Breakdown of Laitan puhelimen pois, koska haluan rauhoittua ennen nukkumaanmenoa.
Questions & Answers about Laitan puhelimen pois, koska haluan rauhoittua ennen nukkumaanmenoa.
Laitan is the 1st person singular form of the verb laittaa (to put, to place).
- laittaa = basic dictionary form (infinitive)
- laitan = I put / I am putting
Finnish conjugates the verb according to the subject:
- minä laitan – I put
- sinä laitat – you put
- hän laittaa – he/she puts
- me laitamme – we put
- te laitatte – you (pl.) put
- he laittavat – they put
In Finnish, the subject minä (I) is usually left out when it’s clear from the verb form. So:
- Laitan puhelimen pois = I put the phone away.
Using laittaa by itself (without changing the ending) would be like saying to put the phone away instead of I put the phone away – grammatically incomplete as a main clause.
Puhelimen is the object form of puhelin (phone). Technically it’s in the genitive singular, which in this kind of sentence functions as a “total object”.
- puhelin = phone (nominative, basic form)
- puhelimen = the phone (object, one whole thing affected by the action)
In Finnish, when you completely affect or handle the whole object (here: you put the whole phone away), you often use the genitive form for a singular object:
- Luen kirjan. – I read the book (to the end).
- Syön omenan. – I eat the apple (all of it).
- Laitan puhelimen pois. – I put the phone away (as a complete act).
If you used puhelin here, it would sound ungrammatical as a normal object. The nominative singular object is allowed in some structures (especially with negation, certain tenses, or when the object is not “total”), but in a simple present tense, affirmative, completed action like this, the genitive-type object puhelimen is expected.
Pois is a particle that here means something like away or off (to the side). The combination laittaa + pois works almost like an English phrasal verb:
- laittaa = to put
- laittaa pois = to put away / to put aside / to put out of use
So:
- Laitan puhelimen pois. = I put my phone away.
If you say only Laitan puhelimen., it sounds incomplete or unnatural in everyday speech. A listener would likely expect some continuation:
- Laitan puhelimen pöydälle. – I put the phone on the table.
- Laitan puhelimen laturiin. – I put the phone on the charger.
So you usually need either:
- a direction/adverb (e.g. pois, ylös, alas)
- or a place expression (e.g. pöydälle, taskuun, kaappiin)
Here pois fills that role: you’re not saying exactly where, just that it goes “away / out of use”.
In this sentence, koska introduces the reason:
- … koska haluan rauhoittua … = … because I want to calm down …
Common “because” words:
koska
- Neutral, very common.
- Works in both spoken and written Finnish.
- Just gives the cause:
- En tule, koska olen sairas. – I’m not coming because I’m sick.
sillä
- More formal, bookish; often used in written texts.
- Feels a bit like for in older or more formal English:
- En tule, sillä olen sairas. – I’m not coming, for I am sick.
kun
- Very flexible; can mean when, since, or sometimes because, depending on context and tone.
- As because, it can feel more colloquial/emotional and sometimes slightly excuse-like:
- En tule, kun olen sairas. – I’m not coming because I’m sick.
In your sentence, koska is the most neutral and straightforward choice, and it fits perfectly.
Rauhoittua is the basic infinitive form (1st infinitive) of the verb meaning to calm down / to calm oneself.
- haluan = I want
- rauhoittua = to calm down
The structure haluta + 1st infinitive is standard:
- Haluan syödä. – I want to eat.
- Haluan nukkua. – I want to sleep.
- Haluan rauhoittua. – I want to calm down.
About rauhoittua itself:
- It’s a reflexive/intransitive verb: the subject calms down by itself, not something else.
- Related transitive verb: rauhoittaa = to calm (someone/something) down.
So:
- Haluan rauhoittua. – I want to calm down (myself).
- Haluan rauhoittaa koiran. – I want to calm the dog down.
Ennen means before and it governs the partitive case. That is, the word after ennen must be in the partitive:
- ennen iltaa – before the evening
- ennen lomaa – before the holiday
- ennen nukkumaanmenoa – before going to sleep
So:
- ennen = before (preposition)
- nukkumaanmenoa = “going to sleep” in a noun-like form, in the partitive singular
Finnish often turns verb actions into noun forms when using prepositions like ennen:
- ennen lähtöä – before (the) departure
- ennen syömistä – before eating
- ennen nukkumaanmenoa – before going to sleep
That’s why you don’t say something like ennen nukkumaan mennä; instead, the action is nominalized into one word that can take the partitive ending.
Breakdown of nukkumaanmenoa:
- nukkua – to sleep (basic infinitive)
- nukkumaan – the 3rd infinitive in illative (often “for going to sleep” / “to sleep (directional)”)
- nukkumaanmeno – a noun meaning going to sleep / bedtime
- nukkumaanmenoa – partitive singular of that noun
Step by step:
First, Finnish uses the -maan / -mään form with verbs of movement:
- mennä nukkumaan – to go to sleep
- jäädä nukkumaan – to stay sleeping
Then mennä nukkumaan can be turned into a compound noun:
- nukkumaanmeno = “going-to-sleep” (like an English gerund/noun phrase squeezed into one word)
After that, because of ennen, this noun must be in the partitive:
- ennen nukkumaanmenoa = before (the act of) going to sleep
So nukkumaanmenoa literally encodes:
“sleep-to-go-going (noun) + partitive” → before going to sleep.
Yes, you could, and it would still be grammatically fine:
- ennen nukkumaanmenoa
- ennen nukkumaan menemistä
Both mean before going to sleep.
Differences:
ennen nukkumaanmenoa
- More compact, idiomatic, and very common in everyday language.
- Treats going to sleep as one lexical unit.
ennen nukkumaan menemistä
- Uses menemistä, the 4th infinitive (a nominalized form of mennä).
- Feels a bit more “explicit” or sometimes a bit more formal/bookish, though it’s not wrong in speech.
In practice, ennen nukkumaanmenoa is the most typical and natural choice in this sentence.
Yes. Finnish word order is fairly flexible, especially with clauses. For example, all of these are correct:
- Laitan puhelimen pois, koska haluan rauhoittua ennen nukkumaanmenoa.
- Koska haluan rauhoittua ennen nukkumaanmenoa, laitan puhelimen pois.
The meaning stays essentially the same: I put my phone away because I want to calm down before going to sleep.
Small nuance:
- Starting with the koska-clause (version 2) slightly highlights the reason first:
“Because I want to calm down before going to sleep, I put my phone away.”
But in everyday use, both orders feel natural and are interchangeable.
The subject I is not written, but it’s implied by the verb forms laitan and haluan.
In Finnish:
Laitan puhelimen pois.
The personal ending -n on laitan already tells us the subject is minä (I).Haluan rauhoittua.
Again, -n on haluan marks 1st person singular.
You could explicitly say:
- Minä laitan puhelimen pois, koska minä haluan rauhoittua …
…but that’s usually only done for emphasis (e.g., to contrast with someone else):
- Minä laitan puhelimen pois, mutta sinä et.
I put my phone away, but you don’t.
So in normal, neutral sentences, the pronoun minä is dropped.
Yes, there’s a nuance:
rauhoittua
- Literally: to calm down, to become calm.
- Often about reducing agitation, stress, or excitement.
- Fits well with sleep and settling down:
- Haluan rauhoittua ennen nukkumaanmenoa. – I want to calm down before going to sleep.
rentoutua
- Literally: to relax, to loosen up.
- More about pleasant relaxation, enjoyment, leisure:
- Haluan rentoutua lomalla. – I want to relax on vacation.
- Haluan rentoutua sohvalla. – I want to relax on the sofa.
In your sentence, rauhoittua emphasizes settling your mind/body and getting calm so you can sleep, which is a very natural choice. You could say:
- … koska haluan rentoutua ennen nukkumaanmenoa.
but it slightly shifts the focus more to relaxing in a general, pleasant way rather than specifically calming down to prepare for sleep.