Learn Hardcore Finnish: Kesällä menemme perheen kanssa mökille. - In the summer we go to the cottage with the family.

-lla / -llä is the adessive case.
With times (especially parts of the day and seasons), the adessive often means “in / during”:
- kesällä = in (the) summer / during summer
- talvella = in (the) winter
- keväällä = in (the) spring
- syksyllä = in (the) autumn

So Kesällä menemme… literally feels like “On summer we go…”, but it is idiomatic Finnish for “In (the) summer we go…”.

Why is there no separate word for “in” or “during” in Kesällä?

Finnish normally expresses what English does with prepositions using case endings instead:

English: in summer / during summer
Finnish: kesällä (one word, with an ending that includes the “in/during” meaning)

So the idea of “in / on / at / during” is packed into the case ending -llä. You don’t say something like “in kesä” in Finnish; you change the form of the noun itself instead.

What form is menemme, and how is it built from the basic verb?

The dictionary form is mennä = to go.

Menemme is:

present tense
1st person plural (“we”)
formed from the stem mene-
- personal ending -mme:

mene- + -mme → menemme = we go / we will go

Other present forms:

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

Why does menemme mean both “we go” and “we will go”?

Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense often covers both:

Kesällä menemme perheen kanssa mökille.
= In summer we go to the cottage with the family.
= This summer we will go to the cottage with the family. (context decides)

If you really need to stress the future, you can add a time word like:

ensi kesänä (next summer)
tänä kesänä (this summer)

But the verb form itself stays present: menemme.

Why is there no separate word for “we” (like me) in the sentence?

Finnish verbs show the person with an ending, so the subject pronoun is often omitted:

Menemme mökille. = We go / we are going to the cottage.

The pronoun me (“we”) is optional:

Me menemme mökille.

You usually add me only for emphasis or contrast:

Me menemme mökille, mutta he jäävät kaupunkiin.
We are going to the cottage, but they are staying in the city.

What is perheen, and why doesn’t the sentence use the basic form perhe?

Perheen is the genitive singular of perhe (family).

perhe → perheen (genitive)

The genitive is used here because of kanssa (“with”):

With kanssa, the noun before it normally appears in the genitive:
- ystävän kanssa = with a friend
- lasten kanssa = with the children
- perheen kanssa = with the family

So perheen kanssa literally = “with (the) family’s”, but functionally just “with (the) family”.

What is kanssa, and why does it come after perheen instead of before it, like English “with family”?

Kanssa is a postposition meaning “with”.

In English, we use prepositions: with family (the little word comes before).
In Finnish, many such words are postpositions: they come after the noun:
- perheen kanssa = with (the) family
- ystävän kanssa = with a friend
- lapsen kanssa = with a child

So the normal order is: > [noun in genitive] + kanssa

Does perheen kanssa mean “with my family” or just “with the family”?

On its own, perheen kanssa is ambiguous:

It can mean “with the family” in a general or context-dependent sense.
Often in real life, it does mean “with my family” if that’s clear from context, but grammatically it doesn’t specify whose family.

To be explicitly “with my family”, you’d normally say:

perheeni kanssa = with my family
(perhe + -ni “my” + kanssa)

So:

menemme perheen kanssa mökille – we go with the family (probably our family, but not explicit)
menemme perheeni kanssa mökille – we go with my family (clearly marked as “my”)

What does the ending -lle in mökille mean, and how is it different from mökillä or mökkiin?

The noun is mökki = cottage / summer house.

Finnish has several local cases; the ones relevant here are:

mökille: allative (ending -lle)
→ “to the cottage (area / place / property)”
mökillä: adessive (ending -lla)
→ “at the cottage / on the cottage property”
mökkiin: illative (ending -iin)
→ “into the cottage (inside the building)”
mökissä: inessive (ending -ssä)
→ “in the cottage (inside)”

In this sentence, mökille is natural because you usually think of going to the cottage as a place (including the yard, shore, sauna, etc.), not specifically “into” the building.

Very roughly:

mennä mökille = go to the cottage (as a destination)
olla mökillä = be at the cottage
mennä mökkiin = go into the cottage (step inside)
olla mökissä = be in the cottage (indoors)

Can I change the word order, for example: Kesällä menemme mökille perheen kanssa?

Yes. Finnish word order is relatively flexible, and all of these are grammatical:

Kesällä menemme perheen kanssa mökille.
Kesällä menemme mökille perheen kanssa.

The difference is mostly in emphasis / rhythm, not in basic meaning.

Putting perheen kanssa earlier can slightly highlight the “with the family” part.
Putting mökille earlier can slightly highlight the destination.

But in normal conversation, both are fine and mean effectively the same thing.

How would I say “This summer we are going to the cottage with the family” in Finnish?

You would specify “this summer” explicitly:

Tänä kesänä menemme perheen kanssa mökille.

Breakdown:

tänä = this (in this) – essive form of tämä
kesänä = as summer → together tänä kesänä = this summer
menemme = we go / we are going
perheen kanssa = with the family
mökille = to the cottage

So: > Tänä kesänä menemme perheen kanssa mökille.
> = This summer we are going to the cottage with the family.

How would I change the sentence to “I go to the cottage with my family in the summer”?

You need 1st person singular and a clearer “my”:

Kesällä menen perheeni kanssa mökille.

Breakdown:

Kesällä = in (the) summer
menen = I go (1st person singular)
perheeni = my family (perhe + -ni “my”)
kanssa = with
mökille = to the cottage

So the structure is the same; only the verb person and possessive marking change.

Is there anything important about pronunciation in this sentence (like double consonants)?

Yes, a couple of points that often matter for English speakers:

Double consonants are long and must be clearly held:
- kesällä → -llä is a long l (ke-säl-lä)
- mökille → -kk- would be long, but here it’s -kki- ([kki] sequence); ll is long (mö-kil-le)
Stress is always on the first syllable of each word:
- KE-säl-lä ME-nem-me PER-heen KAN-ssa MÖ-kil-le

Pronouncing double consonants too short can change meanings, so it’s good to exaggerate them a bit at first.