Breakdown of Hänellä on vahva usko tulevaisuuteen.
olla
to be
hän
he / she
vahva
strong
tulevaisuus
future
usko
faith, belief
Questions & Answers about Hänellä on vahva usko tulevaisuuteen.
Why is tulevaisuuteen in the illative case rather than the inessive like in the English "in the future"?
The abstract noun usko (faith, belief) dictates that the target of the belief must be in the illative case. In Finnish, you don't have faith "in" something, you have faith "into" it (mihin). This rection applies whether you are using the noun usko or the related verb uskoa (to believe).
How does this sentence relate to using the 1st infinitive with abstract nouns?
This lesson focuses on abstract nouns taking 1st infinitive complements, but here usko takes a noun complement instead. However, usko is one of those abstract nouns that can also govern a 1st infinitive if the belief involves an action. For example, you could say vahva usko selvitä (a strong faith to survive). This sentence just shows the noun equivalent using the illative case.
Why is vahva usko in the nominative case instead of the partitive, since faith is an abstract concept?
In the Finnish "have" construction (hänellä on), the thing possessed is put in the nominative if it acts as a single, complete entity. While usko is an abstract concept and often takes the partitive in other contexts, here it is framed as one specific, whole thing (a strong faith), so the nominative is used.
What is the stem change happening in the word tulevaisuuteen?
The base noun is tulevaisuus (the future). For words ending in the suffix -uus or -yys, the ending changes to -uute- or -yyte- when forming the inflectional stem. To get "into the future", you take the stem tulevaisuute- and add the illative suffix -en, resulting in tulevaisuuteen.
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