Breakdown of Utopiassa selvitään hyvin perustulon takia.
hyvin
well
takia
because of
selvitä
to survive
utopia
utopia
perustulo
basic income
Questions & Answers about Utopiassa selvitään hyvin perustulon takia.
Wait, selvitä (to survive/manage) doesn't take an object. How can it be passive here?
In Finnish, the passive isn't just for actions done to something (like "the apple is eaten"). It acts more like a "fourth person" meaning "people (in general)" or "one". You can use the passive with intransitive verbs (verbs without objects) to describe a general human state or action. So selvitään just means "people get by" or "one survives".
Could I just say Utopiassa ihmiset selviävät hyvin... instead of using the passive?
Yes, you could, and the core meaning would be the same. However, using the passive (selvitään) is often more natural and idiomatic in Finnish when describing a general condition, atmosphere, or "how one lives" in a certain place, because it removes the focus from the individuals and places it purely on the situation itself.
I've seen selvitä used when talking about the weather. Does it mean the same thing here?
selvitä is a very versatile verb. When referring to the weather, it means "to clear up". But when applied to people (which is always implied by the Finnish passive), it means "to survive", "to cope", or "to get by". Here, it means that in a utopia, people get by well.
Why is perustulo (basic income) in the genitive form (perustulon)?
It's required by the word takia ("because of"). takia is a postposition, and as a quick refresher, most postpositions in Finnish require the noun they are attached to (the one coming immediately before them) to be in the genitive case.
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