Breakdown of Kotona kuuntelen opettajan ääntä ja sanon lauseet monta kertaa, jotta ääntämisharjoitus auttaa paremmin.
Questions & Answers about Kotona kuuntelen opettajan ääntä ja sanon lauseet monta kertaa, jotta ääntämisharjoitus auttaa paremmin.
The word koti (home) has a special adverbial form kotona, which means “at home”.
- koti = home (basic form)
- kotona = at home (location)
- kotiin = (to) home, homeward (direction)
- kotoa = from home (origin)
So Kotona kuuntelen… literally means “(When I am) at home, I listen…”.
You could say kodissa (“in the home / in the house”), but:
- kodissa sounds more physical, like “inside the home (as a building)”
- kotona is the everyday, idiomatic way to say “at home” in general
There is no form kotilla; koti simply doesn’t use the normal -lla/-llä “on, at” ending in this meaning.
Both verbs are about sound, but the meaning is different:
- kuulla = to hear (involuntary, just happens)
- Kuulen opettajan äänen. = I hear the teacher’s voice.
- kuunnella = to listen (actively, on purpose)
- Kuuntelen opettajan ääntä. = I (actively) listen to the teacher’s voice.
In the sentence, the person is doing a pronunciation exercise, so they are actively listening. That’s why kuunnella is used.
Kuuntelen is:
- verb: kuunnella
- person: 1st person singular (I)
- tense: present
- form: kuuntelen = “I listen / I am listening”
The pronoun minä is dropped because it’s clear from the verb ending -n that the subject is “I”.
Opettajan is the genitive form of opettaja (teacher). The genitive is used for possession or “of”-relationships.
- opettaja = a teacher
- opettajan ääni = the teacher’s voice (literally “voice of the teacher”)
In the sentence:
- opettajan ääntä = the teacher’s voice (object of “listen to”)
So opettaja ääntä would be wrong; we need the genitive opettajan to show that the voice belongs to the teacher.
This is about the partitive case.
Base word:
- ääni = voice, sound
Forms:
- ääni (nominative) – subject form: Ääni on kaunis. (The voice is beautiful.)
- äänen (genitive) – possession: Opettajan äänen kuulen. (I hear the teacher’s voice.)
- ääntä (partitive) – often used with verbs like kuunnella
The verb kuunnella (to listen) usually likes a partitive object because listening is an ongoing, incomplete process:
- Kuuntelen musiikkia. = I (am) listen(ing to) music.
- Kuuntelen opettajan ääntä. = I listen to the teacher’s voice.
So ääntä is the partitive singular of ääni. Using ääntä here is standard and idiomatic with kuunnella.
This is about total vs. partial object.
Base word:
- lause = sentence
Plural forms:
- lauseet = plural nominative (used as total object)
- lauseita = plural partitive (used as partial object)
In Finnish, objects can be:
- total → the action is complete, the whole thing
- partial → incomplete, ongoing, or “some amount of”
Sanon lauseet monta kertaa means:
- “I say the sentences many times” (I say all of them, fully, repeatedly)
Because the speaker repeats the whole sentences, they are treated as a total object, and the correct form is lauseet.
If it were lauseita, it would feel like “I say some sentences” or “just parts / some amount of sentences,” which is not the idea here.
All of these are grammatically possible, but the most natural and common expression in this meaning is monta kertaa.
Breakdown:
- monta = many (quantifier that takes a singular partitive noun)
- kerta = time (as in “once, twice…”)
- kertaa = singular partitive of kerta
So:
- monta kertaa = many times
Alternatives:
- monet kerrat (nominative plural) – more like “the many times”, often with extra emphasis or in a more written style.
- monia kertoja (partitive plural) – “many (individual) occasions”; also correct, but stylistically different.
In everyday speech, to say “many times” in this exact sense, monta kertaa is by far the most typical phrase.
Grammatically:
- monta behaves like a quantifier (“many, a lot of”) that requires the singular partitive of the noun that follows.
So:
- monta
- kerta → monta kertaa
- monta
- tunti → monta tuntia (many hours)
- monta
- kirja → monta kirjaa (many books)
Even though the meaning is plural (“many times”), Finnish treats the noun after monta as singular partitive. That’s why we do monta kertaa, not monta kerrat or monta kertoja.
jotta introduces a purpose or result clause and usually corresponds to English “so that / in order that”.
In the sentence:
- ..., jotta ääntämisharjoitus auttaa paremmin.
- “..., so that the pronunciation exercise helps better.”
Difference from että:
- että = that (just links two clauses, often for reported speech, facts)
- Tiedän, että ääntämisharjoitus auttaa. = I know that the pronunciation exercise helps.
- jotta = so that / in order that (purpose, intended result)
- Teen harjoituksia, jotta oppisin. = I do exercises so that I would learn.
Here, the speaker is explaining purpose: they repeat the sentences in order that the practice helps more. So jotta is the right conjunction.
Both are possible, but they have a slightly different feeling.
jotta ääntämisharjoitus auttaa paremmin
- mood: indicative
- sense: the speaker is quite confident about the result; it’s presented almost like a fact:
- “so that the pronunciation exercise helps better (that’s what it does).”
jotta ääntämisharjoitus auttaisi paremmin
- mood: conditional
- sense: more hypothetical or desired result:
- “so that the pronunciation exercise would help better.”
In learner-friendly, neutral Finnish, the conditional version jotta … auttaisi paremmin is extremely common when talking about purpose and hoped-for results. The indicative version in your sentence is still acceptable, just slightly more “factual” in tone.
ääntämisharjoitus is a compound word:
- ääntäminen = pronunciation (from the verb ääntää, to pronounce)
- harjoitus = exercise, practice
In compounds, a noun derived with -minen usually appears with the stem ending in -mis:
- kuunnella → kuunteleminen → kuunteluharjoitus
- kirjoittaa → kirjoittaminen → kirjoitusharjoitus
- ääntää → ääntäminen → ääntämisharjoitus
So:
- ääntäminen → stem: ääntämis-
- harjoitus
- = ääntämisharjoitus (pronunciation exercise)
This is a very typical way to build compound nouns in Finnish: (verb + -minen) + another noun → use the -mis- stem in the compound.
parempi is the comparative adjective of hyvä (good):
- hyvä = good
- parempi = better (as an adjective before a noun)
- parempi harjoitus = a better exercise
paremmin is the comparative adverb of hyvin (well):
- hyvin = well
- paremmin = better (in the sense of “more well” / “in a better way”)
In the sentence:
- ääntämisharjoitus auttaa paremmin ≈ “the pronunciation exercise helps better / more effectively”
Here you are describing how it helps (manner), so you need the adverb paremmin, not the adjective parempi.
Yes, you can absolutely say:
- Kuuntelen opettajan ääntä kotona ja sanon lauseet monta kertaa, jotta ääntämisharjoitus auttaa paremmin.
Word order in Finnish is fairly flexible, and moving elements around often changes emphasis, not basic meaning.
Starting with Kotona:
- Kotona kuuntelen opettajan ääntä…
- Emphasizes where this happens: At home, I do this listening.
- Very natural if you contrast with some other place (e.g., not in class, but at home).
Starting with the verb and subject understood:
- Kuuntelen opettajan ääntä kotona…
- More neutral order, just stating the action and then the place.
Both are grammatically fine; the original just foregrounds the setting “at home”.
In Finnish, personal pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person.
- (Minä) kuuntelen. = I listen.
- (Sinä) kuuntelet. = You listen.
- (Hän) kuuntelee. = He/She listens.
So kuuntelen alone already means “I listen / I am listening.” Adding minä is possible, but usually only for emphasis or contrast:
- Minä kuuntelen opettajan ääntä, en sinä.
- I listen to the teacher’s voice, not you.
In your sentence, there is no contrast like that, so dropping minä is the normal, natural choice.