Breakdown of Sohva on mukavampi kuin tuoli.
Questions & Answers about Sohva on mukavampi kuin tuoli.
Finnish doesn’t have articles like “the” or “a / an” at all. The bare noun sohva can mean:
- a sofa
- the sofa
- sofa in a general sense
Context tells you which one fits.
So Sohva on mukavampi kuin tuoli can be translated as:
- The sofa is more comfortable than the chair.
- A sofa is more comfortable than a chair.
Both are structurally the same in Finnish; you just pick the English version that suits the context.
On is the 3rd person singular form of the verb olla (to be).
- hän on = he / she is
- se on = it is
- sohva on = the sofa is
Finnish has personal endings on verbs instead of separate pronouns in many contexts:
- olen = I am
- olet = you are
- on = he / she / it is
- olemme = we are
- olette = you (pl) are
- ovat = they are
So Sohva on literally is “Sofa is”, which corresponds to “The sofa is” in English.
Mukavampi is the comparative form of the adjective mukava (comfortable / nice).
The usual way to form a comparative in Finnish is:
- adjective stem + -mpi
For mukava:
- base form: mukava
- comparative: mukavampi (more comfortable / nicer)
Using enemmän (more) with a plain adjective is not the normal way to form a comparative for basic adjectives.
So:
- Sohva on mukavampi = correct
- Sohva on enemmän mukava = sounds wrong / ungrammatical
There are cases where enemmän + adjective is natural (especially with past participles or complex adjectives), but with simple adjectives like mukava, you normally use the -mpi form.
Mukava is a fairly broad, positive adjective. Common meanings:
- comfortable – for furniture, clothing, physical comfort
- Sohva on mukava. = The sofa is comfortable.
- nice / pleasant – for people, events, experiences
- Hän on mukava. = She / he is nice.
- Se oli mukava ilta. = It was a nice/pleasant evening.
In Sohva on mukavampi kuin tuoli, the natural interpretation is “more comfortable”, because we’re comparing pieces of furniture.
In this sentence, kuin means than in a comparative structure:
- mukavampi kuin tuoli = more comfortable than (a/the) chair
Yes, kuin is the standard word used after a comparative adjective:
- nopeampi kuin = faster than
- isompi kuin = bigger than
- pidempi kuin = longer / taller than
You’ll also see kuin in other meanings, like parts of fixed phrases or in comparisons with niin … kuin …, but in this sentence it’s straightforwardly “than.”
Two things are going on:
Subject + predicative with “to be”
In sentences like X is Y, both X and Y are normally in the nominative case:- Sohva on mukava. = The sofa is comfortable.
- Tuoli on kova. = The chair is hard.
Here, Sohva is the subject, and mukavampi is the predicative adjective.
The thing you compare to after “kuin”
After kuin in simple comparisons, the compared noun stays in the nominative:- mukavampi kuin tuoli = more comfortable than (a/the) chair
- nopeampi kuin bussi = faster than the bus
So both sohva and tuoli appear in nominative here because the structure doesn’t require any special case marking.
Yes, you can say both:
- Sohva on mukavampi kuin tuoli.
- Sohva on tuolia mukavampi.
They both mean roughly “The sofa is more comfortable than the chair.”
Differences:
mukavampi kuin tuoli
- More neutral and very common.
- Direct, clear comparison: more comfortable than a/the chair.
tuolia mukavampi
- Uses tuolia in partitive; this is another way Finnish marks comparison.
- Stylistically a bit more compact / bookish in some contexts, but also used in spoken language.
- Often feels slightly more contrastive or “measured” against the other item, but in everyday speech the meaning difference is tiny.
For learners, mukavampi kuin tuoli is the safest and most transparent pattern to use.
No. That would be incorrect, because it double-marks the comparative:
- mukavampi already means more comfortable.
- enemmän also means more.
So enemmän mukavampi is like saying “more more comfortable”.
To add emphasis, you can use other words:
- Sohva on paljon mukavampi kuin tuoli.
= The sofa is much more comfortable than the chair. - Sohva on paljon mukavampi kuin tämä tuoli.
= The sofa is a lot more comfortable than this chair.
Finnish word order is flexible, but changes can affect emphasis. Some possibilities:
Sohva on mukavampi kuin tuoli.
– Neutral, straightforward: the sofa is more comfortable than the chair.Tuoli on vähemmän mukava kuin sohva.
– Now the chair is the subject and is being compared: “The chair is less comfortable than the sofa.”Sohva on tuolia mukavampi.
– Alternative comparative structure (discussed above).
What you generally cannot do is break up the comparative structure in a strange way, like:
- ✗ Sohva on kuin tuoli mukavampi. (ungrammatical / very wrong)
Keep mukavampi and its kuin / tuolia part clearly connected.
Pronunciation tips:
Stress is always on the first syllable of each word:
- SÓH-va on MÚ-ka-vam-pi ku-in TUO-li
Vowels are pure and short here (no double letters, so no long vowels).
sohva:
- h is pronounced: soh-va, not “sova”.
- v is like English v in “very”.
mukavampi:
- Syllables: mu-ka-vam-pi.
- Every vowel is clearly pronounced; don’t reduce any to a schwa like in English.
kuin:
- Often pronounced quickly, almost like “kui(n)”, with a very light or almost dropped final n in fast speech.
tuoli:
- Diphthong uo like in “two” + “oh”, gliding together: tuo-li.
Speaking slowly and giving each vowel its full value will already sound much more Finnish.