yötä

Yötä is the partitive singular form of the Finnish noun yö, meaning night—the period of darkness between sunset and sunrise. In everyday Finnish, yö can refer to the night as a general concept or to a specific night, depending on context. The word is widely used in phrases describing time and routines.

Grammatically, yötä is used after numerals to indicate a count of nights (kolme yötä means three nights). It also appears in expressions such as yötä päivää, meaning “night and day” or around the clock, and in other night-related phrases to specify duration or repetition.

Culturally and environmentally, nights in Finland vary greatly with latitude and season. In northern Finland, winter nights can be very long or continuous during the polar night, known as kaamos, while summers bring very short or barely noticeable nights in many areas.

Historically and linguistically, yö is cognate with Estonian öö and other Finnic languages. The form yötä arises from Finnish inflection, representing the partitive singular used in counting and in various fixed expressions. The word is one of several core terms describing time and daily life in Finnish.