Questions & Answers about Sensuuri on kauhea asia.
Why is it kauhea asia in the nominative, rather than kauheaa asiaa in the partitive?
Even though sensuuri is an abstract concept (which normally takes a partitive adjective, like in the sentence Sensuuri on kauheaa), adding the noun asia changes the rule. When an 'A is B' sentence links to a noun phrase like 'a terrible thing', the whole phrase stays in the basic nominative case.
The current lesson is about dropping the object case in passive sentences. Why doesn't that apply here?
The passive object rules only apply when an action is being done to something. This sentence uses the verb olla (to be) to simply state what censorship is, rather than describing an action done to it. Therefore, there is no object at all, and we just use the basic nominative case.
The word sensuuri looks like an international loanword. How do words like this typically adapt to Finnish?
Many international words adapt into Finnish by changing a foreign letter like 'c' to s and adding an i at the end so it fits Finnish pronunciation rules. The double u happens because Finnish often lengthens the final vowel of the original stem before the added i.
Could I use the word juttu instead of asia here?
Yes, juttu is a very common synonym for asia (thing or matter), but it is more conversational. Since censorship is a formal topic, asia fits the tone well, though Sensuuri on kauhea juttu would be completely natural in everyday spoken Finnish.
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