Breakdown of Metsä oli täysin äänetön, ikään kuin se nukkuisi.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
metsä
forest
nukkua
to sleep
täysin
completely
äänetön
soundless / silent
ikään kuin
as if / as though
Questions & Answers about Metsä oli täysin äänetön, ikään kuin se nukkuisi.
Why do we use the conditional mood (nukkuisi) after ikään kuin?
The phrase ikään kuin (as if) introduces a hypothetical or imaginary comparison. In Finnish, these unreal situations require the conditional mood, marked by the -isi- insert, to emphasize that the forest was not actually sleeping.
Since the main sentence is in the past tense (oli), why isn't the perfect conditional (olisi nukkunut) used here?
The present conditional (nukkuisi) is used because the hypothetical sleeping is happening at the exact same time as the main action, even though that main action (oli) is in the past. You would only use the perfect conditional (olisi nukkunut) if the forest seemed as if it had finished sleeping before the moment it became silent.
How is the adjective äänetön constructed?
It is formed by taking the stem of the noun ääni (sound or voice) and adding the caritive suffix -tön. This suffix indicates the lack of something, much like the English suffix '-less', making äänetön translate literally to 'soundless'.
What role does täysin play in this sentence, and what word does it come from?
Täysin is an adverb meaning 'completely' or 'totally', and here it modifies the adjective äänetön. It is formed from the adjective täysi (full) by adding the adverbial suffix -n, which is a very common way to turn Finnish adjectives into adverbs of degree.
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