Jos nilkka turpoaa lisää, siihen laitetaan side ja jalka nostetaan ylös.

If the ankle swells more, a bandage is put on it and the leg is raised up.

Breakdown of Jos nilkka turpoaa lisää, siihen laitetaan side ja jalka nostetaan ylös.

• ja: and
• lisää: more
• jos: if
• laittaa: to put
• ylös: up
• siihen: it
• nostaa: to raise
• nilkka: the ankle
• turvota: to swell
• side: the bandage
• jalka: the leg

Questions & Answers about Jos nilkka turpoaa lisää, siihen laitetaan side ja jalka nostetaan ylös.

Why is there no word for a or the in this sentence?

Finnish does not have articles. That means nouns usually appear without any separate word corresponding to English a/an or the.

So:

• nilkka = ankle / the ankle / an ankle
• side = bandage / a bandage / the bandage
• jalka = leg / the leg / a leg

The exact English choice depends on context.

Why does the sentence begin with jos?

Jos means if and introduces a condition.

So Jos nilkka turpoaa lisää means If the ankle swells more.

A learner often compares this with kun:

• jos = if (conditional, maybe it happens, maybe it does not)
• kun = when (more definite)

Here the idea is conditional, so jos is the natural choice.

What form is turpoaa?

Turpoaa is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb turvota (to swell).

It agrees with nilkka:

• nilkka turpoaa = the ankle swells

The ending may look strange at first, because the dictionary form is turvota, but the present-tense stem is turpoa-:

• minä turpoan
• sinä turpoat
• hän/se turpoaa

The double aa is normal here.

What does lisää mean here?

Here lisää means more or further.

So:

• turpoaa lisää = swells more / swells further

In this sentence, lisää is functioning like an adverb, not as a separate noun phrase.

Why is there a comma after lisää?

Because the sentence begins with a subordinate clause:

• Jos nilkka turpoaa lisää = subordinate clause
• siihen laitetaan side ja jalka nostetaan ylös = main clause

In Finnish, when a jos clause comes before the main clause, it is normally separated by a comma.

What does siihen mean exactly, and why is it not just se?

Siihen is a case form of se.

Here it is the illative form, which often means something like:

• into it
• onto it
• to it

With laittaa (to put/place), Finnish often uses a case that shows the destination of the action.

So:

• siihen laitetaan side = literally something like a bandage is put onto it

In natural English, that becomes a bandage is put on it.

Here siihen refers back to the ankle (or the swollen area).

Why are laitetaan and nostetaan in the passive?

This is a very common Finnish way to give instructions, advice, or describe what people generally do.

• laitetaan = is put / one puts / you put
• nostetaan = is raised / one raises / you raise

Finnish uses this passive/impersonal form a lot where English might use:

• you put
• you raise
• or an English passive

So the sentence is giving general advice, without naming who does the action.

Why are side and jalka in the basic form, not something like sidettä, jalan, or jalkaa?

In these passive clauses, side and jalka are objects, and they appear in the nominative singular because they are total objects in a passive sentence.

So:

• siihen laitetaan side
• jalka nostetaan ylös

This is a standard Finnish object rule:

• in an active finite sentence, a total object is often genitive singular
• in a passive finite sentence, a total object is often nominative singular

Compare:

• Hän nostaa jalan ylös. = active
• Jalka nostetaan ylös. = passive

If you used the partitive, the meaning would be more ongoing, incomplete, or partial.

Why is it ylös and not ylhäällä?

Because ylös expresses movement upward.

• nostaa ylös = raise up
• ylhäällä = up / above / in an elevated position as a location or state

So:

• jalka nostetaan ylös = the leg is raised up
• jalka on ylhäällä = the leg is up
• jalkaa pidetään ylhäällä = the leg is kept elevated

Could I say nilkkaan laitetaan side instead of siihen laitetaan side?

Yes. Nilkkaan laitetaan side is perfectly natural and means essentially the same thing.

The sentence uses siihen to avoid repeating nilkka:

• Jos nilkka turpoaa lisää, siihen laitetaan side...

That is very normal Finnish style. Once the ankle has already been mentioned, the pronoun is enough.

Is the word order fixed here?

Not completely. Finnish word order is fairly flexible, but the version in the sentence is a neutral, natural one.

For example, the sentence could be rearranged somewhat, but the emphasis would change:

• Jos nilkka turpoaa lisää, siihen laitetaan side... = neutral
• Jos nilkka turpoaa lisää, side laitetaan siihen... = slightly more focus on side

So the given word order is a good standard model to learn.