Breakdown of Rehellisyys on parempaa kuin pahuus.
olla
to be
kuin
than / before (in 'ennen kuin') / like / as
parempi
better
rehellisyys
the honesty
Questions & Answers about Rehellisyys on parempaa kuin pahuus.
How did we get rehellisyys from the adjective for "honest"?
The word for "honest" is rehellinen. To make it an abstract noun (honesty), we take its stem rehellis- and add the suffix -yys. We use -yys instead of -uus because of vowel harmony: the front vowels e and i in the root mean the suffix must also use front vowels.
Why does pahuus end in -uus instead of -yys like rehellisyys?
It is all about vowel harmony. The root word is paha (bad or evil), which contains the back vowel a. Therefore, it takes the back-vowel suffix -uus to create pahuus (evilness).
Why is "better" written as parempaa (partitive) instead of just the basic comparative parempi?
Because the subject of the sentence, rehellisyys (honesty), is an abstract, uncountable noun. When you describe an abstract concept or an uncountable mass noun using the verb olla (to be), the describing adjective must be in the partitive case.
What is the base form of parempaa?
The base adjective is hyvä (good). Its comparative form (better) is the irregular word parempi. To get parempaa, we simply put parempi into the partitive case.