Sovellus säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti.

The app adjusts the temperature automatically.

Breakdown of Sovellus säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti.

• säätää: to adjust
• sovellus: the app
• lämpötila: the temperature
• automaattisesti: automatically

Questions & Answers about Sovellus säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti.

Can you break down what each word in Sovellus säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti corresponds to in English?

Word-by-word:

• Sovellus

  • Meaning: application, app
  • Form: nominative singular (the basic subject form)
  • Function: subject of the sentence

• säätää

  • Meaning: adjusts, regulates, sets
  • Form: 3rd person singular present indicative (same spelling as the dictionary form / infinitive)
  • Function: verb

• lämpötilan

  • Meaning: the temperature (as a whole)
  • Form: genitive singular form of lämpötila (temperature)
  • Function: direct object (a total object – the whole temperature is affected)

• automaattisesti

  • Meaning: automatically
  • Form: adverb, formed from the adjective automaattinen (automatic)
  • Function: tells how the action is done (adverbial of manner)

So structurally it’s Subject – Verb – Object – Adverb, similar to English.

Why is there no word for the or an before sovellus and lämpötila?

Finnish simply has no articles like a/an or the.

• Sovellus can mean:

  • an app, the app, or just app (in a generic sense), depending only on context.

• lämpötilan can mean:

  • the temperature or a certain temperature, again depending on context.

Whether you translate it as the app or an app in English depends on what has been mentioned or is known in the larger text or situation. Finnish does not mark that distinction in the noun itself.

What verb form is säätää, and how would it change for different persons?

In this sentence, säätää is:

• tense/mood: present indicative
• person/number: 3rd person singular (he/she/it adjusts)

It looks identical to the dictionary form (the 1st infinitive), which is also säätää. The function is clear from context and position in the sentence.

Present indicative forms:

• minä säädän – I adjust
• sinä säädät – you (sing.) adjust
• hän säätää – he/she/it adjusts
• me säädämme – we adjust
• te säädätte – you (pl.) adjust
• he säätävät – they adjust

So the sentence could change, for example, to:

• Me säädämme lämpötilan automaattisesti. – We adjust the temperature automatically.

Why is it lämpötilan with -n, not just lämpötila?

The -n ending here is the genitive singular form of lämpötila:

• lämpötila → lämpötilan

In this sentence, that genitive form is used as a direct object, and it represents a total object: the whole temperature is adjusted to some target.

In traditional grammar terms:

• The object case (accusative) in singular shares its form with the genitive for most nouns (ending in -n).
• So lämpötilan is often called genitive form, functioning as an accusative (total object).

Very practically for a learner:

• -n on the object often means the action is complete / affects the whole thing:
  • Sovellus säätää lämpötilan. – It adjusts the (whole) temperature.

What’s the difference between lämpötilan and lämpötilaa as an object?

This is the contrast between total object and partitive object:

• lämpötilan (genitive / total object):

  • The temperature is seen as a whole, the adjustment is complete or bounded.
  • Implies it (fully) sets/adjusts the temperature (to some value).

• lämpötilaa (partitive object):

  • Indicates something partial, uncompleted, or ongoing.
  • Would suggest it adjusts the temperature a bit / to some extent / is in the process of adjusting.
  • In this exact sentence, Sovellus säätää lämpötilaa automaattisesti would usually sound like an ongoing process or an unbounded activity, and is much less natural as a generic feature description.

So for a clear statement of a feature (The app adjusts the temperature automatically), lämpötilan (total object) is the normal and expected choice.

What does the ending -sti in automaattisesti mean?

The suffix -sti is a common way to form adverbs from adjectives in Finnish, similar to -ly in English.

• adjective: automaattinen – automatic
• adverb: automaattisesti – automatically

Other examples:

• nopea – fast → nopeasti – quickly / fast
• selvä – clear → selvästi – clearly
• tavallinen – ordinary → tavallisesti – usually / normally

So you can think: automaattinen → automaattisesti is roughly automatic → automatically.

Can the word order change? For example, can I say Sovellus automaattisesti säätää lämpötilan?

Yes. Finnish word order is relatively flexible, and your example is grammatical. The different word orders mainly affect emphasis and information structure, not basic meaning.

Some possibilities:

1. Sovellus säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti.

   • Neutral default: The app adjusts the temperature automatically.

2. Sovellus automaattisesti säätää lämpötilan.

   • Slight emphasis on automaattisesti: the fact that it does it automatically is more in focus.

3. Lämpötilan sovellus säätää automaattisesti.

   • Fronting lämpötilan gives it emphasis, e.g. contrasting with something else:
     It is the *temperature that the app adjusts automatically (not something else).*

4. Automaattisesti sovellus säätää lämpötilan.

   • Strong emphasis on automatically; stylistically marked.

For a neutral, non-contrasty statement (like a feature description), Sovellus säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti is the most typical.

Could you drop sovellus and just say Säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti?

You can, but only in certain contexts.

Grammatically, Finnish often drops personal pronouns (minä, sinä, me, te) because the verb ending shows the person. But here the subject is a noun (sovellus), not a pronoun, and the verb form säätää does not by itself tell you who does the action.

So:

• In a full normal sentence, you would keep the subject:

  • Sovellus säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti.

• In UI labels, headlines, or bullet points, the subject or other elements can be left out:

  • On a settings screen a label might just say:
    Säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti – as a telegraphic description.

Outside that kind of compact style, omitting sovellus would usually make the sentence feel incomplete.

How do you talk about the future here? Does Finnish have a special future tense like English will adjust?

Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense is used for both present and future, and context tells you which is meant.

So:

• Sovellus säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti.
  • can mean:
    • The app adjusts the temperature automatically (in general, habitually).
    • The app will adjust the temperature automatically (when in use).

If you really want to emphasize a planned or upcoming future event, you can use other structures, for example:

• Sovellus tulee säätämään lämpötilan automaattisesti.
  The app is going to adjust / will adjust the temperature automatically.

But in product descriptions and general statements, the plain present is normally used and covers the future meaning.

Is säätää only used for temperature, or more generally? Are there common synonyms?

Säätää is quite general and means to regulate, adjust, tune, set (by fine-tuning). It’s not limited to temperature.

Examples:

• säätää äänenvoimakkuutta – adjust the volume
• säätää kirkkautta – adjust the brightness
• säätää istuin – adjust the seat
• säätää lakia – (formally) legislate, “set a law”

Common related verbs:

• asettaa – to set/put (into a position or value)

  • asettaa lämpötila 22 asteeseen – set the temperature to 22 degrees

• muuttaa – to change (more general, not necessarily fine-tuning)

  • muuttaa lämpötilaa – change the temperature

So:

• säätää lämpötilan often suggests regulating it to the right or desired value,
• asettaa lämpötila(n) suggests setting it to a specific value,
• muuttaa lämpötilaa just says you change it somehow.

How do you pronounce Sovellus säätää lämpötilan automaattisesti, especially ä and the long vowels?

Key points:

1. Stress

   • Always on the first syllable of each word:
     • SO-vellus SÄÄ-tää LÄM-pö-tilan AU-to-maa-ttis-es-ti

2. Ä vs A

   • ä is fronted, somewhat like the a in “cat”, but without the English off-glide.
   • a is a back vowel, like the a in Italian “pasta”.

3. Long vowels and double consonants

   • Written aa, ää, ii, etc. are long vowels. You hold them about twice as long:
     • säätää: both ää are long.
   • Double consonants (ll, tt, mm, etc.) are also long and should be clearly held:
     • sovellus: ll is long.
     • automaattisesti: aa and tt are long.

A rough IPA transcription:

• Sovellus – [ˈsove̞lːus]
• säätää – [ˈsæːtæː]
• lämpötilan – [ˈlæmpøtilɑn]
• automaattisesti – [ˈɑutɔmɑːtːisɛsti]

The most important thing for intelligibility is to keep the length distinctions (short vs. long vowels and consonants) and stress the first syllable of each word.

How would you make the sentence negative, or say that the app adjusts the temperature manually instead of automatically?

To make it negative, you use the negative verb ei and typically change the object to partitive:

• Sovellus ei säädä lämpötilaa automaattisesti.
  
  • The app does not adjust the temperature automatically.

Changes to notice:

• säätää → säädä (the connegative form used with ei)
• lämpötilan → lämpötilaa (partitive object under negation)

To say it adjusts the temperature manually, you can use:

• Sovellus säätää lämpötilan manuaalisesti.
  
  • The app adjusts the temperature manually.

or more colloquially:

• Sovellus säätää lämpötilan käsin.
  
  • literally: by hand (manually)

Again, manuaalisesti is formed with -sti from manuaalinen (manual).