Log inSign up

Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiössä, ja koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle.

Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiössä, ja koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle.
Gingerbread cookies are being baked in the kitchen, and the whole home smells good.
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Finnish grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Finnish now

Questions & Answers about Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiössä, ja koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle.

Why is piparkakkuja in that form and not piparkakut?

Piparkakkuja is the partitive plural of piparkakku (gingerbread cookie).

  • piparkakku = one gingerbread cookie (nominative singular)
  • piparkakut = the cookies, all of them (nominative plural)
  • piparkakkuja = some cookies / cookies (in general), partitive plural

In Finnish, the partitive is used for:

  • an indefinite amount of something
  • actions that are ongoing, incomplete or unbounded

Here, piparkakkuja leivotaan suggests:

  • Gingerbread cookies are being baked (some amount, in general, not a specific, completed set).

If you said Piparkakut leivotaan keittiössä, it would sound more like:

  • The gingerbread cookies are baked in the kitchen (all of them / a specific batch).

So piparkakkuja fits better for the idea of “they’re baking gingerbread cookies” in a general, ongoing way.

What exactly does leivotaan mean, and what is this passive form?

Leivotaan is the present passive (impersonal) form of the verb leipoa (to bake).

  • Basic verb: leipoa

  • Personal forms:

    • leivon – I bake
    • leivot – you bake
    • leipoo – he/she bakes
    • leivomme – we bake
    • leivotte – you (pl.) bake
    • leipovat – they bake

  • Passive/impersonal: leivotaan

The passive here roughly corresponds to:

  • is/are baked
  • they bake
  • we bake
  • one bakes / people bake

So Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiössä can be understood as:

  • They’re baking gingerbread cookies in the kitchen.
  • Gingerbread cookies are being baked in the kitchen.
  • We’re baking gingerbread cookies in the kitchen. (context decides)
Why is there no subject pronoun in Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiössä?

In Finnish, the passive (impersonal) form leivotaan never takes an explicit subject pronoun.

You do not say:

  • ✗ He leivotaan
  • ✗ Me leivotaan (in standard language; in colloquial speech this exists but grammatically it’s a different phenomenon)

Instead, the passive itself encodes a vague subject:

  • someone, people, they, we, one…

So the sentence just starts with Piparkakkuja (the object) and uses the passive verb:

  • Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiössä.
    → Gingerbread cookies are being baked in the kitchen (by someone/they/we).
Why is keittiössä used instead of just keittiö?

Keittiössä is in the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä), which usually means “in” something.

  • keittiö = kitchen (basic form)
  • keittiössä = in the kitchen

Finnish doesn’t use articles (a/the), so keittiössä alone already means in the kitchen or in the kitchen of the home from context.

If you used just keittiö here (Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiö), it would be ungrammatical; the location needs to be in a local case like keittiössä (in the kitchen) or keittiöön (into the kitchen), etc.

Could the order be Keittiössä leivotaan piparkakkuja instead? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

  • Keittiössä leivotaan piparkakkuja.

The basic meaning is the same: Gingerbread cookies are being baked in the kitchen.

Word order in Finnish is relatively flexible and is often used to express focus:

  • Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiössä.
    → Slight emphasis on what is being baked (gingerbread cookies rather than something else).

  • Keittiössä leivotaan piparkakkuja.
    → Slight emphasis on where the baking is happening (in the kitchen rather than somewhere else).

Both are perfectly natural; context decides which feels more appropriate.

What does koko koti literally mean, and why is koti in that form?

Koko koti literally means “the whole home” / “the entire house”.

  • koko = whole, entire
  • koti = home

Here, koko koti is the subject of tuoksuu (smells), so it is in the nominative case (the basic form).

If you changed the role, the form would change:

  • koko kodissa = in the whole home (inessive)
  • koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle = the whole home smells good (nominative subject)

In practice, koko koti usually refers to the whole interior of the home/house, not just the abstract idea of “home”.

Is koti more like home or house in this sentence?

The basic meaning of koti is home, while talo is house (building).

However, in an expression like koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle, English often prefers house:

  • The whole house smells good.

This is because the point is that all the rooms / the whole interior smells of gingerbread. Translating it as home is also possible:

  • The whole home smells good.

So:

  • koti = home (default meaning)
  • But here, contextually, it covers what English often calls the whole house.
Why is tuoksuu used instead of haisee?

Finnish has a few verbs for smelling that differ in nuance:

  • tuoksua = to smell (usually pleasantly), to give off a nice scent
  • haista = to smell, often neutral or negative, easily understood as to stink
  • haistaa = to smell something actively with your nose, to sniff / perceive a smell

In koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle, the idea is that the smell is nice (gingerbread), so tuoksua is the natural verb.

Saying koko koti haisee would usually imply an unpleasant smell, like garbage or something rotten.

Why is hyvälle used here, and what case is it?

Hyvälle is the allative case (-lle) of hyvä (good).

Some Finnish verbs of perception or experience (like tuoksua, maistua, tuntua, haista) often take an adjective in a -l- case (allative -lle or ablative -lta/-ltä) to describe what kind of smell, taste, etc. something has.

So instead of saying:

  • ✗ koko koti tuoksuu hyvä (ungrammatical),

you say:

  • koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle
    or
  • koko koti tuoksuu hyvältä

Functionally, hyvälle here means good in the sense of smells good / nice / pleasant, but the grammar requires the adjective to be inflected, not left in the basic form.

What is the difference between hyvälle and hyvältä after tuoksuu?

Both forms are used with sensory verbs like tuoksua, and in everyday language the meaning difference is minimal or nonexistent:

  • koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle
  • koko koti tuoksuu hyvältä

Both can be understood as the whole home/house smells good.

Grammatically:

  • hyvälle = allative case (-lle)
  • hyvältä = ablative case (-lta/-ltä)

Different style guides and speakers have different preferences, and usage varies. As a learner, it’s safe to remember that with tuoksua, maistua, tuntua, etc., you will encounter both:

  • tuoksuu hyvälle / hyvältä – smells good
  • maistuu hyvälle / hyvältä – tastes good

You don’t need to worry about a big meaning difference here; both are widely understood and used.

Why is there a comma before ja in keittiössä, ja koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle?

In Finnish punctuation, a comma is often used between two independent clauses, even if they are joined by ja (and).

Here we have two full clauses:

  1. Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiössä
  2. koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle

Because both are complete clauses with their own verbs (leivotaan, tuoksuu), Finnish normally separates them with a comma:

  • Piparkakkuja leivotaan keittiössä, ja koko koti tuoksuu hyvälle.

In English, we would usually omit the comma before and here, but in Finnish the comma is standard in this situation.