Breakdown of Jos hänellä on halu oppia, onko hänen aikomuksensa opiskella yliopistossa?
olla
to be
hän
he / she
oppia
to learn
opiskella
to study
jos
if
yliopisto
the university
halu
desire
aikomus
intention
Questions & Answers about Jos hänellä on halu oppia, onko hänen aikomuksensa opiskella yliopistossa?
How do the nouns halu and aikomus link to the verbs in this sentence?
This is the main point of the current lesson! Abstract nouns that express desires, plans, or abilities (like halu, desire, and aikomus, intention) act as the head word and can take a 1st infinitive (the dictionary form of a verb) directly after them. That is why we can say halu oppia (desire to learn) and aikomus opiskella (intention to study) without any extra connecting words.
Why are two different words for learning (oppia and opiskella) used here?
Oppia focuses on the result of learning or acquiring a skill, while opiskella refers to the active process of studying. In this sentence, the person has an internal desire to actually acquire knowledge (oppia), and the question asks if they plan to engage in the formal process of studying (opiskella) at a university to achieve that.
Why does aikomus change to aikomuksensa with the -nsa suffix?
The base noun is aikomus (intention). For Finnish nouns ending in -us or -os, the stem changes to -ukse- or -okse- when adding most endings, including possessive suffixes. Because the sentence says hänen aikomuksensa (his intention), we take the stem aikomukse- and add the 3rd person possessive suffix -nsa.
Why does aikomus get a possessive suffix, but halu does not, even though both belong to him?
It comes down to the grammatical structure of each clause. The first half uses the standard Finnish 'have' construction (hänellä on, literally 'on him is'), where the thing possessed (halu) is grammatically the subject and stays in its basic uninflected form. The second half uses a genitive possessive structure (hänen aikomuksensa, 'his intention'), which requires the noun to take the possessive suffix that matches the genitive pronoun.
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