Breakdown of Jos muistutusviesti ei tule, tarkistan eräpäivän sovelluksessa.
Questions & Answers about Jos muistutusviesti ei tule, tarkistan eräpäivän sovelluksessa.
In Finnish, an if-clause (a subordinate clause starting with jos) is normally separated from the main clause with a comma. So Jos …, … is the standard punctuation.
Jos introduces a condition (if). You can reverse the order:
- Jos muistutusviesti ei tule, tarkistan eräpäivän sovelluksessa.
- Tarkistan eräpäivän sovelluksessa, jos muistutusviesti ei tule. Both are grammatical; the first version foregrounds the condition.
Finnish negation uses a separate negative verb that conjugates for person/number:
- en (I don’t), et (you don’t), ei (he/she/it doesn’t), emme, ette, eivät. The main verb then appears in a special “negative form” (often identical to the stem), here tule from tulla (to come). So ei tule = does not come.
Both can be used, with a nuance:
- Jos muistutusviesti ei tule suggests a specific/expected reminder message (a particular one you’re waiting for).
- Jos muistutusviestiä ei tule suggests no reminder message comes at all (more indefinite / “any reminder”). Negation often triggers the partitive, but nominative can appear when the noun is interpreted as a definite, specific item in this kind of “non-arrival” context.
Finnish often uses the present tense for future actions when the time is clear from context, especially in conditional sentences. So tarkistan can naturally mean I check / I’ll check here.
Tarkistan is 1st person singular present of tarkistaa (to check / verify).
- minä tarkistan = I check Finnish frequently omits the subject pronoun (minä) because the verb ending already shows the person.
Eräpäivän is the total object form (often called the accusative in Finnish grammar). With many singular nouns, the accusative looks the same as the genitive -n. Using eräpäivän implies you’ll check a specific due date (a complete, bounded thing).
Yes, but it changes the meaning:
- tarkistan eräpäivän = I check the due date (as a complete result: I find/confirm what it is).
- tarkistan eräpäivää = I’m checking the due date (more ongoing/partial, or “looking into it”). For a straightforward “I’ll look up the due date,” eräpäivän is the usual choice.
Sovelluksessa is the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä), meaning in/inside. It indicates the place where you do the checking: in the app.
Sometimes, yes:
- sovelluksessa emphasizes doing it within the app (the “location”).
- sovelluksesta (elative, “out of/from”) can emphasize the source of the information (“I check the due date from the app”). Both can be heard; sovelluksessa is very natural for “in the app.”
Yes, both are compounds:
- muistutus + viesti = reminder + message → muistutusviesti (reminder message)
- erä + päivä (historically “batch/lot” + “day,” but functionally it means “due”) → eräpäivä (due date) In Finnish, compounds are typically written as one word.
A few helpful points:
- Finnish stress is usually on the first syllable: MUIS-tu-tus-vies-ti, E-rä-päi-vän, SO-vel-luk-ses-sa.
- ä is like the vowel in cat for many English speakers (but keep it pure, not diphthongized).
- Double vowels/diphthongs matter: päi in eräpäivä has a clear diphthong (päi).