Learn Hardcore Finnish: Kirjoitan tärkeät asiat muistilapulle ja kiinnitän sen jääkaapin oveen. - I write important things on a sticky note and attach it to the refrigerator door.

kirjoitan = I write / I am writing
- stem: kirjoita- (from kirjoittaa)
- ending: -n = first person singular (“I”)
kiinnitän = I attach
- stem: kiinnitä- (from kiinnittää)
- ending: -n = first person singular

Because the -n ending already tells us the subject is “I”, adding minä would be optional:

Kirjoitan tärkeät asiat… = natural, neutral
Minä kirjoitan tärkeät asiat… = grammatically fine, but adds emphasis, like “I write the important things…” (as opposed to someone else)

How do kirjoitan and kiinnitän show the subject and tense?

Both verbs are in the present tense, first person singular.

Take kirjoittaa (to write). Present tense conjugation:

(minä) kirjoitan – I write / I am writing
(sinä) kirjoitat – you write
(hän) kirjoittaa – he/she writes
(me) kirjoitamme – we write
(te) kirjoitatte – you (pl.) write
(he) kirjoittavat – they write

Same pattern with kiinnittää (to attach) → kiinnitän.

The -n ending on both verbs (kirjoita-n, kiinnitä-n) marks:

person: 1st person
number: singular
tense: present (which in Finnish often also covers future: “I will write / attach”)

Why is it tärkeät asiat and not tärkeitä asioita?

Both are grammatically possible, but they express different aspect/meaning.

In the sentence, we have:

tärkeät asiat – the important things (whole set, definite group)

This is nominative plural and used here as a total object: I’m writing down all the important things (a complete set in the speaker’s mind).

If you said:

Kirjoitan tärkeitä asioita muistilapulle.

then tärkeitä asioita (partitive plural) would imply:

an indefinite amount or
not necessarily the whole set → “I (am) write(ing) some important things (down)” / an ongoing, not-completed action.

So:

tärkeät asiat = a specific, complete list of important things
tärkeitä asioita = some important things, not thought of as a definite, complete set

What does the ending -lle in muistilapulle mean? Why isn’t there a preposition like “on / onto”?

Finnish uses case endings instead of most prepositions.

muistilappu = (sticky) note, memo note
muistilapulle = onto the note / to the note

Here -lle is the allative case, which often means:

“to” (a target, direction towards something)
or “onto” (to a surface)

So:

muistilappu – the note (basic form)
muistilapulle – onto the note’s surface (where you write)

In English you need a preposition (“on / onto the note”); in Finnish, the meaning is mostly inside the -lle ending itself, so no separate word like “on” is required.

Why do we suddenly get sen instead of repeating muistilappu?

sen is a pronoun referring back to muistilappu (the note).

muistilappu = the note (new information)
sen = it (already known from the previous clause)

So instead of:

✗ … ja kiinnitän muistilapun jääkaapin oveen.

Finnish prefers to avoid repeating the noun unnecessarily and uses a pronoun:

… ja kiinnitän sen jääkaapin oveen.
→ “…and I attach it to the fridge door.”

This is very natural in both Finnish and English: once a noun has been introduced, a pronoun replaces it.

What case is sen here, and why not se?

se is the basic (nominative) form: it / that as a subject.

Se on muistilappu. – It is a note.

In the sentence, sen is the object of kiinnitän (I attach it). In Finnish:

A complete, singular object often appears in the genitive/accusative form.
For se, the genitive/accusative is sen.

So:

Kiinnitän se – ✗ incorrect
Kiinnitän sen – ✓ correct (“I attach it”)

You can think of sen here as “it” in the object role, marked by a case ending instead of word order.

Why is it jääkaapin oveen and not just something like “jääkaappioviin”?

The phrase is built as “X’s Y” + direction case on Y.

jääkaappi = fridge
jääkaapin = of the fridge (genitive)
ovi = door
oveen = into/onto the door (illative)

So jääkaapin ovi literally = “the fridge’s door” → the fridge door.
Add -een (illative) to ovi:

jääkaapin oveen = onto the door of the fridge → onto the fridge door.

You don’t normally glue these nouns into a single long word here. Instead you use:

first noun in genitive (whose door?) → jääkaapin
second noun (the actual physical object) in a local case (where?) → oveen

Pattern: [owner in genitive] + [thing in local case]
e.g. talon katolle – onto the roof of the house

What does the ending -een in oveen mean exactly?

oveen is the illative case of ovi (door).

Basic form:

ovi – door (nominative)

Illative (movement into / onto a place) for many words ending in -i is formed by:

stem change (here: ovi → ove-)
adding -en → oveen

Meaning of the illative (-Vn, here -een):

johonkin = into / onto something
oveen = into / onto the door

So:

jääkaapin oveen = (to) onto the fridge’s door (physically attaching the note to that surface)

Could the word order be different, like “Tärkeät asiat kirjoitan muistilapulle”?

Yes. Finnish word order is more flexible than English, and changes in order usually affect emphasis, not basic grammar.

Original:

Kirjoitan tärkeät asiat muistilapulle…
→ neutral: “I write the important things on the note…”

Alternative:

Tärkeät asiat kirjoitan muistilapulle…
→ emphasizes “the important things”: “The important things (as opposed to other things) I write on the note…”

Other variants are also possible, though some may sound more marked or stylistically special. The core rule is that:

Verb forms and case endings carry most of the grammatical information.
Word order is used for information structure (what’s topic / focus).

Why does the Finnish present tense here cover what in English feels like a future action?

Finnish has no separate future tense form. The present tense often expresses:

present: “I write the important things on a note every day.”
future: “I will write the important things on a note (later).”

Context (time expressions, situation) clarifies the time reference.

In this sentence, kirjoitan / kiinnitän could be:

a habitual action: “I (always) write the important things on a note and stick it to the fridge door.”
or a future/plan: “I’ll write the important things on a note and stick it to the fridge door.”

English must choose present or future explicitly; Finnish normally just uses the present and lets context decide.

Why is there no word for “the / a” (articles) anywhere in the Finnish sentence?

Finnish has no articles like “a / an / the”. Instead, definiteness and specificity are expressed through:

context (what’s already known)
word order
sometimes case choices or pronouns

So:

muistilapulle can mean “on a note” or “on the note”
jääkaapin oveen can mean “onto a fridge door” or “onto the fridge door”

In this sentence, in a natural context, English would interpret them as:

“on a sticky note” or “on a note”
“onto the fridge door”

Finnish leaves this to context rather than marking it with separate words.