Learn Hardcore Finnish: Tämä kurssi nostaa tasoa hitaasti, mutta edistys tuntuu silti hyvältä. - This course raises the level slowly, but the progress still feels good.

Tasoa is the partitive singular of taso (“level”), and it’s used here because nostaa tasoa describes changing the level gradually / to some extent, not reaching a clear, completed end‑point.

In Finnish, objects often appear in the partitive when:

The action is incomplete, ongoing, or gradual
- Nostan tasoa hitaasti. = “I (slowly) raise the level.” (no clear final level mentioned)
Only some of the thing is affected, or the amount is not fully delimited.

Compare:

Nostan tuolin. – “I lift the chair.”
→ The chair is fully lifted: total object (nominative).
Nostan tuolia. – “I am (in the process of) lifting the chair.”
→ Ongoing action, not completed: partitive.

With abstract nouns like tasoa, expressions such as nostaa tasoa (“raise the level/standard”) are very commonly in the partitive: it’s more about improving something in a general, ongoing way than completing a single, bounded action.

Using taso or tason here would sound odd or wrong to a native speaker in this meaning.

What is the difference between nostaa tasoa and taso nousee?

Both have to do with the level going up, but:

nostaa tasoa – transitive: “to raise the level”
- There is an agent doing the raising.
- In the sentence, tämä kurssi is the subject:
  - Tämä kurssi nostaa tasoa. = “This course raises the level.”
taso nousee – intransitive: “the level rises / goes up”
- The level changes by itself (at least grammatically there is no explicit agent).
- Example: Tällä kurssilla taso nousee hitaasti. = “On this course, the level rises slowly.”

So the original sentence emphasizes the course as an active cause of the improvement.
If you say Taso nousee hitaasti, you’re focusing more on the change itself rather than on the course doing the raising.

How is hitaasti formed, and where can it go in the sentence?

Hitaasti is an adverb meaning “slowly.” It’s built from the adjective:

hidas (slow) → hitaasti (slowly)

Many Finnish adverbs of manner are made with -sti added to the stem of the adjective:

nopea → nopeasti (fast → fast/quickly)
selvä → selvästi (clear → clearly)

Placement in the sentence is quite flexible. Common positions:

After the verb phrase:
- Tämä kurssi nostaa tasoa hitaasti.
Between verb and object (also fine):
- Tämä kurssi nostaa hitaasti tasoa.

Both are grammatical. The standard, most neutral word order is usually:

Subject – verb – object – adverb
Tämä kurssi – nostaa – tasoa – hitaasti.

Can you explain the structure edistys tuntuu hyvältä? Why hyvältä and not hyvä?

The pattern here is:

tuntua + (something) + adjective in the ablative case (-lta/-ltä)

tuntua = “to feel, to seem (to someone)”
edistys = “progress” (subject)
hyvältä = “good” in the ablative case (from hyvä)

So:

Edistys tuntuu hyvältä.
literally: “The progress feels (like) good (from the point of view of the feeler).”

With tuntua used about subjective impressions or feelings:

Se tuntuu pahalta. – It feels bad.
Uusi työ tuntuu mielenkiintoiselta. – The new job feels interesting.
Ajatus muutosta tuntuu pelottavalta. – The thought of moving feels scary.

Using plain hyvä (edistys tuntuu hyvä) is ungrammatical in this meaning. The -lta/-ltä ending is required with adjectives that function as complements to tuntua in this “feel/seem” sense.

What does silti mean exactly, and how is it different from kuitenkin?

Silti roughly means “still, nevertheless, even so, in spite of that.”
In the sentence:

… mutta edistys tuntuu silti hyvältä.
→ “…but the progress still / nevertheless feels good.”

Silti is typically used when:

There’s a contrast with what was just said.
Something is true despite another fact.

Kuitenkin is very close in meaning (“however, nevertheless”) and in many cases they are interchangeable:

Edistys tuntuu silti hyvältä.
Edistys tuntuu kuitenkin hyvältä.

Nuance:

silti feels slightly more colloquial / everyday and often appears after the contrast marker (mutta).
kuitenkin is maybe a bit more neutral-formal and can move around more freely, e.g.:
- Edistys kuitenkin tuntuu hyvältä.
- Kuitenkin edistys tuntuu hyvältä.

In this sentence, silti emphasizes “even though the level rises slowly, the progress still feels good.”

Could I say mutta edistys tuntuu kuitenkin hyvältä instead of using silti? Would it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say:

Tämä kurssi nostaa tasoa hitaasti, mutta edistys tuntuu kuitenkin hyvältä.

This is grammatical and natural. The meaning is essentially the same:

silti → “(but) still / nevertheless”
kuitenkin → “however / nevertheless / still”

A subtle nuance:

With kuitenkin, the contrast is often a bit more “logical” or “argumentative”: despite what we just said, however…
With silti, the tone is often a bit more emotional / spontaneous: even so, it still feels good.

But in everyday conversation, most native speakers would not feel a big difference here; both are fine.

Why is the subject Tämä kurssi and not something like Tällä kurssilla taso nousee hitaasti? Are both versions correct?

Both versions are correct, but they emphasize different things.

Original:

Tämä kurssi nostaa tasoa hitaasti.
- Subject: Tämä kurssi (“this course”)
- Verb: transitive nostaa (“raises”)
- Meaning focuses on the course as an active cause of the improvement.

Alternative:

Tällä kurssilla taso nousee hitaasti.
- Literally: “On this course, the level rises slowly.”
- Subject: taso (“the level”)
- Verb: intransitive nousta (“to rise”)
- The course is just the setting (adverbial tällä kurssilla), not the agent.

So:

Use Tämä kurssi nostaa tasoa… when you want to highlight what the course does.
Use Tällä kurssilla taso nousee… when you want to describe what happens on the course.

What exactly does edistys mean here, and how is it different from edistyminen?

Both relate to “progress,” but they differ slightly:

edistys
- A noun: “progress, advancement” as a result or state.
- In this sentence, edistys refers to the progress you experience while taking the course.
- Common uses:
  - Tekemässä on hyvää edistystä. – There is good progress being made.
  - Edistys on hidasta. – Progress is slow.
edistyminen
- A verbal noun/gerund from edistyä (“to progress, to advance”).
- Often focuses more on the process of progressing itself.
- Common uses:
  - Opiskelijan edistyminen on tärkeää. – The student’s progressing / the student’s progress is important.
  - Edistyminen on ollut tasaista. – The progressing has been steady.

In this sentence, edistys tuntuu silti hyvältä, edistys is the natural, default choice: you’re talking about “the progress (you’ve made)” feeling good.

What tense and person is nostaa here, and how would it change with other subjects?

Nostaa in this sentence is:

Present tense, 3rd person singular
The subject is tämä kurssi, so:
- (Se) nostaa = “(It) raises”

Some conjugations of nostaa in the present tense:

Minä nostan – I raise
Sinä nostat – You raise
Hän / se nostaa – He/she/it raises
Me nostamme – We raise
Te nostatte – You (pl.) raise
He / ne nostavat – They raise

So if the subject were nämä kurssit (“these courses”), you’d say:

Nämä kurssit nostavat tasoa hitaasti. – “These courses raise the level slowly.”

Why is there no word for “the” in tämä kurssi or edistys? How does definiteness work in Finnish?

Finnish has no articles (no equivalent of English “a/an” or “the”).

Definiteness (whether something is “the course” vs “a course”) is expressed by:

Context
- If tämä kurssi is mentioned, it’s clearly “this particular course” = “this course / the course.”
Demonstratives like tämä, tuo, se
- tämä kurssi – this course
- se kurssi – that course / the course (previously known from context)
Word order and emphasis (in some structures).

So:

Tämä kurssi nostaa tasoa hitaasti, mutta edistys tuntuu silti hyvältä.
→ In natural English: “This course raises the level slowly, but the progress still feels good.”

No special word for “the” is needed; the combination of tämä and context already tells you it’s a specific course, and edistys is “the progress” understood from the situation.

Can I change the word order, like Tämä kurssi hitaasti nostaa tasoa, mutta silti edistys tuntuu hyvältä? Is that natural?

Finnish word order is flexible, but not all permutations sound equally natural.

Tämä kurssi nostaa tasoa hitaasti, mutta edistys tuntuu silti hyvältä.
→ Very natural, neutral.
Tämä kurssi hitaasti nostaa tasoa…
→ Grammatical, but sounds marked and a bit poetic / emphatic.
→ It puts extra stress on hitaasti (“this course slowly raises the level…”), as if you are commenting on the slowness.
… mutta silti edistys tuntuu hyvältä.
→ Also fine; placing silti earlier increases its emphasis somewhat.

If you want the most everyday, neutral-sounding version, the original word order is best. Use more unusual orders when you specifically want to highlight or contrast certain parts of the sentence.