Breakdown of On vaikea muistaa sekä muuttujia että silmukoita.
olla
to be
vaikea
difficult / hard
muistaa
to remember
että
that (conjunction)
sekä
both
silmukka
loop
muuttuja
variable
Questions & Answers about On vaikea muistaa sekä muuttujia että silmukoita.
Why is there no word for "it" at the start of On vaikea muistaa?
In Finnish, sentences like "It is difficult to do something" don't use a placeholder word for "it" (like se). These evaluative structures just start directly with the verb on, followed by the adjective (vaikea) and the first infinitive of the action verb (muistaa).
Could I use the partitive vaikeaa instead of vaikea here?
Yes! When the "subject" of the sentence is an infinitive verb (like muistaa), the adjective can be in either the nominative (vaikea) or the partitive (vaikeaa). Both are correct, though the nominative is often preferred in standard written Finnish, while the partitive is very common in everyday speech.
What case are muuttujia and silmukoita, and why?
They are both in the partitive plural. They act as the object of the verb muistaa (to remember). We use the partitive plural because we are talking about remembering variables and loops in a general, indefinite sense—not one specific, complete set of them.
How do you use the sekä ... että structure?
Sekä ... että is a paired conjunction meaning "both ... and". It joins two similar parts of a sentence to emphasize that both are included. Notice that when it connects two nouns like this, both words (muuttujia and silmukoita) must be in the exact same grammatical case.
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