Minusta tämä uusi romanttinen komedia on sopivan kevyt, mutta silti jännittävä.

In my opinion this new romantic comedy is suitably light but still exciting.

Breakdown of Minusta tämä uusi romanttinen komedia on sopivan kevyt, mutta silti jännittävä.

• olla: to be
• tämä: this
• uusi: new
• mutta: but
• silti: still
• kevyt: light
• sopiva: suitable
• minusta: I think
• jännittävä: exciting
• romanttinen: romantic
• komedia: the comedy

Questions & Answers about Minusta tämä uusi romanttinen komedia on sopivan kevyt, mutta silti jännittävä.

What does Minusta mean here, and how is it different from just saying “I think” in English?

Minusta literally means “from me” and is in the elative case (the “from” case).

In sentences of opinion, minusta is a very common way to say “in my opinion / I think”:

• Minusta tämä elokuva on hyvä.
  = I think this movie is good.

So Minusta tämä uusi romanttinen komedia on… corresponds to:
“I think this new romantic comedy is…” or “In my opinion this new romantic comedy is…”

The subject is tämä uusi romanttinen komedia (“this new romantic comedy”), not minä.
Minusta only marks that what follows is your personal opinion.

What case is minusta, and why is that case used for opinions?

Minusta is the elative form of minä (“I”):

• nominative: minä
• elative: minusta = “from me”

Finnish often uses the elative case to express source or origin of something — including the source of an opinion:

• Minusta se on kallis.
  = “From me (from my point of view), it is expensive.”

Similarly:

• Sinusta = “from you / in your opinion”
• Hänestä = “from him/her / in his/her opinion”

So the idea is: “From me, this is suitably light, but still exciting.”
In natural English we just say “I think…”.

Could I say Mielestäni instead of Minusta? What’s the difference?

Yes, you could say:

• Mielestäni tämä uusi romanttinen komedia on sopivan kevyt, mutta silti jännittävä.

Mielestäni literally means “in my opinion” (mieli = mind; mielestäni = “from my mind”).

Difference in feel:

• Minusta – very common, neutral, slightly more colloquial/short.
• Mielestäni – also common, maybe a bit more “explicitly opinion-like”.

They usually mean the same in everyday speech.

You also sometimes see the full form:

• Minun mielestäni tämä…
  = “In my opinion, this…”

All three (minusta, mielestäni, minun mielestäni) are correct here.

Is Minusta the subject of the sentence?

No.

The subject is:

• tämä uusi romanttinen komedia = “this new romantic comedy”.

The structure is:

• Minusta – “in my opinion” (adverbial expression of opinion)
• tämä uusi romanttinen komedia – subject
• on – verb “to be”
• sopivan kevyt, mutta silti jännittävä – predicate (what the subject is like)

So grammatically, Minusta is an adverbial phrase, not the subject.

Why is it tämä and not tämän before uusi romanttinen komedia?

Because tämä here is the subject in the nominative case:

• tämä elokuva = “this film” (subject form)
• tämän elokuvan = “of this film” (genitive)

In the sentence, tämä uusi romanttinen komedia is the thing that is light and exciting, so it must be in the nominative:

• Tämä uusi romanttinen komedia on… = “This new romantic comedy is…”

You’d use tämän if it were possessive or otherwise needed in genitive, e.g.:

• Pidän tämän uuden romanttisen komedian juonesta.
  “I like the plot of this new romantic comedy.”

Why is it uusi romanttinen komedia and not romanttinen uusi komedia?

Both are grammatically possible, but uusi romanttinen komedia is the natural, default order.

In Finnish, with multiple adjectives, the more “basic/classifying” quality usually comes closest to the noun, and more secondary or contextual qualities come before that:

• romanttinen komedia = “romantic comedy” (a type/genre of comedy)
• uusi romanttinen komedia = “a new romantic comedy”

So romanttinen is deeply tied to what kind of komedia it is (the genre), and uusi just adds the information that it’s new.

Romanttinen uusi komedia would sound odd and very marked, as if you were doing some special emphasis, and it would usually not be how a native would say it.

Is romanttinen komedia a compound word or just adjective + noun?

In writing, romanttinen komedia is two separate words:

• romanttinen – adjective “romantic”
• komedia – noun “comedy”

So grammatically it is adjective + noun, even though in meaning it functions like the English compound “romantic comedy” (a fixed genre label).

Finnish also has true one-word compounds (like kauhuelokuva = “horror film”), but romanttinen komedia is not written as a single word.

What exactly does sopivan kevyt mean, and why is it sopivan instead of sopiva or sopivasti?

Kevyt = “light” (not heavy; also “light” in tone/content).
Sopiva = “suitable, appropriate”.

Here we have:

• sopivan kevyt ≈ “suitably light / appropriately light / light enough”.

Sopivan is the genitive singular of sopiva, but in this pattern it behaves like an adverb of degree: it modifies kevyt and tells us how light it is.

Compare with:

• hirveän kallis – “terribly expensive” (hirveän = genitive of hirveä)
• kauhean vaikea – “awfully difficult”

You could also say:

• sopivasti kevyt – using the -sti adverb
• aika kevyt – “quite light”
• tarpeeksi kevyt – “light enough”

But sopivan kevyt is idiomatic and very natural, and it carries the nuance “light in a way/amount that is just right”.

What case is kevyt in, and why?

Kevyt is in the nominative singular.

In the sentence, kevyt is part of the predicate:

• tämä uusi romanttinen komedia (subject, nominative)
• on (verb “to be”)
• sopivan kevyt (predicate adjective)

Predicate adjectives describing a singular subject normally appear in the nominative:

• Elokuva on kevyt.
• Juoni on kiinnostava.

What does mutta silti add? Could I just say mutta jännittävä?

You could say:

• …on sopivan kevyt, mutta jännittävä.

That would mean: “is suitably light but exciting.”

However, mutta silti adds a stronger sense of “even so / nevertheless / despite that”:

• mutta = “but”
• silti = “still, nevertheless”

So mutta silti jännittävä ≈ “but still exciting / but nevertheless exciting”, emphasizing the contrast:

Even though it is light, it’s still exciting.

It highlights that “light” and “exciting” might be expected to contradict each other, but here they coexist.

What is the nuance of silti here, and how is it different from kuitenkin or edelleen/yhä?

In this sentence:

• silti ≈ “still / nevertheless / even so”.

Comparisons:

• silti – strongly contrastive: “in spite of what was just said”.
• kuitenkin – also “however / nevertheless”; very similar;
  mutta silti and mutta kuitenkin are often interchangeable here.
• edelleen, yhä – “still (continuing in time)”, more about continuity than contrast.

So:

• on kevyt, mutta silti jännittävä
  = “it is light, but still (nevertheless) exciting”

If you used edelleen or yhä, it would sound more like “it continues to be exciting”, which is not what is meant here.

Why does jännittävä end in -vä? Is it related to a verb?

Yes. Jännittävä is the present active participle of the verb jännittää:

• jännittää – “to excite / to cause suspense; to make someone nervous”
• jännittävä – “exciting / suspenseful / thrilling”

This participle is very commonly used as an adjective:

• jännittävä elokuva – an exciting film
• väsyttävä päivä – a tiring day (from väsyttää)
• yllättävä juoni – a surprising plot (from yllättää)

In the sentence, jännittävä is just functioning as a normal adjective:
…mutta silti jännittävä. – “but still exciting.”

Can the word order be changed, for example: Tämä uusi romanttinen komedia on minusta sopivan kevyt…?

Yes, that’s possible:

• Minusta tämä uusi romanttinen komedia on sopivan kevyt, mutta silti jännittävä.
• Tämä uusi romanttinen komedia on minusta sopivan kevyt, mutta silti jännittävä.

Both are correct.

Differences in feel:

• Minusta at the beginning immediately signals: “What follows is my opinion.”
• …on minusta sopivan kevyt… puts the opinion marker after the subject and verb, which can sound slightly more reflective or afterthought-like, but is still natural.

Functionally, though, they mean the same thing in everyday conversation.