Breakdown of On helppoa toimia toisin jälkikäteen.
olla
to be
helppo
easy
toimia
to function, to work / to act
toisin
differently
Questions & Answers about On helppoa toimia toisin jälkikäteen.
Why is helppoa in the partitive rather than the nominative helppo?
In Finnish, when an adjective describes an infinitive verb (like toimia, to act) in an impersonal "It is..." sentence, the adjective must be in the partitive. So, "It is easy to act" is translated as On helppoa toimia.
What kind of word is toisin and how does it relate to toinen?
Toisin is an adverb meaning "differently" or "otherwise." It is formed from the pronoun toinen (other) using the adverbial suffix -sin. You will often see it in the context of wishes and regrets, such as Kunpa olisin tehnyt toisin (If only I had done it differently).
What is the literal translation of jälkikäteen?
It literally means "into the after-hand" (jälki meaning "after" or "mark", and käteen being the illative form of "hand"). It is the standard Finnish adverb for "afterwards," "in retrospect," or "in hindsight." Its direct opposite is etukäteen (beforehand / into the fore-hand).