Breakdown of Menemme tänään suureen kauppakeskukseen koko perheen kanssa.
Questions & Answers about Menemme tänään suureen kauppakeskukseen koko perheen kanssa.
In Finnish the personal ending on the verb already shows the subject, so the pronoun is usually dropped.
- menemme = me menemme = we go / we are going
Because -mme clearly marks first person plural, me is not needed unless you want to emphasize it:
- Me menemme tänään… = WE are going today… (contrast or emphasis)
Menemme is the present tense, first person plural form of the verb mennä (to go).
Conjugation (present tense):
- minä menen – I go
- sinä menet – you (sg) go
- hän menee – he/she goes
- me menemme – we go
- te menette – you (pl) go
- he menevät – they go
So menemme on its own already means we go / we are going. Finnish does not distinguish simple present and present continuous the way English does.
Tänään is a fixed adverb meaning today. It is the most natural, everyday way to say today.
Tänä päivänä literally means on this day, and in modern Finnish it often has a more general or stylistic meaning:
- Tänä päivänä = nowadays / in this day and age
So:
- Menemme tänään… – We are going today (a specific day).
- Tänä päivänä ihmiset matkustavat paljon. – People travel a lot these days / nowadays.
Suureen is the illative case of suuri (big). The illative often corresponds to English to / into.
- suuri kauppakeskus – a big shopping centre (basic form)
- suureen kauppakeskukseen – to a big shopping centre
The adjective suuri must agree with the noun kauppakeskus in case and number. Since kauppakeskukseen is illative singular, the adjective also goes to illative singular:
- suuri → suureen (illative)
That -een ending is one way to mark the illative for words of this type.
Kauppakeskukseen is in the illative case. The illative usually answers “into where / to where?”
- kauppakeskus – a shopping centre (basic form)
- kauppakeskukseen – into / to the shopping centre
Functionally, the illative often corresponds to English to or into, and replaces a preposition that English would use:
- Menemme kauppakeskukseen. – We are going to the shopping centre.
Kauppakeskus is a compound:
- kauppa – shop
- keskus – centre
Together: kauppakeskus – shopping centre / mall.
For the illative singular, many -s ending nouns get a stem ending in -kse-:
- keskus → stem keskukse- → keskukseen
- kauppakeskus → stem kauppakeskukse- → kauppakeskukseen
So the -seen / -kseen type ending here is the illative marker.
Because the whole phrase is governed by the verb mennä, which requires a direction: go where?
- suuri kauppakeskus – a big shopping centre (no direction)
- suureen kauppakeskukseen – to a big shopping centre (direction)
Both the adjective and the noun must be in the same case (illative) and number:
- nominative: suuri kauppakeskus
- illative: suureen kauppakeskukseen
The postposition kanssa (with) normally requires the preceding noun phrase to be in the genitive case.
- perhe (family, nominative)
- perheen (of the family, genitive)
So:
- perheen kanssa – with the family
Koko means whole / entire and does not change form here. It just modifies perheen:
- koko perheen kanssa – with the whole family
Using koko perhe kanssa would be ungrammatical in standard Finnish.
Perheen is the genitive form of perhe. You use the genitive before kanssa:
- ystävä → ystävän kanssa – with (a) friend
- lapsi → lapsen kanssa – with (a) child
- perhe → perheen kanssa – with (the) family
Here, koko perheen kanssa literally means with the whole of the family.
Kanssa is a postposition, not a preposition.
- Prepositions (like English with, in, on) come before the noun.
- Postpositions (like Finnish kanssa) come after the noun phrase and usually take the noun in genitive.
So the normal order is:
- koko perheen kanssa – with the whole family
- ystävän kanssa – with a friend
Putting kanssa before the noun would sound wrong in Finnish.
Yes. Finnish word order is fairly flexible, and both are correct:
- Menemme tänään suureen kauppakeskukseen koko perheen kanssa.
- Tänään menemme suureen kauppakeskukseen koko perheen kanssa.
The basic information is the same. Moving tänään to the start often gives it a bit more emphasis:
- Tänään (and not some other day) we are going…
But grammatically, both orders are fine and natural.
Yes, you can. Both are correct:
- suureen kauppakeskukseen – to a big shopping centre
- isoon kauppakeskukseen – to a big / large shopping centre
Suuri and iso are largely synonyms meaning big. In everyday spoken Finnish iso is more common; suuri can sound slightly more formal or written-style in some contexts, but here either is fine.
Finnish has no articles (no equivalents of English a / an / the). The same Finnish sentence can correspond to different English article choices, depending on context:
- Menemme tänään suureen kauppakeskukseen.
- We are going to a big shopping centre today.
- We are going to the big shopping centre today.
Context, not grammar, usually tells you whether the speaker means a or the.