Questions & Answers about Opettaja kutsuu ryhmän sisään.
Word-by-word:
opettaja = teacher
- Base form (nominative singular), the subject of the sentence.
kutsuu = (he/she) calls / invites
- 3rd person singular present tense of kutsua (to call, to invite).
ryhmän = the group (as a direct object)
- Morphologically the genitive singular of ryhmä (group), but here it functions as the total object (accusative-like).
sisään = in / inside / inwards
- An adverb meaning “to the inside, into (a room / building etc.)”.
- Together kutsua X sisään = to call X in / invite X in.
Finnish has no articles (no equivalents of a/an or the).
- opettaja can mean a teacher or the teacher, depending on context.
- ryhmän can mean a group or the group, again depending on what the speakers already know.
Definiteness/indefiniteness is understood from context, not from special words.
The dictionary form (infinitive) is kutsua = to call, to invite.
kutsuu is:
- person: 3rd person singular (he / she / it / the teacher)
- tense: present
- mood: indicative
Full present-tense paradigm (for reference):
- minä kutsun – I call / invite
- sinä kutsut – you call / invite (singular)
- hän kutsuu – he/she calls / invites
- me kutsumme – we call / invite
- te kutsutte – you call / invite (plural / formal)
- he kutsuvat – they call / invite
Notice there is no separate word for “does/is” in the present tense; the tense and person are all in the verb ending.
This is about object case. Finnish marks the direct object with different cases depending on meaning and sentence type.
- ryhmän = genitive form used here as a total object
- The whole group is being called in; the event is seen as complete/goal-oriented.
- ryhmää would be partitive, often used for:
- incomplete actions, ongoing processes, or
- “some/part of” something.
In this sentence, the teacher is calling the entire group in as a clear, bounded action, so Finnish uses the total object form: ryhmän.
A (slightly simplified) contrast:
Opettaja kutsuu ryhmän sisään.
→ The teacher calls the (whole) group in.Opettaja kutsuu lapsia sisään.
→ The teacher is calling (some) children in. (partitive lapsia)
Morphologically, ryhmän is genitive singular (ending -n).
Functionally, in this sentence it acts as a total object, which in traditional grammar is called the accusative. In Finnish, for most nouns the accusative singular form looks the same as the genitive:
- genitive form: ryhmän
- accusative (total object) form of a singular noun: also ryhmän
So:
- Form: genitive
- Function: accusative / total object
This is normal and one of the first confusing things about Finnish object cases.
sisään is a separate word: an adverb meaning “(to) inside, inwards”. It historically comes from an illative form (into the inside), but you can just treat it as its own adverb.
Basic “inside” words:
- sisään – into, inwards (direction: going inside)
- sisällä – inside (location: being inside)
- sisältä – from inside (direction: coming out from inside)
- sisälle – also “into / to the inside” (very similar to sisään; nuance is subtle and often both are possible)
In this phrase, kutsua (joku) sisään is a very common fixed expression meaning “to call someone in / invite someone in”. Saying kutsua (joku) sisälle is also possible but sounds slightly less fixed/formulaic.
Yes, Finnish word order is relatively flexible because case endings show who does what to whom.
All of these are grammatical:
- Opettaja kutsuu ryhmän sisään.
- Opettaja kutsuu sisään ryhmän.
The basic meaning is the same: The teacher calls the group in.
However, word order can affect information structure / emphasis:
Opettaja kutsuu ryhmän sisään.
- Neutral, typical order: subject – verb – object – adverb.
Opettaja kutsuu sisään ryhmän.
- Slightly more focus on ryhmän at the end, like “the one (that) the teacher is calling in is the group.”
In ordinary speech, (1) is the most neutral and common version.
kutsua covers both meanings, depending on context:
“invite”
- Kutsun sinut juhliin. – I invite you to the party.
“call (someone somewhere)”
- Opettaja kutsuu ryhmän sisään. – The teacher calls the group in.
- Lääkäri kutsuu potilaan sisään. – The doctor calls the patient in.
There is also soittaa, which is “to call” on the phone or “to play” an instrument:
- Soitan sinulle huomenna. – I’ll call you tomorrow (by phone).
So:
- kutsua: invite / call (someone to come, or to a place/event).
- soittaa: call by phone; play an instrument.
Yes, that is possible.
- Opettaja kutsuu sisään.
- The teacher calls people in. / The teacher is calling (them) in.
In this version, the object is implied, understood from context (maybe everyone knows which group or who is waiting).
Including ryhmän makes it explicit: it’s the group, not, say, parents or individual students.
Base sentence (present, singular subject and object):
- Opettaja kutsuu ryhmän sisään.
- The teacher calls the group in.
Past tense (imperfect) with the same subject/object:
- Opettaja kutsui ryhmän sisään.
- The teacher called the group in.
- kutsuu → kutsui (past tense ending -i).
Plural subject (teachers) calling one group in:
- Opettajat kutsuvat ryhmän sisään.
- The teachers call the group in.
- opettaja → opettajat (plural subject)
- kutsuu → kutsuvat (3rd person plural).
Singular teacher calling several groups in:
- Opettaja kutsuu ryhmät sisään.
- The teacher calls the groups in.
- ryhmä → ryhmät (plural nominative)
- As a total object plural, ryhmät stays in nominative in this kind of sentence.
These variations all keep the same basic structure:
[subject in nominative] + kutsuu/kutsui/kutsuvat + [object in total object form] + sisään.