Breakdown of Toisaalta tämä aktiviteetti on eksoottinen, toisaalta se on liian hintava.
tämä
this
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
liian
too (excessively)
toisaalta
on the other hand
eksoottinen
exotic
aktiviteetti
activity
hintava
pricey
Questions & Answers about Toisaalta tämä aktiviteetti on eksoottinen, toisaalta se on liian hintava.
Why does Finnish use the exact same word, toisaalta, for both halves of the phrase?
In English, we contrast 'the one hand' with 'the other hand'. Finnish simply repeats the word toisaalta to show two contrasting viewpoints. It translates literally as something like 'from another perspective... from another perspective'. You must use the exact same word twice to create this correlative structure.
What case is toisaalta in, and what does it literally mean?
It is in the ablative case, which is the 'from' case for outer surfaces, ending in -lta. The root is related to toinen (other), specifically referring to 'elsewhere' or 'another place'. So literally, toisaalta means 'from elsewhere' or 'from another standpoint'.
Why doesn't the word order invert to toisaalta on se in the second half of the sentence?
In some languages, starting a clause with an adverb forces the verb to come before the subject. Finnish generally does not do this. Even though the clause starts with toisaalta, the standard subject-verb order remains intact: se (subject) comes before on (verb).
How is the word hintava formed, and how is it different from kallis?
Hintava is made from the noun hinta (price) plus the adjective suffix -va, which means 'having a lot of' a certain quality. So it literally means 'having a lot of price'. While kallis is the standard word for 'expensive', hintava is a slightly more colorful alternative, much like 'pricey' in English.
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