Breakdown of Koska kuukausipalkka on rajallinen, yritän miettiä tarkasti, mitä oikeasti tarvitsen.
Questions & Answers about Koska kuukausipalkka on rajallinen, yritän miettiä tarkasti, mitä oikeasti tarvitsen.
Koska is a subordinating conjunction meaning because. It introduces a reason clause.
- Koska kuukausipalkka on rajallinen = Because the monthly salary is limited
- It always introduces a subordinate clause (a dependent clause that can’t stand alone as a full sentence in formal writing).
- It can appear at the beginning of the sentence, as here, or in the middle:
Yritän miettiä tarkasti, koska kuukausipalkka on rajallinen.
I try to think carefully, because the monthly salary is limited.
The meaning of koska here directly corresponds to English because.
In Finnish, a subordinate clause is normally separated from the main clause by a comma, even when English would not always use one.
- Koska kuukausipalkka on rajallinen, → subordinate clause
- yritän miettiä tarkasti, mitä oikeasti tarvitsen. → main clause (plus another subordinate clause)
So the comma is there because the koska-clause ends and the main clause begins. This is a standard Finnish punctuation rule, not optional style.
Kuukausipalkka is a compound noun:
- kuukausi = month
- palkka = pay, wage, salary
- kuukausipalkka = monthly salary (salary paid per month)
Finnish normally writes such compounds as one word, not as two separate words.
In the sentence, kuukausipalkka is in the nominative singular because it’s the subject of the clause:
- Kuukausipalkka on rajallinen. = The monthly salary is limited.
If you want to say my monthly salary, you would typically mark possession with a possessive suffix:
- kuukausipalkkani on rajallinen = my monthly salary is limited
Both rajallinen and rajoitettu can be translated as something like limited, but there is a nuance:
- rajallinen comes from raja (border, limit). It means finite / having limits / not endless.
- kuukausipalkka on rajallinen = the salary has a natural upper ceiling; you only get so much money per month.
- rajoitettu comes from rajoittaa (to restrict). It suggests restricted by something or someone (an imposed restriction).
- rajoitettu pääsy = restricted access
- rajoitettu määrä = limited quantity (by rule/policy)
In this sentence, rajallinen is natural because it describes an inherent limit: a monthly salary is, by nature, a finite amount.
Finnish usually omits subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows the person.
- yritän is 1st person singular (I try)
- The ending -n marks I.
- So minä yritän miettiä… and yritän miettiä… mean the same thing; the latter is just more natural and typical.
You only add minä if you want to emphasize it, for example:
- Minä yritän miettiä tarkasti…
→ I try to think carefully (maybe implying others don’t).
The pattern is finite verb + infinitive:
- yritän miettiä = I try to think / to consider
Yrittää (to try) is followed by the basic form (1st infinitive) of the second verb:
- yritän oppia = I try to learn
- yritän säästää = I try to save
You cannot follow yritän with another finite verb like ajattelen:
- ✗ yritän ajattelen (wrong)
- ✓ yritän ajatella (correct infinitive)
As for meaning:
- miettiä = to think about, to consider, to ponder (more deliberate)
- ajatella = to think (in general), to have thoughts, also to think of/about something
Here miettiä fits well because the idea is carefully considering what is needed.
Tarkasti is an adverb meaning carefully, precisely, thoroughly.
It is formed from the adjective tarkka (careful, precise):
- tarkka (adjective) → tarkasti (adverb)
- tarkka ihminen = a careful/precise person
- mietin tarkasti = I think carefully
Finnish usually forms adverbs from adjectives with -sti:
- nopea → nopeasti (fast → quickly)
- selvä → selvästi (clear → clearly)
- tarkka → tarkasti (careful → carefully)
You could also say, with slightly different nuance:
- yritän miettiä tarkkaan – also carefully, often with a sense of exactly / in detail
- yritän miettiä huolellisesti – carefully, thoroughly, with a hint of being conscientious
The word mitä is:
- the partitive form of the interrogative/relative pronoun mikä (what)
- and it’s also the form used in many indefinite “what” questions and clauses.
Relevant forms of mikä (singular):
- mikä = nominative
- minkä = genitive
- mitä = partitive
In mitä oikeasti tarvitsen, this whole clause means what I really need, and mitä acts as an object of tarvitsen.
Why partitive? Because with tarvita (to need), when the object is indefinite / kind-of-things / amount-like, the partitive is normal:
- Tarvitsen rahaa. = I need money. (partitive)
- Tarvitsen apua. = I need help. (partitive)
- En tiedä, mitä tarvitsen. = I don’t know what I need.
So mitä here expresses some (kind of) things that I need, not a single clearly defined object, which matches the idea of thinking through needs.
Mitä oikeasti tarvitsen is a subordinate clause functioning as the object of miettiä:
- yritän miettiä [mitä oikeasti tarvitsen]
= I try to think about [what I really need].
It is a “free relative” clause introduced by mitä (what).
Word order:
- mitä – the interrogative/relative word comes first
- oikeasti – an adverb (really)
- tarvitsen – the verb at the end
Verb-final word order is very common in subordinate clauses in Finnish, especially when they begin with k-words (kuka, mikä, mitä, missä, milloin, etc.).
Other word orders are possible but feel less neutral:
- mitä tarvitsen oikeasti – possible, but puts more emphasis on oikeasti at the end.
- oikeasti, mitä tarvitsen – much more marked, sounds like spoken emphasis.
The original mitä oikeasti tarvitsen is the most natural neutral order here.
Tarvitsen is the 1st person singular of tarvita (to need):
- minä tarvitsen = I need
The object of tarvita is very often in the partitive, especially when the thing needed is:
- uncountable
- indefinite or unspecified
- a kind / type / amount of something
Examples:
- Tarvitsen rahaa. (partitive) = I need money.
- Tarvitsen aikaa. (partitive) = I need time.
- Tarvitsen vettä. (partitive) = I need water.
With a clearly delimited, concrete object, the total (accusative-like) object can also appear:
- Tarvitsen kynän. = I need a (particular) pen.
- Tarvitsen tämän kirjan. = I need this book.
In mitä oikeasti tarvitsen, mitä is in the partitive, fitting the idea of what (things) I need (in general) rather than one fully specified item.
Yes, you could, but the nuance shifts slightly:
- yritän miettiä tarkasti – I try to think carefully / consider carefully.
- Focus on deliberate mental processing of the question.
- yritän ajatella tarkasti – I try to think carefully.
- More general; can work, but is slightly less idiomatic in the specific sense of weighing options.
- yritän pohtia tarkasti – I try to ponder / reflect on carefully.
- Slightly more formal or “deep-thinking” flavour.
In everyday speech, miettiä is very natural when you’re thinking through what you need, what to choose, what to do, etc., so the original choice fits very well.
Yes. Finnish uses the present tense much more broadly than English:
- To describe things happening now
- To describe habits and general tendencies
- Often where English would use the future (will / going to)
In this sentence, yritän miettiä tarkasti… expresses a habitual or general attitude: whenever money is limited, the speaker tries to think carefully about what they really need. English may translate that with simple present or with a future-like nuance, but Finnish sticks with the same present tense form.