Yksi koulukaveri puhuu suomea äidinkielenään ja korjaa virheitäni ystävällisesti.

One schoolmate speaks Finnish as a native language and kindly corrects my mistakes.

Breakdown of Yksi koulukaveri puhuu suomea äidinkielenään ja korjaa virheitäni ystävällisesti.

• minun: my
• ja: and
• puhua: to speak
• suomi: Finnish
• yksi: one
• hänen: his/her
• -nä: as
• virhe: the mistake
• äidinkieli: the native language
• korjata: to correct
• ystävällisesti: kindly
• koulukaveri: the schoolmate

Questions & Answers about Yksi koulukaveri puhuu suomea äidinkielenään ja korjaa virheitäni ystävällisesti.

Why is there no hän (“he / she”) in Yksi koulukaveri puhuu suomea…? In English we always need a subject.

Finnish does not need a separate personal pronoun when the subject is clear from the verb form.

• puhuu is the 3rd person singular form of puhua (“to speak”).
• Because puhuu is 3rd person singular and we also see yksi koulukaveri (“one classmate”), it is already clear who is doing the action.

So Yksi koulukaveri puhuu… literally just omits hän, but the meaning is still “One classmate (he/she) speaks…”. Adding hän would sound unusual or emphatic here: Yksi koulukaveri, hän puhuu suomea… (“One classmate, she speaks Finnish…”).

Why is yksi used? I thought Finnish has no article like “a” or “one”.

Finnish does not have articles, but yksi (literally “one”) can behave a bit like “one / a certain” in English.

• koulukaveri puhuu suomea… could in theory mean “A classmate speaks Finnish…”, but on its own it sounds incomplete or like we are talking about “the classmate” already known from context.
• Yksi koulukaveri puhuu… suggests “one (particular) classmate” out of a larger group. It has the flavor of “one of my classmates”.

So here yksi does two things:

1. It introduces a new, specific but previously unknown person into the story.
2. It emphasizes “one (not all) of my classmates”.

You could also see forms like Eräs koulukaveri… (“a certain classmate…”), which has a similar “one particular person” nuance.

What exactly does koulukaveri mean, and how is it formed?

koulukaveri is a compound noun:

• koulu = school
• kaveri = friend, buddy, mate

Together: koulukaveri = schoolmate, often translated as classmate in English, depending on context.

There is a related word:

• luokkakaveri = luokka (class) + kaveri → classmate in the strict sense (same teaching group).

So:

• koulukaveri = someone from the same school (broader).
• luokkakaveri = someone from the same class (narrower).

In everyday speech, people often use koulukaveri freely where English would say “classmate”.

Why is it suomea, not suomi, and why is it not capitalized?

Two things are going on: case and capitalization.

1. Case (suomea vs. suomi)
   
   • suomi is the basic (nominative) form: “Finnish / Finland”.
   • suomea is the partitive singular of suomi.

With the verb puhua (“to speak”), languages are almost always in the partitive:

• puhua suomea – to speak Finnish
• puhua englantia – to speak English
• puhua ruotsia – to speak Swedish

The partitive here reflects something like “some (amount of) Finnish”, an unbounded activity, which fits “speaking a language”.

2. Capitalization
   In Finnish, names of languages are not capitalized:

• suomi (Finnish)
• englanti (English)
• ruotsi (Swedish)

So suomea is just the normal, correctly inflected form of “Finnish” after puhuu.

What exactly is going on in äidinkielenään? Why that long form instead of just äidinkieli?

äidinkielenään packs several pieces of information into one word.

Start with the base word:

• äidinkieli = äidin (mother’s) + kieli (language) → mother tongue / native language

Now its form in the sentence:

1. Essive case (-nä / -nä):

   • äidinkieli → äidinkielenä
   • The essive often means “as / in the role of”.
   • So äidinkielenä ≈ “as a mother tongue”.

2. Possessive suffix for 3rd person (-än here):

   • äidinkielenä
     • -än → äidinkielenään
   • This suffix means “his / her” attached directly to the noun.

So äidinkielenään literally is:

• “as his/her mother tongue”

Putting it back in the sentence:

• puhuu suomea äidinkielenään ≈ “speaks Finnish as his/her native language”.

The possessive suffix tells us that the mother tongue belongs to that classmate, not to someone else.

Is there a difference between äidinkielenä and äidinkielenään?

Yes.

• äidinkielenä = “as a mother tongue / as the mother tongue” in a more general sense; no owner is specified.
• äidinkielenään = “as his/her mother tongue” – it clearly says the mother tongue belongs to the subject (the classmate).

In this sentence we want to say it’s that classmate’s own native language, so äidinkielenään is the natural choice. Without the -än, it would sound more abstract or incomplete here.

What does virheitäni consist of, and why is it in that form instead of something like virheeni?

virheitäni has both case and possession:

1. Base noun:

   • virhe = mistake, error

2. Plural partitive:

   • virhe → virheitä (partitive plural: “(some) mistakes”)

3. 1st person possessive suffix:

   • virheitä
     • -ni → virheitäni = “my mistakes” (in partitive plural)

So virheitäni = “(some) of my mistakes”.

Why partitive (virheitäni) and not a “whole object” form (virheeni)?

• korjaa virheeni → “corrects my mistakes (all of them, completely)” (more total).
• korjaa virheitäni → “corrects my mistakes (some of them / mistakes in general)”.

In this context, we usually mean that the classmate generally corrects my mistakes (as they occur), not that they fix a specific, closed set of mistakes once and for all. That ongoing, non‑total idea is what the partitive expresses nicely.

Could I also say minun virheitäni instead of virheitäni? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say minun virheitäni, and the meaning is almost the same.

• virheitäni = “my mistakes” (the -ni suffix already marks the possessor).
• minun virheitäni = literally “my mistakes of mine” – grammatically fine, but a bit more emphatic or explicit about whose mistakes.

In normal neutral style, Finnish prefers either:

• virheitäni
  or
• minun virheitäni, if you want to stress that the mistakes are mine, not someone else’s.

You would not normally say both minun virheitäni and also add another -ni somewhere else; one marking of possession is enough.

How does ystävällisesti work, and can it move around in the sentence?

ystävällisesti is an adverb formed from the adjective ystävällinen (“friendly”):

• ystävällinen → ystävällisesti (“in a friendly way”, “kindly”)

The -sti ending is a common way to form adverbs from adjectives:

• nopea (fast) → nopeasti (quickly)
• hiljainen (quiet) → hiljaa / hiljaisesti (quietly)

About word order: Finnish is quite flexible. All of these are possible, with slightly different emphasis:

• … ja korjaa virheitäni ystävällisesti. (neutral)
• … ja ystävällisesti korjaa virheitäni. (a bit more emphasis on how they correct)
• Ystävällisesti yksi koulukaveri korjaa virheitäni. (emphasizes “kindly” at the start; more stylistic)

The basic meaning stays the same: the classmate corrects my mistakes in a friendly manner.