Learn Hardcore Finnish: Aamulla minusta tuntuu jo paremmalta, ja ajattelen, että selviän päivästä ilman sairaalaa. - In the morning I already feel better, and I think that I will get through the day without the hospital.

Aamulla is the adessive case of aamu (morning). In time expressions, the adessive often means “at / in (a specific time)”, so aamulla = “in the morning / on the morning (of that day)”.

Some common contrasts:

aamu – morning (basic form)
aamulla – in the (a particular) morning
- Aamulla minusta tuntuu paremmalta. – In the morning, I feel better.
aamuisin – in the mornings (habitually, on most mornings)
- Aamuisin käyn lenkillä. – I go for a run in the mornings.

Forms like aamussa are rare and more literal “inside the morning”, usually in special stylistic or poetic uses. For everyday “in the morning”, aamulla is the normal choice.

Why is it minusta tuntuu instead of something like minä tunnen for “I feel”?

Minusta tuntuu is the natural idiomatic way to say “I feel (in a certain way)” in Finnish. Literally, it’s “from me it feels”:

minusta – from me (elative case of minä)
tuntuu – (it) feels

This structure is used for internal sensations, feelings, intuitions, and opinions:

Minusta tuntuu hyvältä. – I feel good / It feels good to me.
Minusta tuntuu pahalta. – I feel bad.
Minusta tuntuu, että… – I feel / I have a feeling that…

Using minä tunnen (I feel / I sense) is possible but less natural here. Tuntea is more often:

to feel/touch physically: Tunnen kylmää. – I feel cold.
to know someone: Tunnen hänet hyvin. – I know him/her well.

For “I feel better (health‑wise)”, Finns would normally say things like:

Minusta tuntuu paremmalta.
Voin paremmin.
Olo on parempi.

What is the role of jo in tuntuu jo paremmalta?

Jo means “already”.

tuntuu paremmalta – it feels better
tuntuu jo paremmalta – it already feels better

Including jo adds the nuance that the improvement has happened earlier than expected or at least earlier than some other reference time (e.g. earlier than yesterday or earlier than you feared).

Without jo, the sentence simply states a fact (“it feels better”), with jo it subtly contrasts with a previous worse state.

Why is paremmalta in that form? What case is it, and why not just parempi?

Paremmalta is the ablative case of the comparative adjective parempi (better):

base adjective: hyvä – good
comparative: parempi – better
ablative singular: paremmalta – (feels/looks/smells) better

With tuntua (“to feel/seem”), Finnish typically uses adjectives in the -lta/-ltä form (ablative):

Minusta tuntuu hyvältä. – It feels good to me.
Minusta tuntuu pahalta. – I feel bad.
Minusta tuntuu paremmalta. – I feel better.

So paremmalta is required by this pattern: minusta + tuntuu + X‑lta, where X‑lta describes what kind of feeling it is.

Why is the verb tuntuu in 3rd person singular if we are talking about “I” (minä)?

In minusta tuntuu, minusta is not the grammatical subject. The construction is impersonal:

minusta – an adverbial (“from me / to me”)
tuntuu – 3rd person singular, like English “it feels”

You can think of an invisible “it”:

(Se) tuntuu minusta paremmalta. – It feels better to me.

Finnish often expresses experiences with such impersonal structures:

Minua väsyttää. – I’m tired. (lit. “It tires me.”)
Minua oksettaa. – I feel nauseous. (lit. “It makes me nauseous.”)
Minusta tuntuu. – I feel / It feels to me.

So 3rd person singular tuntuu is the normal, correct form here.

Why do we need että after ajattelen? Can it be left out?

Here ajattelen means “I think (that…)” in the sense of holding an opinion or belief. In that meaning, it almost always takes an että‑clause:

Ajattelen, että selviän päivästä ilman sairaalaa.
– I think (that) I’ll get through the day without the hospital.

So the pattern is:

ajatella, että + full sentence

You cannot normally omit että in standard Finnish in this structure. Without että, the meaning changes:

Ajattelen sinua. – I think of you.
Ajattelen sitä asiaa. – I think about that matter.

So:

ajatella + että‑lause = think that …
ajatella + partitive/genitive noun = think of / about (someone/something)

What exactly does selviän mean here, and from which verb is it?

Selviän is the 1st person singular present of selvitä.

infinitive: selvitä
minä: selviän
sinä: selviät
hän: selviää
etc.

Core meanings of selvitä:

to get through / to survive / to cope
- Selvisin kokeesta. – I got through the exam.
- Selviän tästä kyllä. – I’ll manage this / I’ll be fine.
to be resolved / to become clear
- Asia selvisi. – The matter became clear / was resolved.

In this sentence, selviän päivästä means “I will get through the day / I will manage the day / I will survive the day” (without needing the hospital).

Why is it päivästä with -stä instead of päivän or päivää?

Päivästä is the elative case of päivä (“day”):

päivä – (a/the) day
päivästä – from the day / out of the day

The verb selvitä typically combines with the elative to mean “get through / survive / manage something”:

selvitä jostakin – get through / survive / manage something
- selvitä päivästä – get through the day
- selvitä kokeesta – get through the exam
- selvitä vaikeuksista – get through difficulties

Using päivän would treat päivä like a direct object, but selvitä is intransitive, so that’s wrong here. The required pattern is selvitä + elative (‑sta/‑stä).

Why is it ilman sairaalaa and not ilman sairaala or ilman sairaalan?

Ilman always takes the partitive case:

ilman + partitive

So:

sairaala – (a) hospital (nominative)
sairaalaa – hospital (partitive singular)

Thus:

ilman sairaalaa – without (the) hospital / without hospital treatment

More examples:

ilman rahaa – without money
ilman sinua – without you
ilman sateenvarjoa – without an umbrella

If you say ilman sairaalan apua (genitive sairaalan + another noun), it means “without the help of the hospital”. But directly after ilman, the word itself must be in the partitive: ilman sairaalaa.

Can we change the word order in Aamulla minusta tuntuu jo paremmalta? For example: Minusta tuntuu aamulla jo paremmalta or Minusta tuntuu jo aamulla paremmalta?

Yes, Finnish word order is flexible, and all of these are grammatically correct, but the focus changes slightly.

Aamulla minusta tuntuu jo paremmalta.
Neutral original: sets the scene in time. “In the morning, I feel already better.”
– Mild focus on the morning as the time when this happens.
Minusta tuntuu aamulla jo paremmalta.
Now the focus is a bit more on “to me, in the morning” (e.g. compared with someone else, or another time).
– “I (personally) feel better in the morning.”
Minusta tuntuu jo aamulla paremmalta.
Emphasis shifts slightly to “already in the morning”, perhaps implying that improvement is surprisingly early.
– “I already feel better in the morning (not only later).”

The differences are subtle; all variants are understandable and natural in the right context.

Why is the Finnish present tense selviän translated as “I’ll get through” (future) in English?

Finnish has no separate future tense. The present tense is used for:

present time:
- Syön. – I am eating / I eat.
near future (when context makes it clear):
- Tulen huomenna. – I’m coming tomorrow / I will come tomorrow.

In:

Ajattelen, että selviän päivästä ilman sairaalaa.

the context (“the day” that is about to happen) shows that this is about the future, so in natural English we say:

“I think I’ll get through the day without going to the hospital.”

Grammatically it’s present, but semantically it refers to the near future.

Could we say selviän päivän ilman sairaalaa instead of selviän päivästä ilman sairaalaa?

No, selviän päivän is not correct here.

Reasons:

Selvitä in this meaning is intransitive and does not take a direct object.
- You can’t normally put päivä in the object form (päivän) after selvitä.
The standard construction is:
- selvitä + elative (‑sta/‑stä) = get through / survive something
  - selvitä päivästä – get through the day
  - selvitä tentistä – get through the exam
  - selvitä ongelmista – get through the problems

Using päivän would wrongly treat day as a direct object, so selviän päivästä is the correct and idiomatic form.