Sovinnon jälkeen olin helpottunut ja iloinen, ettemme enää riidelleet.

After the reconciliation I was relieved and happy that we no longer argued.

Breakdown of Sovinnon jälkeen olin helpottunut ja iloinen, ettemme enää riidelleet.

• olla: to be
• ja: and
• enää: anymore
• ei: not
• jälkeen: after
• että: that
• iloinen: happy
• riidellä: to argue
• sovinto: the reconciliation
• helpottunut: relieved

Questions & Answers about Sovinnon jälkeen olin helpottunut ja iloinen, ettemme enää riidelleet.

What does Sovinnon jälkeen literally mean, and why is sovinnon in that form?

Sovinnon jälkeen literally means “after the reconciliation / after making up”.

• The base noun is sovinto = reconciliation, making peace, making up.
• sovinnon is the genitive singular of sovinto.
• The postposition jälkeen (= after) normally requires the genitive:
  • sovinnon jälkeen = after the reconciliation
  • ruoan jälkeen = after the food / after the meal
  • tunnin jälkeen = after the lesson

So the structure is: [GENITIVE noun] + jälkeen → “after [noun]”.

Could I just say Sovinto jälkeen? Why do I need the genitive?

No, Sovinto jälkeen is incorrect. With jälkeen, the noun must be in the genitive case.

Think of jälkeen like a little grammar rule:
> When you use jälkeen, the word before it must be in the genitive form.

So:

• ✅ sovinnon jälkeen
• ❌ sovinto jälkeen

The same works with other nouns:

• ✅ kokouksen jälkeen (after the meeting)
• ❌ kokous jälkeen

How should I understand olin helpottunut ja iloinen? Is helpottunut a verb or an adjective?

Olin helpottunut ja iloinen = “I was relieved and happy.”

• olin is the past tense of olla (to be) → “I was”.
• helpottunut is the -nut/-nyt participle of the verb helpottua (“to become relieved / to ease”), but here it works as an adjective → “relieved”.
• iloinen is a regular adjective → “happy”.

So the structure is:

• olin + adjective → I was + adjective
  • olin väsynyt = I was tired
  • olin iloinen = I was happy
  • olin helpottunut = I was relieved

You can think of helpottunut as an “adjective made from a verb”, similar to English “relieved” (from relieve).

What exactly is ettemme? It looks like one word, but I was told että means “that” and emme is “we don’t / we didn’t”.

You’re right: ettemme is basically että + emme combined.

• että = that (subordinating conjunction)
• emme = we don’t / we didn’t (negative verb for me = we)

Finnish often merges että with a following negative verb:

• että + en → etten (that I don’t / didn’t)
• että + et → ettet (that you don’t / didn’t)
• että + emme → ettemme (that we don’t / didn’t)
• että + ette → ettette (that you [pl] don’t / didn’t)
• että + eivät → etteivät (that they don’t / didn’t)

You could also write että emme separately, and it is still correct. Ette­mme is just a more compact, very common written form.

Why is there a comma before ettemme?

In Finnish, you usually put a comma before a subordinate clause that starts with words like että, koska, kun, vaikka etc.

• …, ettemme enää riidelleet.
  → comma before ettemme, because it starts a subordinate clause (“that we no longer argued”).

This is more systematic than in English. English might sometimes drop the comma:

• “I was relieved and happy that we weren’t arguing anymore.”

Finnish grammar is stricter here: main clause, then comma, then että‑clause.

What form is riidelleet, and why isn’t it just riidellä?

Riidelleet is the past tense form used with the negative verb in the plural:

• Base verb: riidellä = to argue, to quarrel.
• Past affirmative:
  • me riitelimme = we argued / we were arguing.
• Past negative:
  • emme riidelleet = we didn’t argue / we weren’t arguing.

Structure in the sentence:

• ettemme enää riidelleet = that we no longer argued / were no longer arguing

So:

• emme = negative verb, “we don’t / didn’t”
• riidelleet = past “connegative” form (looks like a past participle) agreeing with me (we).

You cannot say emme riidellä for past; emme riidellä would be present (“we don’t argue”). For the past negative you must use emme + riidelleet.

Why is it emme enää riidelleet and not emme riidelleet enää? Does the word order matter?

Both are grammatically possible:

• emme enää riidelleet
• emme riidelleet enää

The usual and most natural order here is:

• negative verb + adverb (enää) + main verb

So emme enää riidelleet is the most idiomatic. Changing the position of enää can give a slight change of rhythm or emphasis, but the meaning stays the same: “we didn’t argue anymore”.

What you can’t really do is separate emme and riidelleet too much with long phrases; enää is short, so it’s fine in between.

Why is the English translation “we weren’t arguing anymore” in the past, when Finnish just has emme enää riidelleet?

In Finnish, emme enää riidelleet is simple past negative:

• Literally: “we no longer argued / we didn’t argue anymore”.
• Depending on context, good English translations are:
  • “we didn’t argue anymore”
  • “we weren’t arguing anymore”

Finnish does not distinguish between “we argued” and “we were arguing” with separate verb forms like English. Both can be expressed by the same past form (riitelimme / emme riidelleet), and context decides which English aspect fits best.

In this sentence, because we are talking about the situation after making up, “we weren’t arguing anymore” sounds natural in English.

Where is the word “we” in the Finnish sentence? I only see emme riidelleet, but no me.

In Finnish, the subject pronoun (like me = we) is usually built into the verb and often left out.

• emme is the negative verb in 1st person plural → “we don’t / we didn’t”.
• riidelleet agrees with me (we), so the subject is already clear from the verb forms.

You could say:

• ettemme me enää riidelleet

but adding me is usually unnecessary and sounds emphatic or marked.
So the normal, neutral way is just:

• ettemme enää riidelleet = “that we no longer argued”

Does riidellä mean to physically fight, or just to argue?

Riidellä usually means to argue, to quarrel (with words, not fists).

• riidellä jostakin = to argue about something
• riidellä jonkun kanssa = to argue with someone

For physical fighting, Finnish more often uses:

• tapella = to brawl, to fight physically.

So in this sentence:

• emme enää riidelleet
  → “we weren’t arguing anymore” (verbally, emotionally), not necessarily physically fighting.