Palaan palvelutiskille, jos leima puuttuu tästä paperista.

I will return to the service counter if the stamp is missing from this paper.

Breakdown of Palaan palvelutiskille, jos leima puuttuu tästä paperista.

• minä: I
• tämä: this
• jos: if
• -sta: from
• -lle: to
• palata: to return
• puuttua: to be missing
• leima: stamp
• paperi: paper
• palvelutiski: service counter

Questions & Answers about Palaan palvelutiskille, jos leima puuttuu tästä paperista.

What is palaan, and what tense/person is it?

Palaan is the 1st person singular present tense form of the verb palata (to return / to go back).

• palata → palaan = I return / I’ll go back (Finnish present can often cover near-future intent as well, depending on context).

Why isn’t minä (I) written anywhere?

Finnish usually doesn’t need subject pronouns because the verb ending shows the person.

• palaan already means I
  • return, so minä palaan is optional and would add emphasis/contrast (like I (as opposed to someone else) will return).

Why is it palvelutiskille with -lle?

-lle is the allative case, commonly used for movement to a place (especially “onto/to the vicinity of”).

• palvelutiski = service counter/desk
• palvelutiskille = to the service counter

What’s the difference between palvelutiskille and something like palvelutiskissä or palvelutiskiltä?

They are different location/movement cases:

• palvelutiskille (allative) = to the counter (destination)
• palvelutiskissä (inessive) = in/at the counter (location)
• palvelutiskiltä (ablative) = from the counter (origin)
  So the sentence uses -lle because it’s about going back to the counter.

What does jos do here, and why is there a comma?

jos means if and introduces a conditional clause. Finnish normally separates that clause with a comma.

• Main clause: Palaan palvelutiskille
• If-clause: jos leima puuttuu tästä paperista
  Comma use is standard in Finnish when an if/when/because-type subordinate clause is attached.

Why does puuttuu look like a “subject-verb” structure (leima puuttuu) instead of something like “I miss the stamp”?

Finnish often expresses “X is missing (from Y)” using puuttua:

• leima puuttuu = the stamp is missing
  It’s not phrased as “I miss…” but as a state: something is missing.

Why is it paperista (-sta) after puuttuu?

puuttua typically takes the elative case (-sta/-stä) to mark where something is missing from.

• puuttuu tästä paperista = is missing from this paper/document
  This is a common verb + case pattern you mostly learn as a chunk: puuttua jostakin = to be missing from something.

Why is leima in the basic form (nominative) and not partitive (leimaa)?

With puuttua, the thing that is missing is commonly in the nominative when it’s treated as a specific item:

• leima puuttuu = the stamp is missing
  You can see partitive in some contexts (often when meaning is more “some amount is lacking”), but for a single missing stamp, nominative leima is the normal choice.

What is tästä, and why not just tämä?

tästä is the demonstrative tämä (this) in the elative case (from this).

• tämä paperi = this paper
• tästä paperista = from this paper
  It matches the verb pattern puuttua jostakin.

Can the word order be changed, like putting the jos clause first?

Yes. Both are natural, with only small differences in emphasis:

• Palaan palvelutiskille, jos leima puuttuu tästä paperista.
• Jos leima puuttuu tästä paperista, palaan palvelutiskille.
  Starting with the jos clause can feel slightly more like setting the condition first (very similar to English).

Is paperista literally “out of the paper”? That sounds odd in English.

Literally, the elative can feel like “out of/from inside,” but in Finnish it’s also used more generally for “from” in many abstract relationships—especially with verbs like puuttua. So tästä paperista is simply the standard way to express from this document.

Anything notable about pronunciation or spelling in palaan?

Yes: aa is a long vowel, so palaan is pronounced with a long a sound: pa-laan (second syllable long). Length matters in Finnish: short vs long vowels can distinguish words and forms.