Laitan pesuainetta veteen ja pesen astiat käsin.

I put detergent in the water and wash the dishes by hand.

Breakdown of Laitan pesuainetta veteen ja pesen astiat käsin.

• minä: I
• ja: and
• vesi: the water
• laittaa: to put
• pestä: to wash
• astia: the dish
• -een: into
• käsin: by hand
• pesuaine: the detergent

Questions & Answers about Laitan pesuainetta veteen ja pesen astiat käsin.

Why are there no pronouns like minä (I) in the sentence?

Finnish often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person/number.

• laitan = I put / I add
• pesen = I wash
  You can say Minä laitan..., but it usually sounds emphatic (like I do it, not someone else).

What tense is laitan and pesen?

Both are in the present tense (Finnish present covers both I do and I am doing, depending on context).

• laitan (from laittaa) = I put / I add / I’m putting
• pesen (from pestä) = I wash / I’m washing

Why is it pesuainetta and not pesuaine?

pesuainetta is the partitive singular of pesuaine (detergent). The partitive is used because you’re talking about some amount of detergent, not a whole, countable item.
So Laitan pesuainetta veteen ≈ I add (some) detergent to the water.

How do I know pesuainetta is partitive—what’s happening to the ending?

For many words, the partitive singular is formed with -a/-ä or -ta/-tä.
Here: pesuaine → pesuainetta (partitive uses -tta in this pattern).
You don’t need to “derive” it every time—learn the partitive form as a standard case form for the noun.

Why is it veteen and what case is that?

veteen is the illative form of vesi (water). The illative means into / in(to) / to (inside), and with liquids it often corresponds to English into or to:

• veteen = into the water
  So Laitan pesuainetta veteen = I add detergent into the water.

Why does vesi become veteen (where does the t come from)?

This is a common Finnish stem change. The word vesi has a different stem in other cases: vete-.
So you get forms like:

• nominative: vesi
• genitive: veden
• partitive: vettä
• illative: veteen
  This is normal vowel + consonant alternation in Finnish noun inflection.

Why is it astiat and not astioita?

astiat is the plural total object (often called accusative-like in function; it looks like plural nominative). It suggests you wash the dishes (as a whole set / all of them).
If you said pessen astioita, that would be partitive plural, which often implies:

• an ongoing/unfinished action (I’m washing dishes) or
• only some dishes, not necessarily all.

Does pestä always take this kind of object form?

Not always. With pestä (to wash), the object depends on whether it’s seen as total/complete or partial/ongoing:

• Pesen astiat. = I wash the dishes (as a complete set / get them done).
• Pesen astioita. = I’m washing dishes (some / not focusing on completion).
  Both can be correct; the nuance changes.

What does käsin mean grammatically—what case is it?

käsin means by hand / manually. It’s an old case form called the instructive (plural), used in set expressions.

• base word: käsi = hand
• instructive plural: käsin = with hands / by hand (idiomatic)

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Pesen astiat käsin ja laitan pesuainetta veteen?

Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but it affects what feels natural and what’s emphasized.

• Laitan pesuainetta veteen ja pesen astiat käsin. sounds like a natural sequence: first add detergent, then wash.
• Pesen astiat käsin ja laitan pesuainetta veteen. is grammatically possible, but it sounds like you wash first and only then add detergent, which is an odd real-world order—unless you’re emphasizing something unusual.