Minä yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.

I try to breathe more calmly before the exam.

Breakdown of Minä yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.

• minä: I
• ennen: before
• yrittää: to try
• koe: the exam
• hengittää: to breathe
• rauhallisemmin: more calmly

Questions & Answers about Minä yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.

Do we need the pronoun Minä, or can we just say Yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta?

You can absolutely drop Minä:

• Minä yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.
• Yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.

Both are correct and natural.

In Finnish, the verb ending (-n in yritän) already shows the person (I), so subject pronouns are often left out.

You usually include minä when you want emphasis or contrast:

• Minä yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin, mutta hän ei.
  I try to breathe more calmly, but he/she doesn’t.

Why is yritän in the present tense, even though this is about something that will happen before the exam (in the future)?

Finnish doesn’t have a special future tense. The present tense is used for:

• actions happening now
• actions in the (near or planned) future

The time is made clear by other words, here ennen koetta (before the exam).

So Minä yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta naturally means:

• I will try to breathe more calmly before the exam.

If you really want to stress future intention, you can add aikoa (to intend):

• Aion yrittää hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.
  I intend to try to breathe more calmly before the exam.

Why is hengittää in the basic infinitive form? Could it be hengittämään or something else?

After yrittää (to try), Finnish uses the 1st infinitive (dictionary form) of the verb:

• yritän + hengittää = I try to breathe

So:

• ✅ Yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin.
• ❌ Yritän hengittämään rauhallisemmin. (wrong in standard Finnish)

The form in -maan / -mään (the 3rd infinitive illative) is used with verbs of movement or starting an activity:

• Menen nukkumaan. – I’m going to sleep.
• Tulen syömään. – I’m coming to eat.

But with yrittää, stick to the basic infinitive: yritän hengittää.

Is yritän hengittää closer to “I try to breathe” or “I try breathing” in English?

It can cover both English nuances; Finnish doesn’t sharply separate them here.

• Yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin.
  → I’m making an effort to breathe more calmly / I’m trying to breathe more calmly.

If you want the English “try doing X (as an experiment)”, Finnish often uses kokeilla:

• Kokeilen hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.
  I’ll try breathing more calmly before the exam (to see if it helps).

How is yrittää conjugated, and why do we get yritän in this sentence?

Dictionary form: yrittää – to try, to attempt

Present tense:

• minä yritän – I try
• sinä yrität – you try
• hän yrittää – he/she tries
• me yritämme – we try
• te yritätte – you (pl) try
• he yrittävät – they try

So in Minä yritän hengittää…, yritän is simply the 1st person singular present, matching the subject I (minä).

What exactly does hengittää mean, and how is it conjugated?

Hengittää means “to breathe.”

It’s a type 1 verb ending in -tää.

Present tense:

• minä hengitän – I breathe
• sinä hengität – you breathe
• hän hengittää – he/she breathes
• me hengitämme – we breathe
• te hengitätte – you (pl) breathe
• he hengittävät – they breathe

In our sentence, it stays in the infinitive hengittää because it follows yritän:

• Minä yritän hengittää… – I try to breathe…

Where does rauhallisemmin come from, and what is the difference between rauhallisesti and rauhallisemmin?

Base adjective: rauhallinen – calm

1. Adverb (“calmly”)

   • rauhallisesti – calmly
     
     • Hengitän rauhallisesti. – I breathe calmly.

2. Comparative adjective (“calmer”)

   • rauhallisempi – calmer
     
     • Olen nyt rauhallisempi. – I am calmer now.

3. Comparative adverb (“more calmly”)

   • rauhallisemmin – more calmly
     
     • Hengitän rauhallisemmin. – I breathe more calmly.

So in the sentence:

• rauhallisesti = calmly
• rauhallisemmin = more calmly (compared to before)

The sentence specifically says more calmly (an improvement), not just calmly.

Could I say enemmän rauhallisesti instead of rauhallisemmin?

You could be understood, but it sounds unnatural or learner-like.

Native speakers use the comparative adverb:

• ✅ Hengitän rauhallisemmin. – I breathe more calmly.

Using enemmän (more) plus an adverb (enemmän rauhallisesti) is not idiomatic here. As a general rule, when an adjective/adverb has a regular comparative form (-mpi / -mmin), use that instead of enemmän + adjective/adverb.

Why is it ennen koetta and not ennen koe or ennen koeen?

The preposition ennen (before) normally requires the partitive case.

• koe – exam (nominative, dictionary form)
• koetta – exam (partitive singular)

So:

• ✅ ennen koetta – before the exam
• ❌ ennen koe – bare nominative is not allowed here
• ❌ ennen koeen – that’s genitive; with ennen you typically don’t use genitive by itself

You see the same pattern in:

• ennen ruokaa – before (the) food
• ennen kurssia – before the course
• ennen lomaa – before the holiday

What is the base form of koetta, and how is this noun declined?

Base (dictionary) form: koe – exam, test

Some key forms:

• nominative: koe – the exam
• genitive: kokeen – of the exam
• partitive: koetta – (some/one) exam
• plural nominative: kokeet – exams
• plural partitive: kokeita – (some) exams

In the sentence, koetta is partitive singular after ennen:

• ennen koetta – before the exam

Is koetta here related to the verb koettaa (“to try”)? They look similar.

They look similar but function differently in this sentence.

Here:

• koetta = partitive singular of the noun koe (exam).
• koettaa = a verb meaning to try, to attempt, very close in meaning to yrittää.

So:

• Minä yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.
  → I try to breathe more calmly before the exam.

If you wrote ennen koettaa, it would look like you’re talking about the verb koettaa (“before he/she tries”), not about an exam.

Can we change the word order, for example: Ennen koetta yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin?

Yes. Finnish word order is quite flexible, and time expressions can often go at the beginning:

• Minä yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.
• Yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.
• Ennen koetta yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin.

All are correct. Moving ennen koetta to the front just emphasizes the time frame a bit more: Before the exam, I try to breathe more calmly.

Can ennen koetta go in the middle, like Minä yritän ennen koetta hengittää rauhallisemmin?

Yes, that’s also grammatically correct and can be heard in real speech:

• Minä yritän ennen koetta hengittää rauhallisemmin.

However, the most neutral-sounding versions are usually:

• Minä yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin ennen koetta.
• Ennen koetta yritän hengittää rauhallisemmin.

You normally keep hengittää rauhallisemmin together as a unit (verb + manner adverb), and place the time expression (ennen koetta) either at the beginning or near the end.