Puhelimessa yötila sammuu automaattisesti kello seitsemän.

On the phone, night mode turns off automatically at seven o’clock.

Breakdown of Puhelimessa yötila sammuu automaattisesti kello seitsemän.

• puhelin: the phone
• kello: the clock
• seitsemän: seven
• sammua: to turn off
• -ssa: on
• automaattisesti: automatically
• yötila: the night mode

Questions & Answers about Puhelimessa yötila sammuu automaattisesti kello seitsemän.

What does Puhelimessa mean here? Is it “on the phone (call)” or “in the phone (device)”?

In this sentence Puhelimessa means “in/on the phone (device)”, i.e. on the phone as a setting.

The ending -ssa/-ssä is the inessive case, usually translated as in:

• puhelin = a phone
• puhelimessa = in the phone / on the phone (as a location inside the device’s menus/settings)

Context decides whether puhelimessa means “on the phone (call)” or “in the phone (device)”. Here, because we talk about yötila (night mode – a setting), it clearly refers to the device, not a phone call.

Why is it Puhelimessa yötila sammuu… and not Yötila puhelimessa sammuu…? Is this word order important?

Both word orders are grammatically correct:

• Puhelimessa yötila sammuu automaattisesti kello seitsemän.
• Yötila puhelimessa sammuu automaattisesti kello seitsemän.

The difference is in focus and style:

• Starting with Puhelimessa (= on the phone) sets the context first. It’s like saying: “On the phone, the night mode turns off…”
• Starting with Yötila focuses directly on the night mode: “The night mode on the phone turns off…”

Finnish word order is fairly flexible; theme (known information) often comes first, and new or important information later. Here, the speaker has chosen to present the device (puhelimessa) as the context before talking about what happens (yötila sammuu).

Why is yötila written as one word and not yön tila?

Yötila is a compound noun:

• yö = night
• tila = state, condition, mode

In Finnish, things that belong together conceptually are very often written as one word:

• yötila = night mode (a specific feature)
• lentotila = flight mode
• äänitila = sound mode

If you say yön tila, it sounds like “the state of the night” in a general or poetic sense, not like a technical setting in a device. For device modes, the single compound word yötila is the normal, idiomatic form.

What is the difference between sammuu and sammuttaa?

They are two related verbs:

• sammua (intransitive) = to go out / to turn off by itself
• sammuttaa (transitive) = to turn something off

So:

• Yötila sammuu. = Night mode turns off (goes off).
• Käyttäjä sammuttaa yötilan. = The user turns off night mode.

In your sentence, nothing is explicitly doing the turning-off; it just happens automatically. So Finnish uses the intransitive verb sammua:

• Puhelimessa yötila sammuu automaattisesti…
  “On the phone, night mode turns off automatically…”

If you wanted to emphasize an agent, you’d need sammuttaa:

• Puhelin sammuttaa yötilan automaattisesti kello seitsemän.
  “The phone turns night mode off automatically at seven o’clock.”

Why don’t we add pois (off) after sammuu, like sammuu pois?

The verb sammua already contains the idea of going off (like a light going out), so pois is usually unnecessary and often sounds redundant.

Compare:

• Valo sammuu. = The light goes out / turns off.
• Yötila sammuu. = Night mode turns off.

You might hear sammua pois in colloquial speech for emphasis, but the standard, natural form in this kind of sentence is simply:

• Yötila sammuu automaattisesti…

Why is there no word for “the” in yötila? How do I know if it means “a night mode” or “the night mode”?

Finnish has no articles (a, an, the). The bare noun yötila can mean:

• a night mode
• the night mode

The exact interpretation comes from context. In this sentence we are clearly talking about a specific feature of the phone, so in natural English you would translate it as “the night mode”.

Some examples:

• Puhelimessa on yötila. = There is a night mode on the phone.
• Puhelimessa yötila sammuu automaattisesti… = On the phone, the night mode turns off automatically…

Same Finnish form, different English articles depending on context.

What does automaattisesti literally mean, and how is it formed?

Automaattisesti means “automatically”.

It is formed by taking the adjective:

• automaattinen = automatic

and making an adverb with -sti:

• automaattinen → automaattisesti = automatically

This -sti ending is a common way to form adverbs from adjectives in Finnish:

• nopea → nopeasti (fast → quickly)
• selvä → selvästi (clear → clearly)
• automaattinen → automaattisesti (automatic → automatically)

Why is it kello seitsemän and not kello seitsemältä for “at seven o’clock”?

Both are used, but there is a nuance:

1. kello seitsemän (nominative)

   • Very common with verbs like olla, alkaa, loppua, sammua, etc.
   • Functions as a time expression: “(at) seven o’clock”.

   Examples:

   • Herätyskello soi kello seitsemän.
     “The alarm rings at seven o’clock.”
   • Yötila sammuu kello seitsemän.

2. kello seitsemältä (adessive, -lta/-ltä)

   • Also means “at seven (o’clock)”, very standard.
   • Can sound a bit more like “from seven (onwards)” depending on context.

   Example:

   • Yötila sammuu kello seitsemältä.
     “Night mode turns off at seven.”

In everyday Finnish, kello seitsemän with this kind of verb is very normal and perfectly correct. Many learners are taught seitsemältä first, but you will constantly see and hear kello seitsemän in real usage.

Can I omit kello and just say seitsemältä or seitsemän?

You can say:

• Yötila sammuu seitsemältä. ✔
  “Night mode turns off at seven.”

But you cannot just say:

• ✖ Yötila sammuu seitsemän.

If you use the adessive form (seitsemältä), kello can be dropped because the case ending shows time clearly.

If you use the bare number in nominative (seitsemän), you normally need kello to make it a time expression in this structure:

• kello seitsemän = at seven
• seitsemältä = at seven (without kello)

Why is yötila in its basic form and not something like yötilan or yötilaa?

Yötila is the subject of the sentence, so it appears in the nominative singular (basic form):

• yötila sammuu = night mode turns off

We would change the form if yötila had a different role:

• Sammutan yötilan.
  I turn off the night mode. (object → yötilan, genitive)
• Käytän yötilaa yöllä.
  I use night mode at night. (object partitive → yötilaa)

Here, because yötila is doing the action (sammuu), it stays as yötila.

Does sammuu describe the present or the future? The English translation feels like future.

Sammuu is in the present tense, but Finnish present tense often covers future meaning as well.

So yötila sammuu kello seitsemän can mean:

• It turns off at seven (in general, every day).
• It will turn off at seven (later today / in the future).

Context usually makes it clear. If you want to be very explicitly future, you add time words:

• Tänään yötila sammuu kello seitsemän.
  Today the night mode will turn off at seven.

Could the sentence also be Puhelimessa on yötila, joka sammuu automaattisesti kello seitsemän? Is that more natural?

Yes, that’s also correct and quite natural:

• Puhelimessa on yötila, joka sammuu automaattisesti kello seitsemän.
  “The phone has a night mode that turns off automatically at seven.”

Differences:

• Original: Puhelimessa yötila sammuu automaattisesti kello seitsemän.
  – States what night mode does, assuming we know it exists.

• Alternative: Puhelimessa on yötila, joka sammuu…
  – First introduces the existence of night mode, then explains what it does.

So the alternative is nicer if the existence of night mode is new information for the listener. The original is fine when night mode is already known and you’re just describing its behavior.