Breakdown of Onko tämä vakuutus tarpeeksi kattava, jotta se korvaa vakavat sairaudet?
tämä
this
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
tarpeeksi
enough
jotta
so that / in order to
vakava
serious
vakuutus
insurance
kattava
comprehensive
sairaus
the illness
korvata
to compensate
Questions & Answers about Onko tämä vakuutus tarpeeksi kattava, jotta se korvaa vakavat sairaudet?
The current lesson is about mikäli. Could I use it here instead of jotta?
No, because they serve different functions. jotta means "so that" or "in order to". mikäli is a formal word for "if" or "in the event that" (a synonym for jos). If you used mikäli here, the sentence would nonsensically mean "...comprehensive enough, in the event that it covers serious illnesses."
Why is the object vakavat sairaudet in the nominative plural instead of the partitive plural?
Because it's a total object. The verb korvata (to compensate/cover) is expressing a complete action here—covering the illnesses as whole concepts. Plural total objects take the nominative plural (ending in -t). If you meant it covers some serious illnesses, you would use the partitive plural vakavia sairauksia.
kattava translates to "comprehensive". Is it related to a verb?
Yes, it is the present active participle (the -va/-vä form) of the verb kattaa, which means "to cover" (or "to set the table"). In Finnish, this participle is very often used as a standard adjective, so kattava literally means "covering".
I noticed tarpeeksi comes before kattava. Is that word order mandatory?
Yes. In Finnish, adverbs of degree like tarpeeksi (enough/sufficiently) typically go before the adjective they modify. This often trips up native English speakers, who are used to putting "enough" after the adjective. You could also use the synonym riittävän, which follows the exact same word order: riittävän kattava.
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