Breakdown of Pidän oven kiinni, koska ulkona on melua.
Questions & Answers about Pidän oven kiinni, koska ulkona on melua.
Pitää has several common meanings, and the meaning depends on the structure:
- Pitää + (elative) + → to like: Pidän kahvista. (I like coffee.)
- Pitää + object + adverb/adjective → to keep / hold / maintain: Pidän oven kiinni. (I keep the door closed.)
So in your sentence, pidän is the “keep/maintain” use because it takes an object (oven) plus kiinni.
Ovi (door) changes to oven because it’s the object in a “total object” form here (often called the genitive object in the present tense).
- ovi = basic dictionary form (nominative)
- oven = object form used when the action is seen as complete/definite: keep the door (fully) closed
This is very common with verbs like pitää in the sense of “keep”.
Yes, and the difference is about how “complete/definite” the action is:
- Pidän oven kiinni → “I keep the door closed” (the door is treated as a whole, definite result/state)
- Pidän ovea kiinni → more “ongoing/partial” feeling (“I’m holding the door closed / keeping it shut” as an activity)
In many everyday situations both are possible, but oven often sounds like the standard “keep it closed” instruction/state.
Kiinni is most often an adverb/particle meaning closed, shut, attached, or caught/fast depending on context.
In Pidän oven kiinni, it functions like a result/state word: “keep (it) closed.”
Related contrasts:
- ovi on kiinni = “the door is closed”
- ovi on auki = “the door is open”
It’s a very normal Finnish expression for “keep the door closed.” It can be understood literally as “I keep/hold the door (in the state of being) closed,” but it’s not strange or overly literal—this is the standard way to say it.
Finnish commonly drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person:
- pidän = I keep You can add minä for emphasis/contrast:
- Minä pidän oven kiinni = “I keep the door closed (not someone else).”
Because koska ulkona on melua is a subordinate clause giving a reason. In Finnish, you normally separate a main clause and a subordinate clause with a comma:
- Pidän oven kiinni, koska ... = main clause + reason clause
Ulkona means outside / outdoors and is one of several “place adverbs” formed with -na/-nä (historically the essive form). Common set:
- ulkona = outside (location: “where?”)
- ulos = to outside (direction: “to where?”)
- ulkoa = from outside (source: “from where?”)
So ulkona on melua = “there is noise outside.”
This is an existential-type sentence (“there is …”), and Finnish typically uses the partitive for an indefinite amount/substance:
- on melua = “there is (some) noise” / “there’s noise (going on)”
on melu would sound more like “the noise is (a specific thing)” or a more definite/specified “noise,” and it’s less natural in this basic “there is noise outside” meaning.
In the negative, Finnish uses the negative verb and often shifts the object to the partitive:
- En pidä ovea kiinni, koska ulkona on melua. = “I don’t keep the door closed, because there is noise outside.”
Also:
- Ulkona ei ole melua. = “There isn’t any noise outside.” (still partitive melua)
Yes. Both are correct:
- Pidän oven kiinni, koska ulkona on melua. (main statement first, then reason)
- Koska ulkona on melua, pidän oven kiinni. (reason first, then main statement)
The comma remains because it’s still main clause + subordinate clause.
A few common ones:
- Pidän: the ä is like the vowel in cat (but more fronted); don’t turn it into a.
- kiinni: double nn means a clearly longer consonant; also long ii.
- melua: three vowels in a row (e-lu-a) are all pronounced; it’s roughly ME-lu-a, not one merged vowel.