Breakdown of Jos juoksisin maratonin, se olisi kivulias.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
juosta
to run
jos
if
maraton
marathon
kivulias
painful
Questions & Answers about Jos juoksisin maratonin, se olisi kivulias.
Why do both halves of the sentence use the conditional marker -isi-?
In English, we say 'If I ran [past], it would be [conditional]'. In Finnish, both the 'if' clause (jos juoksisin) and the result clause (se olisi) take the conditional -isi- marker to clearly show that the entire scenario is hypothetical.
Why is maratonin in the genitive-looking accusative case instead of the partitive?
Because the hypothetical action is to run the entire marathon from start to finish. If you were talking about the ongoing, incomplete process ('If I were in the middle of running a marathon...'), you would use the partitive form maratonia.
How would I use the lesson's word kuitenkin to say 'it would however be painful'?
Adverbs of contrast like kuitenkin (however) and silti (nevertheless) usually sit right after the verb. To add contrast to this sentence, you would say: Jos juoksisin maratonin, se olisi kuitenkin kivulias.
Where does the adjective kivulias come from?
It comes from the noun kipu (pain). The suffix -lias / -liäs is used to create adjectives meaning 'having a lot of' or 'prone to' something, very much like the English suffix '-ful' in 'painful'.
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