Breakdown of Takka lämmittää nopeasti, mutta nuotio ulkona on tunnelmallisempi.
Questions & Answers about Takka lämmittää nopeasti, mutta nuotio ulkona on tunnelmallisempi.
Lämmittää is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb lämmittää (“to heat, to warm [something]”).
- takka lämmittää = “the fireplace heats / warms”
- takka = subject (the thing doing the heating)
- lämmittää = verb (what it does)
So the structure is: subject + verb = “The fireplace heats (things) quickly.”
You cannot say:
- takka lämmin nopeasti ❌
because lämmin is an adjective (“warm”), not a verb.
That would be like saying in English: “the fireplace warm quickly” instead of “the fireplace warms quickly.”
If you wanted to say the fireplace itself becomes warm, you’d use the intransitive verb lämmetä:
- Takka lämpenee nopeasti. = “The fireplace becomes warm quickly.”
They are related but have different roles:
lämmittää = “to heat (something)” – transitive
- Takka lämmittää huonetta. = “The fireplace heats the room.”
- The verb “lämmittää” affects an object (huonetta).
lämmetä = “to get warm, to warm up” – intransitive
- Huone lämpenee. = “The room warms up.”
- No direct object; the subject itself becomes warm.
In your sentence:
- Takka lämmittää nopeasti emphasizes that the fireplace heats (the surroundings) quickly.
- Takka lämpenee nopeasti would emphasize that the fireplace itself becomes warm quickly.
Nopea is an adjective (“fast, quick”), while nopeasti is the corresponding adverb (“quickly”).
- Adjectives (like nopea) describe nouns:
- nopea auto = “a fast car”
- Adverbs (like nopeasti) describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs:
- Auto ajaa nopeasti. = “The car drives fast / quickly.”
In Takka lämmittää nopeasti:
- The word is describing how the fireplace heats.
- So it must be an adverb → nopeasti (“quickly”), not nopea (“fast”).
In Finnish writing, a comma is normally used before coordinating conjunctions like:
- ja (and)
- mutta (but)
- tai (or)
- vaan (but rather)
when they join two independent clauses (each with its own subject and verb).
Your sentence:
Takka lämmittää nopeasti,
→ independent clause (subject: takka, verb: lämmittää).mutta nuotio ulkona on tunnelmallisempi.
→ another independent clause (subject: nuotio ulkona, verb: on).
Since mutta connects two full clauses, Finnish standard punctuation requires the comma:
- Takka lämmittää nopeasti, mutta nuotio ulkona on tunnelmallisempi.
Both orders are grammatically possible, but they have slightly different emphasis.
nuotio ulkona (neutral here)
- Literally: “campfire outside”
- Focuses first on nuotio (“campfire”), and then adds where it is.
- Reads naturally as “the campfire outside.”
ulkona nuotio
- Literally: “outside [there is] a campfire”
- This order often feels more like you’re emphasizing the location first:
“Outside, there is a campfire.”
In your sentence, the main contrast is:
- takka vs nuotio ulkona
So putting nuotio first keeps the comparison clear: - Takka …, mutta nuotio ulkona …
“The fireplace …, but the (outdoor) campfire …”
They describe different kinds of fires:
takka
- A fixed indoor fireplace, usually built into a wall, chimney, or stove structure.
- Often made of brick, stone, or similar.
- Used in houses, cottages, etc.
nuotio
- An open campfire, usually outdoors.
- Logs or branches arranged on the ground or in a simple fire pit.
- Used for camping, picnics, outdoor gatherings.
So:
- Takka lämmittää nopeasti: a house fireplace heats quickly.
- nuotio ulkona: an outdoor campfire is more atmospheric.
Tunnelmallisempi is the comparative form of the adjective tunnelmallinen.
- tunnelmallinen = “atmospheric, with a nice mood/ambience”
- comparative suffix: -mpi (or here -sempi because of word structure)
Formation:
- tunnelmallinen (base adjective)
- Remove -nen, adjust the stem: tunnelmalli-
- Add -sempi: tunnelmallisempi
→ “more atmospheric”, “cozier / having more ambience”
So:
- nuotio ulkona on tunnelmallinen = “The campfire outside is atmospheric.”
- nuotio ulkona on tunnelmallisempi = “The campfire outside is more atmospheric.”
Finnish strongly prefers built-in comparative forms using the suffix -mpi for adjectives:
- kaunis → kauniimpi = more beautiful
- kallis → kalliimpi = more expensive
- tunnelmallinen → tunnelmallisempi = more atmospheric
Using enemmän + adjective is possible in some special cases (especially with adjectives that don’t form comparatives easily, or in very specific stylistic contexts), but for normal adjectives like tunnelmallinen, the -mpi form is the standard and natural choice.
So:
- tunnelmallisempi ✅ (normal, idiomatic)
- enemmän tunnelmallinen ❌ (sounds unnatural here)
On is the 3rd person singular of the verb olla (“to be”).
The structure is:
- nuotio ulkona = subject (“the campfire outside”)
- on = verb “is”
- tunnelmallisempi = predicate adjective (“more atmospheric”)
So the clause is literally:
- “The campfire outside is more atmospheric.”
You cannot omit on here:
- mutta nuotio ulkona tunnelmallisempi ❌
This is ungrammatical, because Finnish still needs the copula verb olla in such sentences.
Correct:
- mutta nuotio ulkona on tunnelmallisempi. ✅
In simple “X is Y” sentences with a general statement, both the subject and its complement are usually in the nominative:
- Takka (nominative) lämmittää…
- nuotio (nominative) on tunnelmallisempi (predicate adjective also nominative).
We use a different case (especially the partitive) when, for example:
- Talking about indefinite amount or incomplete action:
- Join huonetta lämmittää takka. = “It’s the fireplace that heats the room.” (huonetta = partitive)
- Saying someone / something is in some role or becoming something:
- Hänestä tuli opettaja. = “He/she became a teacher.”
In your sentence, we have:
- A general fact: “A fireplace heats quickly”
- A simple description: “A campfire outside is more atmospheric”
So everything stays in the nominative.