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Minä ihailen järveä parvekkeelta.

Minä ihailen järveä parvekkeelta.
I admire the lake from the balcony.

Breakdown of Minä ihailen järveä parvekkeelta.

minä
I
-lta
from
parveke
the balcony
järvi
the lake
ihailla
to admire
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Questions & Answers about Minä ihailen järveä parvekkeelta.

Why is the pronoun minä used here? Could I leave it out?

In Finnish, the personal ending on the verb already shows the subject:

  • ihailen = I admire (the ending -n = 1st person singular)

So minä is not necessary for basic meaning. These are both correct and mean the same:

  • Minä ihailen järveä parvekkeelta.
  • Ihailen järveä parvekkeelta.

Using minä adds emphasis or contrast, something like:

  • Minä admire the lake (implying maybe others don’t).

Textbooks often include the pronoun to make the subject clear for beginners, but in natural speech it is often dropped unless emphasized.

Why is järveä in the partitive case and not järvi or järven?

järveä is the partitive singular of järvi (lake).

The verb ihailla (to admire) normally takes its object in the partitive case. Many emotion / mental attitude verbs work like this (rakastaa love, pelätä fear, ihailla admire, kaivata miss, etc.):

  • Minä ihailen järveä. – I admire the lake.
  • Minä rakastan sinua. – I love you. (sinä → sinua, partitive)

There is also a more general rule behind this: the partitive object is used when the action is ongoing, unbounded, or not “completed”. You don’t really “finish” admiring a lake; it’s a continuous state/act, so Finnish uses the partitive.

Using järvi or järven here would be ungrammatical with ihailla. This verb simply requires the partitive object.

How is järveä formed from järvi?

The noun järvi (lake) belongs to the type where -i in the nominative becomes -e- in many other cases.

Formation of the partitive singular:

  1. Take järvi
  2. Change the final -i to -e- → järve- (the stem)
  3. Add the partitive ending -ä → järveä

So:

  • järvi (nominative)
  • järveä (partitive singular)
  • Other forms: järven (genitive), järvessä (inessive “in the lake”), etc.
What is the infinitive of ihailen, and how is it conjugated?

The infinitive is ihailla (to admire).

Present tense conjugation (indicative):

  • (minä) ihailen – I admire
  • (sinä) ihailet – you admire (singular)
  • (hän) ihailee – he/she admires
  • (me) ihailemme – we admire
  • (te) ihailette – you admire (plural / formal)
  • (he) ihailevat – they admire

You can usually drop the pronouns in speech, because the verb endings show the person.

What does the ending -lta in parvekkeelta mean?

The ending -lta / -ltä is the ablative case, which often means “from (the surface of) something / from on something”.

With parveke (balcony), the relevant “place” cases are:

  • parvekkeella – on the balcony (adessive, -lla / -llä)
  • parvekkeelta – from (off) the balcony (ablative, -lta / -ltä)
  • parvekkeelle – onto the balcony (allative, -lle)

So parvekkeelta literally = from (on) the balcony → from the balcony.

Why is it parvekkeelta and not just parvekelta? What happens to the k?

The nominative is parveke (balcony), but the stem used in many cases is parvekke-. Finnish has consonant gradation and some stem changes:

  • parveke (nominative)
  • parvekkeen (genitive)
  • parvekkeella (on the balcony)
  • parvekkeelta (from the balcony)
  • parvekkeelle (onto the balcony)

So for parvekkeelta:

  1. Take the stem parvekke-
  2. Add the ablative ending -lta → parvekkeelta

The double kk is just part of the strong-grade stem.

Why isn’t there a separate word for “from” in “from the balcony”?

Finnish usually expresses meanings like in/on/to/from using case endings on the noun, not separate prepositions like English.

So:

  • English: from the balcony
  • Finnish: parvekkeelta (parveke
    • -lta = from the balcony)

Similarly:

  • pöydällä – on the table
  • pöydältä – from the table
  • talossa – in the house
  • talosta – from the house

The ending itself carries the meaning “from”, so no extra word is needed.

Why is it parvekkeelta and not parvekkeesta?

Finnish distinguishes “from on the surface” vs “from inside” with two different cases:

  • Ablative -lta / -ltä = from the outside / surface / top of something
  • Elative -sta / -stä = from inside something

A balcony is a surface you are on, not something you are inside. So:

  • parvekkeella – on the balcony
  • parvekkeelta – from the balcony

Using parvekkeesta would sound like you’re coming from inside the balcony, which is unnatural.

Could I change the word order, like Ihailen järveä parvekkeelta or Parvekkeelta ihailen järveä?

Yes. Finnish word order is relatively flexible because cases mark grammatical roles.

All of these are grammatically correct and mean essentially the same thing:

  • Minä ihailen järveä parvekkeelta.
  • Ihailen järveä parvekkeelta.
  • Parvekkeelta ihailen järveä.
  • Järveä ihailen parvekkeelta.

The differences are mostly about emphasis / focus:

  • Starting with Parvekkeelta highlights the place: From the balcony, (I) admire the lake.
  • Starting with Järveä highlights what is admired: The lake (it is that) I admire from the balcony.

Neutral, textbook-like order is the original one.

Why doesn’t Finnish use anything like “the” in järveä or parvekkeelta?

Finnish has no articles (no words like a, an, the). Whether something is specific or general is understood from context, word order, and other elements.

  • Ihailen järveä parvekkeelta.
    Depending on context, this can be:
    • I admire the lake from the balcony.
    • I admire a lake from the balcony.
    • I admire lakes from the balcony. (more generic context)

In translation, English adds a / the where needed, but in Finnish the nouns appear without any article.

What’s the difference between ihailen (admire) and just “look at” in Finnish?

  • ihailla = to admire, to look at with admiration / aesthetic appreciation.

    • Minä ihailen järveä. – I admire the lake.

  • katsoa = to look at, to watch (more neutral)

    • Minä katson järveä parvekkeelta. – I look at / am watching the lake from the balcony.

So ihailen järveä carries a positive emotional or aesthetic nuance; katson järveä is more neutral.

Note: katsoa can also take the partitive: katson järveä (I’m looking at the lake). That fits the general rule that an ongoing, not-finished action often uses a partitive object.

How would this sentence look in the negative or as a question?

Starting from:

  • Minä ihailen järveä parvekkeelta. – I admire the lake from the balcony.

Negative (present tense):

Finnish negation uses a separate verb ei plus the verb in a special form:

  • Minä en ihaile järveä parvekkeelta. – I don’t admire the lake from the balcony.

(You could also drop minä: En ihaile järveä parvekkeelta.)

Yes–no question:

  • Ihailleko sinä järveä parvekkeelta? – Do you admire the lake from the balcony?
    (Literally: Admire-*ko you the lake from the balcony?*)

The -ko / -kö question particle usually attaches to the first stressed word (often the verb).

Could I say Me ihailemme järveä parvekkeelta to mean “We admire the lake from the balcony”?

Yes:

  • Me ihailemme järveä parvekkeelta. – We admire the lake from the balcony.

Here the verb changes to the 1st person plural form ihailemme:

  • minä ihailen – I admire
  • me ihailemme – we admire

As usual, you could also drop me and say:

  • Ihailemme järveä parvekkeelta. – We admire the lake from the balcony.