Questions & Answers about Terveys on tärkeää.
Why is tärkeää in the partitive case instead of the nominative tärkeä?
In Finnish, when you describe an abstract, uncountable concept like terveys (health), the describing adjective must be in the partitive case. If you were describing a specific, countable thing, you would use the nominative, for example: Talo on tärkeä (The house is important).
How is the noun terveys related to the greeting terve?
The word terve originally means "healthy" or "well" (which is why it is used as a greeting). By adding the ending -ys (or -us), you turn the adjective into an abstract noun, similar to adding "-ness" or "-th" in English. So, terve becomes terveys (health).
This lesson is about the translative case (-ksi) for a change of state. Why isn't it used in this sentence?
The translative case is used when something changes into a new state or role. This sentence merely describes a permanent fact or current state using the verb olla (to be), so we don't use the translative. If you wanted to say "Health became important", you would use a verb of change and the translative case: Terveys tuli tärkeäksi.
Learn Terveys on tärkeää and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free