Question 1

In English we say "Nothing is", but here it's "Mikään ei ole". Is this a double negative?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Finnish requires a negative verb with negative pronouns. Mikään essentially means "any" or "anything", and combining it with the negative verb ei creates "not anything" or "nothing". You cannot just say mikään on to mean "nothing is".

Question 2

How do you form "as [adjective] as" comparisons in Finnish?

Accepted Answer

You use the structure yhtä [adjective] kuin. Here, yhtä herkkä kuin literally translates to "equally sensitive as". Note that the adjective herkkä stays in its basic dictionary form, unlike when you form comparatives like herkempi (more sensitive).

Question 3

Why is "tämä kasvi" in the nominative case here? Don't comparisons sometimes use the partitive?

Accepted Answer

In comparisons using kuin, the noun following it usually takes the same case as the thing it's being compared to. Since the subject mikään is in the nominative, tämä kasvi is too. You only use the partitive in comparisons when you drop the word kuin after a comparative adjective (e.g., herkempi tätä kasvia), which doesn't apply to the yhtä... kuin structure.

Question 4

Doesn't a negative sentence usually make the adjective partitive? Why is it "herkkä" and not "herkkää"?

Accepted Answer

The rule that negative sentences trigger the partitive applies primarily to objects. For adjectives describing the subject, the case depends on whether the subject is a countable thing. Because we are talking about a countable concept here (a plant), the adjective stays in the nominative case (herkkä).

Mikään ei ole yhtä herkkä kuin tämä kasvi.

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