Poliisi pysäyttää minut.

The police officer stops me.

Breakdown of Poliisi pysäyttää minut.

• minut: me
• pysäyttää: to stop
• poliisi: the police officer

Questions & Answers about Poliisi pysäyttää minut.

What does each word in Poliisi pysäyttää minut correspond to in English?

Roughly word‑for‑word:

• Poliisi = (the) police / a police officer
• pysäyttää = stops / is stopping / will stop
• minut = me (as a direct object)

Basic structure is Subject–Verb–Object (SVO), just like English:

• Poliisi (subject)
• pysäyttää (verb)
• minut (object)

Why is it poliisi and not poliisit when English says the police (plural)?

In Finnish:

• poliisi (singular) can mean:
  • a police officer, or
  • the police as an institution / force, depending on context.

You only use poliisit (plural) when you specifically mean several individual officers, like:

• Poliisit pysäyttävät minut. = The (several) police officers stop me.

In many everyday contexts, Finnish uses the singular poliisi where English uses plural the police.

Where is the word “the” in this sentence? Why doesn’t Finnish use an article?

Finnish has no articles (no words like a / an / the).

Definiteness is understood from context, word order, and what is already known in the conversation. So:

• Poliisi pysäyttää minut.
  can mean A police officer stops me or The police stop me depending on the situation.

You never add a separate word for “the” in Finnish.

Why is the verb pysäyttää, and not pysähtyy?

Finnish has two related verbs:

• pysähtyä = to stop (oneself), intransitive
  
  • Auto pysähtyy. = The car stops.
• pysäyttää = to stop (something / someone), transitive
  
  • Poliisi pysäyttää auton. = The police stop the car.

In Poliisi pysäyttää minut:

• The police are causing me to stop → we need the transitive verb pysäyttää, not pysähtyä.

How is pysäyttää conjugated here? Why this form?

The dictionary form is pysäyttää (the 1st infinitive).

For present tense:

• minä pysäytän – I stop
• sinä pysäytät – you stop
• hän / se pysäyttää – he/she/it stops
• me pysäytämme – we stop
• te pysäytätte – you (pl) stop
• he / ne pysäyttävät – they stop

In Poliisi pysäyttää minut:

• poliisi = 3rd person singular subject
• So the verb must be pysäyttää (3rd person singular present).

Why is it minut and not minä?

Minä is the subject form (I):

• Minä pysähdyn. = I stop.

Minut is the object form (me as a direct object):

• Poliisi pysäyttää minut. = The police stop me.

So:

• Subject → minä
• Direct object → minut

What’s the difference between minut and minua?

Both are forms of minä (I), but different cases:

• minut = total object (often called the accusative form of the pronoun)
• minua = partitive case

With a verb like pysäyttää:

• Poliisi pysäyttää minut.
  → The stopping is seen as a complete event: they actually succeed in stopping me.

• Poliisi pysäyttää minua.
  → Grammatically possible but usually suggests an ongoing attempt / process, or fits certain special contexts. It’s much less common and often sounds odd in isolation.

In textbook, straightforward sentences about a completed action, you’ll normally see minut here.

So is minut the accusative case? How do object cases work here?

Pronouns like minä have a special accusative form:

• minä → minut (accusative / total object)
• sinä → sinut
• hän → hänet
• etc.

For objects in Finnish, you mainly see:

• Total object (often called accusative for pronouns, or genitive‑looking for nouns)
  → used when the action is completed / definite / whole
  → here: minut

• Partitive object (minua)
  → used for incomplete / ongoing / repeated / unbounded actions, or after certain verbs and in negative sentences.

In Poliisi pysäyttää minut, the action is viewed as successfully completed, so minut is the correct choice.

Can I change the word order, like Minut pysäyttää poliisi? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, Finnish word order is relatively flexible, and changing it mainly affects emphasis and information structure, not the basic role of subject and object (those are marked by case).

Some options:

1. Poliisi pysäyttää minut.

   • Neutral, default: The police stop me.

2. Minut pysäyttää poliisi.

   • Emphasises minut (me):
   • More like: It’s me that the police stop. or It’s the police that stop me (as opposed to someone else).

3. Poliisi minut pysäyttää.

   • More marked / emphatic; could sound poetic or very emphasised, like:
   • The police are the ones who stop me (focus on poliisi plus some stylistic emphasis).

For everyday neutral speech, Poliisi pysäyttää minut is the usual form.

Can Poliisi pysäyttää minut also mean The police will stop me (future)?

Yes. Finnish doesn’t have a separate future tense. The present tense covers:

• present: The police are stopping me / stop me.
• near future: The police will stop me.

Context (time expressions, situation) tells you whether it’s present or future:

• Huomenna poliisi pysäyttää minut.
  → Tomorrow the police will stop me.

How do I say The police stopped me (past tense)?

Use the past tense (imperfect) of pysäyttää:

• Poliisi pysäytti minut. = The police stopped me.

Pattern:

• pysäyttää (present) → pysäytti (past, 3rd person singular)
• Same subject and object cases as in the present sentence; only the verb tense changes.

Can I omit minut and just say Poliisi pysäyttää?

Yes, you can drop the object if it’s obvious from context:

• Poliisi pysäyttää.
  → The police stop / are stopping (someone / people / cars).

This is less specific: we know the police are stopping something or someone, but not exactly whom. If you want to say clearly that I am the one being stopped, you normally keep minut.