Breakdown of Koira nukkuu nojatuolin vieressä, kun katson elokuvaa olohuoneessa.
Questions & Answers about Koira nukkuu nojatuolin vieressä, kun katson elokuvaa olohuoneessa.
Finnish does not have articles (a / an / the). The bare noun koira can mean:
- a dog
- the dog
- just dog in a general sense
Context tells you whether it is specific or not. In this sentence, we usually understand it as the dog (some dog both speaker and listener know about), but Finnish doesn’t mark that grammatically.
Finnish has only one present tense, and nukkuu covers both English:
- is sleeping (present continuous)
- sleeps (simple present)
So koira nukkuu can be translated as:
- the dog is sleeping
- the dog sleeps
In this context, because we also have kun katson elokuvaa (while I’m watching a movie), the natural English translation is The dog is sleeping…
Vieressä is a postposition that means beside / next to / by.
Postpositions like vieressä usually take the other noun in the genitive case.
- nojatuoli = armchair (basic form)
- nojatuolin = of the armchair (genitive)
- vieressä = at the side (inessive form of vieri)
Together:
- nojatuolin vieressä = literally at the side of the armchair → next to the armchair
So the pattern is:
[genitive noun] + [postposition]
nojatuolin vieressä = next to the armchair
Vieressä is the inessive case form of vieri (side, edge).
- vieri = side
- vieressä = in/at the side
The suffix -ssa / -ssä usually means in, inside, at. When it’s used on vieri, it becomes a postposition meaning beside / next to when combined with a genitive:
- nojatuolin vieressä = next to the armchair
- talon vieressä = next to the house
Both are correct, but there is a small nuance:
- vieressä (inessive of vieri) – very common, neutral; beside, next to
- vierellä (adessive of vieri) – also by, at the side of, sometimes feels a bit more literal, physical right by someone’s side, and can sound slightly more poetic or emotional in some contexts.
In this sentence, nojatuolin vieressä is the most typical choice. Nojatuolin vierellä would also be understood as next to the armchair.
Kun introduces a subordinate clause (a when/while-clause). In standard written Finnish:
- You put a comma before a subordinate clause, even if in English you might not.
So:
- Koira nukkuu nojatuolin vieressä, kun katson elokuvaa olohuoneessa.
In English, you might write The dog sleeps… when I watch… without a comma, but Finnish spelling rules require the comma here.
Yes. You can say:
- Kun katson elokuvaa olohuoneessa, koira nukkuu nojatuolin vieressä.
Meaning is the same. The only difference is the emphasis:
- Original: more focus on what the dog is doing, then when it happens.
- Kun… first: more focus on the time/situation; then what happens then.
The comma is still required after the kun-clause.
Finnish verb endings show the person, so the personal pronoun is usually dropped:
- katson = I watch / I am watching
- katsot = you (sg) watch
- katsoo = he/she/it watches
- katsomme = we watch
- katsotte = you (pl) watch
- katsovat = they watch
So katson already contains the idea I.
You can add minä for emphasis or clarity:
- …kun minä katson elokuvaa… – when I (myself) watch a movie…
Both versions are grammatically correct.
Elokuvaa (partitive) vs elokuvan (genitive/accusative) shows aspect/wholeness:
- katson elokuvaa = I’m watching a / some movie, ongoing, not necessarily finished; focus on the activity.
- katson elokuvan = I watch / will watch the whole movie, from start to finish; focus on completing the movie.
In your sentence, the dog is sleeping while the activity is happening, so elokuvaa (partitive) is the natural choice.
Olohuoneessa is olohuone (living room) + -ssa (inessive case):
- olohuone = living room
- olohuoneessa = in the living room
Other common local cases with olohuone:
- olohuoneeseen (illative, into the living room)
- olohuoneesta (elative, out of / from the living room)
- olohuoneessa (inessive, in the living room)
Here we’re describing location where the watching happens, so olohuoneessa (in the living room) is correct.
Kun can mean both:
- when / while (most common use)
- because / since (in some contexts, a bit more colloquial)
In this sentence, the natural understanding is when/while:
- …kun katson elokuvaa… = while I (am) watching a movie…
If you clearly want to say because, you normally use koska:
- Koira nukkuu, koska katson elokuvaa.
The dog sleeps because I’m watching a movie.
That would change the meaning: the watching is the reason the dog sleeps, not just the time when it happens.
They have different grammatical roles:
- koira – subject → nominative (basic form)
- nojatuolin – complement of a postposition → genitive (because of vieressä)
- elokuvaa – object of katson in an ongoing/incomplete sense → partitive
- olohuoneessa – location of the action → inessive (in the living room)
Finnish marks these roles with endings (cases) instead of word order or separate prepositions.
You put both verbs into the past tense:
- Koira nukkui nojatuolin vieressä, kun katsoin elokuvaa olohuoneessa.
Changes:
- nukkuu → nukkui (3rd person past)
- katson → katsoin (1st person past)
Cases (nojatuolin, vieressä, elokuvaa, olohuoneessa) stay the same because their roles (location, object, etc.) haven’t changed.
You change the subject and verb to plural:
- Koirat nukkuvat nojatuolin vieressä, kun katson elokuvaa olohuoneessa.
Changes:
- koira → koirat (plural subject)
- nukkuu → nukkuvat (3rd person plural)
Everything else stays the same.
In nukkuu:
- kk is a long consonant
- uu is a long vowel
Pronounce it as if there is a brief stop or hold in the middle:
- nuku (short) – NU-ku
- nukkuu (long) – NUK-kuu, with a clearly longer k sound and longer u at the end.
Length differences are meaningful in Finnish, so taka vs takka are different words.
So make sure nukkuu doesn’t sound like nuku.