Lasken menot laskimella ja merkitsen ne vihkoon.

I calculate the expenses with a calculator and mark them in the notebook.

Breakdown of Lasken menot laskimella ja merkitsen ne vihkoon.

• minä: I
• ja: and
• -lla: with
• ne: them
• -oon: into
• merkitä: to mark
• laskea: to set (go down)
• meno: expense
• laskin: calculator
• vihko: notebook

Questions & Answers about Lasken menot laskimella ja merkitsen ne vihkoon.

Why do lasken and merkitsen end in -n?

They are verbs in the present tense, 1st person singular (I …). In Finnish, the basic present personal ending for minä is -n:

• (minä) laske-n = I calculate
• (minä) merkits-e-n = I mark / record / note down
  The subject minä is usually omitted because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

Why is it menot and not menoja?

Because menot here is a total object (the speaker calculates the expenses as a whole, as a completed set). In Finnish, a total object often appears in the accusative, and for plural nouns the accusative form looks the same as the nominative plural:

• nominative plural: menot
• accusative plural (total object): menot (same form)

If you used the partitive menoja, it would usually suggest something like “some expenses / expenses in general” or an incomplete/ongoing amount, depending on context.

What exactly is menot grammatically—what is its dictionary form?

The dictionary form is meno (expense, outlay). Menot is the plural (expenses). Finnish often uses the plural for things that naturally come as a set or category (like “expenses”).

Why is there ne in the second half of the sentence?

Ne = they/them (plural). Here it means them and refers back to menot (the expenses). It’s included to avoid repeating the noun:

• merkitsen ne vihkoon = I record them in the notebook.

In this sentence, ne is the object of merkitsen.

Why does the object pronoun look like ne—shouldn’t “them” be a different case?

For the pronoun ne, the form ne is used both as:

• nominative plural (“they”), and
• accusative plural (“them”) in many total-object situations.

So merkitsen ne is normal Finnish for “I record them.”

(Pronouns do have special object forms in some contexts—e.g., minut = “me” (acc.), sinut = “you” (acc.)—but ne stays ne here.)

Why is it laskimella—what does the ending -lla mean?

-lla/-llä is the adessive case, often used for:

• location (“on/at”), and very commonly
• instrument/tool (“with, using”).

So laskimella literally means “with/on a calculator,” i.e., “using a calculator.”

Why does laskin become laskime- in laskimella?

Laskin (calculator) is an -in noun that typically changes its stem in oblique cases:

• nominative: laskin
• stem used in many cases: laskime-
• adessive: laskime + lla → laskimella

This is a common pattern (similar to other words with stem alternations), and it’s something you usually learn as part of each noun’s inflection pattern.

Why is it vihkoon and not something like vihkossa or vihkolla?

Vihkoon is the illative case (“into”), which often translates idiomatically as “in/into” when talking about writing things down into a notebook/document:

• vihko = notebook
• vihkoon = into the notebook (i.e., “in the notebook” as the destination of the writing)

By contrast:

• vihkossa (inessive) = “in the notebook” (location, emphasizing being inside it)
• vihkolla (adessive) = “on/at the notebook” (less natural for “write in a notebook”)

For “write/record (something) in a notebook,” vihkoon is very typical.

Why does vihko → vihkoon have a double oo?

That’s a regular illative formation for many nouns ending in -o/-ö:

• vihko + -on → vihkoon
  The vowel lengthens in the illative, giving -oon/-öön.

Is the word order fixed—could you move parts around?

The word order is fairly neutral here, but Finnish is flexible and you can move elements for emphasis. Neutral:

• Lasken menot laskimella ja merkitsen ne vihkoon.

You could emphasize the tool or place by moving them:

• Laskimella lasken menot… (emphasizes “with a calculator”)
• Vihkoon merkitsen ne. (emphasizes “into the notebook”)

The basic meaning stays, but the focus changes.

Why use merkitä here instead of kirjoittaa?

Merkitä often means to mark/record/note down (like recording items, entering data, making a note). It fits well with expenses and bookkeeping-style contexts.

Kirjoittaa is “to write” more generally. You could say kirjoitan ne vihkoon, but merkitsen ne vihkoon sounds more like “I enter/record them (as data).”