Questions & Answers about Monet ihmiset uskovat jumalaan.
Why is 'in god' translated as jumalaan instead of using a separate word for 'in'?
In Finnish, certain verbs demand that the word attached to them takes a specific case. The verb uskoa (to believe) requires the target of the belief to be in the illative case, which is the 'into' case. Instead of saying you believe 'in' something, Finnish grammar treats it as believing 'into' it. That is why jumala (god) gets the illative ending to become jumalaan.
Why is the subject Monet ihmiset instead of using the partitive case?
Here, 'many people' is the subject performing the action, so both words take the basic plural form (nominative plural). Moni becomes monet, and ihminen becomes ihmiset. You would use the partitive case (monia ihmisiä) if 'many people' were the object receiving an action, for example in the sentence 'I see many people'.
Since this lesson is about että (that), how would I use it with this sentence to say 'Many people believe that god exists'?
You would use uskovat, että followed by a new subordinate clause. For example: Monet ihmiset uskovat, että jumala on olemassa. Notice that when you use an että clause, you do not put jumala in the illative case anymore, because the belief is now directed at the entire 'that' clause rather than a single noun.
Does the verb uskovat have to be plural?
Yes! Because the subject Monet ihmiset is plural, the verb must match it with the third-person plural ending -vat. Interestingly, you could also say Moni ihminen uskoo (Many a person believes), which uses grammatically singular words but means exactly the same thing.
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