Learn Hardcore Finnish: Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä. - I put the key in my coat pocket so that I don’t forget it.

Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä.

I put the key in my coat pocket so that I don’t forget it.

Breakdown of Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä.

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Finnish grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Finnish now

Questions & Answers about Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä.

Why is the subject pronoun Minä used here? Can it be omitted?

Finnish normally does not require subject pronouns, because the verb ending already shows the person.

Minä laitan = I put
- laitan already tells us it’s 1st person singular.

So both of these are correct and mean the same thing in neutral context:

Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun…
Laitan avaimen takin taskuun…

Using minä often adds emphasis on I:

Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun, en sinä.
I will put the key in the coat pocket, not you.

In the example sentence, Minä is not strictly necessary; it just makes the subject explicit and a bit more emphatic or careful-sounding.

What exactly does laitan mean here, and how is it related to the dictionary form laittaa?

The dictionary form is laittaa (to put, to place; also to cook/prepare food).

laitan is:

present tense
1st person singular
of laittaa

Conjugation (present):

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 this sentence, laitan simply means I put / I am putting. In everyday speech, laittaa is a very common verb for putting something somewhere, more neutral than English to lay (which is more specific in English).

Why is it avaimen and not avain or avainta?

Avain (key) is in a special object form here.

Basic (dictionary) form: avain
Genitive: avaimen

For a singular, complete object in a normal (non‑negative) sentence, Finnish usually uses the “accusative” form, which for most nouns looks like the genitive (-n):

Minä laitan avaimen… – I put the key… (the whole key, completed action)

Compare:

Minä syön omenan. – I eat the apple (I will finish it).
Minä syön omenaa. – I am eating (some) apple. (Partitive, incomplete or unbounded amount.)

So:

avaimen – total object (the whole key), fits here.
avainta – partitive object; would sound like you’re doing something partially or under some special nuance, but with laittaa in this context, avaimen is the natural choice.

You wouldn’t use plain avain here as the object; you need the object case.

What does takin taskuun literally mean, and why are there two words for “coat pocket”?

Takin taskuun is literally:

takin – of the coat (genitive of takki, “coat”)
taskuun – into the pocket (illative of tasku, “pocket”)

So the structure is:

takin taskuun = into the coat’s pocket → into (my/the) coat pocket

Finnish often uses [possessor in genitive] + [owned thing] instead of a compound noun like English coat pocket:

auton ovi – the car’s door / car door
talon katto – the house’s roof / the roof of the house
takin tasku – the coat’s pocket / coat pocket

Here we need a case of movement on tasku (since the key is going into the pocket), so it becomes taskuun “into the pocket,” while takin just tells whose pocket it is.

Why is taskuun used instead of taskussa or taskusta?

Finnish distinguishes state vs movement with different “inner” location cases:

taskussa – in the pocket (where something is, no movement)
taskuun – into the pocket (movement into)
taskusta – out of the pocket (movement out of)

In the sentence, the key is moving into the pocket, so we use the illative case:

tasku → taskuun = into the pocket

If you already had the key in your pocket, you would say:

Avaimet ovat takin taskussa. – The keys are in the coat pocket.

If you take them out:

Otan avaimen takin taskusta. – I take the key from (out of) the coat pocket.

What is etten? Is it one word or two, and what does it correspond to in English?

Etten is a fusion of two words:

että – that / so that
en – I don’t (1st person singular negative verb)

So että en → etten.

It means roughly:

etten unohda sitä – so that I don’t forget it / in order that I don’t forget it

In writing, etten (one word) is standard and very common. You might also see it written separately as että en, especially in less formal texts, but etten is the usual form in standard Finnish.

Other persons:

etten unohda – that I don’t forget
ettet unohda – that you (sg.) don’t forget
ettei hän unohda – that he/she doesn’t forget
ettemme unohda – that we don’t forget
ettette unohda – that you (pl.) don’t forget
etteivät he unohda – that they don’t forget

How does negation work in etten unohda? Why is the verb unohda and not unohdan?

Finnish negation uses a special negative verb (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät) plus a special “connegative” form of the main verb.

For unohtaa (to forget), present tense:

(myönteinen / affirmative)
- minä unohdan – I forget / I will forget
(kielteinen / negative)
- en unohda – I don’t forget / I won’t forget

Notice:

In the negative, the main verb is unohda, without the -n ending.
The person is shown by the negative verb en, not by the main verb.

In the sentence:

etten unohda = että en unohda = that I don’t forget

So:

unohdan – full personal form for I in affirmative
unohda – connegative form used with en in negative.

Why is the pronoun sitä used instead of sen?

The pronoun se (“it / that”) has several case forms. Relevant ones:

Nominative: se
Genitive/accusative: sen
Partitive: sitä

In negative sentences, the direct object is normally in the partitive.

Affirmative:
- Muistan sen. – I remember it. (sen as total object)
Negative:
- En muista sitä. – I don’t remember it. (sitä partitive because of negation)

So here:

etten unohda sitä – so that I don’t forget it

The negation (en → etten) triggers sitä (partitive), not sen (total object).

If the sentence were affirmative (rare in this meaning, but grammatically):

Laitan avaimen taskuun, että muistan sen.
I put the key in my pocket so that I remember it.

Here sen would be OK, because it’s affirmative.

Could I say Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun, jotta en unohda sitä instead? What’s the difference between että and jotta here?

Yes, you can say that:

Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun, jotta en unohda sitä.

Both versions are natural:

…, etten unohda sitä.
…, jotta en unohda sitä.

Nuances:

jotta is more explicitly purpose: in order that, so that (a bit formal, but common in writing).
että is more neutral "that" or "so that", and in spoken Finnish it’s very frequent in these “so that [something happens]” clauses.

Meaning-wise in this sentence, they are very close, both expressing purpose.

So:

…, etten unohda sitä. – perfectly natural, quite common.
…, jotta en unohda sitä. – slightly more formal/explicit “in order not to forget it”.

Is the comma before etten required in Finnish?

Yes, in standard Finnish you put a comma before most subordinate clauses, including että/etten clauses.

So:

Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä.

The comma separates:

main clause: Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun
subordinate clause: etten unohda sitä

Leaving out the comma is considered incorrect in standard written Finnish, even though in fast texting people might sometimes skip it.

Can the word order be changed, for example Avaimen laitan takin taskuun or Laitan avaimen takin taskuun minä?

Finnish word order is relatively flexible, and you can move elements around to change emphasis or focus.

Some possibilities:

Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä.
– neutral, subject-verb-object order.
Laitan avaimen takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä.
– also neutral, perhaps a bit more typical spoken/written style (subject pronoun dropped).
Avaimen laitan takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä.
– emphasizes “the key” specifically, maybe in contrast to something else:
It’s the key (not something else) that I’m putting in my coat pocket.
Minä laitan avaimen takin taskuun.
– emphasis on I, as mentioned earlier.
Laitan avaimen takin taskuun minä.
– strongly emphasizes minä at the end; can sound dramatic or contrastive:
It’s me who’s going to put the key in my pocket.

Grammatically, several orders are possible, but the original is the most neutral and common.

Why is it takin taskuun and not takkiin taskuun? Shouldn’t “into the coat’s pocket” use an -in ending on takki too?

No, because takin is not a direction; it’s just a possessor in the genitive case:

takki – coat (nominative)
takin – of the coat (genitive)

We only mark direction/movement on the pocket, the actual location where the key is going:

tasku → taskuun – into the pocket (illative case)

So the structure is:

[possessor in genitive] + [place word with movement case]
- takin taskuun – into the coat’s pocket
- auton takakonttiin – into the car’s trunk
- repun sivutaskuun – into the side pocket of the backpack

Adding -in for movement to takki would be takkiin, which means into the coat (itself), not “of the coat”. For example:

Laitan puhelimen takkiin. – I put the phone into the coat (somewhere in/inside it, not specifying pocket).

In our sentence we specifically want “into the coat’s pocket,” so only tasku takes the movement ending -un.

Are there other common verbs Finns might use instead of laittaa in this context?

Yes, two very common alternatives are:

panna
pistää (often more colloquial)

Examples:

Minä panen avaimen takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä.
Minä pistän avaimen takin taskuun, etten unohda sitä.

All three – laittaa, panna, pistää – can mean to put in everyday speech. Rough nuances:

laittaa – very common, neutral, polite; also used for preparing food (laittaa ruokaa).
panna – very common but in some contexts can be a bit rough/slangy (and also has a sexual meaning); still widely used.
pistää – very colloquial in the sense of to put, also means to stick, to jab.

In your sentence, laittaa is a safe, neutral choice.