Breakdown of Mitä aikaisemmin aloitat, sitä parempi suoritus on.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
mikä
what
aikaisin
early
Questions & Answers about Mitä aikaisemmin aloitat, sitä parempi suoritus on.
How do mitä and sitä mean "the... the..." in this sentence?
In Finnish, the "the X-er, the Y-er" structure is formed using mitä + a comparative word, followed by sitä + a comparative word. Even though mitä usually means "what" and sitä means "that", together in this specific pattern they create the correlative comparative.
Why is aikaisemmin used instead of the adjective aikaisempi?
Aikaisemmin is a comparative adverb because it describes the verb aloitat (how you start). In the second half, parempi is a comparative adjective because it describes the noun suoritus (the performance). The mitä... sitä... structure can use either adjectives or adverbs depending on what they modify.
What is the word order rule for the second half of the sentence (sitä parempi suoritus on)?
In the second clause, sitä and its comparative word (parempi) must stay together at the beginning. After that, Finnish usually follows a regular Subject-Verb order. That is why the subject suoritus comes before the verb on, making the literal order "that better performance is".
I recognize suoritus (performance). Is it related to a verb?
Yes, it is derived from the verb suorittaa (to perform, to execute, to complete). Adding the -us or -ys ending is a very common way in Finnish to turn a verb into a noun that represents the action or the result of that action.