Learn Hardcore Finnish: Ystäväni lähettää minulle tekstiviestin heti. - My friend sends me a text message immediately.

Ystäväni = ystävä (friend) + the possessive suffix -ni (my), so it literally means my friend.
Finnish often marks possession on the noun itself, so you don’t need a separate word like my.

Do I need to say minun ystäväni instead of just ystäväni?

Usually, ystäväni alone is enough.
Minun ystäväni (my friend) is possible, but it’s more emphatic/contrastive (e.g., my friend, not yours), or used for clarity in some contexts.

Can ystäväni mean my friends as well as my friend?

Yes. Ystäväni can mean either my friend (singular) or my friends (plural), depending on context.
If you want to be unambiguously plural, you can say ystäväni with other cues, or use something like ystäväni lähettävät… (plural verb) to force the plural reading.

What tense is lähettää, and what does it imply here?

Lähettää is in the present tense, 3rd person singular: (he/she/it) sends.
In Finnish, the present tense can describe:

something happening now,
a habitual action,
or sometimes a near-future plan (depending on context).

Why is it minulle and not minua or minun?

Minulle is the allative case and means to me (direction/recipient). It answers “to whom?”
With lähettää (to send), the recipient is typically in allative: lähettää minulle = send to me.

minua is partitive (“me” as an object, often “some of me” / ongoing / affected), not used for recipients here.
minun is genitive (“my”), used before a noun: minun puhelimeni = my phone.

Why is it tekstiviestin and not tekstiviesti or tekstiviestiä?

Tekstiviestin is the object in a “total/complete” form (often called accusative-like in singular), showing the action as a complete unit: a (whole) text message gets sent.

tekstiviesti (nominative) can appear as an object in some constructions, but here the standard choice is tekstiviestin.
tekstiviestiä (partitive) would suggest an incomplete/ongoing/indefinite amount idea, like “sending (some) text message content” or “sending texts” in a less bounded sense.

Is tekstiviestin genitive or accusative?

In form, tekstiviestin looks like the genitive singular ending -n.
In function here, it’s the total object (often described in Finnish grammar as the accusative in many contexts, but in singular it usually looks identical to the genitive). So: genitive-looking form, object function.

Is the word order fixed? Could I move heti or minulle?

The sentence is neutral as written:
Ystäväni lähettää minulle tekstiviestin heti.

You can move parts for emphasis/focus, and it still stays grammatical, for example:

Ystäväni lähettää heti minulle tekstiviestin. (emphasizes “immediately”)
Minulle ystäväni lähettää tekstiviestin heti. (emphasizes “to me”)
Tekstiviestin ystäväni lähettää minulle heti. (emphasizes “the text message”)

Word order changes what feels highlighted, not the basic meaning.

Does Finnish need an article like a/the in this sentence?

No. Finnish has no articles, so tekstiviestin can mean a text message or the text message depending on context. The language relies on context, word order, and sometimes object case choice to convey what English does with articles.

What exactly does heti mean, and where does it usually go?

Heti means immediately / right away.
It commonly appears near the end of the clause in a neutral statement, but it can also be placed earlier for emphasis, especially right before what it modifies in focus.

How do you pronounce the tricky parts (like lähettää and long sounds)?

Key points:

ä is like the vowel in English cat (but purer).
Double letters are long:
- lähettää has a long tt (hold the consonant a bit): lä-het-tää.
Stress is usually on the first syllable: LÄhettää, Ystäväni, TEKSTIviestin.

Are there more colloquial ways to say tekstiviestin?

Yes. Tekstiviesti is standard/neutral. In everyday spoken Finnish, you may also hear:

tekstarin (object form of tekstari, slang for “text message”) So a casual version could be: Ystäväni lähettää minulle tekstarin heti.