Breakdown of Jos hissi olisi täynnä, voisin käyttää portaita.
olla
to be
täynnä
full
voida
can
jos
if
käyttää
to use
hissi
the elevator
porras
the stair
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Questions & Answers about Jos hissi olisi täynnä, voisin käyttää portaita.
What is the function and meaning of jos in this sentence?
jos is a conjunction meaning if. It introduces the conditional clause (protasis) that describes the hypothetical situation.
Why are olisi and voisin in the conditional mood?
The sentence describes an unreal or hypothetical scenario. In Finnish, you express such situations by putting both the “if” part and the result part in the conditional mood. Thus olisi = “would be” and voisin = “could (would be able to)”.
How do you form the conditional mood for verbs like olla and voida?
- Take the present-tense stem:
• olla → ole-
• voida → voi- - Insert the conditional marker -isi-:
• ole + isi → oleisi-
• voi + isi → voisi- - Add personal endings:
• olisi (3rd sg.), olisin (1st sg.)
• voisin (1st sg.), voisit (2nd sg.)
What case is portaita, and why is it used instead of the nominative portaat?
portaita is the partitive plural of portaat (“stairs”). Verbs like käyttää (“to use”) take a partitive object when the action is viewed as indefinite, partial, or ongoing. Here, “use stairs” is a general, non-complete action, so the partitive (portaita) is required.
Why is täynnä used after olla, instead of the adjective täysi?
täynnä is an adverbial or predicative form meaning “full (of something)”, used with olla: olla täynnä = “to be full (of…)”. You could also say hissi on täysi, but the pattern olla täynnä is more idiomatic when specifying what something is filled with.
Can we swap the clause order to Voisin käyttää portaita, jos hissi olisi täynnä?
Yes. Finnish allows you to place the main clause before or after the jos-clause without changing meaning. When the jos-clause comes first, a comma precedes the main clause; when it comes second, the comma is optional but common in writing.
Why is there a comma before jos?
When a subordinate clause (here the jos-clause) opens a sentence, Finnish grammar calls for a comma before the main clause. It clearly separates the condition from its consequence.
What’s the difference between this unreal conditional and a real or likely condition in Finnish?
Unreal (hypothetical) conditions use the conditional mood in both clauses to talk about situations contrary to reality or unlikely to happen. A real condition would use the present tense in the jos-clause and the present or future in the main clause, for example:
• Jos hissi on täynnä, käytän portaita. (“If the elevator is full [now or in future], I use/will use the stairs.”)