Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin.

Nowadays I drink less coffee in the evenings.

Breakdown of Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin.

• minä: I
• kahvi: the coffee
• juoda: to drink
• iltaisin: in the evenings
• nykyään: nowadays
• vähemmän: less

Questions & Answers about Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin.

What is the difference between nykyään and nyt? They both seem to mean “now”.

Both are time adverbs related to “now,” but they are used differently:

• nykyään = nowadays, these days, in the present era

  • It describes a general, ongoing situation compared to how things were before.
  • Examples:
    
    • Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia. – Nowadays I drink less coffee.
    • Nykyään ihmiset matkustavat enemmän. – Nowadays people travel more.

• nyt = now (right now / at this moment)

  • It is more immediate and specific in time.
  • Examples:
    
    • Juon nyt kahvia. – I’m drinking coffee now (right this moment).
    • En voi puhua nyt. – I can’t talk now.

In your sentence Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin, nykyään emphasizes a change in your general habit compared with the past, not just what you’re doing this very evening.

Why is there no minä in the sentence? How do we know it means “I drink”?

Finnish normally leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person:

• Verb: juoda (to drink)
• 1st person singular present: juo-n = “I drink”

So:

• Juon kahvia. = I drink coffee. (no minä needed)
• Minä juon kahvia. = also I drink coffee, but minä adds emphasis or contrast: I (as opposed to someone else) drink coffee.

In Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin, the -n ending on juon clearly marks I, so minä is omitted as the normal, neutral style.

Why is it juon and not juoda in this sentence?

Juoda is the dictionary (infinitive) form, meaning “to drink”.
In a real sentence you must conjugate it:

Present tense of juoda:

• minä juon – I drink
• sinä juot – you drink
• hän juo – he/she drinks
• me juomme – we drink
• te juotte – you (pl.) drink
• he juovat – they drink

So here:

• Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin.
  = Nowadays I drink less coffee in the evenings.

Using juoda would be like saying “Nowadays to drink less coffee in the evenings”, which is ungrammatical as a main clause.

What exactly does vähemmän mean, and how is it different from vähän?

Both come from the idea of “little”, but:

• vähän = a little, a bit, some (not much)

  • Example: Juon vähän kahvia. – I drink a little coffee.

• vähemmän = less (comparative form of vähän)

  • It implies a comparison: less than before, less than someone else, etc.
  • Example: Juon nykyään vähemmän kahvia. – I now drink less coffee (than I used to).

So in your sentence we specifically want to say less, not just a little, so vähemmän is the right word.

Grammatically:

• vähän is the “base” adverb: a small amount.
• vähemmän is the comparative adverb: a smaller amount / less.

Why is it kahvia and not kahvi?

Kahvia is the partitive form of kahvi (“coffee”), and Finnish uses the partitive in several very common situations. Here are the most relevant ones:

1. Unspecified amount of a substance

   • When you talk about “some coffee” or coffee in general, with no exact portion or count:
     • Juon kahvia. – I drink coffee. / I am drinking coffee.
       (not one specific coffee cup, but the substance itself)

2. After quantity words like “more/less/a lot/a little”

   • After enemmän, vähemmän, paljon, vähän, the noun is in the partitive:
     • Juon vähemmän kahvia. – I drink less coffee.
     • Juon paljon kahvia. – I drink a lot of coffee.
     • Juon vähän kahvia. – I drink a little coffee.

So vähemmän kahvia is the standard “less coffee” construction: comparative quantity word + noun in partitive.

Kahvi in nominative would sound like you’re talking about “the coffee” as a complete whole or a specific unit, which is not the idea here.

Why is vähemmän before kahvia and not after it?

In Finnish, quantity words and many modifiers normally go before the noun they modify:

• paljon kahvia – a lot of coffee
• vähän sokeria – a little sugar
• enemmän rahaa – more money
• vähemmän kahvia – less coffee

So juon vähemmän kahvia is the neutral, natural order.

Other orders can sound odd or change the emphasis:

• Juon kahvia vähemmän.
  This is possible, but it tends to emphasize kahvia (“coffee”) a bit more, often in contrast with something else:
  As for coffee, I drink it less (than I drink tea / than I did before).
  It’s not wrong, but less neutral than juon vähemmän kahvia.

As a basic rule: put vähemmän directly before the thing you’re saying there is less of.

What does iltaisin literally mean, and how is it different from illalla?

Both are related to evening, but they differ in meaning and usage:

• illalla = in the evening (on a specific evening / today in the evening)

  • Refers to a particular evening time, usually “this evening” if context is now.
  • Example: Juon kahvia illalla. – I (will) drink coffee in the evening (tonight).

• iltaisin = in the evenings / in the evening(s) generally, as a habit

  • Refers to a repeated or habitual action, not just one evening.
  • Example: Juon kahvia iltaisin. – I drink coffee in the evenings (as a general habit).

In your sentence:

• Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin.
  = Nowadays I drink less coffee *in the evenings (in general).*

So iltaisin matches the idea of a regular habit over time, while illalla would point to one specific evening or a specific time frame.

Where can iltaisin go in the sentence, and would the meaning change?

Finnish word order is flexible, especially with adverbs. All of these are possible:

1. Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin.
2. Nykyään juon iltaisin vähemmän kahvia.
3. Nykyään iltaisin juon vähemmän kahvia.
4. Iltaisin juon nykyään vähemmän kahvia.

They all broadly mean the same: Nowadays I drink less coffee in the evenings.

Nuance:

• Starting with Nykyään (1–3) emphasizes the contrast between “nowadays” and “before”.
• Starting with Iltaisin (4) highlights the time of day first: In the evenings, nowadays I drink less coffee…
• Keeping vähemmän close to kahvia (as in all of them) preserves the clear “less coffee” unit.

As a learner, sentence 1 is a very natural default: Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin.

The English feels like a habit (“I drink less coffee in the evenings”). Why is the present tense used, not some special “habit” form?

Finnish doesn’t have a separate tense for habitual actions. The present tense is used both for:

• general facts / habits

  • Juon kahvia joka päivä. – I drink coffee every day.
  • Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin. – Nowadays I drink less coffee in the evenings.

• things happening right now

  • Juon nyt kahvia. – I’m drinking coffee now.

The context (words like nykyään, iltaisin, joka päivä) tells you it’s about a habit rather than a one-time present action. So the simple present form juon covers both “I drink” and “I’m drinking” in English, and also habitual meaning.

Could I also say Nykyään en juo niin paljon kahvia iltaisin? Is it the same meaning?

Yes, that’s a very natural alternative, and the meaning is close:

• Nykyään juon vähemmän kahvia iltaisin.
  = Nowadays I drink less coffee in the evenings.

• Nykyään en juo niin paljon kahvia iltaisin.
  = Nowadays I don’t drink so much coffee in the evenings.

Difference in nuance:

• vähemmän kahvia focuses directly on the comparative amount (“less coffee”).
• en juo niin paljon kahvia expresses it as a negation of a large amount (“not so much coffee”).

Grammar note:

• en juo uses the Finnish negative verb en (1st person singular of ei), plus the bare verb stem juo.
• niin paljon kahvia = “so much coffee”; paljon also triggers partitive kahvia.

Both sentences are correct and very commonly used; in everyday speech, they are almost interchangeable.