Learn Hardcore Finnish: Uusi sanastolista auttaa minua kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi. - The new vocabulary list helps me imagine sentences in Finnish.

Uusi sanastolista auttaa minua kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi.

The new vocabulary list helps me imagine sentences in Finnish.

Breakdown of Uusi sanastolista auttaa minua kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi.

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Questions & Answers about Uusi sanastolista auttaa minua kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi.

What does sanastolista literally mean, and how is it formed?

Sanastolista is a compound noun:

sanasto = vocabulary (a collection of words)
lista = list

Put together, sanastolista literally means “vocabulary list” or “list of vocabulary items.”

Finnish very often builds new words by sticking nouns together like this:

opiskelija (student) + kortti (card) → opiskelijakortti (student card)
matka (trip) + kirja (book) → matkakirja (travel book)

So sanastolista is a perfectly normal, transparent compound for learners.

Why is it uusi sanastolista and not something like uuden sanastolistan?

Uusi sanastolista is in the nominative singular, because it is the subject of the sentence:

Uusi sanastolista auttaa minua…
→ The / A new vocabulary list helps me…

In Finnish, the subject of a normal declarative sentence is in the nominative:

Koira nukkuu. – The dog sleeps.
Opiskelija lukee. – The student reads.
Uusi sanastolista auttaa. – The new vocabulary list helps.

Uuden sanastolistan would be the genitive singular and would normally appear in roles like:

As a possessive/“of”-relationship:
- uuden sanastolistan sisältö – the content of the new vocabulary list
As an object in some structures (not here):
- Tarvitsen uuden sanastolistan. – I need a new vocabulary list.

So here you need the plain nominative uusi sanastolista, because it is doing the action (helping).

Why is it auttaa minua with minua in the partitive, and not auttaa minä or auttaa minut?

The verb auttaa almost always takes its object in the partitive case:

auttaa + partitive
- auta minua! – help me!
- Hän auttaa minua. – He/She helps me.
- Uusi sanastolista auttaa minua. – The new vocabulary list helps me.

So:

minä = nominative (used as a subject: Minä autan. – I help.)
minut = accusative (used mainly with a few verbs/pronouns and in certain structures)
minua = partitive (here: object of auttaa)

With auttaa, the natural, idiomatic form is partitive: minua, sinua, häntä, etc.

You cannot say auttaa minä or auttaa minut in this context; they are ungrammatical or at least strongly unidiomatic in standard Finnish.

Why do we use kuvittelemaan and not the basic form kuvitella after auttaa?

Kuvittelemaan is the third infinitive in the illative case, often described as the “-maan/-mään infinitive.”

Many verbs in Finnish are followed by this form when they mean help to do, begin to do, go to do, etc.:

auttaa tekemään – help to do
mennä nukkumaan – go to sleep
oppia puhumaan – learn to speak
alkaa lukemaan / lukea – start reading

So:

Basic infinitive: kuvitella – to imagine
3rd infinitive illative:
- stem kuvittele-
  - -maan → kuvittelemaan

Auttaa fits the pattern:

auttaa + (partitive object) + -maan/-mään infinitive
→ auttaa minua kuvittelemaan – helps me (in) imagining / helps me imagine

Auttaa minua kuvitella is not correct standard Finnish; auttaa wants this -maan/-mään form.

What exactly is the form kuvittelemaan morphologically? How do you build it from kuvitella?

Start with the verb kuvitella (to imagine):

Take the strong stem used in personal forms:
- kuvitella → stem kuvittele- (as in kuvittelen, kuvittelet)
Add the 3rd infinitive marker -ma/-mä:
- kuvittele-
  - -ma = kuvittelema-
Put that into the illative case (ending -an/-en/-in etc., here -an):
- kuvittelema-
  - -an → kuvittelemaan

Functionally, kuvittelemaan answers “towards doing what?” and is commonly used after verbs like auttaa, mennä, tulla, jäädä, oppia, ruveta, etc., to express purpose or the activity you’re helped/going/starting to do.

Why is lauseita in the partitive plural, and not lauseet or lauseita in some other case?

Lauseita is:

the plural of lause (sentence)
in the partitive case

kuvitella quite often takes a partitive object when the thing imagined is:

not a specific, fixed set, but an indefinite quantity or
in some sense ongoing / not completed

Here, you are not talking about some specific, known set of sentences, but “sentences in general”, “some sentences,” “various sentences.” That’s a typical context for the partitive:

kuvitella lauseita – imagine (some) sentences
kirjoittaa tekstejä – write (some) texts
syödä karkkia – eat (some) candy

If you said lauseet (nominative plural) as an object, it would sound like a specific, whole group of sentences is being completely imagined, which doesn’t match the usual meaning here. So lauseita (partitive plural) is the natural choice.

Why do we say suomeksi to mean “in Finnish”? What is this -ksi ending?

Suomeksi is the translative case of suomi (Finnish language).

suomi – Finnish (language), nominative
suome- – stem
suomeksi – in/into Finnish (translative)

The translative -ksi often means:

“into the state of X”
“as X”
“in X (language, role, form)”

With languages, -ksi is the normal way to say “in [language]” when talking about the form of something you say, write, think, translate, etc.:

kirjoitan tämän suomeksi – I write this in Finnish
miten sanotaan englanniksi? – how do you say it in English?
ajattelen suomeksi – I think in Finnish

So lauseita suomeksi = “sentences in Finnish” (sentences that are in the Finnish language).

What’s the difference between suomi, suomea, suomen, and suomeksi in general?

They’re different cases of the same noun suomi (Finnish language):

suomi (nominative)
- Used as a subject or basic dictionary form:
  - Suomi on vaikea kieli. – Finnish is a difficult language.
suomea (partitive)
- Very common with verbs of speaking/using language:
  - Puhun suomea. – I speak Finnish.
  - Opiskelen suomea. – I study Finnish.
suomen (genitive)
- “of Finnish”:
  - suomen kielioppi – the grammar of Finnish
  - suomen oppikirja – a Finnish textbook (literally: textbook of Finnish)
suomeksi (translative)
- “in Finnish (as a language/form)”
  - kirjoitan suomeksi. – I write in Finnish.
  - ajattelen suomeksi. – I think in Finnish.

In the sentence, we want “sentences in Finnish,” so suomeksi is the right form.

Is the word order fixed? Can I move minua or other parts around, and what sounds natural?

Finnish word order is flexible, but not totally free. The neutral order here is:

Uusi sanastolista (subject)
auttaa (verb)
minua (object)
kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi (verb phrase complement)

→ Uusi sanastolista auttaa minua kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi.

You can rearrange for emphasis or focus:

Minua auttaa uusi sanastolista kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi.
– More emphasis on minua (“It is me that the new vocabulary list helps…”).
Uusi sanastolista auttaa kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi.
– Omitting minua makes it more general (see next question).

But something like:

Uusi sanastolista auttaa kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi minua.

is not natural, because minua should be close to auttaa, which governs its case and function. In general, you keep:

auttaa + (its object) + -maan/-mään infinitive phrase together.

Can I omit minua? What changes if I say Uusi sanastolista auttaa kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi?

Yes, you can omit minua:

Uusi sanastolista auttaa kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi.

This then means roughly:

“A new vocabulary list helps (one/people) imagine sentences in Finnish.”
or: “A new vocabulary list helps you imagine sentences in Finnish.” (generic “you”)

So:

With minua: the sentence is specifically about you.
Without minua: the sentence sounds more general, like a statement about how new vocabulary lists help people in general.

Both versions are grammatical; they just differ in focus.

How would the sentence change if the subject were plural, like “New vocabulary lists help me…”?

You would need to put both the adjective and the noun in the plural, and the verb would agree in the plural as well:

Uudet sanastolistat auttavat minua kuvittelemaan lauseita suomeksi.
- uudet – new (plural nominative)
- sanastolistat – vocabulary lists (plural nominative)
- auttavat – help (3rd person plural)

Everything else stays the same:

minua – partitive (object of auttavat)
kuvittelemaan – 3rd infinitive illative
lauseita – partitive plural
suomeksi – translative (“in Finnish”)

So singular vs. plural mainly affects the forms of the subject and the verb.