Breakdown of En olisi ahminut tieteissarjaa mieluummin kuin komediaa, jos ensimmäinen jakso olisi osoittautunut pitkäveteiseksi.
olla
to be
ei
no / not (negative verb)
jos
if
kuin
than / like / as (also in "before …")
ensimmäinen
first
mieluummin
rather
komedia
comedy
osoittautua
to turn out to be
ahmia
to binge-watch
jakso
episode
tieteissarja
science fiction series
pitkäveteinen
tedious
Questions & Answers about En olisi ahminut tieteissarjaa mieluummin kuin komediaa, jos ensimmäinen jakso olisi osoittautunut pitkäveteiseksi.
Why is pitkäveteinen (tedious) in the translative case (pitkäveteiseksi)?
The verb osoittautua (to turn out to be) requires the translative case for the adjective or noun that follows it. The translative ending -ksi often expresses a state that something changes into or is revealed to be, so osoittautunut pitkäveteiseksi translates to "turned out to be tedious".
Why is the conditional perfect used in both parts of the sentence (En olisi ahminut and olisi osoittautunut)?
Finnish uses the conditional perfect to talk about hypothetical past situations that didn't happen. Notice a key difference from English: while English uses the past perfect ("had turned out") in the "if" clause, Finnish uses the conditional perfect (olisi osoittautunut) in both the main clause and the jos (if) clause.
Why are both tieteissarjaa and komediaa in the partitive case?
The main object tieteissarjaa is in the partitive case primarily because the sentence is negative (En olisi ahminut). When making a comparison using mieluummin kuin (rather than), the thing being compared to it (komediaa) must logically match that same grammatical case.
I thought ahmia meant "to devour" food. How does it mean "binge-watch" here?
You are right! Ahmia literally means to eat greedily or stuff oneself. In modern Finnish, it is very commonly used metaphorically for consuming media rapidly, exactly like the English terms "to binge-watch" a series or "to devour" a good book.
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