Breakdown of Me treenaamme yhdessä juoksemalla rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas.
Questions & Answers about Me treenaamme yhdessä juoksemalla rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas.
In Finnish, the verb ending already tells you who the subject is, so the pronoun me (we) is optional.
- Me treenaamme yhdessä… – more explicit, feels neutral, slightly more “spoken-like” or emphatic.
- Treenaamme yhdessä… – perfectly correct; slightly more compact and somewhat more typical of written language.
Both are grammatically correct and mean the same thing. Me is often kept in everyday speech to make the subject very clear, especially in spoken Finnish where verb forms can be more casual (like me treenataan).
Treenaamme comes from the verb treenata (to train, to work out).
The personal endings are:
- minä treenaan – I train
- sinä treenaat – you (sg) train
- hän treenaa – he/she trains
- me treenaamme – we train
- te treenaatte – you (pl) train
- he treenaavat – they train
So:
- the stem is treenaa-
- the ending -mme marks 1st person plural (we)
- treenaa + mme → treenaamme
The double aa is part of the regular conjugation pattern for this verb type (type 4, verbs ending in -ata/-ätä, -ota, etc.).
Juoksemalla is a special verb form that usually translates as “by running” or “through running”.
Grammatically, it is:
- The 3rd infinitive of juosta (to run)
- In the adessive case: juoksema + lla → juoksemalla
This -malla / -mällä form is commonly used to express means, method, or manner:
- Opin suomea kuuntelemalla podcasteja. – I learn Finnish by listening to podcasts.
- Säästän rahaa kävelemällä töihin. – I save money by walking to work.
So in your sentence, treenaamme … juoksemalla = we train by running.
Yes, you could say Me treenaamme yhdessä ja juoksemme rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas, but the meaning changes slightly:
- juoksemalla = by running (running is the method of training)
- juoksemme = we run (a separate finite verb; just another action)
Original:
- Me treenaamme … juoksemalla…
→ The way we train is: by running up and down the stairwell.
Alternative:
- Me treenaamme yhdessä ja juoksemme rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas.
→ We train together and we run up and down in the stairwell (two coordinated actions).
So juoksemalla ties the running tightly to the idea of training as its method.
Both relate to running, but they belong to different systems and aren’t always interchangeable.
juoksemalla – 3rd infinitive adessive; clearly expresses “by running / through running”, often used with another verb to show method:
- Kehitän kuntoa juoksemalla. – I improve my fitness by running.
juosten – the present participle (instructive form) of juosta; often used in more idiomatic or fixed expressions, and can feel a bit more literary or compact:
- Mennään juosten. – Let’s go on foot / by running.
- Hoida se juosten. – Handle it quickly / running (context-dependent).
In your sentence, juoksemalla is the most natural choice because it clearly marks the manner of training.
The -ssa/-ssä ending is the inessive case, which usually means “in” or “inside”.
- rappukäytävä – stairwell / staircase (the base form)
- rappukäytävässä – in the stairwell
So:
- juoksemalla rappukäytävässä = by running *in the stairwell*
Some basic inessive examples:
- talossa – in the house
- kaupungissa – in the city
- metsässä – in the forest
They’re related but not identical:
- rappukäytävä – the stairwell / stairway area of a building (the space plus the stairs).
- portaat – stairs / steps themselves.
In everyday speech:
- Juoksen portaita ylös ja alas. – I run up and down the stairs.
- Juoksen rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas. – I run up and down in the stairwell.
In your sentence, rappukäytävässä suggests the whole stairwell space (typical for an apartment building), not just individual steps, but in practice both word choices would be understandable in a workout context.
Ylös and alas are adverbs of direction:
- ylös – up(wards)
- alas – down(wards)
They don’t take case endings here. They describe the direction of movement in relation to the verb juoksemalla.
Compare:
- Menen ylös. – I go up.
- Tulen alas. – I come down.
More nuanced variants exist too:
- ylöspäin – upward(s), somewhat more continuous or directional
- alaspäin – downward(s)
But ylös ja alas is the basic, natural way to say “up and down”.
Yes, Finnish word order is relatively flexible. However, changes can slightly affect emphasis and naturalness.
Original:
- Me treenaamme yhdessä juoksemalla rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas.
→ Neutral focus: We train together by running up and down in the stairwell.
Your version:
- Me treenaamme juoksemalla yhdessä rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas.
→ Slightly unusual: it can sound like you’re emphasising that the “together” part somehow belongs to juoksemalla more than to treenaamme.
More natural alternatives:
- Me treenaamme juoksemalla yhdessä rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas. – OK
- Me treenaamme yhdessä rappukäytävässä juoksemalla ylös ja alas. – OK
Finnish tends to keep the sentence elements close to what they semantically belong with, but you have freedom for emphasis.
You can, and both are correct, but there’s a nuance:
treenata → treenaamme
- Colloquial in origin, very common in everyday speech and informal writing.
- Often associated specifically with physical training / sports / workouts.
harjoitella → harjoittelemme
- More neutral, standard Finnish.
- Means to practise / to rehearse / to train more broadly (music, language, skills, sports).
So:
- Me treenaamme yhdessä… – sounds very much like a workout / exercise context.
- Me harjoittelemme yhdessä… – could be a workout, but also practising something else; still fully acceptable for sports.
In spoken Finnish, several elements would typically shift:
- Me treenaamme → Me treenataan
- The standard -mme ending often becomes -taan in colloquial speech for we.
- rappukäytävässä might become shortened/slurred in fast speech, but form stays roughly the same.
- The structure juoksemalla is often kept as is, though some might rephrase:
Typical spoken version:
- Me treenataan yhdessä juoksemalla rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas.
Or with a rephrasing:
- Me treenataan yhdessä ja juostaan rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas.
Both are very natural in casual conversation.
The mm you might expect is actually performing different roles in different forms, and in juoksemalla we only need one m from the suffix.
Breakdown:
- Verb: juosta (to run)
- 3rd infinitive stem: juoksema-
- Add -lla (adessive case of the 3rd infinitive):
juoksema + lla → juoksemalla
The -ma- already ends with m, and -lla starts with l, so we get just -malla. There is no personal ending -mme here because juoksemalla is not a finite verb; it’s an infinitive form. The subject me is only indicated in the main verb treenaamme.
Both are understandable and very similar, but there is a small nuance:
- rappukäytävässä – emphasises being in the stairwell area (the whole staircase space in an apartment building).
- portaita – the stairs / steps themselves (partitive plural, since you’re going up and down multiple steps repeatedly).
So:
- juoksemalla rappukäytävässä ylös ja alas – by running up and down in the stairwell
- juoksemalla portaita ylös ja alas – by running up and down the stairs
In a workout context, portaita ylös ja alas is extremely common and might sound a bit more directly “exercise-like,” but your original sentence is also perfectly fine.