Olen tyytyväinen, kun työaika on selkeä eikä kokoushuone ole liian meluisa.

I am satisfied when the working hours are clear and the meeting room is not too noisy.

Breakdown of Olen tyytyväinen, kun työaika on selkeä eikä kokoushuone ole liian meluisa.

• olla: to be
• kun: when
• meluisa: noisy
• liian: too
• selkeä: clear
• eikä: and not
• työaika: the working hours
• kokoushuone: the meeting room
• tyytyväinen: satisfied

Questions & Answers about Olen tyytyväinen, kun työaika on selkeä eikä kokoushuone ole liian meluisa.

Why does the sentence start with Olen tyytyväinen instead of Minä olen tyytyväinen?

In Finnish, the personal ending on the verb usually makes the subject pronoun unnecessary.

• Olen already means “I am” (1st person singular of olla, “to be”).
• So Minä olen tyytyväinen is correct, but the minä is only added for emphasis, contrast, or style (for example, Minä olen tyytyväinen, mutta hän ei ole – I am satisfied, but he isn’t).

In neutral statements, Finns typically drop the personal pronoun:

• Olen tyytyväinen = natural, neutral
• Minä olen tyytyväinen = emphasizes “I”

What exactly does tyytyväinen mean, and why is it in this form?

Tyytyväinen is an adjective meaning “satisfied”, “content”, or “pleased”.

Grammatically:

• It’s in the base form (nominative singular) because it is a predicative adjective linked to the subject by the verb olla (“to be”):
  • (Minä) olen tyytyväinen. – I am satisfied.
  • Subject (minä) is implied, adjective tyytyväinen agrees in number but stays in nominative.

You might also see:

• Olen tyytyväinen siihen, että... – I am satisfied that...
  Here siihen (“with that / about that”) adds an object-like element and introduces a clause. But in your sentence, tyytyväinen directly describes “me”, so no extra case ending is added to it.

What does kun mean here? Is it “when” or “because”? Could you use jos instead?

Kun is most often translated as “when”, and that is the main reading here.

• Olen tyytyväinen, kun työaika on selkeä...
  ≈ I’m satisfied when the working hours are clear…

This is a temporal / conditional-like “when”: “in situations where / whenever”. In context, it can also feel a bit like “whenever / as long as”.

• Kun vs jos:
  • Kun = when(ever) something actually happens or is expected to happen.
  • Jos = “if”, a genuine condition, something that may or may not happen.

Compare:

• Olen tyytyväinen, kun työaika on selkeä.
  (Whenever the working hours are clear, I am satisfied.)
• Olen tyytyväinen, jos työaika on selkeä.
  (I’ll be satisfied if the working hours are clear – more hypothetical/conditional.)

Both can be possible in some contexts, but kun is the natural choice here for a general, recurring situation.

Why is työaika singular, and what does it literally mean?

Työaika is a compound noun:

• työ = work
• aika = time
  → työaika = working hours, work time, schedule of hours you work

It’s used in the singular because in Finnish this concept is usually treated as a single whole, not as “hours” in the plural:

• Työaika on joustava. – The working hours are flexible.
• Työaika on selkeä. – The working hours are clear.

If you wanted to talk literally about individual hours worked, you could use something like työtunnit (“work hours”), but for “my schedule / working time arrangement”, työaika is the standard word.

What is the difference between selkeä and selvä in työaika on selkeä?

Both selkeä and selvä can often be translated as “clear”, and they overlap a lot.

• Selkeä työaika = a clear, easy-to-understand schedule; often emphasizes structure, logical clarity, readability.
• Selvä työaika = also “clear working hours”, but selvä can sometimes sound a bit more like “obvious / definite / unambiguous”.

In this sentence, työaika on selkeä sounds very natural and idiomatic:

• It suggests the schedule is well-defined, understandable, not confusing.

You could say työaika on selvä, and it wouldn’t be wrong, but selkeä is slightly more typical when talking about things like documents, schedules, instructions being clear and well structured.

Why is it eikä and not ja ei before the second part?

Eikä is a single word that combines ja (“and”) + ei (“not”).

• ...kun työaika on selkeä eikä kokoushuone ole liian meluisa.
  ≈ “…when the working hours are clear and the meeting room is not too noisy.”

In standard Finnish, when you join a positive clause with a following negative clause of the same subject or structure, you typically use eikä (not ja ei):

• Hän tulee, eikä hän valita. – He/She will come, and (he/she) won’t complain.
• Työaika on selkeä, eikä kokoushuone ole liian meluisa.

You could technically say ja ei, and people would understand it, but it sounds less natural and somewhat clumsy in this kind of sentence. Eikä is the normal conjunction here.

Why is it kokoushuone and not just kokous or huone? What does the compound mean?

Kokoushuone is another compound noun:

• kokous = meeting
• huone = room
  → kokoushuone = meeting room / conference room

You use kokous alone when referring to the meeting as an event:

• Meillä on kokous klo 10. – We have a meeting at 10.

You use huone alone when the context already makes it clear which room:

• Kokous on tässä huoneessa. – The meeting is in this room.

But to say “the meeting room” as a type of room, kokoushuone (or often kokoustila) is the normal compound word.

Why is the verb ole and not on in eikä kokoushuone ole liian meluisa?

This is because of the negative verb in Finnish.

In a negative sentence:

• Finnish uses a special negative verb (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
• The main verb appears in a kind of short base form (often the same as infinitive without the final -a/ä, or with a specific “negative” form).

For olla (“to be”):

• Positive: kokoushuone on – the meeting room is
• Negative: kokoushuone ei ole – the meeting room is not

In your sentence, the negative is built into eikä:

• Conceptually it is ja ei → and not
• So you still need the negative form ole:
  • eikä kokoushuone ole liian meluisa
    = and the meeting room is not too noisy.

So: on is used in positive statements, ole after ei / eikä.

Why is it liian meluisa and not liian meluisaa?

Meluisa is an adjective meaning “noisy”. It describes kokoushuone (a specific room), so it’s used as a predicative adjective in the nominative singular:

• Kokoushuone on meluisa. – The meeting room is noisy.
• Kokoushuone ei ole liian meluisa. – The meeting room is not too noisy.

You’ll often see adjectives in the partitive (e.g. hauskaa, vaikeaa) when:

• there is no concrete subject (On vaikeaa. – It is difficult.)
• or the quality is thought of more abstractly.

But when you clearly describe a specific, countable subject (like “the room”), nominative is the normal form, even in the negative:

• Huone ei ole iso. – The room is not big.
• Kokoushuone ei ole liian meluisa. – The meeting room is not too noisy.

Liian just means “too / excessively” and goes in front of the adjective:

• liian meluisa – too noisy
• liian kuuma – too hot

Could I change the order and say: Kun työaika on selkeä eikä kokoushuone ole liian meluisa, olen tyytyväinen?

Yes, absolutely. That word order is very natural:

• Kun työaika on selkeä eikä kokoushuone ole liian meluisa, olen tyytyväinen.

Meaning is the same:

• “When the working hours are clear and the meeting room isn’t too noisy, I’m satisfied.”

Finnish allows both:

• Main clause first: Olen tyytyväinen, kun...
• Subordinate kun-clause first: Kun..., olen tyytyväinen.

Both are correct; the second option slightly emphasizes the condition/situation first, then the result (you being satisfied).

What kind of time meaning does the present tense have in this sentence? Is it about right now, or in general?

All verbs here are in the present tense (olen, on, ole), but Finnish present can refer to:

• A general / habitual situation:

  • Olen tyytyväinen, kun työaika on selkeä...
    → I’m (generally) satisfied when the working hours are clear…

• A current, ongoing situation, if the context supports that:

  • In a specific context, it could also mean “Right now I am satisfied, because right now the working hours are clear and it’s not noisy.”

Without extra context, the most natural reading is general/habitual: “Whenever my working hours are clear and the meeting room isn’t too noisy, that’s the kind of situation in which I am satisfied.”