Breakdown of Tämä viiva on tosi suora.
tämä
this
olla
to be
suora
straight (adjective)
tosi
really (intensifier)
viiva
line
Questions & Answers about Tämä viiva on tosi suora.
Why is "line" translated as viiva here instead of rivi or jono?
In Finnish, the English word "line" translates differently depending on the context. Viiva refers to a drawn line, like a geometric line on a piece of paper. If you mean a row of things or text, you use rivi, and if you mean a queue of people waiting, you use jono.
Why is suora in the nominative case rather than the partitive (suoraa)?
When describing a countable noun in the singular, like viiva (a line), the describing adjective is usually in the basic nominative case because it refers to a complete, indivisible thing. If you were describing an uncountable mass noun, like water or weather, you would use the partitive case.
I usually learn todella for "really". Is tosi more colloquial?
Yes. As an adjective, tosi means "true", but it is very frequently used as an adverb meaning "really" or "very" in everyday speech and informal writing. For formal written Finnish, you would normally choose todella.
Is suora related to the phrase used for going "straight ahead"?
Yes, it is exactly the same root word! Suora is the adjective meaning "straight". When you give directions and tell someone to go "straight ahead", you use the illative (into) form of this word: suoraan.
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