Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla.

The taxi takes me home in the evening.

Breakdown of Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla.

• koti: the home
• -iin: to
• minut: me
• illalla: in the evening
• taksi: the taxi
• viedä: to carry

Questions & Answers about Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla.

In the sentence Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla, what does each word do grammatically?

Word by word:

• taksi

  • Meaning: taxi
  • Case: nominative singular
  • Function: subject of the sentence

• vie

  • Meaning: takes / will take
  • Verb: viedä (to take, to carry away)
  • Form: 3rd person singular, present tense, active (he/she/it takes)
  • Agrees with taksi

• minut

  • Meaning: me
  • Base pronoun: minä (I)
  • Case: accusative singular (total object)
  • Function: direct object (the thing being taken)

• kotiin

  • Meaning: (to) home
  • Base noun: koti (home)
  • Case: illative singular (movement into/to)
  • Function: destination

• illalla

  • Meaning: in the evening
  • Base noun: ilta (evening)
  • Case: adessive singular, used here as a time expression
  • Function: adverbial of time

Why is it vie and not something like “will take”? Where is the future tense?

Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense is used for:

• Present actions:
  
  • Taksi vie minut kotiin. = The taxi is taking / takes me home.
• Future actions:
  
  • Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla. = The taxi will take me home in the evening.

You understand it is about the future because of the time word illalla (in the evening) and from context. If you really want to stress that it is planned or certain, you might add an adverb:

• Taksi varmasti vie minut kotiin illalla. = The taxi will definitely take me home in the evening.

But grammatically it is still the same present tense form vie.

Why is it minut and not minä or minua?

All three forms come from the same pronoun minä (I):

• minä – nominative (I)
• minut – accusative (me as a complete object)
• minua – partitive (me in an incomplete/ongoing sense, or with certain verbs)

In Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla:

• minut is a total object: the taxi takes “all of me” all the way home once, with a clear end result.
• That’s why the accusative (-t ending) is used: minä → minut.

If you used minua, it would sound like:

• emphasizing an ongoing or incomplete process (Taksi kuljettaa minua kotiin would feel like “The taxi is transporting me (somewhere homewards)” – not a neat, finished “from here to home” event).
• or it would just be wrong with viedä, which normally takes a total object here.

So the natural, correct form in this sentence is minut.

What exactly does kotiin mean, and how is it different from koti or kotona?

All of these are forms of koti (home), but with different cases and meanings:

• koti

  • Case: nominative
  • Meaning: home (as a basic noun)
  • Example: Tämä on minun koti. = This is my home.

• kotiin

  • Case: illative (into, to)
  • Meaning: (to) home, into home
  • Example: Menen kotiin. = I am going home.
  • In your sentence: minut kotiin = me to home.

• kotona

  • Case: adessive (at, on), but for koti it means “at home”
  • Meaning: at home
  • Example: Olen kotona. = I am at home.

So:

• Movement towards home → kotiin (to home)
• Being at home, in that location → kotona (at home)
• Talking about “home” as a thing → koti (home)

That’s why kotiin is used with vie (takes): the taxi takes you to home.

Why is there no separate word like “to” before kotiin?

Finnish usually uses case endings instead of prepositions for basic relations like “to”, “in”, “at”, “from”.

In English:

• to home
• in the house
• from school

In Finnish, the idea of to / in / at / from is usually built into the ending of the noun:

• koti → kotiin = to home (illative, movement into)
• talo → talossa = in the house (inessive)
• koulu → koulusta = from school (elative)

So kotiin already contains the meaning of to, so there is no extra word needed.

What does illalla literally mean, and why does it use -lla?

Base word: ilta = evening.

illalla is:

• Case: adessive singular (-lla/-llä)
• Form: ilta → illalla (with consonant change: lt → ll)
• Meaning: in the evening / this evening

Finnish often uses the adessive case for times of day:

• aamu → aamulla = in the morning
• päivä → päivällä = in the daytime / during the day
• ilta → illalla = in the evening
• yö → yöllä = at night

So illalla is a standard way to say in the evening. The -lla is not “on” here; in time expressions it simply marks when something happens.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” taxi? How do I know if taksi is definite or indefinite?

Finnish has no articles like a / an / the. The bare noun taksi can correspond to:

• a taxi
• the taxi
• taxis (in some contexts, though then the verb would usually be plural)

You get the idea of definiteness or indefiniteness from context, not from a separate word:

• Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla.
  
  • Could be: A taxi will take me home in the evening.
  • Or: The taxi will take me home in the evening.

If the speaker has a specific taxi in mind (for example, a taxi already ordered), English uses the, but Finnish still just says taksi.

Can I move illalla or other parts around, like Illalla taksi vie minut kotiin? Does the word order change the meaning?

Yes, Finnish word order is relatively flexible, especially for adverbials like time and place. All of these are grammatically fine:

• Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla.
• Illalla taksi vie minut kotiin.
• Taksi illalla vie minut kotiin. (less neutral, a bit marked)

The basic neutral order is usually:

Subject – Verb – Object – Other parts
Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla.

Moving illalla to the front:

• Illalla taksi vie minut kotiin.
  
  • Slight emphasis on illalla = “In the evening, the taxi will take me home.”

Moving parts around mostly changes emphasis or focus, not the core meaning. But for learners, sticking to the neutral SVO order is safest:

Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla.

What is the difference between viedä (as in vie) and tuoda? Both seem to be “bring/take”.

Both verbs describe moving something or someone, but from different points of view:

• viedä (here: vie) – to take something away from the current speaker’s location

  • Direction: from “here” to “there”
  • Example: Taksi vie minut kotiin. = The taxi takes me away from here to home.

• tuoda – to bring something to the speaker’s or some reference location

  • Direction: from “there” to “here” (or to a specified place)
  • Example: Taksi tuo minut kotiin. = The taxi brings me home (to where I am/will be).

In your sentence, viedä is more natural because you usually think of the taxi taking you from where you are now to your home.

If someone at home is speaking and thinking from home’s point of view, they might say:

• Taksi tuo hänet kotiin illalla. = The taxi will bring him/her home in the evening.

How would I say “Taxis take me home in the evenings” (plural, habitual) instead of a single taxi?

You need:

1. Plural subject: taksit (taxis)
2. Plural verb: vievät (3rd person plural of viedä)
3. A time expression that suggests a repeated/habitual action: iltaisin (in the evenings)

So you could say:

• Taksit vievät minut kotiin iltaisin.
  = Taxis take me home in the evenings.

Breakdown:

• taksit – taxis (nominative plural, subject)
• vievät – they take (3rd person plural present of viedä)
• minut – me (accusative, total object)
• kotiin – to home (illative)
• iltaisin – in the evenings / on evenings (habitual time form of ilta)

I’ve heard people say mut instead of minut in speech. Is that related to this sentence?

Yes. In casual spoken Finnish, especially in many dialects, the object pronoun minut is very often shortened to mut:

• Standard: Taksi vie minut kotiin illalla.
• Colloquial: Taksi vie mut kotiin illalla.

Similarly:

• sinut → sut (you)
• meidät → meijät / meidät → meit (us), etc.

This shortening is informal speech, not standard written Finnish.
For learning grammar and writing, it’s better to use:

• minut in your sentence, not mut.