Siirrän pyörän talon taakse.

I move the bicycle behind the house.

Breakdown of Siirrän pyörän talon taakse.

• minä: I
• pyörä: the bicycle
• siirtää: to move
• talo: the house
• taakse: back

Questions & Answers about Siirrän pyörän talon taakse.

Why is pyörä in the form pyörän here instead of pyörä?

Pyörän is the object of the verb siirrän.

In Finnish, a complete, bounded action on a singular countable object usually takes the genitive form as a total object.

• pyörä = nominative (dictionary form)
• pyörän = genitive (total object)

In Siirrän pyörän talon taakse, the idea is that you will move the whole bike and finish the action (it ends up behind the house). That’s why the total object form pyörän is used.

Using pyörä here would be grammatically wrong; pyörän is required by this verb + meaning combination.

Could we use pyörää instead of pyörän, and what would change?

Yes, you can say:

• Siirrän pyörää talon taakse.

Here pyörää is in the partitive, not the genitive. The meaning changes slightly:

• Siirrän pyörän talon taakse
  → I (will) move the bike behind the house (as a complete, finished action).

• Siirrän pyörää talon taakse
  → I am in the process of moving the bike behind the house / I’m moving it (but the focus is on the ongoing activity, not the completed result).

So pyörän = completed, whole object; pyörää = ongoing / incomplete action or unbounded amount.

Why is it talon taakse and not talon takana?

The difference is direction vs. location:

• talon taakse = to behind the house (movement towards that place)
• talon takana = behind the house (static location, no movement)

In this sentence, siirrän expresses movement from one place to another, so you need a directional form:

• taakse is the illative form of taka (back/behind), meaning into/to the back (area).
• takana is the inessive form of taka, meaning at the back, in the back area.

So:
Siirrän pyörän talon taakse = I move the bike to the area behind the house.
If you wanted to describe where it already is, you’d say:
Pyörä on talon takana = The bike is behind the house.

What exactly does talon do in the phrase talon taakse?

Talon is the genitive form of talo (house), and it is required by the postposition taakse.

Structure:

• talo → talon (genitive)
• taka → taakse (postposition in illative)

Finnish uses many postpositional phrases of the pattern:

• GENITIVE + postposition

Examples:

• talon takana = behind the house
• talon taakse = to behind the house
• talon edessä = in front of the house
• talon eteen = to in front of the house

So talon taakse is literally like saying “to the back of the house”.

What information is contained in the verb form siirrän?

The form siirrän tells you:

• Person: 1st person singular (I)
• Number: singular
• Tense: present tense (which often also covers near future in Finnish)
• Voice: active
• Verb stem: siirtä- (from dictionary form siirtää = to move, to shift)

Breakdown:

• siirtä- (stem)
• -n (1st person singular ending = “I”)

So siirrän by itself already means “I move / I will move”, which is why the subject pronoun minä can be left out.

Is it necessary to say Minä siirrän pyörän talon taakse, or is Siirrän pyörän talon taakse enough?

Siirrän pyörän talon taakse is completely natural and usually preferred. The subject minä is not necessary because the ending -n on the verb already shows that the subject is I.

You would add minä mostly for emphasis or contrast, for example:

• Minä siirrän pyörän talon taakse.
  → I will move the bike behind the house (not someone else).

In neutral, everyday speech, the shorter version without minä is very common.

Can pyörän here mean the wheel, or does it automatically mean the bicycle?

By itself, pyörä can mean either:

• a wheel
• a bike / bicycle

Which one is understood depends on context.

In a normal everyday context (“I move the X behind the house”), Finns will usually interpret pyörä as “bike / bicycle”, because that’s what you commonly move around a yard or house.

If you clearly wanted to talk about a wheel, you could:

• rely on context (e.g. you’re in a car repair shop), or
• specify the type:
  
  • auton pyörä = car’s wheel
  • etupyörä = front wheel

Or you can use a more specific word:

• rengas = tire (often used in practice to mean the wheel+tire unit in some contexts)

Would Vien pyörän talon taakse mean the same thing as Siirrän pyörän talon taakse?

Both are correct, but there is a nuance difference between siirtää and viedä:

• siirtää = to move/shift something from one position/place to another, often relatively short distance or within the same general area.
• viedä = to take something somewhere (carry/lead/transport it to another place).

So:

• Siirrän pyörän talon taakse.
  → I move the bike behind the house (emphasis on changing its position).

• Vien pyörän talon taakse.
  → I take the bike behind the house (emphasis on transporting it there).

In many everyday situations they can both be used, but siirtää sounds a bit more like a repositioning, viedä more like taking it to a destination.

Why doesn’t the Finnish sentence have a word for “the” or “a”?

Finnish has no articles like English “a/an” or “the”.

Definiteness (whether you mean a bike or the bike) is usually understood from:

• context
• word order
• whether the thing has been mentioned before
• sometimes from case choices

So Siirrän pyörän talon taakse can mean:

• I move the bike behind the house
  or
• I move a bike behind the house

English has to choose an article; Finnish simply doesn’t mark this grammatically.

Can the word order be changed, for example Talon taakse siirrän pyörän? Does it still mean the same thing?

Yes, Finnish word order is quite flexible, and all of these are grammatically possible:

• Siirrän pyörän talon taakse. (neutral)
• Pyörän siirrän talon taakse.
• Talon taakse siirrän pyörän.

The basic meaning (what happens) stays the same, but the focus / emphasis changes:

• Siirrän pyörän talon taakse.
  → Neutral: what I will do and where.

• Pyörän siirrän talon taakse.
  → Emphasises pyörän: It’s the bike that I’m moving behind the house (maybe not something else).

• Talon taakse siirrän pyörän.
  → Emphasises talon taakse: Behind the house is where I’ll move the bike (as opposed to some other place).

The version you were given, Siirrän pyörän talon taakse, is the most neutral and typical order.

What grammatical cases are used in this sentence, and what are their roles?

The key cases here are:

• Genitive singular:

  • pyörän (from pyörä)
    → total object of siirrän (whole bike, completed action)
  • talon (from talo)
    → possessor/relator for the postposition: of the house in talon taakse

• Illative singular:

  • taakse (from taka)
    → shows movement into / to behind something: to behind

So structurally you have:

• siirrän (I move)
• pyörän (the bike, total object)
• talon taakse (to the behind of the house: destination of the movement)