Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeä taito.

Concentration is an important skill for me.

Breakdown of Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeä taito.

• olla: to be
• tärkeä: important
• taito: the skill
• minulle: me
• keskittyminen: the concentrating

Questions & Answers about Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeä taito.

What does the ending -minen in keskittyminen mean?

The ending -minen turns a verb into a noun meaning the act of doing X or X‑ing (a verbal noun / gerund-like form).

• The verb here is keskittyä = to concentrate, to focus.
• keskittyminen = concentrating, the act of concentrating, concentration.

More examples:

• opiskella → opiskelu / opiskeleminen = studying
• lukea → lukeminen = reading
• harjoitella → harjoitteleminen = practising

So in this sentence, Keskittyminen is treated as a thing: Concentration / concentrating.

What is the base verb behind keskittyminen, and how is it related in meaning?

The base verb is keskittyä.

• keskittyä = to concentrate, to focus (on something)
• keskittyminen = concentrating, concentration, literally the act of concentrating

Compare with English:

• verb: to concentrate
• noun: concentrating / concentration

Finnish just forms this noun very regularly by adding -minen to the verb stem.

Why is on used here instead of olla?

olla is the infinitive form of the verb to be – the dictionary form.

In a real sentence, Finnish conjugates it, just like English does:

• English: I am, you are, he/she/it is
• Finnish: minä olen, sinä olet, hän on

Here the subject is keskittyminen (3rd person singular), so we use the 3rd person singular of olla:

• Keskittyminen on … = Concentration is …

So on is simply “is”, the correct finite form of olla for this subject.

Why is it minulle and not minä or minun?

These are different case forms of “I / me / my”:

• minä = I (nominative, subject form)
• minun = my (genitive, possessive)
• minulle = to/for me (allative case)

In this sentence, the structure is tärkeä taito minulle = an important skill for me / to me.

Finnish typically uses the allative (-lle case) with adjectives like tärkeä when expressing “important to someone”:

• Se on minulle tärkeää. = That is important to me.
• Tämä työ on hänelle tärkeä. = This job is important to him/her.

So minulle is the correct form because it answers “important to whom?”.

What exactly does minulle mean here: “to me” or “for me”?

It can be translated as either “to me” or “for me”, depending on what sounds more natural in English.

• Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeä taito.
  → Concentration is an important skill for me.
  (i.e. in my life, for my success, from my point of view)

You could also say “Concentration is an important skill to me”, but in everyday English “for me” usually feels more idiomatic here.

The Finnish minulle mainly expresses “for me personally / for my benefit or viewpoint”.

Why is tärkeä in this basic form and not tärkeää?

Here tärkeä is an adjective modifying the noun taito:

• tärkeä taito = an important skill
  (tärkeä agrees with taito in number and case: both are singular nominative.)

When an adjective directly modifies a concrete count noun like this, it normally appears in the same case as the noun:

• hyvä kirja = a good book
• suuri talo = a big house
• tärkeä taito = an important skill

The form tärkeää is the partitive singular of tärkeä.
You see tärkeää for example in:

• Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeää.
  = Concentrating is important to me.
  (no word like taito there; tärkeää describes the activity in general)

So:

• With a specific noun taito: tärkeä taito
• Without that noun, talking more abstractly: Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeää.

Could I say Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeää instead, and what would be the difference?

Yes, that is also correct, but the nuance changes a bit.

• Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeä taito.
  = Concentration is an important skill for me.
  Here you explicitly label concentration as a skill (taito).

• Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeää.
  = Concentrating is important to me.
  This sounds more general and abstract: you’re just saying that the activity / habit of concentrating is important to you, without calling it a skill.

Both are natural, but:

• With taito, you focus on “What kind of skill?” → an important one.
• Without taito, you focus on “How important is concentrating (as an activity)?”

Is keskittyminen the subject of the sentence, or is taito the subject?

Keskittyminen is the subject.

The basic structure is:

• Keskittyminen (subject)
• on (verb “is”)
• minulle tärkeä taito (predicate / complement: “an important skill for me”)

So in logic:

• Keskittyminen = (on) tärkeä taito (minulle).
  Concentration = an important skill (for me).

Even though taito is also in the nominative case, it’s part of the predicate noun phrase describing what keskittyminen is, not the subject itself.

Why is taito in this form and not taitoa?

taito is in the nominative singular, because it is a predicate noun referring to the subject:

• Keskittyminen on tärkeä taito.
  Concentration is an important skill.

Predicate nouns that identify or classify the subject normally appear in nominative:

• Hän on opettaja. = He/She is a teacher.
• Suomi on kaunis maa. = Finland is a beautiful country.

The form taitoa is the partitive singular and would be used in other structures, for example:

• Minulla on taitoa. = I have (some) skill.
• Hänellä ei ole taitoa. = He/She doesn’t have skill / doesn’t have the skill.

But in “X is an important skill”, taito stays in nominative.

What is the difference between taito, kyky, and osaaminen?

All three can relate to ability/skill, but their nuances differ:

• taito

  • Usually a learned, practical skill.
  • Often something you can practise and improve.
  • Examples: kirjoitustaito (writing skill), uimataito (ability to swim), kielitaito (language skills).

• kyky

  • More like an inborn or general ability / capability.
  • Can be mental or physical.
  • Examples: oppimiskyky (ability to learn), sopeutumiskyky (ability to adapt).

• osaaminen

  • Literally “knowing-how”, often competence / expertise.
  • Common in work and education contexts.
  • Examples: ammatillinen osaaminen (professional competence), IT‑osaaminen (IT skills).

In this sentence, taito is the most natural choice: concentration as a practical skill you can develop.

How can I pronounce Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeä taito?

Key points for pronunciation:

• Stress is always on the first syllable of each word:

  • KES-kit-ty-mi-nen
  • ON
  • MI-nul-le
  • TÄR-ke-ä
  • TAI-to

• Pronounce double consonants clearly longer than single ones:

  • tt in keskittyminen = a long t (like holding the t a bit: KES-kit-ty…)
  • ll in minulle = a long l

• The vowel y (in keskittyminen, minulle has u) is like German ü or French u: rounded lips, tongue position like for English i.

A rough English-friendly rendering might be:

• KES-kit-ty-mi-nen on MI-nul-le TÄR-ke-ä TAI-to
  (with clear, short vowels and strongly pronounced double consonants).

Can the word order change, for example to Minulle keskittyminen on tärkeä taito?

Yes. Finnish word order is relatively flexible, and changes mainly affect emphasis.

All of these are grammatical:

• Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeä taito.
  (Neutral; slight emphasis on keskittyminen as the topic.)

• Minulle keskittyminen on tärkeä taito.
  (Emphasis on minulle = for me personally this is an important skill, perhaps implying it might be different for others.)

• Keskittyminen on tärkeä taito minulle.
  (Also possible; minulle at the end can sound a bit like an afterthought or extra clarification.)

The given version Keskittyminen on minulle tärkeä taito is a very natural, neutral word order.

How would I say “It is important for me to concentrate” in Finnish, without calling it a “skill”?

A natural way to say that is:

• Minulle on tärkeää keskittyä.
  = It is important for me to concentrate.

Here:

• minulle = for me / to me
• on tärkeää = is important
• keskittyä = to concentrate (infinitive verb)

Another option, a bit more explicit:

• On tärkeää, että keskityn.
  = It’s important that I concentrate.

But for the direct It is important for me to concentrate,
Minulle on tärkeää keskittyä is the most straightforward.