Breakdown of Luotan opettajaan, koska hän selittää kieliopin selvästi.
Questions & Answers about Luotan opettajaan, koska hän selittää kieliopin selvästi.
Because luottaa (to trust) always takes its object in the illative case (the “into / onto” case), not in the basic nominative.
- opettaja = teacher (nominative, dictionary form)
- opettajaan = to/into the teacher (illative singular)
So the structure is literally something like “I trust into the teacher”, which matches the English idea “I trust in the teacher.”
Many Finnish verbs govern a specific case like this. For luottaa, the correct pattern is:
- luottaa + illative
- Luotan opettajaan. – I trust (in) the teacher.
- Luotan sinuun. – I trust you.
- Luotan tähän järjestelmään. – I trust this system.
Using opettaja (nominative) here would be grammatically wrong.
Finnish usually omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person and number.
- luotan = I trust
- stem: luota-
- ending: -n (1st person singular)
So Luotan opettajaan by itself already means “I trust the teacher.”
You can add minä for emphasis:
- Minä luotan opettajaan. – I trust the teacher (maybe implying others don’t).
But in neutral statements, leaving minä out is completely normal and very common.
Hän is a gender-neutral third‑person singular pronoun. It can mean he or she, depending on context.
- hän = he / she (subject form)
- häntä = him / her (object or after certain preposition-like words)
Finnish does not grammatically mark gender in third person pronouns, so from hän alone you cannot tell if the teacher is male or female.
In English translation you choose he or she based on context, or you can say they if you want to keep it gender-neutral.
In Finnish, you normally put a comma before conjunctions that introduce a subordinate clause, such as:
- että, koska, kun, vaikka, jos, jotta, etc.
So in:
- Luotan opettajaan, koska hän selittää kieliopin selvästi.
the part koska hän selittää kieliopin selvästi is a subordinate clause explaining the reason. Therefore, a comma is required before koska.
This is a bit stricter than English. English can omit the comma in shorter sentences, but Finnish orthography expects it here.
Both can relate two clauses, but their primary uses differ:
koska = because (reason)
- Luotan opettajaan, koska hän selittää kieliopin selvästi.
→ I trust the teacher because he/she explains the grammar clearly.
- Luotan opettajaan, koska hän selittää kieliopin selvästi.
kun = mainly when, but sometimes colloquial because
- Kun tulin kotiin, söin. – When I came home, I ate.
- Spoken / informal:
- En tullut, kun olin sairas. – I didn’t come because I was ill.
For learners, the safest rule is:
- Use koska when you clearly mean “because” (reason).
- Use kun when you mean “when” (time).
In this sentence, koska is correct because it’s clearly giving a reason for trusting the teacher.
Kieliopin is the genitive singular of kielioppi (grammar).
- kielioppi = grammar (nominative)
- kieliopin = of the grammar / the grammar (as a total object, genitive)
Some verbs in Finnish take their object in the genitive when the action is seen as completed / total. Selittää (to explain) often takes a genitive object when you are talking about explaining the whole thing:
- Hän selittää kieliopin selvästi.
→ He/She explains the grammar clearly (as a complete system).
Compare:
- Hän selittää kielioppia.
→ He/She is explaining some grammar / explaining grammar (in general, ongoing, not as a complete whole) – partitive kielioppia.
So kieliopin here presents grammar as a whole object of the explaining.
Yes, Hän selittää kielioppia selvästi is grammatically correct, but the nuance changes:
selittää kieliopin (genitive object)
→ explains the grammar (as a whole, more “complete” idea)selittää kielioppia (partitive object)
→ explains some grammar / bits of grammar / grammar in general
– the action is more ongoing, partial, or unbounded.
In everyday speech, both can be used, but:
- In a sentence about a teacher’s general ability, kieliopin (genitive) is a bit more natural, suggesting the teacher can explain the whole grammar system clearly.
Selvästi is an adverb formed from the adjective selvä (clear).
Finnish often forms adverbs from adjectives with the ending -sti:
- selvä → selvästi – clearly
- hidas → hitaasti – slowly
- helppo → helposti – easily
- nopea → nopeasti – quickly
Spelling-wise, selvästi (with -sti) is the correct adverb form. Selvästi is not standard Finnish.
Meaning-wise, selvästi = in a clear way / clearly.
You might also see selkeästi, another adverb meaning almost the same thing; selkeä is a near-synonym of selvä.
Yes, that’s perfectly correct:
- Koska hän selittää kieliopin selvästi, luotan opettajaan.
Both orders are grammatical:
- Luotan opettajaan, koska hän selittää kieliopin selvästi.
- Koska hän selittää kieliopin selvästi, luotan opettajaan.
The difference is one of emphasis / focus, not grammar:
- Version 1 starts with the main point (I trust the teacher) and then gives the reason.
- Version 2 starts by highlighting the reason (“Because he explains grammar clearly…”) and then gives the conclusion.
Finnish word order is relatively flexible, but the comma between the clauses should still be there in both versions.
Selittää here is in the present tense, 3rd person singular:
- hän selittää = he/she explains, he/she is explaining
Finnish does not have a separate future tense. The present tense is used for:
- present: Hän selittää kieliopin nyt. – He/She is explaining the grammar now.
- scheduled / future: Hän selittää kieliopin huomenna. – He/She will explain the grammar tomorrow.
So “he/she will explain the grammar clearly” is:
- Hän selittää kieliopin selvästi (huomenna / ensi tunnilla / sitten).
The future meaning comes from context words (like huomenna, tomorrow) or the situation, not from a special verb form.