Minä pyyhin seinää märällä liinalla.

I wipe the wall with a wet cloth.

Breakdown of Minä pyyhin seinää märällä liinalla.

• minä: I
• märkä: wet
• -lla: with
• pyyhkiä: to wipe
• seinä: wall
• liina: cloth

Questions & Answers about Minä pyyhin seinää märällä liinalla.

Why is minä included? Can it be omitted?

Yes, it can usually be omitted. Finnish verb endings show the person, so pyyhin already means I wipe.

• Minä pyyhin… = emphasizes I (contrast, clarity, or style)
• Pyyhin… = neutral, very common in everyday speech

What tense is pyyhin? Is it present or past?

Pyyhin is present tense, 1st person singular: I wipe / I am wiping.
Finnish present tense can cover both simple present and present continuous; context decides.

What is the dictionary form of pyyhin, and why does it look so different?

The dictionary form is pyyhkiä (to wipe). The stem changes when conjugated:

• pyyhkiä → pyyhi- (stem) → pyyhin (I wipe)

This kind of stem alternation is normal in Finnish verb conjugation.

Why is seinää in the partitive case instead of something like seinän?

Seinää is partitive (of seinä, wall). With many actions, the partitive can indicate an ongoing, incomplete, or “some of it” meaning. Wiping often doesn’t treat the wall as a fully “completed” object in one bounded event, so partitive is natural.

If you used seinän (genitive/accusative object), it would more strongly suggest a bounded, completed result, roughly like I wiped the wall (clean / completely), depending on context.

Is seinää a direct object? How do Finnish object cases work here?

Yes, seinää is the object of pyyhin. Finnish marks objects with different cases depending on factors like completion/aspect, negation, and sometimes quantity.
Here, partitive (seinää) fits a typical ongoing / non-completed wiping action.

What case is märällä liinalla, and what does that case mean?

Both words are in the adessive case (-lla/-llä):

• märällä = on/with (something) wet
• liinalla = with a cloth (lit. on/at the cloth)

Adessive commonly expresses instrument/tool: with a wet cloth.

Why do both märällä and liinalla have the same ending?

Because märällä is an adjective describing liinalla, and Finnish adjectives agree in case and number with the noun they modify.
So if the noun is adessive (liinalla), the adjective must also be adessive (märällä).

Could I say märällä rätillä or märällä pyyhkeellä instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, those are common alternatives, but the nuance changes:

• liina = cloth (neutral, often a cleaning cloth)
• rätti = rag (more casual, can sound a bit “rougher”)
• pyyhe = towel (a towel rather than a small cloth)

All can work in the same structure: märällä X-lla.

What’s the “default” word order here, and can it be changed?

The neutral order is often subject – verb – object – other info:
Minä pyyhin seinää märällä liinalla.

But Finnish word order is flexible and can be changed for emphasis/focus, for example:

• Märällä liinalla minä pyyhin seinää. (emphasizes the tool)
• Seinää minä pyyhin märällä liinalla. (emphasizes the wall)

How would the sentence change if it were negative?

In Finnish, a negative clause typically forces the object into the partitive. Here it already is partitive, so it stays the same:

• Minä en pyyhi seinää märällä liinalla. = I don’t wipe the wall with a wet cloth.

Notice the negative verb en and the main verb in a special form pyyhi (not pyyhin).