Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusi yhdessä lasten kanssa.

Yesterday the Christmas tree was decorated together with the children.

Breakdown of Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusi yhdessä lasten kanssa.

• lapsi: the child
• kanssa: with
• eilen: yesterday
• yhdessä: together
• joulukuusi: the Christmas tree
• koristella: to decorate

Questions & Answers about Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusi yhdessä lasten kanssa.

What exactly is koristeltiin – what tense is it, and who is doing the action?

Koristeltiin is the past tense passive/impersonal form of the verb koristella (“to decorate”).

• Verb: koristella
• Present passive: koristellaan = “is/are decorated”, “people decorate”, “we decorate”
• Past passive: koristeltiin = “was/were decorated”, often understood as “we decorated / they decorated / people decorated”

Finnish passive usually describes an action where the doer is not named. In English it is often translated with:

• “we”: Yesterday we decorated the Christmas tree…
• or “they/people/one”: Yesterday they decorated the Christmas tree…

So koristeltiin here means “(someone, probably we/the family) decorated” in the past, but it keeps the doer grammatically unspecified.

Why is there no word like “we” (me) in the sentence?

The passive in Finnish (koristeltiin) already implies that some people did the action, often understood from context as:

• “we” (speaker + others),
• “they”,
• or “people in general”.

Because of this, Finnish usually does not add a subject pronoun to a true passive sentence. A fully “standard” version with an explicit we and personal verb would be:

• Eilen koristelimme joulukuusen yhdessä lasten kanssa.
  “Yesterday we decorated the Christmas tree together with the children.”

Here koristelimme is 1st person plural past (we decorated), so you then do use me (optionally):

• (Me) koristelimme joulukuusen.

But in the passive form koristeltiin, you don’t normally add a pronoun in standard written Finnish, because the verb form itself carries the “some people did it” idea.

In everyday speech I hear me koristeltiin-type sentences. Is that correct?

Yes, in colloquial spoken Finnish, people very often say:

• Me koristeltiin joulukuusi.

Grammatically this is a mix of:

• pronoun me (“we”)
• with the passive form koristeltiin.

In standard written Finnish, you would choose one of these patterns:

1. Personal “we” form

   • Me koristelimme joulukuusen.
     “We decorated the Christmas tree.”

2. Passive/impersonal form

   • Koristeltiin joulukuusi.
     “(We/they/people) decorated the Christmas tree.”

In speech, though, me + passive is extremely common and perfectly natural in informal contexts, even if it’s not considered formal standard.

What’s the difference between koristeltiin joulukuusi and koristelimme joulukuusen?

Two main differences: who is grammatically doing it, and object case.

1. Form and who is doing it

   • Koristeltiin joulukuusi
     – passive, past. No explicit subject; context often = “we”.
     – focuses more on the action itself than on the specific doers.
   • Koristelimme joulukuusen
     – 1st person plural past (“we decorated”).
     – explicitly says we are the doers.

2. Object case

   • joulukuusi (basic form) with passive
   • joulukuusen (genitive) with personal subject

In Finnish, a completed one-time action with a personal subject usually takes a genitive object:

• Me koristelimme joulukuusen. (“We decorated the whole tree.”)

With the passive, the corresponding “total object” appears in the nominative form:

• Koristeltiin joulukuusi.

Semantically, both sentences here usually mean the same thing: the whole Christmas tree got decorated (once, to completion). The choice is about style and focus (impersonal vs personal).

Why is it joulukuusi and not joulukuusen or joulukuusta?

This is about object case and aspect in Finnish.

1. Why not joulukuusen?

   • In an active sentence with a personal subject, you’d normally say:
     • Koristelimme joulukuusen.
   • In a passive sentence like koristeltiin, the “total object” appears in the nominative form:
     • Koristeltiin joulukuusi. Grammatically this nominative is functioning as an accusative (total object) in the passive.

2. Why not joulukuusta?

   • joulukuusta (partitive) would suggest an ongoing / incomplete / partial decoration:
     • Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusta.
       ≈ “Yesterday we were (in the process of) decorating the Christmas tree / decorating part of the tree.”

So:

• Koristeltiin joulukuusi.
  → The tree was (once) decorated, seen as a completed whole.
• Koristeltiin joulukuusta.
  → Emphasizes the process or partialness, not completion.

Could I say Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusta? What would that mean?

Yes, that is grammatical, but the meaning changes slightly.

• Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusi.
  → The decorating of the whole tree is viewed as completed.

• Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusta.
  → Focus is on the activity, not on finishing it. Possible interpretations:

  • “Yesterday we were decorating the Christmas tree (maybe didn’t finish).”
  • “Yesterday some of the Christmas tree was decorated (partly).”

This is the classic total object (joulukuusi) vs partitive object (joulukuusta) contrast in Finnish.

Why is it lasten and not lapset in yhdessä lasten kanssa?

Because the postposition kanssa (“with”) requires its complement in the genitive case.

• Nominative plural: lapset = “the children”
• Genitive plural: lasten = “of the children”

With kanssa, you must use the genitive:

• lasten kanssa = “with the children”
• ystävän kanssa = “with (a/the) friend”
• vanhempien kanssa = “with (the) parents”

So yhdessä lasten kanssa literally means “together with of-the-children”, i.e. “together with the children.”

Is yhdessä lasten kanssa redundant? Doesn’t kanssa already mean “with”?

You’re right that kanssa already expresses “with”. So:

• lasten kanssa = “with the children”

Adding yhdessä (“together”) can feel somewhat redundant, but it is very natural and common in Finnish. It tends to:

• Emphasize that the children participated in the activity, not just that they were physically present.
• Sound a bit warmer / more explicit: “together with the children” vs just “with the children”.

You could also say:

• Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusi lasten kanssa.
  (fully fine, just a bit less explicit about “togetherness”)

So it’s not wrong redundancy; it’s stylistic emphasis.

Can the order of yhdessä and lasten kanssa be changed?

Yes. Finnish word order is quite flexible, especially with adverbials. All of these are grammatical:

• Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusi yhdessä lasten kanssa.
• Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusi lasten kanssa yhdessä.

The most neutral and common is probably the original, with yhdessä right before lasten kanssa, forming a tight unit yhdessä lasten kanssa.

Moving yhdessä later (lasten kanssa yhdessä) is also fine and doesn’t really change the meaning, though it might sound a touch more marked or emphatic in some contexts. In ordinary conversation, both orders are used.

Can the word order of the whole sentence be changed? For example, can I start with joulukuusi?

Yes, but the emphasis changes slightly. Some common variants:

1. Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusi yhdessä lasten kanssa.
   – neutral: sets the time (“yesterday”) as the starting point.

2. Joulukuusi koristeltiin eilen yhdessä lasten kanssa.
   – now the Christmas tree is the “topic”/focus:
   “As for the Christmas tree, it was decorated yesterday together with the children.”

3. Yhdessä lasten kanssa koristeltiin eilen joulukuusi.
   – emphasizes the together with the children part.

All are grammatically correct. Finnish tends to place new or emphasized information later in the sentence, and you have more freedom than in English. The original sentence is simply a very natural, neutral choice.

Why does the Finnish passive here often translate to an English active “we” rather than “was decorated”?

Finnish passive and English passive do not match 1:1.

• Finnish koristeltiin is formally “passive/impersonal”, but in everyday usage it often means:
  • “we did X”
  • “they did X”
  • “someone did X”

So:

• Eilen koristeltiin joulukuusi.
  Very often best English:
  → “Yesterday we decorated the Christmas tree.”

You can translate it as an English passive:

• “Yesterday the Christmas tree was decorated together with the children.”

Grammatically that’s closer in form, but in natural English we often choose active with “we” because English passive is more limited and sounds more formal or impersonal.

So:

• Finnish passive = often indefinite human subject (“someone/we/they”)
• English passive = often avoid naming the subject or focus on the object
  Hence the difference in translation choices.

Why is joulukuusi written as one word and not capitalized like Christmas tree?

Two points: compounds and capitalization.

1. One word
   Finnish loves compound nouns:
   • joulu = Christmas
   • kuusi = spruce / fir tree
     → joulukuusi = Christmas spruce → “Christmas tree”

So where English writes “Christmas tree”, Finnish normally writes a single compound: joulukuusi.

2. Not capitalized
   In Finnish, names of holidays and related words are not capitalized (unless at the start of a sentence):

   • joulu = Christmas
   • jouluaatto = Christmas Eve
   • joulukuusi = Christmas tree

So joulukuusi is naturally lowercase in the middle of a sentence.