Yleisön palaute auttaa ohjaajaa.

The audience's feedback helps the director.

Breakdown of Yleisön palaute auttaa ohjaajaa.

• auttaa: to help
• palaute: the feedback
• ohjaaja: the director
• yleisön: the audience's

Questions & Answers about Yleisön palaute auttaa ohjaajaa.

Why is yleisön in this form, and what case is it?

Yleisön is the genitive singular of yleisö (“audience, public”).

The genitive ending is -n, so:

• nominative: yleisö = audience
• genitive: yleisön = audience’s / of the audience

It’s in the genitive because it’s showing possession/association: yleisön palaute = “the audience’s feedback” or “feedback from the audience.”

Why is it yleisön palaute and not yleisö palaute?

In Finnish, when one noun modifies another in a possessive or “of” relationship, the first noun is usually in the genitive:

• yleisö
  • palaute → yleisön palaute (“the audience’s feedback”)
• opettaja
  • kirja → opettajan kirja (“the teacher’s book”)

If you said yleisö palaute with both in the nominative, it would sound ungrammatical or at best very strange, because Finnish doesn’t stack bare nouns in the same way English sometimes can.

What exactly does palaute mean? Is it countable like “a feedback / feedbacks”?

Palaute means “feedback” (comments, responses, evaluation).

Like English “feedback”, it’s typically treated as uncountable:

• sain palautetta = I got some feedback
• paljon palautetta = a lot of feedback

The plural palautteet exists but is used more for “feedback items” or “individual pieces / types of feedback,” e.g.:

• luin kaikki palautteet = I read all the feedback messages/comments.

So for general “feedback” in the abstract, use singular palaute, and its partitive palautetta when needed.

Why is the verb auttaa in this form? What person and tense is it?

Auttaa here is third person singular, present tense: “(it) helps.”

The subject is yleisön palaute (“the audience’s feedback”), which is grammatically singular, so the verb is also singular:

• (Minä) autan = I help
• (Sinä) autat = you help
• (Hän/Se) auttaa = he/she/it helps
• Yleisön palaute auttaa = The audience’s feedback helps.

Why is ohjaajaa in that form and not ohjaaja or ohjaajan?

Ohjaajaa is in the partitive singular. The base form is ohjaaja (“director, instructor, coach”).

The partitive singular of most -a/-ä nouns is made by adding another -a/-ä:

• ohjaaja → ohjaajaa

The verb auttaa (“to help”) always takes its object in the partitive:

• autan sinua = I help you
• se auttaa minua = it helps me
• palaute auttaa ohjaajaa = feedback helps the director

So ohjaajaa is partitive because of the verb auttaa, not because of any meaning of “some” or “a bit” here.

What case is ohjaajaa, exactly, and what does the partitive do here?

Ohjaajaa is partitive singular. The partitive has many uses in Finnish; one of them is as the required object case of certain verbs.

Auttaa is such a verb: its object must be in the partitive by rule. So:

• Correct: Yleisön palaute auttaa ohjaajaa.
• Wrong: Yleisön palaute auttaa ohjaajan.

Here the partitive does not really add a special nuance; it’s just the standard form after auttaa.

How would I say “helps the directors” (plural) instead of “helps the director”?

Base word: ohjaaja = director / instructor / coach.

Plural forms:

• nominative plural: ohjaajat = the directors
• partitive plural: ohjaajia

Since auttaa needs the object in the partitive, we use ohjaajia:

• Yleisön palaute auttaa ohjaajia.
  = The audience’s feedback helps (the) directors.

Does ohjaaja always mean “film director”?

No. Ohjaaja is quite broad; it can be:

• a film/theatre director
• an instructor (e.g. course instructor)
• a coach (esp. in some contexts)
• a guide (e.g. in certain activities)

The exact English translation depends on context. In isolation, ohjaaja is just “someone who guides/directs/teaches.”

Why isn’t there a word for “the” in this sentence? How do we know it’s “the audience’s feedback” and “the director”?

Finnish has no articles (“a / an / the”). Nouns appear “bare,” and definiteness is understood from context and sometimes word order.

So yleisön palaute auttaa ohjaajaa can mean:

• “The audience’s feedback helps the director.”
• “Audience feedback helps a director.”

English has to choose a/the, but Finnish doesn’t mark that grammatically. The listener infers what you mean from the situation and what was mentioned earlier.

Can I change the word order, like Ohjaajaa auttaa yleisön palaute?

Yes. Finnish word order is fairly flexible.

• Yleisön palaute auttaa ohjaajaa.
  Neutral: subject–verb–object.

• Ohjaajaa auttaa yleisön palaute.
  More emphasis on ohjaajaa (“the one being helped”) at the beginning, and yleisön palaute is still the grammatical subject. This might sound a bit more contrastive, like “It’s the audience’s feedback that helps the director.”

The cases (genitive, partitive) still show who is doing what, so word order mostly changes emphasis, not basic roles.

How do you pronounce the long string of vowels in ohjaajaa?

Ohjaajaa is spelled o-h-j-a-a-j-a-a and has four a’s. Pronunciation:

• Syllables: oh-jaa-jaa
• Primary stress on the first syllable: OH-jaa-jaa
• Each a is fully pronounced; Finnish is very regular with vowel length.
  
  • aa is a long a, held about twice as long as a single a.

So don’t reduce or swallow vowels the way English might; keep them clear and steady.

Is palaute formal or can it be used in everyday speech?

Palaute is perfectly normal in everyday as well as formal language. You’ll hear it:

• at work: Voitko antaa palautetta? = Can you give feedback?
• in school: Opettaja antoi palautetta kokeesta. = The teacher gave feedback on the test.
• in services: Asiakaspalaute = customer feedback

So it’s neutral and widely used, not just some bureaucratic word.