Breakdown of Kirjoitan eräpäivän lapulle, etten unohda palauttaa kirjaa.
Questions & Answers about Kirjoitan eräpäivän lapulle, etten unohda palauttaa kirjaa.
etten means “so that I don’t …” / “so I won’t …”.
It’s essentially a contracted form of että + en:
- että = that / so that
- en = I don’t (1st person singular of the negative verb)
So että en unohda → etten unohda.
You’ll also see ettei (not contracted to a person), e.g. ettei hän unohda = “so that he/she doesn’t forget”.
Finnish normally uses a comma before a subordinate clause introduced by words like että/etten/ettei/jotta.
So: Kirjoitan … lapulle, etten unohda … is standard punctuation.
It’s a purpose clause: “I write the due date on a note so that I don’t forget …”.
Structure:
- main clause: Kirjoitan eräpäivän lapulle
- purpose clause: etten unohda (palauttaa kirjaa)
Inside it, palauttaa is an infinitive (“to return”), dependent on unohtaa (“to forget”).
eräpäivän is the object of kirjoitan (“I write”). The -n marks a total object here: you’re writing down the whole, specific due date (a complete piece of information).
Compare:
- Kirjoitan eräpäivän. = I write down the due date (specific/complete)
- Kirjoitan eräpäivää. = I’m writing about the due date / writing some of it (more “partial/ongoing”, often less natural here)
Formally, it looks like genitive (-n), but in Finnish object grammar it’s commonly analyzed as accusative/genitive-like marking for a total object in the singular. For learners, the practical rule is:
- total object (singular) often appears as -n
- partitive object often appears as -a/-ä (or other partitive endings)
So in practice: eräpäivä → eräpäivän because it’s a total object.
lapulle is the allative case (-lle), often meaning onto / to / for a surface or target:
- lappu = a note, slip of paper
- lapulle = onto the note / on the slip (as the destination of writing)
It fits because you “put” the writing onto the note.
They’re different location meanings:
- lapulla = on the note (location/state): “It’s written on the note.”
- lapulle = onto the note (movement/goal): “I write it onto the note.” (used here)
- lapussa = in the note (inside it): odd unless you mean “in a note/message”
- lappuun = into the note: generally not used for writing on a slip (sounds like physically into it)
So lapulle is the natural choice with kirjoitan in this meaning.
Because unohtaa (“to forget”) is followed by an infinitive to express “forget to do something”:
- unohtaa tehdä = to forget to do
So unohtaa palauttaa = “forget to return”.
The only finite verb in the purpose clause is unohda (“(I) forget”).
Both can be possible, but they feel slightly different.
- palauttaa kirjan (total object) emphasizes returning the whole book as a complete action.
- palauttaa kirjaa (partitive) is often more neutral in “remember/forget to do” type expressions, and can sound more idiomatic when the returning is an intended/future action rather than a completed one.
In many contexts, kirjan would also be fine, especially if you want to stress the single specific book being fully returned.
unohda is the present tense form of unohtaa for minä (I):
- (minä) unohdan = I forget
But in the clause it’s preceded by the negative verb en (inside etten), and Finnish negation works like: - en
- verb in connegative form
So:
- verb in connegative form
- en unohda = I don’t forget
(not en unohdan)
No. Finnish typically drops subject pronouns because the verb ending shows the person:
- Kirjoitan already means “I write”
- etten already contains “I don’t” for “I”
You could add minä for emphasis/contrast, but it’s not needed in a neutral sentence.
You can also say jotta en unohda palauttaa kirjaa. It also means “so that I don’t forget…”.
Often:
- etten (from että en) is very common and compact.
- jotta en can feel a bit more explicit (“in order that I don’t…”), but both are normal in modern Finnish.