Minä pidän kahvista, kun taas siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.

I like coffee, whereas my sister prefers to drink tea.

Breakdown of Minä pidän kahvista, kun taas siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.

• minä: I
• minun: my
• kahvi: the coffee
• juoda: to drink
• sisko: the sister
• pitää: to like
• tee: the tea
• mieluummin: rather
• kun taas: whereas

Questions & Answers about Minä pidän kahvista, kun taas siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.

Why is it kahvista and not kahvi or kahvia after pidän?

With the meaning to like, the verb pitää always takes its object in the elative case (-sta / -stä), not in the basic form.

• pitää jostakin = to like something
• kahvi (basic form: “coffee”)
• elative: kahvista → from (the) coffee → idiomatically “about coffee” → “I like coffee”

So:

• Minä pidän kahvista. = I like coffee.
• Minä pidän kahvia. would instead be understood as I am keeping/holding some coffee (different meaning of pitää).

Using kahvista is therefore required when you mean like.

Could I say Minä pidän kahvia to mean “I like coffee”?

No, that would normally NOT be understood as I like coffee.

• Minä pidän kahvia uses kahvia (partitive) and would be taken as:
  • I keep some coffee (at home / in stock), or
  • I’m holding coffee (in my hand)
    depending on context.

For the like meaning, Finnish speakers expect the pattern:

• pitää + elative → pitää kahvista

So to say I like coffee, you should say Minä pidän kahvista.

What is the difference between pitää (jostakin) and tykätä (jostakin)?

Both mean to like, and both take the object in the elative -sta / -stä:

• Minä pidän kahvista.
• Minä tykkään kahvista.

Differences:

• pitää is neutral and works in all registers (spoken and written).
• tykätä is common in spoken Finnish and can feel a bit more casual/colloquial.

In this sentence, using tykkään instead of pidän would be perfectly natural in everyday speech:

• Mä tykkään kahvista, kun taas mun sisko juo mieluummin teetä.

Why is it teetä and not tee after juo?

The verb juoda (to drink) usually takes its object in the partitive case when you are talking about an unspecified amount of a drink.

• basic form: tee (tea)
• partitive singular: teetä

General pattern:

• juoda + partitive = to drink (some) X
  • juon vettä – I drink (some) water
  • juo maitoa – (he/she) drinks milk
  • juo teetä – (he/she) drinks tea

So siskoni juo mieluummin teetä literally means:
my sister rather drinks (some) tea → my sister prefers to drink tea.

How is the partitive teetä formed from tee?

For tee (tea):

• stem: tee-
• partitive ending (with front vowel harmony): -tä
• tee + tä → teetä

So:

• tee (basic form)
• teetä (partitive singular, “(some) tea”)

Compare similar patterns:

• puu → puuta (tree → some tree/wood)
• pää → päätä (head → some head)

For kahvi, the partitive would be kahvia, but in this sentence the case is elative (kahvista) because of pitää jostakin.

Why is the pronoun Minä used? Could I just say Pidän kahvista?

Yes, you can absolutely say Pidän kahvista without Minä.

In Finnish:

• The personal pronoun is usually optional, because the verb ending already shows the person.
  • pidän ends in -n, which marks 1st person singular (I).

So:

• Pidän kahvista. = I like coffee.
• Minä pidän kahvista. = I like coffee (with extra emphasis on I).

In this sentence, using Minä highlights the contrast with siskoni:

• Minä pidän kahvista, kun taas siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.
  → I like coffee, whereas my sister prefers tea.

What exactly does kun taas mean, and how is it different from mutta?

kun taas is a conjunction pair that introduces a contrast, roughly:

• kun taas ≈ whereas, while on the other hand

So:

• Minä pidän kahvista, kun taas siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.
  → I like coffee, whereas my sister prefers to drink tea.

Difference from mutta (but):

• mutta states a contrast more simply:
  • Minä pidän kahvista, mutta siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.
• kun taas more clearly sets up a comparison between two subjects:
  • it has a nuance of “while, by contrast”.

Both are correct here; kun taas sounds a bit more explicitly comparative.

Why is it siskoni and not minun siskoni?

Finnish can mark possession in two ways:

1. Possessive suffix on the noun

   • sisko = sister
   • siskoni = my sister (sisko + -ni)

2. Possessive pronoun + noun (optionally also with suffix)

   • minun siskoni = my sister
   • minun sisko (more spoken style)

In standard written Finnish, siskoni alone is usually enough for “my sister”.

• Minä pidän kahvista, kun taas siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.
  = I like coffee, whereas my sister prefers to drink tea.

You could also say:

• …kun taas minun siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.

That would put a bit more emphasis on my.

What form is juo, and how is it related to juoda?

Juoda is the infinitive (dictionary) form: to drink.

The sentence uses:

• juo = 3rd person singular present tense
  • hän juo = he/she drinks

A quick mini-paradigm (present tense):

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

So siskoni juo = my sister drinks.

What does mieluummin mean, and why is it used instead of a separate verb for “prefer”?

mieluummin is an adverb meaning rather or preferably. It is the comparative form of an adverb related to with pleasure/willingly.

The pattern:

• base adverb (willingly) → comparative → superlative
  
  • mielellään / mieluusti → mieluummin → mieluiten

In this sentence:

• juo mieluummin teetä
  literally: drinks tea rather / more willingly
  idiomatically: prefers to drink tea

Finnish often expresses prefer with an adverb like mieluummin instead of a separate verb:

• Juon mieluummin teetä kuin kahvia.
  = I’d rather drink tea than coffee.

Could the word order be siskoni juo teetä mieluummin instead of juo mieluummin teetä?

Yes, siskoni juo teetä mieluummin is also grammatically correct.

However, the most neutral and common order is:

• siskoni juo mieluummin teetä

General tendencies:

• Adverbs like mieluummin often come before the object:
  • juo aina teetä – always drinks tea
  • juo yleensä teetä – usually drinks tea
  • juo mieluummin teetä – rather drinks tea

Changing the order can slightly affect emphasis, but all of these are understandable:

• siskoni juo mieluummin teetä (neutral)
• siskoni mieluummin juo teetä (emphasis on rather drinks)
• siskoni juo teetä mieluummin (mildly marked, but fine in speech)

Why is there a comma before kun taas?

In Finnish, a subordinate clause or certain conjunctions that introduce a new clause are typically preceded by a comma.

• Minä pidän kahvista, kun taas siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.

Here, kun taas siskoni juo mieluummin teetä functions as a separate clause that contrasts with the first one, so it is separated by a comma — very similar to English:

• I like coffee, whereas my sister prefers to drink tea.

What tense is used in pidän and juo? Do they imply a general habit?

Both pidän and juo are in the present tense.

In Finnish, the present tense is used both for:

• actions happening now, and
• general, habitual actions or preferences.

So:

• Minä pidän kahvista.
• Siskoni juo mieluummin teetä.

together describe general preferences, not just something happening at this moment. In English we’d also use the simple present: I like coffee, my sister drinks tea (rather / prefers tea).

Finnish has no articles like “a” or “the”. How should I think about that here with kahvista and teetä?

Finnish simply does not mark definiteness (a / the) with articles at all.

• Minä pidän kahvista could correspond to:

  • I like coffee
  • I like the coffee (depending on context)

• siskoni juo mieluummin teetä could be:

  • my sister prefers to drink tea
  • my sister is drinking some tea rather than… (in a specific context)

Which English article you choose depends on context, not on anything in the Finnish form.