Learn Hardcore Finnish: En ymmärrä sitä vielä.

You can say Minä en ymmärrä sitä vielä, but minä then adds emphasis, like “I don’t understand it yet (but maybe others do).” In neutral, everyday speech, Finns normally drop the pronoun here.

Why are there two parts “en” and “ymmärrä”? Is “en” like English “don’t”?

Yes. Finnish uses a special negative verb instead of “do + not”.

en = negative verb, 1st person singular (“I don’t / I do not”)
ymmärrä = main verb “to understand” in its negative form (so-called connegative form)

So where English says “I don’t understand”, Finnish literally says something like “I-not understand” → En ymmärrä. The form of both parts changes with person and number (e.g. en ymmärrä, et ymmärrä, ei ymmärrä, emme ymmärrä, etc.).

What exactly is the form “ymmärrä”? Why not “ymmärtää”?

Ymmärtää is the dictionary (infinitive) form, meaning “to understand”.

In this sentence:

ymmärrä is the present tense, connegative form of the verb, used together with the negative verb (en, et, ei, etc.).
In a positive sentence you’d say: Ymmärrän sitä. (“I understand it.”) – here the verb becomes ymmärrän.
In a negative sentence you say: En ymmärrä sitä. (“I don’t understand it.”) – the main verb switches to this special ymmärrä form.

So the negative verb en carries the person marking, and ymmärrä stays in a fixed shape.

Why is it “sitä” and not “sen” for “it”?

Sitä is the partitive case of se (“it / that”). In Finnish, objects in negative sentences are normally in the partitive.

Positive: Ymmärrän sen. = “I understand it.” (total object → sen)
Negative: En ymmärrä sitä. = “I don’t understand it.” (because it’s negative → sitä)

So the main reason for sitä here is the negation. When you say you don’t understand something, Finnish grammar requires the object in the partitive case.

What does “sitä” refer to exactly? Does it have gender like “he / she / it”?

Sitä is the partitive of se, and se is a gender-neutral pronoun.

It can mean “it” (for things, ideas, situations, etc.)
It can also sometimes mean “that” in English, depending on context.

Finnish pronouns do not mark gender, so se/sitä can refer to something that would be “he”, “she”, or “it” in English, but in this kind of sentence it’s usually “it” (“I don’t understand it yet.”). The exact thing it refers to comes from the wider context.

Why is “vielä” at the end of the sentence? Can I move it?

Yes, you can move vielä; word order in Finnish is flexible and mainly affects emphasis and rhythm, not basic meaning.

Common options:

En ymmärrä sitä vielä. – neutral: “I don’t understand it yet.” (focus often on “yet” / the whole situation)
En vielä ymmärrä sitä. – slight emphasis on the “not yet” part (like “I don’t yet understand it”).

Both are correct and usually understood the same way in everyday speech. Putting vielä at the end is very natural in spoken Finnish for this meaning.

Does “vielä” here mean “yet” or “still”? What’s the nuance?

With negation, vielä normally translates as “yet” → “not yet”.

En ymmärrä sitä vielä. = “I don’t understand it yet.”
(Implies you expect understanding later.)

To clearly say “I still don’t understand it” with a strong still meaning (“even after all this time”), Finnish more often uses vieläkään:

En vieläkään ymmärrä sitä. = “I still don’t understand it (even now).”

So in your sentence, vielä carries the “not yet (but probably later)” idea.

Can I drop “sitä” and just say “En ymmärrä vielä”?

Yes, you can. En ymmärrä vielä. is perfectly grammatical and means “I don’t understand (yet)”.

The object (“it/this/that”) is then just implied from context.
English does this too sometimes: “I don’t understand yet,” when it’s already clear what “it” refers to.

Including sitä makes it more explicit: you’re clearly referring to some specific thing, idea, explanation, or situation.

What tense is “En ymmärrä sitä vielä”? Could it mean “I am not understanding it yet”?

Grammatically, this is present tense.

Finnish present tense covers both English simple present and present continuous.
So En ymmärrä sitä vielä can be translated both as:
- “I don’t understand it yet.”
- “I am not understanding it yet.” (though this is unusual in English; we’d still normally say “don’t understand”.)

Context decides how you phrase it in English, but Finnish doesn’t distinguish those two forms.

How would I say “I didn’t understand it yet (at that time)” in Finnish?

You’d put the verb into past tense, but keep the negative construction similar:

En vielä ymmärtänyt sitä.
- en = I did not
- vielä = yet
- ymmärtänyt = past negative form of ymmärtää
- sitä = it (partitive, required by the negation)

This means: “At that earlier point, I did not yet understand it.”

Is “Minä en ymmärrä sitä vielä” wrong or unnatural?

It’s correct and completely understandable.

Difference in nuance:

En ymmärrä sitä vielä. – neutral, everyday way to say it.
Minä en ymmärrä sitä vielä. – puts extra emphasis on “I”.
Like saying “I don’t understand it yet (maybe someone else does).”

In normal, neutral conversation, Finns usually leave out minä unless they want to stress the subject.

Does “vielä” also mean “more”? How do I tell which meaning it has here?

Yes, vielä can mean “still / yet” or “more”, depending on context.

With quantities: Haluatko vielä kahvia? = “Do you want more coffee?”
With time/continuation:
- Olen vielä täällä. = “I’m still here.”
- En ymmärrä sitä vielä. = “I don’t understand it yet.”

In En ymmärrä sitä vielä, there is no quantity involved, only the timing of understanding, so the correct reading is “yet”.