Learn Finnish: Laskettelu saattaa olla yksi maailman vaarallisimmista harrastuksista. - Downhill skiing might be one of the most dangerous hobbies in the world.

Word

Laskettelu saattaa olla yksi maailman vaarallisimmista harrastuksista.

Meaning

Downhill skiing might be one of the most dangerous hobbies in the world.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Finnish

Lesson

Possibility (saattaa)

Breakdown of Laskettelu saattaa olla yksi maailman vaarallisimmista harrastuksista.

Questions & Answers about Laskettelu saattaa olla yksi maailman vaarallisimmista harrastuksista.

How does saattaa change the meaning here compared to using the conditional olisi?

saattaa is an epistemic modal verb, meaning it expresses a real possibility or probability based on what the speaker knows. saattaa olla means it might be or may be true in reality. If you used the conditional olisi, it would imply a hypothetical or imaginary situation, such as it would be dangerous if we went today.

Why are vaarallisimmista and harrastuksista in the elative case (-sta)?

They are paired with the word yksi to form a phrase meaning one of the. In Finnish, expressing one item out of a larger group requires the elative plural. Literally, the structure translates to one out of the most dangerous hobbies.

How do we build the word vaarallisimmista from the base adjective vaarallinen?

First, take the superlative stem of vaarallinen, which is vaarallisimma-. Because the sentence requires the elative plural, we add the plural marker -i- and the elative ending -sta. The final -a- of the stem drops out before the plural -i-, resulting in vaarallisimmista.

Could I use the word hiihto instead of laskettelu here?