Breakdown of Mitä nopeammin peto syöksyy, sitä paremmin se saalistaa.
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
mikä
what
nopeasti
fast
hyvin
well
peto
predator
saalistaa
to hunt
syöksyä
to dive
Questions & Answers about Mitä nopeammin peto syöksyy, sitä paremmin se saalistaa.
How does the 'Mitä... sitä...' structure work here to mean 'The faster... the better'?
In Finnish, the 'The [comparative], the [comparative]' structure is formed using mitä (the partitive of mikä) followed by a comparative word, and then sitä (the partitive of se) followed by another comparative word. Think of it literally as 'What faster, that better.'
Why are nopeammin and paremmin used instead of nopeampi and parempi?
Because they are modifying the verbs (syöksyy and saalistaa), so they must be adverbs. Nopeammin means 'more quickly' and paremmin means 'better' (in the sense of acting in a better way). If you were describing nouns instead, like 'the faster beast', you would use the adjective form nopeampi.
Could I use metsästää instead of saalistaa for 'hunts' here?
It is much more natural to use saalistaa here. Metsästää is typically used for humans hunting as an activity, often with weapons. Saalistaa comes from the word saalis (prey or catch) and is specifically used when an animal, like a predator (peto), hunts its prey for survival.
Why does the subject se come after paremmin rather than right after the comma?
The mitä... sitä... construction strictly requires the comparative word to directly follow the words mitä and sitä. This pushes the subject (se) and the verb (saalistaa) to follow the comparative phrase, creating the order sitä + comparative + subject + verb.
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