Breakdown of Mikrofoni on herkkä, joten se tallentaa myös hiljaiset askeleet pihalla.
Questions & Answers about Mikrofoni on herkkä, joten se tallentaa myös hiljaiset askeleet pihalla.
joten means so / therefore / as a result. It introduces a consequence of what was just said.
- Mikrofoni on herkkä, joten se tallentaa…
→ The microphone is sensitive, so it records…
Grammatically, joten connects two independent clauses, like English so in “X is true, so Y happens.” You put a comma before joten, then the result clause. Word order after joten is just normal main-clause word order: joten se tallentaa… (subject–verb–object).
Mikrofoni on herkkä is literally Microphone is sensitive → The microphone is sensitive.
- mikrofoni = microphone (no article)
- on = is (3rd person singular of olla, “to be”)
- herkkä = sensitive
In Finnish, the usual pattern for X is Y is:
[subject in nominative] + on + [predicative (adjective) in nominative]
Mikrofoni on herkkä. = The microphone is sensitive.
Putting the adjective before the noun (herkkä mikrofoni) would normally mean a sensitive microphone as a noun phrase, not as a full sentence.
You could say Mikrofoni on herkkä mikrofoni, but that sounds redundant (literally “The microphone is a sensitive microphone”). The simple Mikrofoni on herkkä is natural.
tallentaa means to record / to save (data, sound, video, etc.). It’s quite general:
- tallentaa ääntä = to record sound
- tallentaa videota = to record video
- tallentaa tiedosto = to save a file
Compared to similar verbs:
- äänittää = specifically to record sound / audio
- äänittää laulu = record a song
- nauhoittaa = originally “to tape-record” (on tape = nauha), now often just “record” (audio or video), slightly colloquial.
In this sentence, tallentaa fits well because we’re talking about a microphone capturing sound as data. Se tallentaa myös hiljaiset askeleet → It also records the quiet footsteps.
Finnish distinguishes between:
- hän = he / she (for people)
- se = it (for things, animals, etc. in neutral style)
Here, mikrofoni is an object, so:
- Mikrofoni on herkkä, joten se tallentaa…
→ The microphone is sensitive, so it records…
Using hän for a microphone would sound wrong unless you were deliberately personifying it in a very playful or poetic way. In everyday language, non-humans are se.
hiljaiset askeleet is in plural nominative form, but here it functions as the object of the verb tallentaa.
- hiljainen askel = a quiet step (singular nominative)
- hiljaiset askeleet = quiet steps (plural nominative)
With many transitive verbs, when the object is seen as a complete, bounded whole (a “total object”), the plural form is the same as the plural nominative:
- Se tallentaa hiljaiset askeleet.
→ It records the quiet footsteps (all of them, as a complete group).
So grammatically:
- form: plural nominative
- function in this sentence: total object of tallentaa
This is a common point of confusion: in plural, the total object often looks like the nominative.
In Finnish, descriptive adjectives almost always come before the noun:
- hiljaiset askeleet = quiet steps
- suuri talo = big house
- vanha auto = old car
Putting the adjective after the noun (askeleet hiljaiset) is not normal neutral Finnish. It would sound strange or extremely poetic, and even then you’d usually need a different structure.
So the default, normal pattern is:
[adjective] + [noun]
hiljaiset askeleet pihalla
pihalla is the inessive case of piha (yard, courtyard). The inessive ending is -ssa / -ssä, which often corresponds to English in / at / on depending on the noun.
- piha = yard
- pihassa / pihalla = in the yard / out in the yard
With piha, both pihassa and pihalla are used, but pihalla is very common in the sense of outside in the yard / out in the yard.
So hiljaiset askeleet pihalla ≈ the quiet footsteps outside in the yard.
Note: pihalla also has an idiomatic meaning “confused / out of it” (e.g. Olen ihan pihalla = “I’m totally lost/confused”), but in this sentence it’s clearly the literal location.
myös means also / too / as well. It usually comes before the word or phrase it modifies.
In se tallentaa myös hiljaiset askeleet pihalla, the structure is:
- se tallentaa = it records
- myös hiljaiset askeleet pihalla = also the quiet footsteps in the yard
So myös belongs with hiljaiset askeleet pihalla:
→ It records also the quiet footsteps outside (in addition to other sounds).
Other typical positions:
- Myös mikrofoni on herkkä. = The microphone is also sensitive.
- Mikrofoni on myös herkkä. = The microphone is also sensitive. (slightly different emphasis)
Position can change the focus a bit, but the rule of thumb is: put myös just before what you want to say “also” about.
on is the 3rd person singular of olla, which covers both to be and to have, depending on structure.
Here:
- Mikrofoni on herkkä = The microphone is sensitive.
→ subject (mikrofoni) + on- adjective (herkkä)
This is the “to be” use: X is Y.
But with a possessor phrase (minulla, hänellä, etc.), olla expresses “to have”:
- Minulla on mikrofoni. = I have a microphone.
(literally: “At me is a microphone.”)
So yes, on can mean either is or has, but the sentence structure tells you which one is intended. In this sentence, it clearly means is.
You could say:
- Mikrofoni on niin herkkä, että se tallentaa myös hiljaiset askeleet pihalla.
Here the structure is:
- niin herkkä, että… = so sensitive that…
This shifts the nuance slightly:
- joten = so / therefore → direct logical consequence
- niin herkkä, että = so X that Y → emphasizes degree (how sensitive it is)
With plain että without niin, you’d usually change the structure more (e.g. subordinate clause), and it wouldn’t be a simple drop-in replacement in this sentence.
So:
- Mikrofoni on herkkä, joten se tallentaa…
→ states a cause and effect. - Mikrofoni on niin herkkä, että se tallentaa…
→ stresses how sensitive the mic is, with the recording as proof.