Considering with pitää
The verb pitää has many meanings in Finnish (such as "to like" or "to have to"), but it can also mean "to consider" or "to regard as".
When using pitää to express your opinion about something, the sentence follows a specific pattern. The thing you are evaluating takes the partitive case, and the quality or description you assign to it takes the essive case (ending in -na or -nä).
| I consider this invention ingenious. | Minä pidän tätä keksintöä nerokkaana. |
| Do you consider it possible? | Pidätkö sitä mahdollisena? |
This structure works whether you are describing the object with an adjective or a noun.
| The expert considers the problem a threat. | Asiantuntija pitää ongelmaa uhkana. |
| The teacher considers the rule fair. | Opettaja pitää sääntöä reiluna. |
Assuming with luulla
The verb luulla means "to think", "to suppose", or "to assume". It is often used when you assume something to be true, especially if that assumption turns out to be wrong.
When describing what you assume someone or something to be, the object being evaluated is again in the partitive case. However, the assumed quality or identity takes the translative case (ending in -ksi).
| He thought this man was a swindler. | Hän luuli tätä miestä huijariksi. |
| I thought the dog was harmless, and I gave it food. | Luulin koiraa vaarattomaksi ja annoin sille ruokaa. |
You will often see luulla used to talk about past misconceptions, contrasting what you used to think with what you know now.
| I thought he was a genius, but I know now that he is a swindler. | Luulin häntä neroksi, mutta nyt tiedän, että hän on huijari. |
| I thought the idea was ingenious, but it was bad. | Luulin ideaa nerokkaaksi, mutta se oli huono. |
