Ota takki pois, koska sisällä on lämmin.

Take off the coat, because it is warm inside.

Breakdown of Ota takki pois, koska sisällä on lämmin.

• olla: to be
• koska: because
• sisällä: inside
• lämmin: warm
• ottaa: to take
• takki: the coat
• pois: away

Questions & Answers about Ota takki pois, koska sisällä on lämmin.

Why is there no word for you in this sentence?

Finnish usually leaves out the pronoun sinä (you) in the imperative.

• Ota is the imperative form that already tells us the subject is you (singular).
• So Ota takki pois literally is (You) take the coat off.
• Saying Sinä ota takki pois is possible, but it sounds emphatic, like stressing you in particular.

What exactly is ota, and how is it related to ottaa?

Ota is the 2nd person singular imperative form of the verb ottaa (to take).

• Basic form (dictionary form): ottaa = to take
• Present indicative: otan, otat, ottaa, otamme, otatte, ottavat
• 2nd person singular imperative: ota = take!

So:

• Ota takki pois = Take (you) the coat off
• Otan takin pois = I take the coat off

Why is it takki and not takin or takkia?

Takki is in the nominative singular and functions as the total object of the imperative verb.

• takki = nominative (basic form)
• takin = genitive (of the coat)
• takkia = partitive

In Finnish object grammar:

• With a 2nd person singular imperative, a total object is normally in the nominative:
  
  • Ota takki! – Take the coat (all of it).
  • Lue kirja! – Read the book.
• With other persons, you would often see the genitive for a total object:
  
  • Otan takin pois. – I’ll take the coat off.
  • Luen kirjan. – I’ll read the book.

A partitive like takkia would suggest something incomplete or some amount, which doesn’t fit “take the coat off” as a complete action.

What does pois do here? Doesn’t ottaa already mean “to take”?

Pois is a particle that adds the idea of away / off / out.
Together ottaa + pois works like an English phrasal verb:

• ottaa = to take
• ottaa pois = to take away / take off / remove

So:

• Ota takki. – Take the coat (pick it up, take it with you).
• Ota takki pois. – Take the coat off (remove it from your body).

Without pois, the sentence doesn’t clearly mean “take off your coat”; it just means “take the coat” in some way.

Can the word order be different, like Ota pois takki or Koska sisällä on lämmin, ota takki pois?

Yes, Finnish word order is flexible, but some versions sound more natural than others.

1. Ota takki pois – default, most natural here.
2. Ota pois takki – grammatically OK but sounds less natural; you’d more often put the object before pois in a short phrase like this.
3. Koska sisällä on lämmin, ota takki pois. – also correct. Moving the koska-clause first slightly emphasizes the reason:
   
   • Since it’s warm inside, take off your coat.

All of these are understandable, but Ota takki pois, koska sisällä on lämmin is the most standard-sounding.

Why is there a comma before koska?

Finnish uses a comma to separate a main clause from a subordinate clause, and koska (“because”) always starts a subordinate clause.

• Main clause: Ota takki pois
• Subordinate clause: koska sisällä on lämmin

Rule of thumb:

• If you have [main clause] + koska + [reason clause], you put a comma before koska:
  
  • Lähden kotiin, koska olen väsynyt.
• If the koska-clause comes first, you put a comma after it:
  
  • Koska olen väsynyt, lähden kotiin.

So the comma here is required by Finnish punctuation rules.

What is the difference between koska and words like kun or sillä?

All three can express a reason, but they work slightly differently.

• koska – the neutral, everyday because

  • Ota takki pois, koska sisällä on lämmin.

• kun – can mean when or because, and is often more colloquial when used as “because”:

  • Ota takki pois, kun sisällä on lämmin.
  • Often heard in speech; can be ambiguous between when and because from context.

• sillä – more formal/literary, like for / for the reason that, and usually connects to the previous sentence:

  • Ota takki pois, sillä sisällä on lämmin.
  • Feels more like written style.

In basic spoken Finnish, koska is the safest and clearest for “because”.

What exactly does sisällä mean, and how is it different from sisässä or sisään?

All three relate to “inside”, but they differ in nuance and direction.

• sisällä – inside (in a space), without focus on a specific container; typical for “indoors”

  • Olen sisällä. – I am inside / indoors.
  • Sisällä on lämmin. – It is warm inside.

• sisässä – inside something more concrete or bounded (often a specific container/object)

  • Pullossa on vettä sisässä. – There is water inside the bottle.
    In everyday speech, sisällä is much more common in many cases where sisässä is also possible.

• sisään – to the inside, expresses movement into somewhere

  • Mene sisään. – Go inside.
  • Tule sisään. – Come in.

In your sentence, sisällä is best because it describes the general state inside (the building/indoors), not motion.

Why is it sisällä on lämmin and not something like se on lämmin sisällä?

Finnish often expresses these “it is warm/cold/etc. somewhere” ideas without any explicit “it”.

• Sisällä on lämmin. literally = “Inside is warm.”
  
  • sisällä is the place
  • on is “is”
  • lämmin is “warm”

English needs a dummy subject it, but Finnish doesn’t. You can also say:

• Siellä on lämmin. – It’s warm there.

Se on lämmin sisällä is grammatically possible but usually means something like “It (some specific thing) is warm inside (itself)” and doesn’t match the intended “it’s warm indoors” meaning.

How would you say “Take your coat off” more explicitly? Why isn’t there a word for your?

Finnish often omits possessive pronouns when the owner is clear from context, especially with clothing and body parts.

• Ota takki pois. – Literally Take the coat off, but usually understood as Take your coat off if you’re talking to someone wearing it.

If you really want to make your explicit, you can say:

• Ota takkisi pois. – Take your coat off. (-si is the possessive suffix for “your (singular)”)
• Ota sinun takkisi pois. – Even more explicit, with the pronoun sinun plus the suffix -si.

Finnish also has no articles (“a / the”), so takki can correspond to “a coat”, “the coat”, or “your coat” depending on context.

Could I use riisu instead of ota takki pois? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can, and the meaning is very close.

• Ota takki pois – literally “take the coat off”, very common in everyday speech.
• Riisu takki (or more fully riisu takkisi) – riisua means “to undress, to remove (clothes)”.

Riisua focuses specifically on removing clothing, while ottaa pois is a more general “take off/remove”.
For this context (someone wearing a coat indoors), both Ota takki pois and Riisu takki are natural.