Sää on huono, kuitenkin menen puistoon ystävän kanssa.

The weather is bad; however, I go to the park with a friend.

Breakdown of Sää on huono, kuitenkin menen puistoon ystävän kanssa.

• olla: to be
• ystävä: the friend
• mennä: to go
• puisto: the park
• kanssa: with
• sää: the weather
• huono: bad
• kuitenkin: nevertheless

Questions & Answers about Sää on huono, kuitenkin menen puistoon ystävän kanssa.

What exactly does kuitenkin mean here, and is it like English however or but?

Kuitenkin is an adverb that roughly means however, nevertheless, or anyway.

In this sentence:

• Sää on huono, kuitenkin menen puistoon ystävän kanssa.
  → The weather is bad, however I’m going to the park with a friend (anyway).

It expresses contrast: the second clause happens despite the first clause.

Compared to English:

• It’s closer to however / nevertheless / anyway than to the simple conjunction but.
• A closer structural equivalent would be:
  
  • The weather is bad; however, I’m going to the park with a friend.

So kuitenkin is not a conjunction like mutta (but). It is an adverb used to show contrast.

Why is there a comma before kuitenkin? Could there be a full stop instead?

There is a comma because we have two independent clauses:

1. Sää on huono – The weather is bad
2. kuitenkin menen puistoon ystävän kanssa – however I’m going to the park with a friend

Finnish often uses a comma between such clauses, especially when the second one begins with an adverb like kuitenkin.

You could also write them as two separate sentences:

• Sää on huono. Kuitenkin menen puistoon ystävän kanssa.

That version is perfectly correct and perhaps even a bit clearer for learners. The meaning does not change; it’s just a stylistic/punctuation choice.

Can kuitenkin go in a different position in the second clause, like in English “I will still go”?

Yes. Kuitenkin is quite flexible in word order. All of these are grammatically correct, with slightly different emphasis:

• Kuitenkin menen puistoon ystävän kanssa.
  – Neutral; the whole action (I go to the park with a friend) is presented as the surprising thing.

• Menen kuitenkin puistoon ystävän kanssa.
  – Very common; kuitenkin directly modifies menen (I will still go).

• Menen puistoon kuitenkin ystävän kanssa.
  – Emphasis that it’s with a friend that you go despite the bad weather (somewhat marked; used for contrastive emphasis).

Sentence-initial or just after the verb are the most typical and natural positions.

Why is it puistoon and not puistossa or just puisto? What does the -oon ending mean?

Puistoon is the illative case of puisto (park).

• puisto – basic form (a park)
• puistoon – into the park / to the park

The illative case (often with endings like -on, -en, -hin) generally means movement into or to a place.

Contrast with other common place cases:

• puistoon – to / into the park (illative, movement toward)
• puistossa – in the park (inessive, location inside)
• puistosta – from the park (elative, movement out of)
• puistolle – onto / to the park area (often to an open area, allative)

Here you are going to the park, so puistoon (illative) is the right form.

Why is it ystävän kanssa and not ystävä kanssa? What does the -n ending do?

Kanssa (with) has a special pattern: the noun before it usually appears in the genitive case.

• Basic form: ystävä – a friend
• Genitive: ystävän – of a friend (form used together with kanssa here)

So:

• ystävän kanssa = with a friend

This -n (genitive) is standard before kanssa:

• äidin kanssa – with (my) mother
• opettajan kanssa – with the teacher
• koiran kanssa – with the dog

Using ystävä kanssa would sound ungrammatical in standard Finnish.

Does ystävän kanssa mean “with my friend” or “with a friend”? How do I say “with my friend” clearly?

On its own, ystävän kanssa is context-dependent:

• It can be understood as with a friend (indefinite)
• In some contexts, it might be interpreted as with (my) friend, if it’s obvious who you mean.

To be explicitly possessive, you have two common options:

1. ystäväni kanssa – with my friend (possessive suffix -ni)
2. minun ystäväni kanssa – with my friend (minun = my, plus suffix -ni on ystävä)

So:

• ystävän kanssa – usually with a friend
• ystäväni kanssa / minun ystäväni kanssa – clearly with my friend

Could I use mutta or vaikka instead of kuitenkin here? What would change?

You can express a similar idea with mutta or vaikka, but the structure changes a bit.

• mutta = but (coordinating conjunction)

  • Sää on huono, mutta menen puistoon ystävän kanssa.
    – The weather is bad, but I’m going to the park with a friend.

• vaikka = although / even though (subordinating conjunction)

  • Vaikka sää on huono, menen puistoon ystävän kanssa.
    – Although the weather is bad, I’m going to the park with a friend.

• kuitenkin = however / nevertheless / still (adverb)

  • Sää on huono, kuitenkin menen puistoon ystävän kanssa.

All three show contrast, but:

• mutta links two clauses like but in English.
• vaikka makes the weather clause subordinate (an “although” clause).
• kuitenkin stands in the second clause and highlights that you do the action despite the first clause.

Why is there no minä in menen? How do we know it means “I go”?

Finnish verbs show the subject person directly in their endings, so subject pronouns are often omitted.

• mennä – to go (infinitive)
• menen – I go
• menet – you (sg) go
• menee – he/she/it goes
• menemme – we go
• menette – you (pl) go
• menevät – they go

So menen already contains the information I. That’s why minä is usually dropped in normal speech and writing:

• Menen puistoon. = I’m going to the park.

You can add minä for emphasis or clarity:

• Minä menen puistoon. – I am going to the park (as opposed to someone else).

What tense is menen here? How can it talk about the future like English “I will go”?

Menen is the present tense (simple present) of mennä.

Finnish does not have a separate grammatical future tense like will in English. Instead, the present tense is used for:

• Present actions: Nyt menen puistoon. – I’m going to the park now.
• Planned / certain future: Huomenna menen puistoon. – Tomorrow I will go to the park.

Future time is usually understood from context or from time expressions (like tomorrow, later, next week). So in your sentence, menen can mean I am going or I will go, depending on context.

Could I say Huono sää on, kuitenkin menen puistoon? How does word order work in Sää on huono?

You can say Huono sää on, but it sounds marked and emphasizes huono (bad):

• Sää on huono. – neutral: The weather is bad.
• Huono sää on. – something like: Bad the weather is, focusing strongly on how bad it is.

In a basic descriptive sentence with olla (to be), the normal neutral word order is:

• [Subject] + on + [predicate adjective / noun]
  
  • Sää on huono. – The weather is bad.

Changing the order is possible in Finnish and used for emphasis or contrast, but for learners it’s best to keep the standard order until you’re comfortable with the nuances.

So in your full sentence, Sää on huono, kuitenkin menen puistoon ystävän kanssa. has the normal, neutral word order in the first clause.