Learn Hardcore Finnish: Unohdin eilen painaa tykkäystä, vaikka video auttoi minua paljon. - Yesterday I forgot to press like, even though the video helped me a lot.

Unohdin = unohda- (verb stem “forget”) + -in (1st person singular, past tense)
→ “I forgot”
You could say Minä unohdin, but Unohdin alone is normal and not ambiguous in Finnish.

So the “-in” ending on unohtaa already tells you the subject is “I”.

What tense and form is “Unohdin”, and what is the basic dictionary form?

Dictionary form (infinitive) is unohtaa = “to forget”.
Unohdin is:
- Past tense (simple past / preterite)
- 1st person singular (“I”)

The pattern: unohtaa → unohdin:

The -aa infinitive ending changes to -in in 1st person past.
The stem changes slightly: unohtaa → unohd- before the ending.

Why is “eilen” (“yesterday”) placed after “Unohdin”? Can it go somewhere else?

Yes, it can move, and Finnish word order is flexible, but “Unohdin eilen …” is very typical.

Possible options (all grammatical, slightly different emphasis):

Unohdin eilen painaa tykkäystä… – neutral; focus first on the forgetting, then “yesterday”.
Eilen unohdin painaa tykkäystä… – emphasizes yesterday a bit more.
Unohdin painaa tykkäystä eilen… – possible but sounds less natural; “eilen” is usually early in the clause.

In everyday speech and writing, time adverbs like eilen usually appear near the beginning of the clause, often right after the verb or even first.

Why is “painaa” in its infinitive form here?

The verb unohtaa (“to forget”) in Finnish is often followed by another verb in the 1st infinitive (basic dictionary form) to mean “forget to do something”:

Unohdin syödä. – I forgot to eat.
Unohdin soittaa hänelle. – I forgot to call him/her.
Unohdin eilen painaa tykkäystä. – I forgot to press like yesterday.

So the pattern is: unohtaa + [verb in infinitive] = “forget to [do something]”.

What does “painaa tykkäystä” literally mean? Is this the usual way to say “press like” in Finnish?

Literally:

painaa = “to press”
tykkäystä = “a like” (here: the like button / act of liking, in partitive case)

So painaa tykkäystä means “to press (the) like (button)”.

Yes, this is a very common social‑media phrase in Finnish, like:

Muista painaa tykkäystä! – Remember to press like!
Painoin tykkäystä videolle. – I pressed like on the video.

Another common way to talk about liking content is tykätä jostakin (“to like something”):
Tykkäsin videosta. – I liked the video.
But for the physical action of clicking/tapping the button, painaa tykkäystä is natural.

Why is it “tykkäystä” and not “tykkäys” or “tykkäyksen”?

Tykkäystä is the partitive singular form of tykkäys (“a like”). The main reasons:

Many verbs of pressing, touching, hitting, using a button take a partitive object:
- painaa nappia – press the button
- painaa kelloa – ring (press) the bell
In fixed expressions with painaa, partitive is simply the standard pattern, especially with short, momentary actions.

Forms for comparison (you usually just learn the object form by usage):

Nominative: tykkäys – “a like” (dictionary form)
Genitive/accusative: tykkäyksen – “the like” (object, more result-focused in some contexts)
Partitive: tykkäystä – here as object of painaa

In this social‑media phrase, tykkäystä is the normal and idiomatic choice.

Why is it “video auttoi minua” and not “video auttoi minut”?

The verb auttaa (“to help”) normally takes its person object in the partitive case, not in the “whole object” form:

auttaa minua – to help me
auttaa sinua – to help you
auttaa häntä – to help him/her

So:

video auttoi minua = “the video helped me”
minua is the partitive form of minä.

Using minut here would be ungrammatical in standard Finnish. With things as objects of “help”, there is more variety, but for people being helped, the partitive is the rule.

What is the nuance difference between “video auttoi minua paljon”, “video auttoi minua”, and “video auttoi paljon”?

video auttoi minua paljon – “the video helped me a lot”;
emphasizes that I benefited greatly from it.
video auttoi minua – “the video helped me”;
says it helped you, but doesn’t comment on how much.
video auttoi paljon – “the video helped a lot”;
general statement; it helped a lot, but it’s not explicit who it helped (me, people in general, etc.).

In your original sentence, minua paljon makes it personal and strong: it helped me a lot.

What exactly does “vaikka” mean here? Is it like “although” or “even though”?

In this sentence, vaikka introduces a concessive clause, and it corresponds to English “although” / “even though”:

… vaikka video auttoi minua paljon.
→ “… although / even though the video helped me a lot.”

Some common equivalents:

vaikka = although, even though
mutta = but (a separate main clause, not a subordinate clause)
koska = because
jos = if

So vaikka expresses that what follows is in contrast with the main clause:
“I forgot to press like, even though the video helped me a lot.”

Why is there a comma before “vaikka”? Could the order of the two clauses be reversed?

Yes; this is a standard Finnish punctuation and clause-order pattern.

When a subordinate clause (introduced by vaikka, että, koska, etc.) comes after the main clause, it is usually separated by a comma:
- Unohdin eilen painaa tykkäystä, vaikka video auttoi minua paljon.
You can reverse the order without changing the meaning:
- Vaikka video auttoi minua paljon, unohdin eilen painaa tykkäystä.
The subordinate clause (vaikka…) comes first, but you still use a comma between the clauses.

In both orders, vaikka-clause = “even though…” and functions the same way.

How flexible is the word order in the whole sentence? Are there other natural versions?

Finnish allows a good amount of word-order variation, especially for emphasis. Here are some natural alternatives with almost the same meaning:

Eilen unohdin painaa tykkäystä, vaikka video auttoi minua paljon.
– Emphasizes the time “yesterday” a bit more.
Unohdin painaa tykkäystä eilen, vaikka video auttoi minua paljon.
– Possible, but eilen sounds slightly more neutral earlier in the clause.
Unohdin eilen painaa tykkäystä, vaikka video minua paljon auttoi.
– Grammatically possible, but this word order (minua paljon auttoi) feels poetic or marked, not everyday speech.

Your original:

Unohdin eilen painaa tykkäystä, vaikka video auttoi minua paljon.

is a very natural, neutral word order for standard spoken and written Finnish.