Breakdown of Onko hän niin voimakas kuin ihmiset väittävät?
olla
to be
hän
he / she
ihminen
human
niin
so
väittää
to claim
kuin
than / before (in 'ennen kuin') / like / as
voimakas
powerful (strong, forceful)
Questions & Answers about Onko hän niin voimakas kuin ihmiset väittävät?
How is voimakas formed from the noun voima?
The adjective voimakas is created by adding the suffix -kas to the noun voima (power or strength). This suffix indicates that someone or something possesses an abundance of that quality, translating perfectly here to "powerful".
If the subject was plural (e.g., "Are they as powerful?"), how would the -kas ending change?
Adjectives ending in -kas have a stem that changes to -kkaa- before adding plural or most case endings. Because plural predicative adjectives take the partitive case, the word would become voimakkaita (Ovatko he niin voimakkaita...).
Could I say yhtä voimakas kuin instead of niin voimakas kuin?
You could, but the nuance shifts slightly. Yhtä ... kuin strictly means an equal comparison ("equally as powerful as"). Niin ... kuin is very common in questions and negatives, translating more naturally here to "Is he that powerful, like people claim?"
The verb väittävät stands alone here. How does väittää usually connect to the thing being claimed?
In this comparative sentence, the object is implied by the structure. Normally, when you state what someone is claiming, väittää is followed by an että (that) clause. If you use a direct noun object with it instead, it requires the partitive case.
Learn Onko hän niin voimakas kuin ihmiset väittävät and more in Finnish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free