Minä syön jogurttia aamulla.

I eat yogurt in the morning.

Breakdown of Minä syön jogurttia aamulla.

• minä: I
• syödä: to eat
• aamulla: in the morning
• jogurtti: the yogurt

Questions & Answers about Minä syön jogurttia aamulla.

Why does the sentence start with minä? Can I leave it out?

In Finnish, subject pronouns like minä (I) are usually optional, because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

• Minä syön jogurttia aamulla. = I eat yogurt in the morning.
• Syön jogurttia aamulla. = Also “I eat yogurt in the morning.”

Both are correct.

You typically:

• Leave out minä in neutral statements in speech and writing.
• Include minä for emphasis or contrast, e.g.
  
  • Minä syön jogurttia aamulla, mutta sinä et.
    (I eat yogurt in the morning, but you don’t.)

What is the difference between syön and syödä?

Syödä is the dictionary form (infinitive) of the verb: “to eat.”
Syön is the 1st person singular present tense form: “I eat / I am eating.”

A few forms for comparison:

• syödä = to eat
• minä syön = I eat
• sinä syöt = you eat (singular)
• hän syö = he/she eats
• me syömme = we eat

So the -n at the end of syön marks “I” as the subject.

Why is it jogurttia instead of jogurtti?

Jogurttia is the partitive form of jogurtti (“yogurt”).

Finnish uses the partitive case for objects when:

• You mean an undefined amount (some yogurt, not one whole, countable unit).
• The action is not viewed as a completed whole.

In English, we often add “some”:

• Minä syön jogurttia aamulla.
  Literally: I eat some yogurt in the morning.

So jogurtti → jogurttia shows that it’s an unspecified amount of yogurt, like a mass noun.

What exactly is the partitive case, and why is it used with food here?

The partitive case (often ending in -a / -ä, -ta / -tä, or -tta / -ttä) usually expresses:

1. Partialness or an indefinite amount

   • Syön jogurttia. = I eat (some) yogurt.
   • Juon vettä. = I drink (some) water.

2. Ongoing or uncompleted actions
   Often with verbs like eat, drink, read when the result isn’t seen as a complete, single object.

For food and drink, if you’re talking about some amount in general, you almost always use the partitive:

• Syön omenaa. = I eat (some) apple.
• Syön omenan. = I eat the whole apple (one entire apple, seen as a complete object).

In Minä syön jogurttia aamulla, it’s general, indefinite yogurt, so partitive is natural.

How would the sentence change if I meant “I eat the (whole) yogurt in the morning”?

Then you would typically use the accusative / total object instead of the partitive:

• Minä syön jogurtin aamulla.

Jogurtin here means “the yogurt” as a complete, delimited unit (for example, one specific yogurt cup).

Nuance difference:

• Syön jogurttia aamulla.
  I eat (some) yogurt in the morning. (general habit or amount)
• Syön jogurtin aamulla.
  I eat the yogurt in the morning. (a specific, whole yogurt)

What does the ending -lla in aamulla mean?

The -lla / -llä ending marks the adessive case, often translated as “on / at / by / with.”

With times of day, Finnish commonly uses adessive to mean “at that time (of day)”:

• aamu = morning → aamulla = in the morning
• ilta = evening → illalla = in the evening
• yö = night → yöllä = at night

So aamulla literally is “on/at morning,” but we translate it as “in the morning.”

Can I move aamulla to another place in the sentence?

Yes. Finnish word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatical:

• Minä syön jogurttia aamulla. (neutral)
• Aamulla minä syön jogurttia. (emphasis on in the morning)
• Aamulla syön jogurttia. (also natural; subject minä is just omitted)

The first position in the sentence often gets emphasis or sets the topic.
Putting aamulla first highlights when the action happens.

How would I say “I don’t eat yogurt in the morning”?

Finnish uses a special negative verb plus a connegative verb form:

• Minä en syö jogurttia aamulla.
  = I don’t eat yogurt in the morning.

Breakdown:

• en = I don’t
• syö = negative form of syödä for the 1st person (no -n)
• jogurttia = partitive (still some/any yogurt)
• aamulla = in the morning

You can also drop minä as usual:

• En syö jogurttia aamulla.

How do I turn this into a yes–no question, like “Do you eat yogurt in the morning?”?

For yes–no questions, Finnish usually adds -ko / -kö to the verb and may invert emphasis:

• Syötkö sinä jogurttia aamulla?
  = Do you eat yogurt in the morning?

Here:

• syöt = you eat (singular)
• -kö = question suffix
• sinä = you
• jogurttia = (some) yogurt
• aamulla = in the morning

For “Do I eat yogurt in the morning?”:

• Syönkö minä jogurttia aamulla?

Does Finnish distinguish between “I eat” and “I am eating” like English does?

No. Finnish has one present tense that covers both:

• Minä syön jogurttia aamulla.
  can mean:
  • I eat yogurt in the morning. (habit)
  • I am eating yogurt in the morning. (context decides)

If you need to stress habit, you can add an adverb like yleensä (usually):

• Yleensä syön jogurttia aamulla.
  = I usually eat yogurt in the morning.

Why is minä not capitalized like the English I?

In Finnish, the 1st person pronoun minä is not capitalized unless it begins a sentence or is part of a title.

So:

• Minä syön jogurttia aamulla. (capitalized because it’s first in the sentence)
• syön jogurttia aamulla. (lowercase in the middle of a sentence, if it appeared there)

English I is always capitalized; Finnish minä follows normal noun/pronoun capitalization rules.

How do you pronounce Minä syön jogurttia aamulla?

Approximate pronunciation (IPA-like and English hints):

• Minä → [ˈminæ]

  • mi as in me but shorter
  • nä like na in nap but with a front ä (like a in cat)

• syön → [ˈsyøn]

  • syö has the vowel yö:
    
    • y like German ü or French u in lune
    • ö like German ö or French eu in peur
  • whole syllable sounds a bit like “syer” with rounded lips
  • final n as in English

• jogurttia → [ˈjogurtːiɑ]

  • jo like yo in yogurt but shorter
  • gur like English goor in goose, but short u
  • tt is a long, held t (double consonant is clearly longer)
  • ia = two vowels: ee-ah, quickly together

• aamulla → [ˈɑːmulːɑ]

  • aa = long a as in father, but held longer
  • mu like moo but short
  • ll = long l
  • final a like a in father

Stress is always on the first syllable of each word:
MInä SYÖN JOgurttia AAmulla.