Breakdown of Ennätysmäinen kuivuus on suurempi uhka kuin kukaan ajatteli.
olla
to be
ajatella
to think
kukaan
anyone, nobody (with negation)
kuin
than / like / as (also in "before …")
suuri
large, great
uhka
threat
kuivuus
drought
ennätysmäinen
record-breaking
Questions & Answers about Ennätysmäinen kuivuus on suurempi uhka kuin kukaan ajatteli.
Why do we use kukaan here when the sentence isn't negative?
This is the core of your current lesson! While kukaan usually translates to 'no one' in negative sentences, it is also used in affirmative comparisons with kuin (than). Here, kuin kukaan translates to 'than anyone'. If you used joku (someone) instead, it would sound unnatural and lose that absolute, all-encompassing meaning.
How is the adjective ennätysmäinen formed?
It is built from the noun ennätys (record) and the suffix -mäinen, which means 'like' or 'having the quality of' (similar to the English suffix '-esque' or '-like'). Together, they create a word that means 'record-like' or 'record-breaking'.
What is the root of the noun kuivuus?
It comes from the adjective kuiva (dry). By adding the suffix -uus, which turns an adjective into a noun representing a state or quality (just like '-ness' in English), it becomes kuivuus, meaning 'dryness' or 'drought'.
Why is uhka (threat) in the nominative case rather than the partitive?
Uhka acts as the subject complement describing the singular subject kuivuus. Because both the subject and the complement are singular, countable concepts connected by the verb olla (to be), the complement stays in the nominative case. You would only use the partitive here if you were describing an uncountable mass or if the subject was plural.
Learn Ennätysmäinen kuivuus on suurempi uhka kuin kukaan ajatteli 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