Questions & Answers about Tämä omena on yhtä kirpeä kuin tuo.
How does the 'as [adjective] as' structure work in this sentence?
To say two things are equal in some quality, Finnish uses the structure yhtä + adjective + kuin. In this sentence, yhtä kirpeä kuin translates to 'as tart as' (literally: 'equally tart as').
Why is the English phrase 'that one' translated just as tuo?
English often requires the placeholder word 'one' so you aren't just left hanging with the word 'that'. Finnish doesn't need this! The demonstrative pronoun tuo works perfectly on its own to mean 'that one'.
If I wanted to ask 'Which apple is more tart?', how would I use the lesson's word kumpi?
You would say Kumpi omena on kirpeämpi?. Because you are dealing with exactly two apples (this one and that one), you must use kumpi (which of two) instead of mikä. You also change the adjective to its comparative form, kirpeämpi.
Why isn't the adjective kirpeä in the partitive case?
Adjectives that describe the subject must match the subject's case. Because Tämä omena is a singular, countable whole object in the basic nominative case, kirpeä also stays in the nominative. If the subject were an uncountable mass word like vesi (water), you would use the partitive.