Minä juon teetä kahvin sijasta.

I drink tea instead of coffee.

Breakdown of Minä juon teetä kahvin sijasta.

• minä: I
• kahvi: the coffee
• juoda: to drink
• tee: the tea
• sijasta: instead of

Questions & Answers about Minä juon teetä kahvin sijasta.

Why is it teetä and not tee?

Teetä is the partitive case of tee (“tea”).

With many verbs, including juoda (“to drink”), the object is in the partitive when you’re talking about:

• an indefinite amount (some tea, tea in general)
• an ongoing or incomplete event

So Minä juon teetä is like saying “I drink tea / I’m drinking (some) tea.”
If you said Minä juon teen, that sounds more like “I drink (the) tea (up)”, i.e. a specific, delimited portion that gets finished.

Why is it kahvin and not kahvi or kahvia?

Kahvin is the genitive singular of kahvi (“coffee”).

The word sijasta is a postposition that normally requires the genitive in front of it:

• kahvin sijasta = “instead of coffee”
• maidon sijasta = “instead of milk”
• sokerin sijasta = “instead of sugar”

Using kahvi (nominative) or kahvia (partitive) here would be ungrammatical in standard Finnish. The “X instead of Y” pattern is X + Y(n in genitive) + sijasta.

What is sijasta exactly, and how is it used?

Sijasta comes from sija (“place, position”) and is a postposition meaning “instead of” / “in place of.”

Structure:

• [GENITIVE] + sijasta

Examples:

• teen sijasta – instead of tea
• kahvin sijasta – instead of coffee
• leivän sijasta – instead of bread

Postpositions typically come after the word they depend on (unlike English prepositions), and they usually require a specific case (here: genitive).

Can I leave out Minä and just say Juon teetä kahvin sijasta?

Yes, and that is actually more natural in many contexts.

Finnish usually omits personal pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is:

• juon = I drink
• juot = you drink
• juo = he/she drinks

So:

• Juon teetä kahvin sijasta. – perfectly normal
• Minä juon teetä kahvin sijasta. – also correct, but places extra emphasis on I (“I drink tea instead of coffee”).

What tense and person is juon?

Juon is:

• verb: juoda – “to drink”
• tense: present (covers both “I drink” and “I am drinking”)
• person/number: 1st person singular (I)

Basic present tense forms:

• minä juon – I drink
• sinä juot – you drink
• hän juo – he/she drinks
• me juomme – we drink
• te juotte – you (pl.) drink
• he juovat – they drink

How would I say “I drink coffee instead of tea”?

Just swap tea and coffee, keeping the same cases:

• Minä juon kahvia teen sijasta.

Breakdown:

• kahvia – partitive (some coffee)
• teen – genitive of tee
• sijasta – “instead of”

So the pattern is:

• I drink [PARTITIVE] instead of [GENITIVE + sijasta].

Why do we use teetä (partitive) with juoda but kahvin (genitive) with sijasta in the same sentence?

Because they play different grammatical roles:

• teetä is the object of the verb juon.

  • With juoda, when you talk about an indefinite amount of a drink, the object is usually in the partitive: juon vettä, juon maitoa, juon olutta.

• kahvin belongs to the postposition phrase kahvin sijasta.

  • sijasta requires genitive, so kahvi → kahvin.

So each word’s case is determined by what it’s linked to:

• juon → teetä (partitive object)
• sijasta → kahvin (genitive complement)

Is there any difference between “kahvin sijasta” and “kahvin sijaan”?

They are very close in meaning: both can mean “instead of coffee.”

• kahvin sijasta – very common in everyday language
• kahvin sijaan – also correct; sometimes feels a bit more written/formal in many contexts

Typical patterns:

• GENITIVE + sijasta
• GENITIVE + sijaan

You might also see:

• kahvin asemesta – “instead of coffee”
• kahvin tilalla – “in place of coffee”

But you shouldn’t mix the case pattern; for example, kahvia sijaan is not standard.

Could I say “Minä juon teetä enkä kahvia” instead? How is that different?

Yes, you can:

• Minä juon teetä enkä kahvia. = “I drink tea and not coffee.”

Difference in nuance:

• teetä kahvin sijasta emphasizes replacing coffee with tea, a substitution.
• teetä enkä kahvia stresses a contrast or exclusion: you drink tea, and explicitly not coffee.

Both can often translate as “instead of coffee,” but:

• sijasta highlights “in place of”,
• enkä kahvia highlights “not coffee (but tea).”

Why are there no words for “a/the” in this sentence?

Finnish does not have articles like “a, an, the” at all.

• Minä juon teetä kahvin sijasta.
  can correspond to:
  • “I drink tea instead of coffee.”
  • “I drink the tea instead of the coffee.” (if context makes it specific)

Specificity is usually understood from context, not from a separate article word.

Could the word order be different, like “Minä kahvin sijasta juon teetä”?

Yes, Finnish word order is fairly flexible, though it affects emphasis.

Some possible orders:

1. Minä juon teetä kahvin sijasta.
   – neutral: I drink tea instead of coffee.

2. Minä kahvin sijasta juon teetä.
   – emphasizes “instead of coffee” more strongly.

3. Kahvin sijasta juon teetä.
   – starts with the contrast: “Instead of coffee, I drink tea.”

All are grammatical; the main difference is what you highlight by putting it earlier in the sentence.

What is the basic dictionary form of teetä and kahvin, and how do I get these forms?

Dictionary (nominative) forms:

• tee – tea
• kahvi – coffee

From these:

• tee → teetä (partitive singular)

  • Often: vowel-stem + -a/-ä
  • tee → tee + tä = teetä

• kahvi → kahvin (genitive singular)

  • Typically: add -n to the nominative
  • kahvi → kahvin

So you always look words up as tee, kahvi, then apply case endings.

How would I negate this sentence in Finnish?

If you want to say “I don’t drink tea instead of coffee,” you’d negate the verb:

• Minä en juo teetä kahvin sijasta.

Structure:

• en – negative auxiliary (1st person singular)
• juo – verb in its consonant gradation, “negative” form (no personal ending)
• teetä – stays partitive
• kahvin sijasta – unchanged

So you only change juon → en juo; the rest of the sentence keeps the same cases.