Learn Hardcore Finnish: Laatu on tärkeämpää kuin määrä. - Quality is more important than quantity.

Finnish comparatives have two forms: a nominative form ending in -mpi (tärkeämpi) and a partitive form ending in -mpaa (tärkeämpää). When you express X is more A than Y in a general, non-exact sense—especially with the verb olla—the adjective takes the partitive. So tärkeämpää is the partitive singular of tärkeämpi, and it’s used here to convey a general assessment. Quality is more important than quantity.

What is the function of kuin here, and which case does the noun following it take?

Kuin is the comparative conjunction meaning than. It introduces the second element in a comparison. In Finnish, the noun after kuin in a comparative usually remains in the nominative case. That is why we write kuin määrä (nominative) and not kuin määrää (partitive).

What case is määrä in, and why?

Määrä is in the nominative singular. It acts as the standard against which laatu is compared. In Finnish comparatives with kuin, this second element typically stays in the nominative.

How does Finnish treat vowel length in words like laatu and tärkeämpää?

Finnish distinguishes short vs long vowels. A single vowel letter (a, e, i, etc.) is short; a doubled vowel (aa, ee, ii, etc.) is long. In laatu the aa is a long a, so it’s held longer than in a word like latu (trail). In tärkeämpää, you have long ä sounds in both the stem and the partitive ending -mpää. Vowel length can change meaning, so it’s important to pronounce it correctly.

What is the basic word order in this sentence and can it be changed?

The neutral Finnish word order is SVO (Subject–Verb–Object/Complement). Here that’s Laatu (subject) – on (verb) – tärkeämpää kuin määrä (predicate complement). You can move words for emphasis (for example, Tärkeämpää kuin määrä on laatu to stress quality), but SVO is the default.