Tänään ilma on viileämpi kuin eilen, joten juon teetä sisällä.

Today the air is cooler than yesterday, so I drink tea inside.

Breakdown of Tänään ilma on viileämpi kuin eilen, joten juon teetä sisällä.

• olla: to be
• juoda: to drink
• tänään: today
• joten: so
• eilen: yesterday
• sisällä: inside
• kuin: than
• tee: tea
• viileämpi: cooler
• ilma: air

Questions & Answers about Tänään ilma on viileämpi kuin eilen, joten juon teetä sisällä.

Why does Finnish use Tänään and eilen without any case endings?

Tänään (today) and eilen (yesterday) are fixed time adverbs in Finnish. Many common time words behave like this and don’t take a case ending in everyday use.

• tänään = today
• eilen = yesterday
  (There are other related forms like eilinen “yesterday’s (one)”, but that’s a different word type.)

What’s the difference between ilma and sää here?

Both can mean something like weather, but they’re not identical:

• ilma is literally air and is often used for how it feels (temperature, freshness): Ilma on viileä.
• sää is weather more generally (weather conditions, forecast): Sää on viileä.
  In this sentence, ilma sounds very natural because you’re describing the temperature/feel.

Why is it on viileämpi and not on enemmän viileä?

Finnish normally forms comparatives with the suffix -mpi (or -impi), not with a separate word like “more”.

• viileä = cool
• viileämpi = cooler (comparative)
  So on viileämpi is the standard way to say is cooler.

How does the comparative ending work in viileä → viileämpi?

You add -mpi to the adjective stem:

• viileä → viileämpi
  This is the basic comparative form (dictionary form of the comparative). It can still take case endings if needed later (e.g., viileämpänä, viileämpiin, etc.).

Why is kuin used, and can it mean something other than “than”?

Here kuin means than, introducing the thing you’re comparing to:

• viileämpi kuin eilen = cooler than yesterday
  kuin can also be used like as/like in other structures, but in comparisons it’s the normal equivalent of than.

Why is there a comma before joten?

joten (so/therefore) introduces a result clause. In Finnish, it’s common (and usually expected) to separate such clauses with a comma:

• …, joten … = …, so …

What’s the difference between joten and koska?

They point in opposite directions:

• koska = because (gives the reason)
• joten = so/therefore (gives the result)
  Your sentence is structured as: statement → result:
• It’s cooler today than yesterday, so I drink tea inside.

Why is it juon and not minä juon?

Finnish verb endings show the subject, so the pronoun is often unnecessary:

• juon = I drink
  You can add minä for emphasis or contrast (like “I (not someone else) drink…”), but it’s optional in neutral sentences.

Why is teetä in the partitive case instead of tee?

With many food/drink words, Finnish uses the partitive when you mean an unspecified amount (not a whole, countable unit):

• juon teetä = I drink (some) tea
  If you mean a specific portion/unit, you might use something like:
• juon teen = I drink the tea (a specific tea that’s been mentioned)
• juon kupin teetä = I drink a cup of tea

How do I know when juoda takes the partitive object?

A very common pattern is:

• juoda + partitive for substances/uncountable things or an indefinite amount: juon vettä, teetä, kahvia
  Using the total object (accusative/genitive-looking form) tends to imply the whole thing gets consumed or it’s a specific item: join kahvin (I drank the coffee).

What exactly does sisällä mean here, and why not sisään or sisässä?

sisällä means inside/indoors and answers “where?” in a general way (as an adverb):

• juon teetä sisällä = I drink tea indoors.

By contrast:

• sisään = (to) inside (movement into): menen sisään = I go inside
• sisässä isn’t used; instead you use sisällä (adverb) or the inessive of a noun: talossa = in the house.

Is the word order fixed, or could I rearrange it?

Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but changes emphasis. Neutral and natural here is:

• Tänään ilma on viileämpi kuin eilen, joten juon teetä sisällä.

You could emphasize “today” or “indoors” by moving them:

• Ilma on tänään viileämpi kuin eilen… (today is less contrastive)
• …joten juon sisällä teetä. (puts more focus on being indoors)