Learn Hardcore Finnish: Nämä opinnot vievät paljon aikaa.

Nämä – base form tämä (“this”).
- Nämä is nominative plural: these.
opinnot – base form opinto (“study” in the sense of a course/academic unit).
- opinnot is nominative plural: studies.
vievät – base form viedä (“to take, carry away”).
- vievät is 3rd person plural present: (they) take.
paljon – base form paljon (“a lot, much, many”).
- Here it’s an adverb meaning a lot / much.
aikaa – base form aika (“time”).
- aikaa is partitive singular: (of) time, used for an indefinite amount of time.

So the structure is literally: These studies take much (of) time.

Why is it vievät and not vie?

The verb must agree in number with its subject.

Subject: Nämä opinnot = these studies → grammatically plural.
Verb: vievät is the 3rd person plural form of viedä in the present tense.

Conjugation of viedä (present):

(minä) vien – I take
(sinä) viet – you take
(hän) vie – he/she/it takes
(me) viemme – we take
(te) viette – you (pl.) take
(he) vievät – they take

Because opinnot is plural (“studies”), you must use vievät, not singular vie.

What exactly is opinnot and how is it different from opiskelu?

opinto (singular noun) = a study, an academic unit, or studies in the institutional sense.
- opinnot (plural) = studies as a set of courses/degree work.
  - Nämä opinnot = these particular studies / this program / these courses.
opiskelu (noun from the verb opiskella) = the act of studying, study as an activity.
- Opiskelu vie paljon aikaa = Studying takes a lot of time (in general, the activity).

So:

Nämä opinnot vievät paljon aikaa. → These (specific) studies / this course program takes a lot of time.
Opiskelu vie paljon aikaa. → Studying (as an activity) takes a lot of time.

Both are correct, but they emphasize different things.

Why is nämä used instead of ne?

Both refer to plural things, but:

nämä = these, near the speaker, specific items right here.
ne = they or those, more neutral or more distant.

In this sentence:

Nämä opinnot vievät paljon aikaa.
→ Emphasizes these particular studies (e.g. this program you’re in now).

If you said:

Ne opinnot vievät paljon aikaa.
→ Those studies take a lot of time. (referring to some other studies, or more distant in context).

So nämä matches the English demonstrative these very directly.

Why is opinnot in the nominative plural and not in some other case like partitive (näitä opintoja)?

The basic rule: the grammatical subject of a normal affirmative sentence is usually in the nominative.

Here, the subject is a whole, countable set: these studies. We are not talking about an indefinite portion of studies, but about this definite group.

Nämä opinnot vievät paljon aikaa.
→ These studies (as a complete set) take a lot of time.

If you said:

Näitä opintoja … (partitive plural)

then it would no longer look like a normal finite-clause subject; it would feel more like an object or partitive subject in some special construction. So for a regular sentence “These studies take…”, nominative plural nämä opinnot is what you want.

Why is aikaa in the partitive case instead of nominative aika?

Aikaa is the partitive singular of aika (“time”), and it’s used because:

paljon (“a lot”) always takes a partitive after it.
- paljon vettä – a lot of water
- paljon rahaa – a lot of money
- paljon aikaa – a lot of time
Time here is an indefinite quantity, not a specific, countable unit.

So the pattern is:

paljon + [noun in partitive]
→ paljon aikaa = a lot of (indefinite) time.

Using nominative aika here would be ungrammatical.

What is the role of paljon in this sentence, and how does it differ from words like monta or monet?

paljon is an adverb meaning a lot / much.

With uncountable or mass-like nouns, you say:
- paljon vettä – a lot of water
- paljon aikaa – a lot of time

monta and monet are used with countable plural nouns:

monta
- singular partitive:
  - monta kirjaa – many books
monet
- plural nominative:
  - monet kirjat – many (of the) books

In Nämä opinnot vievät paljon aikaa, aika is treated as an uncountable mass (time as a quantity), so paljon aikaa is the natural choice. You would not say monta aikaa.

Can the word order be changed, for example to Paljon aikaa vievät nämä opinnot?

Yes. Finnish word order is relatively flexible; you move elements mainly to change emphasis.

Nämä opinnot vievät paljon aikaa.
→ Neutral: topic = these studies, comment = they take a lot of time.
Paljon aikaa vievät nämä opinnot.
→ Emphasis on how much time these studies take; it has a bit more dramatic or contrastive feel, like:
“A lot of time is taken by these studies.”

Both are grammatically correct. The original order is the most neutral and common in everyday use.

Why is the verb viedä (“to take, carry”) used here instead of a more literal equivalent of English “take time”?

In Finnish, the standard idiom for “to take time” in the sense of to consume time is viedä aikaa:

Tämä työ vie paljon aikaa. – This work takes a lot of time.
Matka vie kaksi tuntia. – The trip takes two hours.

So:

Nämä opinnot vievät paljon aikaa. → These studies take (up) a lot of time.

You might also hear ottaa aikaa or kestää:

Se voi ottaa aikaa. – It can take some time.
Opinnot kestävät kauan. – The studies last a long time.

But when you say that something uses up your time, viedä aikaa is the most typical expression.

Could this sentence be expressed with kestää instead of viedä, and what would be the difference?

Yes, you could say:

Nämä opinnot kestävät kauan. – These studies last a long time.

Difference in nuance:

viedä aikaa focuses on consuming your time, like a burden on your schedule.
kestää focuses on the duration itself (how long they last), a bit more neutral.

So:

Nämä opinnot vievät paljon aikaa.
→ They take a lot of (your) time, they are time-consuming.
Nämä opinnot kestävät kauan.
→ They last a long time, their duration is long.

Both are natural, just slightly different points of view.

How would you say “My studies take a lot of time” in Finnish, based on this sentence?

A very natural version is:

Opintoni vievät paljon aikaa.

Notes:

opintoni = opinto
- -ni (my) → “my studies”.
  Even though opintoni looks singular, it is usually interpreted as plural (“my studies”), so you use the plural verb vievät.
You could explicitly pluralize it as nämä opintoni, but usually opintoni vievät… is enough in context.

Alternative:

Minun opintoni vievät paljon aikaa.
(more explicit “my”: minun
- possessive suffix -ni; both can appear together).

How do you express future meaning, like “These studies will take a lot of time”, when Finnish just uses the present tense?

Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense often covers both present and future, with context making the time clear.

So:

Nämä opinnot vievät paljon aikaa.

can mean:

“These studies take a lot of time” (general statement), or
“These studies will take a lot of time” (future), depending on context.

If you want to make the future sense explicit, you add time expressions:

Nämä opinnot tulevat viemään paljon aikaa. – These studies are going to take a lot of time.
Nämä opinnot vievät tulevaisuudessa paljon aikaa. – In the future, these studies will take a lot of time.

But in most contexts, the simple present vievät is enough.

How would you say this sentence in the past tense and in the negative?

Past tense:

Nämä opinnot veivät paljon aikaa.
- veivät = past tense 3rd person plural of viedä.
- Meaning: “These studies took a lot of time.”

Negative present:

Nämä opinnot eivät vie paljon aikaa.
- eivät vie = negative 3rd person plural (helper verb eivät
  - main verb in basic form vie).
- “These studies do not take a lot of time.”

You can add emphasis:

Nämä opinnot eivät vie kovin paljon aikaa. – These studies don’t take very much time.