Learn Hardcore Finnish: Satelliitti kiertää maata ja lähettää kuvia avaruusasemalle. - A satellite orbits the Earth and sends pictures to the space station.

Because an object in orbit is literally going around something, kiertää is the normal verb for “to orbit” in Finnish. In this sentence, Satelliitti kiertää maata is naturally understood as “The satellite orbits the Earth.”

Why is it maata and not maa or maan after kiertää?

Maa is the basic form (nominative): maa = earth, land, (the) Earth.
Its important forms here are:

maa – nominative (basic form)
maata – partitive
maan – genitive

After kiertää in the sense of “going around” something, the thing you go around is usually in the partitive:

kiertää järveä – to go around a lake
kiertää taloa – to go around the house
kiertää maata – to go around the Earth

The partitive often suggests an ongoing / not-limited action or a partial object. Orbiting the Earth is a continuous process, not a single completed lap, so maata (partitive) fits very well.

Using maan (genitive) could suggest more of a whole, bounded object / event, and can sound more like “go around the whole Earth (once / as a completed thing)”. In practice, kiertää maata is the usual form for “orbits the Earth”.

If maata means “the Earth” here, shouldn’t it be capitalized as Maata?

In official modern Finnish spelling:

Names of celestial bodies are capitalized: Aurinko (the Sun), Maa (the Earth), Kuu (the Moon).
So in careful standard language, the planet would indeed be written Maa, and in partitive Maata.

However:

In everyday texts, people very often write maa, maata in contexts like this, even when they mean the planet.
Even many native speakers do not strictly follow the capitalization rule here.

So, from a strictly prescriptive point of view, Maata would be “more correct” if you clearly mean the planet. But you will often see maata in real-life usage, and nobody will misunderstand it in this sentence.

Why is there no word for “the” in Satelliitti kiertää maata?

Finnish does not have articles like English “a / an / the” at all.

satelliitti can mean “a satellite” or “the satellite”
maata can mean “(some) earth / land” or “the Earth”

Definiteness (whether it is “a” or “the”) comes from context, not from a separate word. For example:

If the context has already introduced a particular satellite, Satelliitti kiertää maata will be understood as “The satellite orbits the Earth.”
In a generic description (e.g. in a textbook), it could also be translated as “A satellite orbits the Earth.”

So nothing is “missing”; Finnish simply expresses definiteness differently from English.

Why are both verbs kiertää and lähettää in the same form? Should one of them be different?

Both kiertää and lähettää are in the 3rd person singular present tense:

hän / se kiertää – he / she / it goes around
hän / se lähettää – he / she / it sends

The subject satelliitti (“satellite”) is singular, so:

Satelliitti kiertää… – The satellite orbits…
Satelliitti … lähettää… – The satellite sends…

Because one subject is doing both actions, you can say:

Satelliitti kiertää maata ja lähettää kuvia…
“The satellite orbits the Earth and sends images…”

No extra subject or special form is needed. If it were many satellites, you’d use the plural:

Satelliitit kiertävät maata ja lähettävät kuvia…
(“The satellites orbit the Earth and send images…”)

Why is kuvia (partitive plural) used instead of kuvat (“the pictures”)?

From kuva (“picture”), the key forms here are:

kuva – picture (nominative singular)
kuvat – pictures (nominative plural)
kuvia – pictures (partitive plural)

Kuvia is partitive plural, and Finnish uses the partitive object for:

An indefinite / unspecified quantity
- Hän osti omenoita. – He bought (some) apples.
- Satelliitti lähettää kuvia. – The satellite sends (some) pictures / images.
Ongoing / incomplete actions, or when you don’t mean “all of them as a whole”.

If you said:

lähettää kuvat – “sends the pictures”

that would normally imply a specific, known set of pictures, as a more “complete” object. In this sentence, it’s more natural to talk about images in general, an open-ended flow of them, so kuvia is the natural choice.

What case is avaruusasemalle, and what does the ending -lle mean?

Avaruusasemalle is in the allative case.

Base word: avaruusasema – space station
Allative: avaruusasemalle – (to) the space station

The allative (-lle) often means:

Movement to / onto a surface or place
- pöytä → pöydälle – to the table / onto the table
- piha → pihalle – to the yard
Recipient, like English “to someone / something”
- Hän antaa kirjan ystävälle. – He gives the book to a friend.

In this sentence, lähettää kuvia avaruusasemalle means “sends images to the space station”, so the space station is the recipient, and allative (-lle) is exactly the right case.

Why is avaruusasema written as one word, not avaruus asema?

Finnish likes to form compound nouns by writing the parts together:

avaruus – space
asema – station
avaruusasema – space station

Other examples:

aurinko (sun) + suoja (protection) → aurinkosuoja – sunscreen
tieto (knowledge) + kone (machine) → tietokone – computer

So avaruusasema is a single word meaning “space station”, and then you add case endings to the whole compound:

avaruusasema – space station
avaruusasemalle – to the space station
avaruusasemalta – from the space station, etc.

Could you say Satelliitti kiertää maapalloa instead of maata? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

Satelliitti kiertää maapalloa.

Maapallo literally means “earth-globe / planet Earth”. Both are correct, but there’s a slight nuance:

kiertää maata – a bit more general; could be understood as “orbits the Earth / orbits the world”
kiertää maapalloa – more explicitly “orbits the planet (Earth)”

In practice, when talking about real satellites, you will hear both maata and maapalloa, and they are usually interchangeable in context.

Could you also say ja se lähettää kuvia avaruusasemalle? Why is there no se (“it”)?

You could say:

Satelliitti kiertää maata ja se lähettää kuvia avaruusasemalle.

This is grammatically fine and means the same thing. However, it sounds a bit heavier / more explicit because you repeat the subject with a pronoun.

In Finnish, when two verbs share the same subject in one clause, it’s very natural to mention the subject only once:

Satelliitti kiertää maata ja lähettää kuvia…

Adding se is usually done for emphasis or when the subject might not be clear. Here it’s obvious that “it” refers to the satellite, so speakers simply skip the pronoun.

How would you say “is orbiting” vs “orbits” in Finnish? Does kiertää cover both?

Finnish present tense kiertää can express both:

“The satellite orbits the Earth.” (general/habitual fact)
“The satellite is orbiting the Earth.” (right now / ongoing)

So:

Satelliitti kiertää maata
can translate as either “The satellite orbits the Earth” or “The satellite is orbiting the Earth”, depending on context.

Finnish does not have a separate continuous tense like English “is doing”; the simple present covers both simple and continuous meanings, and you rely on context or extra adverbs (e.g. nyt – now) if you need to be clearer:

Satelliitti kiertää juuri nyt maata. – The satellite is orbiting the Earth right now.

How is kiertää and lähettää pronounced, especially the double vowels ää?

Key pronunciation points:

kiertää = kier-tää
- kie like English “key-eh” fused into one syllable
- rt pronounced clearly
- ää is a long [æ]-type vowel (like a long “a” in “cat”), held about twice as long as a short ä.
lähettää = lä-het-tää
- Short ä in lä- (like “a” in “cat”, but short)
- Double tt: the t is held a bit longer; there’s a tiny “stop” before releasing it
- Again, ää at the end is long ä.

In Finnish, vowel and consonant length are meaningful:

tapa vs tappa vs tapaa all differ in meaning.
Likewise, kiertää (with long ää) is not the same as a hypothetical kierta.

So when you see a double vowel (aa, ää, ii, ee, oo, uu, yy, öö), make sure you hold the sound longer.