Breakdown of Kunpa paahtaisimme nämä pavut entistä nopeammin!
tämä
this
nopeasti
fast
entinen
former
kunpa
if only
Questions & Answers about Kunpa paahtaisimme nämä pavut entistä nopeammin!
How does entistä mean "than before" in this sentence?
Entistä is the partitive form of the adjective entinen (former, previous). In Finnish, you can express "than [something]" by putting that standard of comparison in the partitive case directly before the comparative word. So, entistä nopeammin literally means "faster than the former," which is the standard way to say "faster than before."
Why does this sentence use nopeammin instead of nopeampi?
We need an adverb here because it describes how we perform the action of the verb paahtaisimme (we roasted). Nopeampi is a comparative adjective (e.g., a faster bean), while nopeammin is the comparative adverb (to roast faster). The entistä structure works seamlessly with both comparative adjectives and comparative adverbs.
What triggers the conditional -isi- marker in paahtaisimme?
The word kunpa (meaning "if only" or "I wish") expresses a strong hypothetical desire. It almost always requires the main verb to be in the conditional mood, which is why we see the -isi- marker inside paahtaisimme.
Why is the object nämä pavut not in the partitive case?