Minä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.

I wipe the table with kitchen paper.

Breakdown of Minä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.

• minä: I
• pöytä: the table
• -lla: with
• pyyhkiä: to wipe
• talouspaperi: the kitchen paper

Questions & Answers about Minä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.

Why is pöytää in the partitive case and not pöydän or pöytä?

Pöytää is in the partitive case because the wiping is viewed as an ongoing, not‑necessarily‑completed action, or you’re only wiping part of the table.

In Finnish, the object’s case often shows aspect (whether the action is seen as complete/total or incomplete/partial):

• Partitive singular: pöytää

  • Suggests an ongoing or incomplete action: you are (in the middle of) wiping the table.
  • Or you’re wiping part of the table, not necessarily the whole thing.

• Genitive/total object: pöydän

  • Suggests a complete action: you wipe the whole table clean, you finish the job.
  • Example (present): Minä pyyhin pöydän talouspaperilla.
    → I wipe / I’ll wipe the (whole) table with kitchen paper.

You don’t use bare pöytä (nominative) here because direct objects are normally in partitive or genitive/accusative, not nominative, in this kind of sentence.

What is the base form of pyyhin, and how is it conjugated?

The base (dictionary) form is pyyhkiä = to wipe.

Pyyhin here is 1st person singular, present tense: I wipe / I am wiping.

Mini conjugation of pyyhkiä in the present:

• minä pyyhin – I wipe
• sinä pyyhit – you wipe
• hän pyyhkii – he/she wipes
• me pyyhimme – we wipe
• te pyyhitte – you (pl.) wipe
• he pyyhkivät – they wipe

The stem pyyhki- shows consonant gradation (hk), visible in some forms (e.g. past tense, participles), but at this stage it’s enough to recognise pyyhkiä → pyyhin.

Could Minä be left out? Is Minä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla different from Pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla?

Yes, Minä can be left out. Finnish usually omits subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

• Pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.

  • This is perfectly natural and is what you would normally say in neutral context.

• Minä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.

  • Adding minä often adds emphasis or contrast:
    
    • I am the one who is wiping the table (not someone else).
    • Or you’re stressing the subject for some reason.

So grammatically both are correct; the version without minä is just more typical in everyday speech when there’s no contrast.

What does talouspaperilla literally mean, and what is the role of the ending -lla?

Talouspaperilla comes from:

• talouspaperi = kitchen paper / paper towel
  (literally “household paper”: talous “economy/household” + paperi “paper”)
• -lla = adessive case ending

The adessive -lla / -llä has several uses; one of them is to show the instrument you use to do something = with X.

So:

• talouspaperilla ≈ with kitchen paper / using kitchen paper.

Other examples of this instrumental use:

• kirjoitan kynällä – I write with a pen
• leikkaan veitsellä – I cut with a knife

Could I say talouspaperin kanssa instead of talouspaperilla?

You can say talouspaperin kanssa, but it sounds odd here and is not how Finns naturally express tools or instruments.

• talouspaperilla

  • Natural, idiomatic: “with kitchen paper” as an instrument.

• talouspaperin kanssa

  • Literally “together with kitchen paper”.
  • kanssa is mainly used for people or companions, not tools:
    
    • ystävän kanssa – with a friend
    • lapsen kanssa – with a child

For instruments, use -lla/-llä. You might occasionally use other phrases like talouspaperin avulla (with the help of kitchen paper), but for normal speech talouspaperilla is the right choice.

Can pyyhin also be a noun? How do I know it’s a verb here?

Yes, pyyhin can also be a noun meaning things like wiper, eraser, or cloth for wiping.

• As a noun:
  
  • Tuulilasin pyyhin – windscreen wiper
  • taulun pyyhin – (blackboard/whiteboard) eraser

In your sentence, it’s clearly a verb because it:

• Comes after the subject Minä, in the typical verb position.
• Takes a direct object (pöytää) and an adverbial (talouspaperilla).

If it were the noun, the structure would be different, e.g.:

• Minun pyyhkimeni on pöydällä. – My wiper/eraser is on the table.

What is the difference between pöytää and pöydän in this sentence?

Both are objects of pyyhkiä, but they show different aspects of the action:

• Minä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.

  • pöytää (partitive) → the action is ongoing, not viewed as completed.
  • You’re in the process of wiping, or you’re wiping some unspecified amount / part of the table.
  • Often used like English “I am wiping the table.”

• Minä pyyhin pöydän talouspaperilla.

  • pöydän (genitive/total object) → the action is complete or intended to be complete.
  • You wipe the whole table (or at least that’s the goal).
  • Often corresponds to “I (will) wipe the table (clean).”

So the verb is the same, but changing the case of the object slightly changes what you are saying about the extent/completeness of the action.

How would I say “I wiped the table with kitchen paper” (past tense), and what changes?

In standard Finnish, pyyhin can be both present “I wipe” and past “I wiped” (the 1st person singular forms of present and imperfect happen to be identical for this verb). Context usually shows the tense, or you add a time word.

Possible translations:

• Eilen pyyhin pöydän talouspaperilla.
  – Yesterday I wiped the table (completely) with kitchen paper.

• Äsken pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.
  – A moment ago I was wiping the table (incomplete/ongoing).

If you want to be very clear that the action is completed, you can also use the perfect:

• Olen pyyhkinyt pöydän talouspaperilla.
  – I have wiped the table with kitchen paper.

Notice again how pöytää vs pöydän marks incomplete vs complete, even in the past.

Is the word order fixed? Can I say Minä pyyhin talouspaperilla pöytää?

The basic neutral word order is:

• [Subject] [Verb] [Object] [Adverbials]
  → Minä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.

But Finnish allows quite flexible word order for emphasis. Both of these are grammatical:

• Minä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla. (neutral)
• Minä pyyhin talouspaperilla pöytää. (slightly marked, emphasis on with kitchen paper)

Other possible orders (in the right context):

• Pöytää minä pyyhin talouspaperilla. (emphasis on the table)
• Talouspaperilla minä pyyhin pöytää. (emphasis on with kitchen paper, maybe contrasting with another method)

For a learner, it’s safest to stick to:

• Minä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.
  or
• Pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.

Do I need something like “the” or “a” for pöytää or talouspaperilla?

No. Finnish has no articles (no words like “a”, “an”, “the”).

• pöytää can mean “a table” or “the table”, depending on context.
• talouspaperilla can mean “with kitchen paper” or “with the kitchen paper”.

Definiteness/indefiniteness is understood from context, not from a separate word.

How would this sound in casual spoken Finnish? Is Minä always used, or is there a colloquial form?

In everyday spoken Finnish (especially in southern dialects, including Helsinki area), you would typically hear:

• Mä pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.
  – Mä is the colloquial form of minä.

It’s also common to drop the subject pronoun entirely even in spoken language:

• Pyyhin pöytää talouspaperilla.

The verb pyyhin and talouspaperilla don’t change much in colloquial speech here; the main difference is mä vs minä, and the general tendency to leave out the subject if it’s obvious.