Breakdown of Kun keskustellaan periaatteista, on tärkeää olla objektiivinen.
olla
to be
tärkeä
important
kun
when (conjunction)
keskustella
to discuss
Questions & Answers about Kun keskustellaan periaatteista, on tärkeää olla objektiivinen.
Why is tärkeää in the partitive case here, even though there is no että clause?
The rule you learned for että clauses also applies to infinitive phrases! When the grammatical subject of a sentence is an infinitive phrase like olla objektiivinen, evaluative adjectives like tärkeä still take the partitive case (tärkeää). If it were a truth-value adjective like totta, it would be in the nominative.
Why is the passive keskustellaan used here to mean 'people discuss'?
The Finnish passive is very commonly used for general statements where the agent is indefinite. It is the most natural way to express what 'one', 'people', or a general 'we' do in a given situation.
Why is the word for principles in the elative case (periaatteista)?
The verb keskustella (to discuss) requires its complement to be in the elative case (-sta / -stä), which expresses what the conversation is about. Here, the word periaate (principle) is put into the plural elative.
Why is objektiivinen in the nominative case instead of the partitive?
While tärkeää describes the abstract action of being objective (and is therefore partitive), objektiivinen describes the implied person who is doing the discussing. When an adjective describes a person, even an indefinite 'one' from a passive context, it typically stays in the nominative singular.