Breakdown of Rohkeus on tärkeä, mutta vaikea asia.
olla
to be
mutta
but
vaikea
difficult / hard
tärkeä
important
Questions & Answers about Rohkeus on tärkeä, mutta vaikea asia.
The lesson is about the suffix -uus, so why does rohkeus only have a single u?
Rohkeus (courage) is derived from the adjective rohkea (brave). When a base adjective ends in -ea or -eä, you drop the final a or ä before adding the suffix. For these words, the suffix shortens to just -us or -ys. So instead of the clunky 'rohkeauus', we get rohkeus.
Could I form abstract nouns from tärkeä and vaikea using this exact same rule?
Yes, absolutely! Since they also end in -ea or -eä, they follow the exact same pattern. Drop the last vowel and add -ys or -us: tärkeä becomes tärkeys (importance), and vaikea becomes vaikeus (difficulty).
Why are tärkeä and vaikea in the nominative case? Shouldn't abstract concepts like courage take the partitive?
It is true that abstract concepts usually take a partitive adjective, like in the sentence Rohkeus on tärkeää (Courage is important). However, in this sentence, the adjectives are describing the countable noun asia (thing/matter) at the end. Because asia is in the basic nominative singular form, the adjectives attached to it must match it and also be in the nominative.
Could I use the word juttu instead of asia for 'thing' here?