Breakdown of Se, mistä olemme tietoisia, muuttaa meitä.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
me
we
muuttaa
to change (something)
mikä
which (relative pronoun)
tietoinen
conscious
Questions & Answers about Se, mistä olemme tietoisia, muuttaa meitä.
Why does the sentence start with Se, mistä instead of just using Mitä for "What"?
This sentence uses a pseudo-cleft structure, which Finnish uses to put strong focus on a specific part of a statement. Instead of just starting with a relative pronoun, you place the demonstrative pronoun se (it/that) in the main clause as an anchor. This is followed by a relative clause starting with an inflected form of mikä. Literally, the sentence is structured as 'That, of which we are aware, changes us.'
Why is the relative pronoun in the elative case (mistä)?
The case of a relative pronoun is determined by the grammar rules of its own clause. In Finnish, the adjective tietoinen (aware) requires the thing you are aware of to be in the elative case (-sta/-stä). Because we are aware of 'it', the relative pronoun mikä becomes the elative mistä.
Why is the adjective tietoisia in the partitive plural?
Inside the relative clause, the subject is 'we' (shown by the verb olemme). When describing a plural subject with an adjective, that adjective must be in the partitive plural. The base form is tietoinen, and its partitive plural is tietoisia.
Why is the main verb muuttaa in the third-person singular when the sentence mentions 'we' and 'us'?
The subject of the main verb muuttaa is the singular pronoun se at the very beginning of the sentence. Even though the inner relative clause contains the plural verb olemme, the grammatical subject of the main action is 'it' (the entire concept we are aware of), so the main verb takes the singular form.
Why is the object meitä in the partitive case rather than the accusative?
The verb muuttaa (to change) takes a partitive object here because the process of changing us is continuous, open-ended, or abstract. Using the accusative total object form meidät would imply a fully completed, final physical transformation into something else entirely.
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