Breakdown of Tällä dinosauruksella on pidempi kaula kuin tuolla.
tämä
this
olla
to be
tuo
that
pitkä
long, tall
kuin
than / before (in 'ennen kuin') / like / as
dinosaurus
dinosaur
kaula
neck
Questions & Answers about Tällä dinosauruksella on pidempi kaula kuin tuolla.
What is the base word for pidempi? It doesn't look like a standard comparative.
It is the comparative form of pitkä (long). This is one of the most irregular comparatives in Finnish. The stem changes significantly: the k disappears and the ä drops, changing the word to pidempi (longer).
Can I use pitempi instead of pidempi?
Yes, absolutely! Both pidempi and pitempi are grammatically correct comparative forms of pitkä, and both are widely used. Pidempi is slightly more common in formal written Finnish, but you will encounter both forms interchangeably.
Why do we use the adessive cases (tällä, dinosauruksella) instead of just tämä dinosaurus?
This is a refresher on the Finnish "to have" structure. Because Finnish doesn't have a direct verb for "have", it expresses possession by saying "on [someone] is [something]". Therefore, Tällä dinosauruksella on... literally translates to "On this dinosaur is...".
Why does the sentence end with tuolla instead of just tuo?
When you compare two things using kuin (than), both things must be in the same grammatical case. Since we established the first dinosaur in the adessive case (tällä dinosauruksella), the second part must match it. It literally means "than on that (one)", giving us the adessive form tuolla.
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