Learn Hardcore Finnish: Ennen koetta teen lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen, jotta jännitys vähenee. - Before the exam I do a short breathing exercise so that the tension decreases.

lyhyt hengitysharjoitus – a short breathing exercise
- lyhyt = short (adjective)
- hengitys = breathing
- harjoitus = exercise
  → compounded as hengitysharjoitus (“breathing-exercise”)

In the sentence, this phrase is the object of teen (I do).
A complete, single action on a countable object tends to take the total object, which in the singular looks like the genitive:

nominative: lyhyt hengitysharjoitus (subject form)
genitive / total object: lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen

The adjective must agree in case and number:

punainen talo – red house
Näen punaisen talon. – I see the/a red house.
lyhyt hengitysharjoitus – short breathing exercise
Teen lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen. – I (will) do a short breathing exercise.

So -n on both words marks “whole object” here, not possession.

Why is teen (present tense) used when the meaning is future (“I will do”)?

Finnish has no separate future tense. The present tense covers:

present: Teen läksyt nyt. – I’m doing my homework now.
near future / scheduled: Teen läksyt myöhemmin. – I’ll do my homework later.

In Ennen koetta teen lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen, the time expression ennen koetta (before the exam) makes it clear we are talking about a future time, so Finnish just uses teen.

If you want to emphasise intention, you can say:

Aion tehdä lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen… – I intend to do a short breathing exercise…

But it’s not required just to express the future.

What exactly does jotta mean, and could I use että instead?

Jotta means “so that / in order that” and introduces a purpose or intended result:

Teen hengitysharjoituksen, jotta jännitys vähenee.
I do a breathing exercise so that the tension decreases.

Että basically means “that” (a neutral conjunction):

Tiedän, että koe on vaikea. – I know that the exam is difficult.

In your sentence, että jännitys vähenee is possible, but jotta is stylistically better because it clearly marks purpose: the whole point of doing the exercise is to make the tension decrease.

Very roughly:

…jotta jännitys vähenee. → focus on purpose / goal
…että jännitys vähenee. → more like stating the result / fact that follows

Both are grammatical; jotta just fits the “in order to” meaning more neatly.

Why is it jännitys vähenee and not something with vähentää? What’s the difference?

There are two different verbs involved:

vähentää = to reduce something (transitive)
- Vähennän sokeria. – I reduce sugar.
vähetä (here as vähenee) = to decrease / lessen by itself (intransitive)
- Jännitys vähenee. – The tension decreases.

In your sentence:

jännitys is the subject
vähenee is an intransitive verb (no direct object)

So it literally means: “the tension decreases” (by itself, as a result of what you did).

If you use vähentää, you must have an object, and the structure changes:

Teen lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen vähentääkseni jännitystä.
– I do a short breathing exercise to reduce (some) tension.

Here vähentää is transitive and jännitystä is its (partitive) object.

Can I change the word order, for example put ennen koetta or the jotta-clause in other places?

Yes, Finnish word order is quite flexible, though it affects emphasis. All of these are possible:

Ennen koetta teen lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen, jotta jännitys vähenee.
– Time frame (ennen koetta) is emphasised first.
Teen ennen koetta lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen, jotta jännitys vähenee.
– Neutral, very natural: subject–verb first, then the time phrase.
Teen lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen ennen koetta, jotta jännitys vähenee.
– Slightly more focus on what you do, then when.

The jotta-clause can also move:

Teen lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen, jotta jännitys vähenee, ennen koetta.
– Grammatically OK, but the order feels a bit clumsy; it sounds almost like the tension decreases before the exam, not clearly tied to the exercise. Most speakers would avoid this order.

Typical, natural choices are 1–3 above. Putting ennen koetta first is quite common in written Finnish when you want to set the time context right away.

Why is there a comma before jotta?

In Finnish, subordinate clauses introduced by words like jotta, että, koska, kun are normally separated from the main clause by a comma, even if you might not pause very much in speech.

So:

Teen lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen, jotta jännitys vähenee.
En mene ulos, koska sataa. – I’m not going outside because it’s raining.

That comma is a standard punctuation rule: main clause , conjunction + subordinate clause.

How is definiteness (“the exam”, “the tension”) shown when there are no words like “the” in Finnish?

Finnish has no articles (no “a” / “an” / “the”). The same form can mean “a(n)” or “the”:

koe = an exam / the exam
jännitys = tension / the tension

Definiteness is understood from context, sometimes from:

previous mention: once something has been introduced, it’s naturally “the” next time
modifiers: tämä koe (this exam), se jännitys (that tension)
shared knowledge: both speakers know which exam is being discussed

So ennen koetta is naturally read as “before the exam” if the context has a specific exam. Grammatically it’s just “before exam” with no article word needed.

Is there a more compact way in Finnish to say “in order to reduce tension” instead of using jotta?

Yes. A common alternative is the third infinitive in the illative (-kse- form), which often carries a purpose meaning.

Your sentence could be recast as:

Ennen koetta teen lyhyen hengitysharjoituksen vähentääkseni jännitystä.

Breakdown:

vähentää – to reduce
vähentääkseni = “in order to reduce” my
(1st person)
- -kse- = purpose
- -ni = my (I am the one doing the reducing)
jännitystä – tension (partitive object: you are reducing some amount of tension)

Meaning: Before the exam I do a short breathing exercise in order to reduce (my) tension.

Compared to jotta jännitys vähenee:

vähentääkseni jännitystä is a bit more compact and slightly more formal/written.
The original jotta-clause is very clear and perfectly natural.

Any tips on pronouncing hengitysharjoituksen and jännitys vähenee?

A few key points:

Stress
- Finnish stress is always on the first syllable:
  - HEN-gi-tys-har-joit-uk-sen
  - JÄN-ni-tys vä-he-nee
Vowels
- ä like a in cat (but pure and short)
- y like French u or German ü: round your lips as for u but say i.
Consonants
- ng in hengitys is a long [ŋŋ] sound (like the ng in singing, but longer).
- Double consonants (like nn in jännitys) are genuinely longer than single ones. Hold them a bit longer: jän-nitys, not jä-nitys.
Vähenee
- Pronounced roughly VAH-he-neh, with the final -ee as a long [eː] (like e in bed, but long and pure, not a diphthong).

Practising slowly with syllables, then speeding up, usually helps:

HEN-gi-tys – har-joit-us – har-joit-uk-sen
JÄN-ni-tys – vä-he-nee