Breakdown of Minun mielestäni tämä puhelin on yhtä käytännöllinen kuin tuo tabletti.
tämä
this
olla
to be
tuo
that
minä
I
Questions & Answers about Minun mielestäni tämä puhelin on yhtä käytännöllinen kuin tuo tabletti.
How does the "as practical as" structure work here?
To say something is "as [adjective] as" something else, Finnish uses the structure yhtä [adjective] kuin. In this sentence, yhtä means "equally" and kuin means "as", framing the adjective käytännöllinen (practical).
Wait, isn't yhtä the partitive form of yksi (one)? Does it force the adjective into the partitive too?
Yes, yhtä is technically the partitive of yksi, but in this comparison structure, it functions as a fixed adverb meaning "equally". Because it acts as an adverb, it doesn't force the adjective into the partitive case. Käytännöllinen stays in the basic nominative case because it describes the subject, tämä puhelin, which is also nominative.
Why does "in my opinion" translate to minun mielestäni? What are those endings?
This is a very common fixed expression. It comes from the word mieli (mind or opinion). It uses the elative case ending -stä (out of) plus the first-person possessive suffix -ni (my). Literally, it means "out of my mind," but it is the standard way to say "in my opinion."
I recognize the start of käytännöllinen. Is it related to the verb käyttää (to use)?