Breakdown of Kansalaisuus riippuu siitä, että olet kiinnostunut näistä asioista.
tämä
this
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
että
that (conjunction)
asia
thing, matter
olla kiinnostunut
to be interested in
riippua
to depend
kansalaisuus
citizenship
Questions & Answers about Kansalaisuus riippuu siitä, että olet kiinnostunut näistä asioista.
Why is siitä used right before että?
The verb riippua (to depend) requires the thing you depend on to be in the elative case (-sta/-stä). Since you cannot attach a case ending to an entire että clause, Finnish uses the pronoun se as a bridge. We put se into the elative case (siitä) to satisfy the verb's rule, followed by the että clause.
Why is 'these things' translated as näistä asioista rather than the partitive näitä asioita?
This is due to the word kiinnostunut (interested). In Finnish, when you are interested in something, that thing must be in the elative case (-sta/-stä). Both the pronoun nämä (these) and the noun asia (thing) must take the plural elative ending here.
The English translation says 'on you being interested', but the Finnish uses olet (you are). Why?
English frequently uses '-ing' words for this kind of structure, but Finnish strongly prefers using a pronoun bridge followed by an että clause with a fully conjugated verb. So 'depends on you being' naturally translates to 'depends on it, that you are'.
Does the comma always go between the pronoun bridge and että?
Yes. The pronoun bridge siitä is the final part of the main clause, while että starts the new subordinate clause. Finnish grammar strictly requires a comma to separate a main clause from an että clause.
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