Breakdown of Investoinnin kannattavuus riippuu niin hinnasta kuin laadustakin.
hinta
price
laatu
the quality
kuin
than / before (in 'ennen kuin') / like / as
riippua
to depend
Questions & Answers about Investoinnin kannattavuus riippuu niin hinnasta kuin laadustakin.
How does the niin ... kuin ... -kin structure work in this sentence?
This formal structure translates to "both ... and". The word niin precedes the first element (hinnasta) and kuin precedes the second (laadusta). Crucially, the enclitic particle -kin must be attached to the second element to complete the pairing. Without -kin, the structure would sound incomplete to a native speaker.
Why are both hinnasta and laadustakin in the elative case (-sta)?
The verb riippua (to depend) requires its object to be in the elative case, which usually translates to "out of" or "from". While English says "depends on", Finnish essentially says "depends from". Because the correlative structure links two things the investment depends on, both items must take this required case ending.
Why is the -kin particle attached at the very end of laadustakin instead of before the case ending?
In Finnish morphology, enclitic particles like -kin (also/even) or -ko/-kö (the question marker) are always the absolute final elements added to a word. They must come after any plural markers, case endings like the elative -sta, and possessive suffixes. Therefore, the strict order is root (laadu-) + case (-sta) + clitic (-kin).
How is the noun kannattavuus formed?