Learn Hardcore Finnish: Tuntuu kuin maljakko kaatuisi kohta. - It feels as if the vase were about to fall over.

Word

Tuntuu kuin maljakko kaatuisi kohta.

Meaning

It feels as if the vase were about to fall over.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Breakdown of Tuntuu kuin maljakko kaatuisi kohta.

Why does the sentence start with Tuntuu? What exactly is going on grammatically?

Tuntuu is the 3rd person singular form of tuntua, which often means to feel or to seem.

In this sentence, it works as an impersonal expression:

Finnish often uses a plain 3rd person singular verb where English uses dummy it. So there is no separate word for it here.

Compare:

So even though there is no explicit subject, the sentence is complete and natural.

What does kuin mean here?

Here kuin means as if.

So:

This is a very common structure in Finnish when you describe an impression or appearance rather than a confirmed fact.

A few similar uses:

In this sentence, kuin introduces the thing that seems to be happening: maljakko kaatuisi kohta.