Remonttia varten tarvitsen ruuvimeisselin ja porakoneen, jotta saan hyllyn kiinni seinään.

For the renovation I need a screwdriver and a drill so that I can fasten the shelf to the wall.

Breakdown of Remonttia varten tarvitsen ruuvimeisselin ja porakoneen, jotta saan hyllyn kiinni seinään.

• minä: I
• ja: and
• tarvita: to need
• saada: to get
• varten: for
• jotta: so that
• seinä: the wall
• hylly: the shelf
• -ään: to
• remontti: the renovation
• ruuvimeisseli: the screwdriver
• porakone: the drill
• kiinni: attached/fastened

Questions & Answers about Remonttia varten tarvitsen ruuvimeisselin ja porakoneen, jotta saan hyllyn kiinni seinään.

Why is it remonttia and not remontti or remontin?

Because varten is a postposition that typically requires the partitive case. So remontti → remonttia, giving remonttia varten = “for a renovation / for renovation purposes.”
(Compare: sinua varten “for you”.)

What exactly is varten, and where does it go in the sentence?

Varten is a postposition meaning “for; for the purpose of.” Postpositions come after the noun they govern:

• remonttia varten (not varten remonttia)

Why does tarvitsen take ruuvimeisselin and porakoneen (the -n forms)?

With tarvita (“to need”), the object is often:

• partitive when the need is ongoing/indefinite: tarvitsen rahaa “I need (some) money”
• total object (-n) when you mean a specific whole item (like one tool): tarvitsen ruuvimeisselin “I need the screwdriver”

Here it’s clear you mean specific tools, so you get the total object forms ruuvimeisselin and porakoneen.

Are ruuvimeisseli and porakone compound words?

Yes, both are common compounds:

• ruuvimeisseli = ruuvi (screw) + meisseli (chisel/screwdriver) → “screwdriver”
• porakone = pora (drill) + kone (machine) → “drill (machine)”

In Finnish compounds are usually written as one word.

Could I use sekä instead of ja here?

Yes, but the nuance changes slightly:

• ja = neutral “and”
• sekä = often a bit more formal, and it tends to link items as a set (“both … and …”)

Your sentence with ja is the most natural everyday choice.

Why is there a comma before jotta?

Because jotta introduces a subordinate clause, and Finnish normally uses a comma to separate the main clause and the subordinate clause:
… porakoneen, jotta saan …

What’s the difference between jotta and että?

• jotta = “so that / in order that” (purpose)
• että = “that” (content/reporting)

So jotta saan hyllyn kiinni… expresses the purpose of needing the tools.

Why is it jotta saan and not something like “would get” or “could get”?

Finnish can use either:

• present for a straightforward purpose: jotta saan “so that I get / so I can get”
• conditional to sound more tentative/polite or hypothetical: jotta saisin “so that I could get”

Both are possible; jotta saan is direct and normal here.

What does saan hyllyn kiinni literally mean?

Literally it’s like “I get the shelf attached.” In Finnish, saada + object + adjective/adverb can express achieving a result:

• saan hyllyn kiinni = “I manage to fasten/attach the shelf (so it stays)”

It’s a very common way to express “get something done/into a state.”

Why is it hyllyn (with -n) and not hyllyä?

Because the speaker is aiming at a complete result: getting the shelf properly attached. That makes hyllyn a total object.
If you negate it, Finnish switches to partitive:

• En saa hyllyä kiinni seinään. “I can’t get the shelf attached to the wall.”

What does kiinni mean here, and why is it not a verb?

Kiinni is an adverb/adjective meaning “attached; fast; closed; stuck.” In this structure it describes the end state of the shelf (it ends up “attached”).
It often appears with verbs like saada, laittaa, panna:

• laittaa ovi kiinni “close the door”
• saada juliste seinään kiinni “get the poster stuck to the wall”

Why is it seinään (illative) and not seinällä / seinässä?

Seinään is the illative (“into/onto”), used for a goal/result direction: attaching something onto the wall.

• seinään = onto the wall (goal)
  While:
• seinässä = in the wall / on the wall as a location (“it is on/in the wall”)
  For fastening something so it ends up attached, kiinni seinään is the natural choice.