Breakdown of Onneksi naarmu ei ole liian syvä.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
onneksi
fortunately
syvä
deep
liian
too (excessively)
naarmu
scratch
Questions & Answers about Onneksi naarmu ei ole liian syvä.
Since we are learning past passive participles, could I use naarmutettu (scratched) instead of the noun naarmu here?
You could, but it changes the structure. Naarmu is simply the noun 'a scratch'. If you used the past passive participle naarmutettu, it would act as an adjective describing a noun that received an action, like Onneksi naarmutettu kohta ei ole liian syvä (Fortunately the scratched area is not too deep).
Why does onneksi end in -ksi?
It is in the translative case. The base word is onni (luck or happiness). Finnish often uses the translative -ksi ending to turn nouns or adjectives into adverbs that express attitude or result, making onneksi mean 'fortunately' or 'luckily'.
The sentence is negative (ei ole). Shouldn't the adjective syvä be in the partitive case (syvää)?
No, because naarmu (scratch) is a countable noun. When a sentence describes a singular, countable thing as a whole, the adjective stays in the nominative case (syvä) even if the sentence is negative. If you were describing an uncountable mass noun, it would be partitive: Vesi ei ole syvää (The water is not deep).
I sometimes confuse liian and liikaa. Why is it liian here?
Use liian (too) when you are directly modifying an adjective or an adverb, just like liian syvä (too deep). Use the partitive form liikaa (too much) when talking about an excessive amount or modifying a verb, such as Satoi liikaa (It rained too much).
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