Learn Finnish: Tämä ennennäkemätön raekuuro on suurempi kuin mikään. - This unprecedented hailstorm is bigger than anything.

Tämä ennennäkemätön raekuuro on suurempi kuin mikään.

This unprecedented hailstorm is bigger than anything.

Breakdown of Tämä ennennäkemätön raekuuro on suurempi kuin mikään.

anything, nothing (with negation)

kuin

than / like / as (also in "before …")

Questions & Answers about Tämä ennennäkemätön raekuuro on suurempi kuin mikään.

I thought mikään meant 'nothing' or was only used in negative sentences. Why is it used here in an affirmative sentence?

While mikään is mainly a negative pronoun meaning 'nothing', it is also used in certain affirmative contexts to mean 'anything'. One of the most common triggers for this is a comparative structure, like suurempi kuin (bigger than). Just like in English you would say 'bigger than anything', Finnish uses mikään to achieve that exact meaning.

How is the word ennennäkemätön constructed?

It is a compound of ennen (before) and näkemätön (unseen). Näkemätön is the negative participle of the verb nähdä (to see). So literally, it translates to 'before-unseen', which translates smoothly to 'unprecedented'.

I recognize rae as hail, but doesn't kuuro mean 'deaf'?

Yes, kuuro means 'deaf' on its own, but it is also the word for a 'shower' or sudden short spell of weather. You will often see it in weather terms like lumikuuro (snow shower), vesikuuro (rain shower), and raekuuro (hailstorm).

Could I use the partitive to say 'bigger than anything' without using the word kuin?

Yes! Instead of suurempi kuin mikään, you could use the partitive comparison rule and say mitään suurempi. Both are grammatically correct and mean exactly the same thing, though suurempi kuin mikään fits nicely here as a strong emphatic ending to the sentence.