Breakdown of En tiedä, onko hänen luonteva näyttää tämä ele.
tämä
this
olla
to be
hän
he / she
ei
no / not (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät)
Questions & Answers about En tiedä, onko hänen luonteva näyttää tämä ele.
Why does this sentence use the genitive hänen instead of the adessive hänellä?
This showcases the genitive experiencer structure. When you want to say 'it is [adjective] for [someone] to do [something]', the person is the experiencer. In Finnish, this experiencer takes the genitive case (hänen), followed by the verb olla, the adjective (luonteva), and the action as a 1st infinitive (näyttää).
Why is the object tämä ele in the basic nominative form instead of the genitive-looking tämän eleen?
Because the action (näyttää) is an infinitive in a clause that lacks a standard nominative subject. When a sentence is built around a genitive experiencer (hänen), the total object of the infinitive verb must take the nominative form instead of the genitive-accusative.
Why is the adjective luonteva in the nominative case here instead of the partitive luontevaa?
In the 'Genitive experiencer + olla + Adjective + Infinitive' pattern, the evaluating adjective is usually in the nominative case. This is a special rule for this specific structure, which can be tricky because in a general 'It is...' sentence without a specific person (like 'On luontevaa...'), you would often use the partitive.
How does onko translate to the English 'if' in this sentence?