Breakdown of Taistelu on pahempi ilman viittaa.
olla
to be
paha
bad (evil, severe)
ilman
without
taistelu
the battle
Questions & Answers about Taistelu on pahempi ilman viittaa.
Why is "worse" translated as pahempi?
It comes from the adjective paha (bad). In the comparative degree, two-syllable adjectives ending in -a or -ä change that final vowel to -e- before adding the -mpi suffix. Therefore, paha changes its stem to pahe-, giving us pahempi.
Why is the word for cape, viitta, in the partitive form viittaa?
The word ilman (without) is a preposition that requires the noun following it to be in the partitive case. That is why viitta takes the partitive ending -a.
I recognize taistelu (battle) from the verb taistella (to fight). How does that noun ending work?
Adding the suffix -u or -y to a verb stem is a very common way to create a noun describing the action. Here, the verb taistella becomes the noun taistelu.
Can ilman be used as a postposition, by putting it after viittaa?
No, ilman is almost exclusively used as a preposition. While Finnish has many postpositions that follow the noun, ilman must come before the noun it modifies and always takes the partitive case.