Minä sotken keittiötä, kun teen ruokaa.

Yes. In Finnish, the verb ending already tells you the subject.

• sotken = I mess up / I make a mess
• the -n ending marks 1st person singular: I

So minä is often optional. The sentence could also be:

• Sotken keittiötä, kun teen ruokaa.

Adding minä can make the subject clearer or more emphatic, a bit like I in English when you want to stress it.

Sotken is the 1st person singular present tense of the verb sotkea.

So:

• sotkea = to mess up, to make messy
• sotken = I mess up / I make messy

In this sentence it describes a habitual or repeated action, not just something happening right now.

A few present-tense forms:

• (minä) sotken = I mess up
• (sinä) sotket = you mess up
• hän sotkee = he/she messes up

Keittiötä is the partitive singular of keittiö.

Here it is used as the object of sotken, and the partitive suggests an action that is:

• ongoing
• habitual
• or not viewed as a single completed result

So sotken keittiötä is like:

• I make a mess in the kitchen
• I mess up the kitchen in a general/habitual sense

This is very common in Finnish with actions seen as a process.

Compare:

• Sotken keittiötä. = I’m making the kitchen messy / I tend to mess up the kitchen.
• Sotken keittiön. = I mess up the kitchen (as a whole result, more like a completed outcome).

So the partitive here matches the idea of whenever I cook, I create mess in the kitchen.

This is another very common Finnish pattern.

• tehdä ruokaa = to cook / to make food
• tehdä ruoan = to make the meal / prepare a meal as a completed whole

Here ruokaa is the partitive singular of ruoka. It is used because the meaning is more like the activity cooking, not a single finished dish being emphasized.

So:

• teen ruokaa = I cook / I’m cooking / I make food
• teen ruoan = I make the meal / I prepare the food completely

In this sentence, kun teen ruokaa means when I cook.

It can mean both, depending on context.

Kun often means:

• when
• as
• while

So kun teen ruokaa can be understood as:

• when I cook in general
• while I’m cooking
• when I’m making food

In this sentence, because the whole statement sounds habitual, the most natural English meaning is usually:

• When I cook, I make a mess in the kitchen.

Kun introduces a subordinate clause.

So the sentence has two parts:

• Minä sotken keittiötä = main clause
• kun teen ruokaa = subordinate clause

Literally:

• I mess up the kitchen, when I make food

In natural English:

• I make a mess in the kitchen when I cook.

A learner should also know that kun can have several meanings in different contexts, such as:

• when
• as
• since
  depending on the sentence

But here it is clearly temporal: when/while.

Because Finnish present tense is also used for habitual actions, just like in English.

So:

• Minä sotken keittiötä, kun teen ruokaa.

means something like:

• I make a mess in the kitchen when I cook.

It does not have to mean only right now. The present tense often covers:

• things happening now
• general truths
• habits
• repeated actions

So this sentence is a normal way to describe a habit.

It can be changed.

Finnish word order is fairly flexible, although some versions sound more neutral than others.

For example:

• Minä sotken keittiötä, kun teen ruokaa.
• Sotken keittiötä, kun teen ruokaa.
• Kun teen ruokaa, sotken keittiötä.

All of these are possible.

Usually, without special emphasis, Finnish often drops the subject pronoun:

• Sotken keittiötä, kun teen ruokaa.

If you begin with the kun clause, the focus shifts slightly toward the time situation:

• Kun teen ruokaa, sotken keittiötä. = When I cook, I make a mess in the kitchen.

Because Finnish normally uses a comma between a main clause and a subordinate clause.

So in:

• Minä sotken keittiötä, kun teen ruokaa.

the comma separates:

• Minä sotken keittiötä = main clause
• kun teen ruokaa = subordinate clause

This is more regular in Finnish than in English, where comma use can be different.

It is singular partitive.

• basic form: ruoka = food
• partitive singular: ruokaa

Even though English food is often treated as a mass noun, Finnish still marks case on it normally.

So here:

• teen ruokaa = I make food / I cook

This does not mean plural foods. It is just the partitive singular form of ruoka.

Yes. A very natural version is:

• Sotken keittiötä, kun teen ruokaa.

In everyday spoken Finnish, dropping minä is extremely common because the verb form already tells you the subject.

In very colloquial spoken Finnish, you might also hear different pronouns or verb forms depending on dialect and style, but for standard Finnish, the most natural neutral written version is probably:

• Sotken keittiötä, kun teen ruokaa.

The version with minä is still correct; it just sounds a bit more explicit or slightly more emphatic.

It can mean several related things.

Common meanings of sotkea include:

• to make messy
• to mess up
• to mix up
• sometimes to get tangled up

In this sentence, it clearly means to make the kitchen messy.

So the context decides the exact meaning. Here it is about physical mess from cooking, not confusion or mixing things up mentally.

Yes, but it would change the structure and slightly change the meaning.

Compare:

• Sotken keittiötä. = I make the kitchen messy / I mess up the kitchen.
• Sotken keittiössä. = I make a mess in the kitchen.

With keittiötä, the kitchen is the object being affected.

With keittiössä, the kitchen is the location where the messy action happens.

Both can make sense, but the original sentence focuses on the kitchen as the thing being messed up.