Minä opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.

I study Finnish with the help of this course.

Breakdown of Minä opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.

• minä: I
• tämä: this
• suomi: Finnish
• opiskella: to study
• kurssi: the course
• avulla: with the help of

Questions & Answers about Minä opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.

Why does the sentence start with Minä? Can I leave it out?

Finnish is a pro-drop language: you usually don’t need to say the subject pronoun, because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

• Minä opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.
• Opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.

Both mean “I (am) studying Finnish with the help of this course.”

Differences:

• With minä: slight emphasis on I, as in “I am studying Finnish (maybe others are not).”
• Without minä: the most common, neutral way to say it in everyday language.

So yes, you can leave out minä unless you want that emphasis or you need to make the subject very clear in a longer context.

Why is it opiskelen and not opiskella?

Opiskella is the infinitive form, “to study”.

Finnish verbs are conjugated by adding endings. For the verb opiskella (to study):

• minä opiskelen = I study / I am studying
• sinä opiskelet = you (sing.) study
• hän opiskelee = he/she studies
• me opiskelemme = we study
• te opiskelette = you (pl.) study
• he opiskelevat = they study

So the -n ending in opiskelen marks 1st person singular (I).

Does opiskelen mean “I study” or “I am studying”? How do you show the difference?

In Finnish, the present tense (here: opiskelen) usually covers both English:

• “I study Finnish” (habitually)
• “I am studying Finnish” (right now or during some period)

Context usually tells which one is meant. If you really need to stress “right now”, you can add time expressions:

• Opiskelen suomea nyt. – I am studying Finnish now.
• Opiskelen suomea joka päivä. – I study Finnish every day.

But grammatically, it’s just present tense, not divided into simple vs. continuous.

Why is it suomea and not suomi?

Suomi is the base form (nominative) of “Finnish (language)”.

In the sentence, suomea is in the partitive case. Finnish very often uses the partitive for:

1. Languages as objects of studying/learning:

   • Opiskelen suomea. – I study Finnish.
   • Opiskelen englantia. – I study English.

2. Incomplete / ongoing actions (you’re still in the process of learning):

   • Partitive often signals something that is not finished or not counted.

So suomea is the grammatically correct form after opiskella in this meaning. Opiskelen suomi would be wrong.

What case is suomea exactly, and how is it formed?

Suomea is partitive singular of suomi.

Pattern:

• Nominative: suomi (Finnish)
• Genitive: suomen
• Partitive: suomea

You see the stem suome- and the partitive ending -a. Many words form the partitive by adding -a/-ä (depending on vowel harmony) to the stem.

Why is it tämän kurssin and not tämä kurssi?

The phrase tämän kurssin is “this course” in the genitive case.

• tämä kurssi – this course (nominative, “subject” form)
• tämän kurssin – of this course (genitive)

The postposition avulla (“with the help of”) requires the genitive:

• X:n avulla – with the help of X
  
  • kirjan avulla – with the help of the book
  • opettajan avulla – with the help of the teacher
  • tämän kurssin avulla – with the help of this course

So both tämän and kurssin appear in the genitive to match the required structure.

What exactly does avulla mean, and why is it used here?

Avulla comes from apu (help) + -lla (adessive case), and it acts as a postposition meaning “with the help of / by means of”.

Pattern:

• [GENITIVE] + avulla = “with the help of [something]”

Examples:

• Sanakirjan avulla – with the help of a dictionary
• Internetin avulla – with the help of the internet
• Tämän kurssin avulla – with the help of this course

In this sentence, tämän kurssin avulla explains the means or tool you use to study Finnish.

Why is avulla after kurssin, not before it? In English it’s “with the help of this course”.

Finnish has both prepositions (before the noun) and postpositions (after the noun). Avulla is a postposition, so it comes after the genitive word:

• tämän kurssin avulla
  literally: this course’s with-the-help

Other examples of postpositions:

• talon takana – behind the house
• pöydän alla – under the table
• koulun lähellä – near the school

So the order “kurssin avulla” is normal and required for avulla.

Could I say “Minä opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin kanssa” instead of “avulla”?

You can say tämän kurssin kanssa, but the meaning shifts slightly.

• tämän kurssin avulla – with the help of this course, by using this course as a tool/resource.
• tämän kurssin kanssa – “with this course”, more like together with, physically alongside it.

Kanssa is usually used with:

• people: ystäväni kanssa – with my friend
• or concrete accompaniment: kassin kanssa – with the bag

For learning/using something as a resource, avulla (or käyttäen, “using”) is more natural:

• Opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.
• Opiskelen suomea käyttäen tätä kurssia. (stylistically heavier, but correct)

So avulla is the most idiomatic here.

Can I change the word order, like “Tämän kurssin avulla opiskelen suomea”?

Yes. Finnish has flexible word order, and all of these are grammatically correct:

1. Minä opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.
2. Opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.
3. Tämän kurssin avulla opiskelen suomea.
4. Suomea opiskelen tämän kurssin avulla.

Differences are mostly about emphasis and information structure:

• Starting with Tämän kurssin avulla emphasizes the method:
  “By using this course, I study Finnish.”
• Starting with Suomea emphasizes the language.

In neutral contexts, versions (1) or (2) are the most typical.

What’s the difference between opiskella and oppia when talking about languages?

Both are used with languages but focus on different aspects:

• opiskella suomea – to study Finnish (the activity/process: reading, doing exercises, attending a course)
• oppia suomea – to learn Finnish (the result: gaining knowledge/skills)

Compare:

• Opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.
  I am studying Finnish with the help of this course.
• Olen oppinut paljon suomea tämän kurssin avulla.
  I have learned a lot of Finnish with the help of this course.

So opiskelen is about what you are doing, opin / olen oppinut is about what you have achieved.

How do I pronounce suomea and tämän? Are the vowels important?

Yes, vowel length and quality matter in Finnish.

• suomea: SUO-me-a

  • uo is a diphthong (one smooth sound, not “su-oh”).
  • Three syllables: suo-me-a, all vowels clearly pronounced.

• tämän: TÄ-män

  • ä is like a in “cat” (front vowel), not like a in “father”.
  • Stress is always on the first syllable in Finnish: TÄ-män.

Pronouncing ä distinctly from a is important, because it can change word meaning.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral?

The sentence is neutral standard Finnish:

• Minä opiskelen suomea tämän kurssin avulla.

In spoken language, people might say:

• Mä opiskelen suomea tän kurssin avulla.
  
  • minä → mä
  • tämän → tän

That is informal, everyday colloquial Finnish. The original sentence is suitable for both spoken (in careful speech) and written use, including in a course, email, or textbook.