warm to drink”. The verb juoda is not used here.

Could the sentence also be in the conditional, like auttaisivat? What would that change?

Yes, the subordinate clause verb could be in the conditional:

• Lääkäri sanoo, että pieni lepo ja lämmin juoma auttaisivat.

Difference in meaning:

• auttavat (present indicative)
  → simply states that they do help; a more straightforward statement of fact.

• auttaisivat (present conditional)
  → would help; often used when talking about a hypothetical or recommended solution:

  • The doctor says that a little rest and a warm drink *would help.*

Both are grammatically fine, but auttavat feels more like a simple “this is what helps”, while auttaisivat adds a nuance of recommendation or possibility.