Olen ihan väsynyt tänään.

I am really tired today.

Breakdown of Olen ihan väsynyt tänään.

• olla: to be
• tänään: today
• väsynyt: tired
• ihan: really

Questions & Answers about Olen ihan väsynyt tänään.

Why is there no separate word for “I” in Olen ihan väsynyt tänään?

Finnish usually leaves out subject pronouns when the verb form already shows the person.

• Olen is the 1st person singular form of olla (to be), so it already means “I am”.
• Adding minä (Minä olen ihan väsynyt tänään) is grammatically correct, but you normally use it only for emphasis, like “I am (as opposed to someone else) really tired today.”

So the default everyday version is just Olen ihan väsynyt tänään without minä.

What exactly does ihan mean here? Is it “quite,” “very,” or “really”?

In this sentence ihan works as an intensifier, roughly like “really / quite / pretty”:

• Olen ihan väsynyt tänään. ≈ “I’m really tired today.” or “I’m quite tired today.”

The strength of ihan depends on context and tone of voice. With väsynyt, it often suggests quite a strong degree of tiredness, but a bit less dramatic than täysin uupunut (completely exhausted).

Typical translations of ihan before adjectives:

• ihan hyvä – pretty good / quite good
• ihan kamala – really awful
• ihan väsynyt – really/quite tired

So you can think of it as a flexible intensifier similar to “really / quite / pretty” in English.

Is ihan always positive like “really,” or can it also mean “at all” or “quite” in another sense?

Ihan is flexible and can have different nuances:

1. Intensifier before adjectives/adverbs (most common):

   • ihan väsynyt – really/quite tired
   • ihan kiva – quite nice / pretty nice

2. “Completely / absolutely”:

   • ihan sama – it’s all the same / I don’t care either way
   • ihan väärä – completely wrong

3. In negative sentences, often “at all / really”:

   • En ole ihan varma. – I’m not quite sure / I’m not really sure.

In Olen ihan väsynyt tänään, it’s simply acting as a neutral intensifier: really/quite tired.

What form is väsynyt grammatically? Why doesn’t it have a case ending?

Väsynyt here is:

• an adjective (originally a past participle) meaning “tired”, and
• it is in the nominative singular form.

In Finnish, with the verb olla (to be), the adjective describing the subject is usually in the same number and case as the subject. The (implied) subject is minä, which is nominative singular, so the adjective is also nominative singular:

• (Minä) olen väsynyt. – I am tired.
• (Me) olemme väsyneitä. – We are tired. (plural partitive often used when talking about a group’s state)

There’s no extra case ending here because the basic dictionary form of an adjective is nominative, and that’s what you see in väsynyt.

Is väsynyt related to a verb? How would I say “to get tired” in Finnish?

Yes, väsynyt is related to the verb väsyä.

• väsyä – to get tired, to become tired
• väsynyt – tired (literally “having become tired”, the past participle used as an adjective)

Examples:

• Illalla väsyin aikaisin. – In the evening I got tired early.
• Olen väsynyt. – I am tired.

So Olen ihan väsynyt tänään literally has the idea “I am (a) tired (one) today,” based on the verb väsyä.

Can I change the word order, for example: Tänään olen ihan väsynyt? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can change the word order, and it’s still correct:

• Olen ihan väsynyt tänään.
• Tänään olen ihan väsynyt.

The basic meaning is the same (“I’m really tired today”), but the focus shifts slightly:

• Olen ihan väsynyt tänään. – neutral, common word order, focus more on being tired.
• Tänään olen ihan väsynyt. – slightly emphasizes “today” (as opposed to other days).

Finnish word order is relatively flexible; changes usually affect emphasis, not basic grammar.

How would I say “I was really tired yesterday” or “I will be really tired tomorrow” using the same structure?

You mainly change the verb tense and the time word:

• Olen ihan väsynyt tänään. – I am really tired today.

Past:

• Olin ihan väsynyt eilen. – I was really tired yesterday.

Future-like meaning (Finnish uses present tense + time adverbial):

• Olen varmaan ihan väsynyt huomenna. – I will probably be really tired tomorrow.
  (literally “I am probably really tired tomorrow”)

The verb olla conjugates like:

• olen – I am
• olin – I was

And time words:

• tänään – today
• eilen – yesterday
• huomenna – tomorrow

How would I turn this into a question like “Are you really tired today?” in Finnish?

Use the same words, but:

1. Change the verb person to olet (you are),
2. Add the -ko/-kö question suffix to the verb, and
3. Keep the rest of the sentence the same.

• Oletko ihan väsynyt tänään? – Are you really tired today?

You could also include the pronoun for emphasis:

• Oletko sinä ihan väsynyt tänään? – Are you really tired today? (with emphasis on “you”)

What is the difference between ihan väsynyt, tosi väsynyt, and todella väsynyt?

All three intensify väsynyt (tired), but with slightly different flavour:

• ihan väsynyt – really/quite tired; common, a bit casual and conversational.
• tosi väsynyt – very/really tired; everyday spoken Finnish, more clearly “strong” than ihan in many contexts.
• todella väsynyt – really/very tired; sounds a bit more formal or emphatic.

Example shades:

• Olen ihan väsynyt. – I’m pretty/quite tired.
• Olen tosi väsynyt. – I’m really very tired.
• Olen todella väsynyt. – I’m really tired (strong, possibly more serious tone).

In casual speech, ihan and tosi are extremely common.

Why do we say tänään for “today” and not tänä päivänä?

Both exist, but they’re used differently:

• tänään – “today” as a time adverb, very common in everyday speech:

  • Olen ihan väsynyt tänään. – I’m really tired today.

• tänä päivänä – literally “on this day”, more like:

  • nowadays / these days, or
  • specific emphasis on this particular day in some contexts.

Examples:

• Tänä päivänä ihmiset matkustavat paljon. – Nowadays people travel a lot.
• Tänään olen ihan väsynyt. – Today I’m really tired.

So for the simple “today” meaning “on this day”, you normally use tänään.