Learn Hardcore Finnish: Puhelimen asetuksiin voitaisiin lisätä ajastin, joka muistuttaa tauosta. - A timer that reminds you about a break could be added to the phone settings.

So Puhelimen asetuksiin voitaisiin lisätä ajastin literally means:
“Into the phone’s settings could be added a timer …”, i.e. “A timer could be added to the phone’s settings …”

The passive conditional is often used for polite suggestions in Finnish, similar to English “we could …” or “one could …”, without saying clearly who we/one is.

Who is actually doing the action in voitaisiin lisätä? There’s no subject.

In Finnish passive forms (like voitaisiin lisätä), the doer is left vague. It can correspond to:

“we” (especially in suggestions): “We could add a timer …”
“someone/they”: “Someone could add a timer …”
Or an impersonal “it could be added”

So the sentence does not say who exactly would add the timer – just that adding it is possible / being suggested.

Why is it ajastin and not ajastinta after lisätä?

Ajastin is in the nominative case here, acting as a total object.

With lisätä (to add), you generally get:

Partitive object if the action is incomplete, ongoing, or unbounded:
- Lisään vettä kattilaan. – “I’m adding (some) water to the pot.”
Nominative/accusative object if the action is seen as a complete, whole addition:
- Voitaisiin lisätä ajastin. – “A (whole) timer could be added.”

Here, adding a timer is seen as a complete, one-time action, so ajastin is used instead of ajastinta.

What case is asetuksiin, and why does it end in -iin?

Asetuksiin is the illative plural form of asetukset (settings).

Base word: asetukset – “settings” (plural)
Illative (movement into): asetuksiin – “into the settings”

The illative often answers “where to?” or “into what?”:

taloon – into the house
kaupunkiin – into the city
asetuksiin – into the settings

So puhelimen asetuksiin = “into the phone’s settings.” The -iin ending is how many plural illatives are formed.

Why is it puhelimen asetuksiin and not something like puhelimen asetus?

A few points here:

Asetukset is almost always used in the plural for “settings” (like in English menus: Settings).
Puhelimen is the genitive of puhelin (phone), so:
- puhelimen asetukset = “the phone’s settings” / “settings of the phone”
When you show movement into those settings, you put asetukset into the illative plural: asetuksiin.

So puhelimen asetuksiin literally means “into the phone’s settings.”

What exactly does ajastin mean? Is it just “alarm”?

Ajastin can usually be translated as “timer”.

ajastin – a timer, something that triggers at a set time or after a period
herätyskello – an alarm clock for waking up
hälytys – an alert/alarm more generally (fire alarm, warning, notification)

On a phone, ajastin is typically the feature where you set countdown timers, or a timer to remind you of something at intervals (like taking a break).

What does joka refer to in ajastin, joka muistuttaa tauosta?

Joka is a relative pronoun meaning roughly “which / that / who”.

In ajastin, joka muistuttaa tauosta, joka refers back to ajastin:

ajastin, joka muistuttaa tauosta
= “a timer which reminds (you) about the break”

Because joka refers to a singular noun (ajastin), the verb is in 3rd person singular: muistuttaa.

Why is there a comma before joka in ajastin, joka muistuttaa tauosta?

In Finnish, a comma is usually placed before a relative clause introduced by words like joka, joka‑, mikä, etc.

So you write:

Ajastin, joka muistuttaa tauosta, on hyödyllinen.
Näin kirjan, joka oli kiinnostava.

This is a standard punctuation rule in Finnish, not an optional stylistic choice like in some English cases.

Why is it tauosta and not tauon or tauosta muistuttaa with a different case?

The verb muistuttaa (to remind) in the meaning “remind of/about something” takes its object in the elative case (-sta / -stä).

muistuttaa jostakin = to remind of/about something

So:

muistuttaa tauosta = “reminds (you) of a break / about the break”

Some patterns:

Muistuta minua siitä. – Remind me of that.
Kuva muistuttaa lapsuudesta. – The picture reminds (me) of childhood.

Here tauosta is elative singular of tauko.

Could the word order be changed, for example putting ajastin first?

Yes, Finnish word order is fairly flexible, and you could say, for example:

Ajastin, joka muistuttaa tauosta, voitaisiin lisätä puhelimen asetuksiin.

This still means the same thing:

“A timer that reminds (you) about a break could be added to the phone’s settings.”

The original version Puhelimen asetuksiin voitaisiin lisätä ajastin, joka… puts the location (into the phone’s settings) at the beginning, which is common when that is the context or topic being discussed.

What’s the difference between voidaan lisätä and voitaisiin lisätä here?

Both are passive forms of voida + lisätä, but with different nuance:

voidaan lisätä
- Present passive: “can be added / is able to be added”
- More neutral, factual possibility.
voitaisiin lisätä
- Conditional passive: “could be added”
- Sounds more like a suggestion or proposal, often more polite or tentative.

In user-interface or design discussions, voitaisiin lisätä fits well when you’re saying:
“We could (in principle) add a timer…” rather than dryly stating “it can be added.”

Is muistuttaa always “to remind”, or does it have other meanings?

Muistuttaa has two main common meanings:

To remind (someone) of something
- Structure: muistuttaa + elative (-sta/-stä)
- Ajastin muistuttaa tauosta. – The timer reminds (you) of a break.
To resemble, to look like
- Structure: muistuttaa + partitive
- Hän muistuttaa isäänsä. – He/She looks like his/her father.

In your sentence, it’s clearly the “remind” meaning because of the elative tauosta.