Breakdown of En matkustaisi vuoristoon, jos kukaan ennustaisi maanvyörymää.
ei
no / not (negative verb)
matkustaa
to travel
kukaan
anyone, nobody (with negation)
jos
if
Questions & Answers about En matkustaisi vuoristoon, jos kukaan ennustaisi maanvyörymää.
Why does kukaan mean "anyone" here instead of "nobody"?
Though kukaan usually means "nobody" in negative sentences, Finnish uses it in jos (if) clauses to mean "anyone at all". This is the focus of your current lesson! If you used joku instead, it would mean "if a specific someone predicted a landslide", rather than "if anyone did".
Why is the conditional marker -isi- used in both matkustaisi and ennustaisi?
In Finnish, hypothetical "if... then..." statements use the conditional mood in both parts of the sentence. This differs from English, which uses "would" in the main clause but the simple past tense ("predicted") in the "if" clause.
Why is vuoristoon in the illative (into) case?
Why is maanvyörymää in the partitive case?
The verb ennustaa (to predict) is a partitive verb. Because you are talking about an abstract, future event that hasn't materialized yet, the object of the prediction must take the partitive ending -ä.