Ahmin mieluummin komediaa kuin katson uutisia.
I would rather binge-watch comedy than watch the news.
Breakdown of Ahmin mieluummin komediaa kuin katson uutisia.
katsoa
to watch
uutinen
news
kuin
than / before (in 'ennen kuin') / like / as
mieluummin
rather
komedia
comedy
ahmia
to binge-watch
Questions & Answers about Ahmin mieluummin komediaa kuin katson uutisia.
Why is the verb ahmia used to mean 'binge-watch'?
While ahmia literally means 'to devour' or 'to gorge on food', modern Finnish uses it metaphorically for rapidly consuming media. Depending on the context, it translates perfectly to 'binge-watching' (for TV shows) or 'devouring' (for books).
The English translation says 'I would rather', but the Finnish verb ahmin is in the present indicative tense. Shouldn't it be in the conditional?
You do not need the conditional mood here because the adverb mieluummin (preferably) already expresses the preference. The present tense ahmin mieluummin simply states your general preference as a fact. You would only use the conditional (ahmisin) if the whole situation were hypothetical.
How does the mieluummin ... kuin structure work here?
Mieluummin is the comparative form of the adverb mielellään (gladly). Combined with kuin (than), it literally translates to 'I more gladly binge-watch comedy than I watch news.' This is the standard Finnish formula for expressing 'would rather... than'.
Why are the objects komediaa and uutisia in the partitive case?
Both verbs (ahmia and katsoa) express continuous, unbounded actions here. You are not watching a specific, completed amount of either. Furthermore, komediaa functions as an uncountable mass noun (the genre of comedy), and uutisia is an indefinite plural.
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