Questions & Answers about Taide on minusta kaunis.
Minusta is the elative case of minä (I). Literally it means “from me”:
- minä = I
- minusta = from me
In Finnish, opinions are very often expressed with this “from X” structure:
- Minusta taide on kaunis.
= From me, art is beautiful → I think art is beautiful / In my opinion, art is beautiful.
The idea is “starting from my point of view / coming from me”. This pattern is completely normal and very common in Finnish for giving subjective opinions:
- Sinusta tämä kirja on tylsä. – You think this book is boring.
- Meistä se oli hyvä elokuva. – We think it was a good movie.
Because Finnish uses different cases of the pronoun for different functions:
- minä = I (subject form)
- minun = my (genitive/possessive form)
- minusta = from me (elative form)
The expression “in my opinion” is built with the elative (minusta), not with the subject form or the possessive:
- ✅ Minusta taide on kaunis. – In my opinion, art is beautiful.
- ❌ Minä taide on kaunis. – Ungrammatical.
- ❌ Minun taide on kaunis. – Means “my art is beautiful”, and is still missing the opinion part.
If you want to use minun, it normally appears in another fixed expression: minun mielestäni (see next question).
Yes. These are both standard ways to say “in my opinion”:
- Minusta taide on kaunis.
- Minun mielestäni taide on kaunis.
- Mielestäni taide on kaunis.
All three mean roughly the same: I think art is beautiful.
Nuance:
- Minusta is very common and feels a bit shorter and more conversational.
- Minun mielestäni (or the shorter mielestäni) is slightly more explicit and can feel a bit more careful or formal, depending on context.
Other persons:
- Sinusta / sinun mielestäsi – in your opinion
- Meistä / meidän mielestämme – in our opinion, etc.
Finnish word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatically correct; the differences are mostly about emphasis:
Minusta taide on kaunis.
– Very natural and common. Starts by foregrounding your opinion.Taide on minusta kaunis.
– Also natural. Starts from art, then adds “in my opinion” in the middle.Taide on kaunis minusta.
– Possible, but feels less neutral; the minusta at the end is more strongly stressed, like “Art is beautiful — to me.”
All of them still mean “In my opinion, art is beautiful.”
For a learner, the safest and most frequent patterns are:
- Minusta taide on kaunis.
- Taide on minusta kaunis.
You can absolutely say:
- Taide on kaunis. – Art is beautiful.
The difference is:
- Taide on kaunis. – Sounds like a general statement, almost like a fact: “Art is (by its nature) beautiful.”
- Taide on minusta kaunis. – Makes it explicit that this is your personal opinion.
In real life, even Taide on kaunis will usually be understood as an opinion from context, but adding minusta (or mielestäni) underlines that you’re speaking subjectively.
Both forms exist:
- kaunis – nominative singular
- kaunista – partitive singular
In sentences with olla (to be), Finnish can use either a nominative or a partitive predicative adjective, and there can be a nuance:
Nominative: defining/“categorical” quality
- Taide on kaunis.
→ “Art is beautiful (as a defining property / as a category).”
- Taide on kaunis.
Partitive: more “substance-like” or less absolute
- Taide on kaunista.
→ “Art is (in general) beautiful / something beautiful.”
- Taide on kaunista.
For many abstract or “mass-like” nouns, Finns very often use the partitive:
- Musiikki on kaunista. – Music is beautiful.
- Vesi on kylmää. – The water is cold.
With taide, both Taide on kaunis and Taide on kaunista are possible.
Many speakers might actually say Taide on kaunista more naturally in everyday speech, but your sentence with kaunis is also correct and idiomatic.
Yes. In Taide on minusta kaunis:
- taide is nominative singular (subject)
- kaunis is also nominative singular (predicative adjective)
In general, in simple X on Y sentences:
Singular:
- Talo on korkea. – The house is tall.
- Taulu on kaunis. – The painting is beautiful.
Plural, indefinite group (often partitive plural):
- Kukat ovat kauniita. – The flowers are beautiful.
- Nämä taulut ovat kauniita. – These paintings are beautiful.
So the main idea: the adjective usually matches the subject in number, and often (but not always) in case; kaunis is in the nominative here because taide is nominative.
In Taide on minusta kaunis, taide is art in general, as a concept:
- Taide – art (no article; Finnish has no articles)
To talk about a particular piece of art, you need a more specific word, e.g. taideteos (a work of art) or maalaus (painting):
- Tämä taideteos on minusta kaunis. – This artwork is beautiful, in my opinion.
- Tämä maalaus on minusta kaunis. – This painting is beautiful, in my opinion.
Yes, you can, but it sounds a bit different.
With a “think” verb:
- Ajattelen, että taide on kaunista/kaunis.
– I think that art is beautiful.
However, for opinions about what something is like, especially with olla + adjective structures, Finnish very often prefers the minusta/mielestäni pattern:
- Minusta taide on kaunis.
- Mielestäni taide on kaunista.
Using minusta or mielestäni is usually more natural and idiomatic for simple subjective evaluations than always saying ajattelen, että... or luulen, että....
Yes. Minusta always means “from me” in a basic sense, but that can show up in different patterns:
Opinion (as in your sentence):
- Minusta taide on kaunis. – I think art is beautiful.
Becoming something:
- Minusta tulee opettaja. – I will become a teacher.
Literally: “From me will come a teacher.”
- Minusta tulee opettaja. – I will become a teacher.
Feeling / impression with verbs like tuntuu (feels):
- Minusta tuntuu, että tämä on vaikeaa. – I feel that this is difficult.
So when you see minusta, look at the verb and structure:
- minusta + olla + adj./noun → often opinion: in my opinion
- minusta tulee X → I will become X
- minusta tuntuu, että... → I feel / it seems to me that...