Learn Hardcore Finnish: Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti.

Tämä kahvila = this café (demonstrative adjective + noun)
- Here tämä is attached directly to kahvila, specifying which café.
Tämä on kahvila = this is a café (demonstrative pronoun + verb + noun)
- Here tämä stands alone and means this, and kahvila is the type of thing it is.

In your sentence, you’re talking about a specific café and describing it, so you say:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti.
→ This café is calmer than (my) home.

If you said Tämä on rauhallisempi kuin koti, it would mean “This is calmer than home” but wouldn’t say what “this” is (a café, a park, etc.).

What exactly does “rauhallisempi” mean, and how is it formed?

Rauhallisempi is the comparative form of the adjective rauhallinen.

rauhallinen = peaceful, calm, quiet
rauhallisempi = more peaceful / calmer / quieter

Formation:

Base adjective: rauhallinen
Take the stem: rauhallise-
Add the comparative ending -mpi → rauhallisempi

As a comparative adjective, rauhallisempi behaves like an ordinary adjective:

It agrees in number/case if needed:
- rauhallisempi kahvila – a calmer café
- rauhallisemmassa kahvilassa – in a calmer café

In the sentence Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti, it’s just in the basic (nominative) form, describing kahvila.

Why is it “rauhallisempi” and not something like “enemmän rauhallinen”?

In Finnish, most common adjectives form the comparative with the suffix -mpi, not with enemmän:

nopea → nopeampi (fast → faster)
kaunis → kauniimpi (beautiful → more beautiful)
rauhallinen → rauhallisempi (calm → calmer / more calm)

Using enemmän (more) with an adjective (enemmän rauhallinen) is generally ungrammatical or at best very clumsy in standard Finnish.

Enemmän is mainly used:

With verbs:
- Haluan nukkua enemmän. – I want to sleep more.
Sometimes with adjectives that don’t form a normal comparative (loanwords etc.), or for special emphasis, but that’s not the usual pattern.

So in this sentence, the only natural choice is:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti.
Not: ✗ Tämä kahvila on enemmän rauhallinen kuin koti.

What does “kuin” do here, and is it always needed in comparatives?

In this sentence, kuin means “than” and introduces the thing being compared:

rauhallisempi kuin koti = calmer than home

The basic structure for comparatives is:

X on [adjective+mpi] kuin Y
- Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti.
- Olen vanhempi kuin sinä. – I am older than you.
- Tämä kirja on parempi kuin tuo. – This book is better than that one.

So yes, in normal comparative sentences, kuin is standard and expected. Leaving it out (Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi koti) would be wrong.

Note: kuin can also mean “as” in some expressions, but in comparatives like this it is best understood as “than”.

Why is it “kuin koti” and not “kuin kotona” or “kuin kotia”?

The choice of case changes the nuance:

kuin koti (nominative)
- Compares this café with home as a place/thing in general.
- Interpretation: This café vs (my) home, as locations.
kuin kotona (inessive, “at home”)
- Focuses on the state of being at home.
- Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin kotona.
  → More like: This café is calmer than (it is) at home / than when I’m at home.
This version sounds more like you’re talking about your experience of being at home rather than “home” as an abstract place.
kuin kotia (partitive)
- This is not idiomatic here; it would sound incorrect.
- Partitive is used in some quantifying comparisons (e.g. enemmän rahaa kuin sinulla – more money than you), but “rauhallisempi kuin kotia” does not work.

So:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti. – neutral, “than home (as a place).”
Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin kotona. – “than being at home,” slightly different emphasis.

Why is “kahvila” in its basic form, not “kahvilassa” or another case?

In the sentence:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti.

kahvila is the subject. Subjects in Finnish normally appear in the nominative (dictionary/form):

Kahvila on pieni. – The café is small.
Tämä kahvila on rauhallinen. – This café is calm.

We only use a locative case like kahvilassa (in the café) when we want to explicitly talk about location:

Tässä kahvilassa on rauhallista. – It’s peaceful in this café.
Kahvilassa on hiljaista. – It is quiet in the café.

So:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi... – This café (as a place) is calmer…
Tässä kahvilassa on rauhallisempaa... – It is calmer in this café…

Different structures, different focus.

What is the difference between “rauhallisempi” and “hiljaisempi” here? Could I say “Tämä kahvila on hiljaisempi kuin koti”?

You can say both, but they have slightly different nuances:

rauhallinen → rauhallisempi
- peaceful, calm, relaxed atmosphere
- Suggests low stress, no rush; can include quietness but is broader.
hiljainen → hiljaisempi
- quiet, not noisy
- Focuses more specifically on sound level.

So:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti.
- The café has a more peaceful, relaxed atmosphere than home (maybe fewer distractions, stress, people, etc.).
Tämä kahvila on hiljaisempi kuin koti.
- The café is quieter than home (less noise, fewer sounds).

Both are grammatically correct; which one you use depends on what you want to highlight.

Why is “koti” also in the basic form? Shouldn’t it agree in some way with “kahvila”?

In Finnish comparatives with kuin, the compared element (koti here) is usually in the form it would have by itself in a basic sentence.

You can think of an underlying pair of simple statements:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallinen. – This café is calm.
Koti on rauhallinen. – Home is calm.

When you compare them, you make one adjective comparative and add kuin before the other noun:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti.

So koti stays in the nominative because that is its “default” role as a subject in the implied sentence.

If you changed the structure, the case might change:

Kotona on rauhallista. – It’s peaceful at home.
Tässä kahvilassa on rauhallisempaa kuin kotona. – It’s more peaceful in this café than at home.

Here kotona is in the inessive because you are comparing locations as places where something happens.

How would this sentence sound in everyday spoken Finnish?

In colloquial spoken Finnish, several things usually change:

tämä → tää / toi (this / that)
kuin → ku
Often pronouns and endings are reduced.

So common spoken variants:

Tää kahvila on rauhallisempi ku koti.
Toi kahvila on rauhallisempi ku koti.

Grammar is the same, but the forms are shorter and more relaxed. In writing (especially in anything formal), you should use:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti.

How do you pronounce “rauhallisempi”, and where is the stress?

Syllabification: rau-hal-li-sem-pi

Stress in Finnish is almost always on the first syllable:
- RAU-hal-li-sem-pi
Approximate sounds:
- rau – like row (British “r” rolled) with a short u-ish offglide
- hall – like English hull but with a clear a (as in “father”)
- li – lee
- sem – sehm
- pi – pee (short)

Also note:

Double ll means the l sound is held slightly longer than a single l.
All vowels are short here (no double letters like aa, ii).

So: RAU-hal-li-sem-pi with the main emphasis on RAU.

Why doesn’t Finnish use words like “a” or “the” here (a café, the home)?

Finnish simply doesn’t have articles (no equivalent of English a/an/the). Nouns stand alone:

kahvila can mean:
- a café
- the café
- cafés in general (depending on context)
koti can mean:
- (my/your) home
- home in general

In Tämä kahvila on rauhallisempi kuin koti:

Tämä kahvila is specific because of tämä (this).
koti is interpreted as “(my) home” or “home” in general, from context.

Definiteness is expressed by:

context
demonstratives (tämä, tuo, se)
possessive markers and pronouns (minun kotini, meidän koti)

But you never add anything that directly corresponds to English a or the.

How would I say “This café is the calmest place I know” in Finnish?

To go from comparative to superlative, you use -in instead of -mpi:

rauhallinen → rauhallisempi → rauhallisin
peaceful → more peaceful → most peaceful / the calmest

A natural translation:

Tämä kahvila on rauhallisin paikka, jonka tiedän.
- Tämä kahvila – this café
- on – is
- rauhallisin – the calmest / most peaceful
- paikka – place
- jonka tiedän – that I know

This mirrors the structure of your original sentence but uses the superlative instead of the comparative.