Hän juo kahvia puistossa.

He/She drinks coffee in the park.

Breakdown of Hän juo kahvia puistossa.

• kahvi: the coffee
• juoda: to drink
• puisto: the park
• -ssa: in
• hän: her

Questions & Answers about Hän juo kahvia puistossa.

Why does Hän mean both he and she?

Finnish does not have grammatical gender in pronouns.

• Hän is a gender‑neutral 3rd person singular pronoun.
• It can refer to he or she; context tells you which is meant.
• There is no separate word for he and she like in English.

So Hän juo kahvia puistossa. can mean He is drinking coffee in the park or She is drinking coffee in the park.

What tense is juo, and why can it mean both drinks and is drinking?

Juo is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb juoda (to drink).

Finnish has only one present tense, and it covers both:

• English simple present: He drinks coffee in the park. (habitual)
• English present continuous: He is drinking coffee in the park. (right now)

So Hän juo kahvia puistossa. can mean either, depending on context.

What is the dictionary form of juo, and how is it conjugated?

The dictionary (infinitive) form is juoda (to drink).

Present tense conjugation:

• minä juon – I drink
• sinä juot – you drink (singular)
• hän juo – he/she drinks
• me juomme – we drink
• te juotte – you drink (plural / polite)
• he juovat – they drink

In the sentence, juo matches hän (he/she).

Why is it kahvia and not kahvi?

Kahvia is the partitive case of kahvi (coffee).

In this sentence, the partitive is used because:

• It describes an indefinite amount of a substance: some coffee.
• With many verbs of eating and drinking (juoda, syödä), the object is in the partitive when you mean “some” of something, not a fixed, counted unit.

So:

• Hän juo kahvia. ≈ He/She drinks (some) coffee.
  (We don’t know/need the exact amount.)

What’s the difference between kahvi, kahvia, and kahvin?

All three come from the same noun kahvi (coffee), but they’re different cases:

• kahvi – nominative (basic form)

  • Used as a subject or citation form.
  • Kahvi on kuumaa. – The coffee is hot.

• kahvia – partitive

  • Often means “some coffee,” indefinite quantity.
  • Hän juo kahvia. – He/She is drinking (some) coffee.

• kahvin – genitive

  • Often used for a specific, whole object or for possession.
  • As an object, it tends to mean the whole coffee / a whole portion:
    Hän juo kahvin. – He/She drinks the (entire) coffee.

In your sentence, kahvia is used because we’re talking about some unspecified amount of coffee.

Could you say Hän juo kahvin puistossa, and what would it mean?

Yes, you can say Hän juo kahvin puistossa, but the nuance changes:

• Hän juo kahvia puistossa.
  → He/She drinks some coffee in the park.
  (Indefinite amount, general or ongoing.)

• Hän juo kahvin puistossa.
  → He/She drinks the coffee / the whole coffee in the park.
  (A specific portion, like one cup, and implies finishing it.)

So kahvia = some coffee (open amount), kahvin = a specific, complete portion of coffee.

What case is puistossa, and what does -ssa mean?

Puistossa is in the inessive case, which usually answers “where (inside / in)”.

• Base word: puisto – park
• Inessive: puisto
  • -ssa → puistossa – in the park

The ending -ssa / -ssä means “in / inside / at (within a place)”.
So puistossa = in the park.

How would the meaning change with puistoon or puistosta?

These are different local cases of puisto (park):

• puistossa – inessive: in the park (location)
• puistoon – illative: into the park (movement into)
• puistosta – elative: out of / from the park (movement out of)

Examples:

• Hän juo kahvia puistossa.
  → He/She drinks coffee in the park.

• Hän menee puistoon.
  → He/She goes to the park / into the park.

• Hän tulee puistosta.
  → He/She comes from the park.

Is the word order fixed, or can I move words around?

Finnish word order is relatively flexible, but it affects emphasis.

Your neutral sentence:

• Hän juo kahvia puistossa.
  → Neutral: He/She drinks coffee in the park.

Other possible orders and their typical nuances:

• Puistossa hän juo kahvia.
  → Emphasis on puistossa: It’s in the park that he/she drinks coffee (not somewhere else).

• Hän puistossa juo kahvia.
  → Emphasis on juo kahvia as the activity happening in the park.

All are grammatical; context and intonation decide what feels natural. For a beginner, Hän juo kahvia puistossa. is the safest, most neutral order here.

How do you make this sentence negative: He/She is not drinking coffee in the park?

Finnish uses a separate negative verb (ei) plus the main verb in a special form.

For hän:

• Hän ei juo kahvia puistossa.
  → He/She does not drink coffee in the park / He/She is not drinking coffee in the park.

Structure:

• hän – subject
• ei – negative verb (3rd person singular)
• juo – main verb stem form used with ei
• kahvia puistossa – the rest of the sentence

How do you say this in the past tense: He/She drank coffee in the park?

Use the past tense (imperfect) of juoda, which is joi in 3rd person singular:

• Hän joi kahvia puistossa.
  → He/She drank coffee in the park.

Only the verb changes:

• Present: Hän juo kahvia puistossa.
• Past: Hän joi kahvia puistossa.

Why are there no words for a or the in this sentence?

Finnish has no articles like English a, an, the.

Definiteness or indefiniteness is usually understood from:

• context,
• word order,
• case endings,
• whether you’re talking about something already known or newly introduced.

So Hän juo kahvia puistossa. can be translated as:

• He/She is drinking coffee in a park.
• He/She is drinking coffee in the park.

depending on the context in English, even though the Finnish sentence itself doesn’t mark that difference explicitly.

How do you say They drink coffee in the park?

Change both the pronoun and the verb to the plural:

• He juovat kahvia puistossa.
  → They drink coffee in the park / They are drinking coffee in the park.

Parts:

• He – they
• juovat – 3rd person plural present of juoda
• kahvia – (some) coffee
• puistossa – in the park