Breakdown of Tuo on maailman toiseksi korkein vesiputous, ja se on melkein tuhat metriä korkea.
olla
to be
tuo
that
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
ja
and
tuhat
one thousand
toinen
other, another; second
maailma
world
korkea
high, tall
melkein
almost
metri
the meter
vesiputous
waterfall
Questions & Answers about Tuo on maailman toiseksi korkein vesiputous, ja se on melkein tuhat metriä korkea.
Why is the word for second (toinen) in the translative case (toiseksi)?
In Finnish, when you rank a superlative like 'second highest' or 'third largest', the ordinal number takes the translative ending -ksi. It is followed directly by the superlative adjective. You can think of toiseksi korkein as meaning 'highest, ranking into the second position.'
Why do we use the genitive maailman instead of a location case for 'in the world'?
When expressing the scope of a superlative, Finnish uses the genitive case directly before the adjective phrase, rather than a location case like the inessive (maailmassa). So 'the second highest in the world' becomes maailman toiseksi korkein, literally 'the world's second highest'.
Why is metriä in the partitive case, but tuhat and korkea are in the nominative?
Numbers greater than one require the following noun to be in the partitive singular, which is why we see metriä. However, tuhat is just the base number, and korkea describes the singular subject se (the waterfall), so the adjective stays in the basic nominative case.
Why does the sentence start with Tuo but later use se for the same waterfall?
Tuo translates to 'that' and is used to point out or draw attention to something physically distant. Once the waterfall has been introduced as the topic, Finnish naturally switches to the standard pronoun se (it) to refer back to it in the second clause.
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