Getting 'than' Wrong | Finnish Grammar

Three separate errors cluster around the English word "than." The first is spelling it kun when it should be kuin — two different words that sound almost alike. The second is not knowing that Finnish offers two legal patterns for a comparison and accidentally blending them into an illegal hybrid. The third is a pure calque: building the comparative with a separate "more" word (enemmän kallis) the way English does, when Finnish folds "more" into the adjective ending itself. This page drills all three. For the underlying forms, see comparison with than.

kuin, not kun

kuin means "than" (and "as"). kun means "when." They are different words with different jobs, and in fast speech they blur, so learners write and say the wrong one constantly. If the sentence compares two things, it is always kuin.

❌ Olen vanhempi kun sinä.

Incorrect — kun means 'when'. For a comparison, 'than' is kuin: vanhempi kuin sinä.

✅ Olen vanhempi kuin sinä.

I'm older than you.

❌ Juna on nopeampi kun bussi.

Incorrect — 'than' is kuin, not kun: nopeampi kuin bussi.

✅ Juna on nopeampi kuin bussi.

The train is faster than the bus.

💡

Memory hook: kuin has the extra i, and so does its meaning — comparision. If you're weighing two things against each other, you need the i. The homophone pair is untangled in full at kuin vs kun.

Two legal patterns — pick one, never both

Finnish gives you two correct ways to say "bigger than me," and they are mutually exclusive:

Pattern A — comparative kuin +
the thing in the nominative: isompi kuin minä.
Pattern B — the thing in the partitive, placed before the adjective, with no kuin: minua isompi.

Both mean exactly the same thing. The error is welding them together — isompi kuin minua — which double-marks the comparison with both kuin and the partitive.

✅ Hän on pidempi kuin minä.

He's taller than me. (Pattern A: kuin + nominative minä)

✅ Hän on minua pidempi.

He's taller than me. (Pattern B: partitive minua, no kuin)

❌ Hän on pidempi kuin minua.

Incorrect — you've used kuin AND the partitive. Say kuin minä, or drop kuin and keep minua pidempi.

❌ Koira on koiraa isompi kuin kissa.

Incorrect — this jams both patterns together. Choose: kissaa isompi, or isompi kuin kissa.

✅ Koira on isompi kuin kissa.

The dog is bigger than the cat.

💡

Pattern B (the partitive one) is compact and idiomatic — minua nuorempi ("younger than me"), odotettua parempi ("better than expected"). It's the more elegant choice in writing, but you must drop kuin when you use it. The comparative of pitkä appears as both pidempi and pitempi; both are standard, with pidempi more common today.

After kuin, match the case of what you're comparing

In Pattern A, the noun after kuin takes the same case as the thing it is being compared with. When you compare two subjects — the usual situation — that case is the nominative. Putting the comparee in the partitive after kuin is the same double-marking mistake in another guise.

❌ Koira on isompi kuin kissaa.

Incorrect — after kuin, the comparee is a subject here, so nominative: kuin kissa.

✅ Koira on isompi kuin kissa.

The dog is bigger than the cat.

✅ Rakastan sinua enemmän kuin häntä.

I love you more than (I love) him. (here the comparee is an object, so it matches: häntä, partitive)

The second example shows the rule working the other way: because the compared item is the object of "love," it copies the object's partitive (häntä). The principle is constant — the case after kuin mirrors the role being compared — but for the everyday "X is bigger than Y," that role is subject and the case is nominative.

Don't build the comparative with "more"

English makes long adjectives comparative with a separate word: "more expensive," "more beautiful." Finnish never does this — the comparative lives entirely in the -mpi ending. Reaching for enemmän ("more") plus a plain adjective is a direct calque that produces non-Finnish.

❌ Tämä on enemmän kallis kuin tuo.

Incorrect — Finnish has no 'more + adjective'; the -mpi ending carries it: kalliimpi.

✅ Tämä on kalliimpi kuin tuo.

This is more expensive than that one.

❌ Se oli enemmän kaunis kuin muistin.

Incorrect — use the comparative form kauniimpi, not enemmän + adjective.

✅ Se oli kauniimpi kuin muistin.

It was more beautiful than I remembered.

To be clear, enemmän is a real and useful word — it is the comparative of paljon ("much / many"), used for amounts and with verbs, not to inflate adjectives:

✅ Syön enemmän kuin sinä.

I eat more than you. (enemmän = 'more' of a quantity — correct here)

"As...as" is yhtä ... kuin

Equality — "as big as," "as old as" — has its own frame: yhtä + adjective + kuin. The kuin is the same comparison particle, so the kun trap reappears here too.

❌ Talo on yhtä vanha kun kirkko.

Incorrect — 'as...as' is yhtä...kuin, and it's kuin, not kun: yhtä vanha kuin kirkko.

✅ Talo on yhtä vanha kuin kirkko.

The house is as old as the church.

More on the equality frame lives in equality.

Why English speakers get this wrong

English has only one "than" and only one comparative slot, so the mind arrives with a single template — "comparative + than + noun" — and tries to press Finnish into it. That template misleads on all three fronts. First, English "than" hides the fact that Finnish is choosing between kuin and its homophone kun, so the wrong one slips out. Second, the template has no idea that Finnish offers a second, case-based way to compare (the partitive minua isompi), so learners who half-remember it splice it onto the kuin pattern and produce the double-marked hybrid. Third, English long adjectives really do use a separate "more," so enemmän kallis feels natural even though Finnish builds the comparative inside the word. The way out is to hold the two Finnish patterns as clean, separate templates — kuin + nominative or partitive alone — never mixed, and to trust the -mpi ending to mean "more" all by itself. Drill the forms themselves at the comparative.

Key Takeaways

"Than" is kuin; kun means "when." A comparison always takes kuin.
Two legal patterns, never combined: kuin + nominative (isompi kuin minä) OR partitive, no kuin (minua isompi).
After kuin, the comparee copies the case of the role being compared — nominative for the usual subject comparison; isompi kuin minua is wrong.
Finnish has no "more + adjective" — the comparative is the -mpi ending: kalliimpi, not enemmän kallis. (enemmän means "more" of an amount.)
"As...as" is yhtä ... kuin: yhtä vanha kuin kirkko.

Now practice Finnish

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Finnish→