Breakdown of Kun työ on valmis, pesen kädet saippualla ja pyyhin pölyn pois pöydältä.
Questions & Answers about Kun työ on valmis, pesen kädet saippualla ja pyyhin pölyn pois pöydältä.
Kun introduces a time clause meaning when. The clause Kun työ on valmis sets the time for the main action. When a subordinate clause comes first in Finnish, it’s usually followed by a comma, and the main clause then starts normally (here: pesen...). There’s no special “inversion” like English When..., I...—Finnish just uses the comma and keeps the main clause structure.
työ = work / a job / a task (singular). on is is (3rd person singular of olla). valmis is an adjective meaning ready / finished. So työ on valmis literally means the work is ready/finished (i.e., the task is done). Finnish often uses olla + adjective for “to be finished/ready”.
Both exist, but the nuance changes:
- työ on valmis = the work is completed/finished (a result state).
- työ on valmiina = the work is ready in a prepared/available state (focuses more on being set up/ready for use). In many everyday contexts they overlap, but valmis is the most straightforward “done/finished”.
Finnish verbs show the person in the verb ending, so the subject pronoun is often omitted:
- pesen = I wash
- pyyhin = I wipe You can add minä, but it usually adds emphasis/contrast (e.g., Minä pesen kädet, mutta hän ei = I wash my hands, but he doesn’t).
This is the Finnish object case distinction:
- pesen kädet = “I wash (the) hands” as a complete/whole action (a total object).
- pesen käsiä = “I wash hands” in a partial/ongoing or less bounded sense (a partitive object), like “I’m washing my hands” / “I wash hands (somewhat)”. Here the meaning is a normal complete action: you wash your hands, so kädet (total object) is natural.
Yes, it’s the object. In Finnish, the plural total object often has the same form as the nominative plural. So kädet can function as “the hands” (subject) or “(the) hands” (total object) depending on context. Compare:
- Kädet ovat puhtaat. = “The hands are clean.” (subject)
- Pesen kädet. = “I wash my hands.” (object)
saippualla is in the adessive case (-lla/-llä). One common use of adessive is instrument/means:
- pestä saippualla = “to wash with soap / using soap” So saippualla answers “how/with what?”
With pyyhkiä (to wipe), the 1st person singular present is pyyhin, and the 1st person singular past is also pyyhin—so the form can be ambiguous in isolation.
In this sentence, pesen is clearly present (I wash), so pyyhin is understood as present too: I wipe.
If it were clearly past, you’d often see the other verb in past as well: pesin ... ja pyyhin ... (“I washed ... and wiped ...”).
pölyn is the total object (genitive/accusative-like form) meaning you wipe away a specific amount of dust completely:
- pyyhin pölyn pois = “I wipe the dust away (so it’s gone).” If you said pyyhin pölyä, it would sound more like “I’m wiping (some) dust” / an ongoing or partial action, not necessarily removing it all.
pois is an adverb/particle meaning away/off. With verbs like pyyhkiä it helps express the result: the dust ends up gone. Placement is flexible, but object + pois is very common:
- pyyhin pölyn pois = “I wipe the dust away.” You can also see pyyhin pois pölyn, but pölyn pois is probably the most neutral here.
They mean different “from” relationships:
- pöydältä = off (the surface of) the table (ablative: -lta/-ltä)
- pöydästä = out of the table / from inside it or from within its “space” (elative: -sta/-stä) Dust is typically on top of a table, so pöydältä (“from the table’s surface”) is the natural choice.
That’s a normal stem change in Finnish. pöytä has a stem pöydä- in many inflected forms:
- nominative: pöytä
- genitive: pöydän
- ablative: pöydältä So you’re seeing the typical t → d change in the stem for this word when endings are added.