Minne me menemme tänään?

Where are we going today?

Breakdown of Minne me menemme tänään?

• mennä: to go
• tänään: today
• me: we
• minne: where

Questions & Answers about Minne me menemme tänään?

What exactly does minne mean, and how is it different from missä and mihin?

All three are location-related question words, but they ask about different kinds of location:

• minne = to where? (direction, where something is going)
• missä = where? (location, where something is/stays)
• mistä = from where? (origin, where something comes from)
• mihin = also to where? (very close in meaning to minne)

In your sentence:

• Minne me menemme tänään? = To where are we going today? → direction / destination

Typical contrasts:

• Missä me olemme? – Where are we? (location)
• Minne me menemme? – Where are we going (to)? (direction)
• Mistä me tulemme? – Where are we coming from? (origin)

Both minne and mihin can often be used for to where?; minne is a bit more general and common in everyday speech in many areas.

If menemme already means we go, why do we also say me (we)? Is me optional?

Yes, me is optional. In Finnish, the verb ending already tells you the person:

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

So:

• Minne menemme tänään? – perfectly correct and common
• Minne me menemme tänään? – also correct

Adding me often gives a bit of emphasis to we (as opposed to someone else):

• Minne me menemme tänään? – Where are *we going today? (not them / not you)*

In neutral conversation, you will hear both versions; leaving me out is very natural and not impolite.

How is menemme formed from the dictionary form mennä?

The dictionary form (mennä) is the basic infinitive: to go. To get menemme:

1. Take the stem used before personal endings:
   mennä → stem mene- (you see this stem in forms like menin, menet, menen)

2. Add the personal ending for we (-mme):
   mene-

   • -mme → menemme

So structurally:

• mene- (verb stem)
• -mme (1st person plural ending)
  = menemme (we go / we are going)

The same pattern works for many verbs:

• puhua (to speak) → puhu-
  • -mme → puhumme (we speak)
• syödä (to eat) → syö-
  • -mme → syömme (we eat)

The English translation is Where are we going today? Can menemme also mean are going to go (future), even though it’s present tense?

Yes. Finnish does not have a separate grammatical future tense. The present tense is used for:

• actions happening now
• regular/habitual actions
• future actions

So me menemme can mean:

• we go
• we are going
• we will go / we are going to go (future, when context is future)

In your sentence:

• Minne me menemme tänään?
  Context: today (future plan or near-future action)
  → understood as Where are we going (to go) today?

If you need to be very explicit about the future, you can add time expressions or verbs like aikoa (to intend):

• Minne aiomme mennä tänään? – Where are we planning to go today?

Is the word order fixed? Can I say Minne menemme me tänään? or put the words in another order?

Finnish word order is flexible, but not all orders sound natural.

The normal, neutral options here are:

• Minne me menemme tänään?
• Minne menemme tänään? (without me)

Other acceptable but slightly different emphases:

• Tänään minne me menemme? – Emphasis on today (e.g. contrasting with other days)
• Minne me tänään menemme? – Also possible; emphasis slightly shifts to today

However:

• Minne menemme me tänään? – sounds odd and unnatural in most contexts
• Me minne menemme tänään? – also not natural

General guideline:

1. Question word (minne) typically comes first.
2. Then subject (me, if you use it).
3. Then verb (menemme).
4. Adverbials like tänään often go after the verb or at the very end.

So your original order is exactly the most natural one.

Could I say Mihin me menemme tänään? instead of Minne me menemme tänään? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say Mihin me menemme tänään?; it is grammatically correct and understandable.

Subtle points:

• minne – more general to where?, very common, everyday, and often sounds a bit more colloquial/natural in many contexts.
• mihin – literally into which? / to which?, and can sound a bit more specific, sometimes a bit more formal or “textbooky”, depending on the region and context.

In spoken Finnish, you will hear minne a lot in this type of question. In many situations, though, minne and mihin are practically interchangeable:

• Minne / Mihin me menemme tänään?
  Both: Where are we going today?

You might notice native speakers having a preference depending on dialect and style, but for you as a learner, using either is fine.

Why is there no separate word for English are or do, like in Where are we going or Where do we go?

Finnish does not use auxiliary verbs like English do in questions, and the “are” meaning is built into the verb form itself.

In English:

• Where are we going?
• Where do we go?

In Finnish, this is simply:

• Minne menemme?

The question is marked in two main ways:

1. Question word (minne, mitä, missä, etc.), or
2. Interrogative ending -ko/-kö on some word, e.g. menemmekö?

So:

• Minne menemme tänään? – Where are we going today?
• Menemmekö tänään elokuviin? – Are we going to the movies today?

No extra word like English do/are is needed; the verb ending and question word or -ko/-kö carry that information.

Can tänään go in different positions, like at the beginning of the sentence?

Yes. Common, natural positions:

1. End of the sentence (very usual):

   • Minne me menemme tänään?

2. After the question word:

   • Minne tänään menemme? – Emphasis a bit more on today.

3. At the very beginning, for emphasis on today:

   • Tänään minne me menemme?
   • Tänään minne menemme?

All are grammatically correct. The default, neutral version is your original:

• Minne me menemme tänään?

Moving tänään to the front gives it more contrastive emphasis:

• Today, where are we going? (as opposed to some other day).

How would the sentence change if I want I, you (singular), or they instead of we?

You change both the pronoun and the verb ending.

Base pattern:
Minne [pronoun] [verb] tänään?

1. I – minä

   • verb: menen (I go)
   • Minne minä menen tänään? – Where am I going today?
   • Often just Minne menen tänään? (drop minä)

2. You (singular) – sinä

   • verb: menet (you go)
   • Minne sinä menet tänään? – Where are you going today?
   • Often Minne menet tänään?

3. He / she – hän

   • verb: menee
   • Minne hän menee tänään? – Where is he/she going today?

4. We – me (your original)

   • verb: menemme
   • Minne me menemme tänään?

5. You (plural) – te

   • verb: menette
   • Minne te menette tänään? – Where are you (all) going today?

6. They – he

   • verb: menevät
   • Minne he menevät tänään? – Where are they going today?

The structure stays the same; only pronoun + verb ending change.

How would you answer this question in Finnish, for example: We are going to the cinema?

You keep the same basic structure: subject + verb + destination.

Example answers:

• Me menemme elokuviin. – We are going to the cinema.
  
  • elokuva = film
  • elokuviin = “into the movies/cinema” (illative case, to where?)

Other examples:

• Me menemme kauppaan. – We are going to the store.
• Me menemme kotiin. – We are going home.
• Me menemme ravintolaan. – We are going to a restaurant.

You can drop me if context is clear:

• Menemme elokuviin. – (We) are going to the cinema.

How do I say Where did we go today? (past tense) and Where will we go tomorrow? more explicitly?

For past tense, use the imperfect (simple past) of mennä: menimme.

• Missä me olimme tänään? – Where were we today? (location, being somewhere)
• Minne me menimme tänään? – To where did we go today? (destination, movement)

So the past version of your sentence:

• Minne me menimme tänään?

For future, you normally still use present tense plus a time word, or use a verb like aikoa (to intend).

Neutral future with present tense:

• Minne me menemme huomenna? – Where are we going tomorrow? / Where will we go tomorrow?

More explicitly “planning to”:

• Minne me aiomme mennä huomenna? – Where are we planning to go tomorrow?
  
  • aiomme = we intend

Is Minne me menemme tänään? formal, informal, or neutral? Would it change in very polite speech?

The sentence is neutral standard Finnish. You can use it:

• with friends and family
• in everyday situations
• in most polite contexts as well

Finnish does not have a separate formal we like some languages (e.g. French nous vs. on, or German polite Sie). The same me menemme works almost everywhere.

In very polite or written contexts, you might:

• prefer the full standard form (as you already have it)
• avoid strong slang contractions (like Mihin me mennään tänään? in spoken language)

But Minne me menemme tänään? itself is already appropriate in both spoken and fairly formal contexts.