Learn Hardcore Finnish: Minulla on hyvä asenne suomen opiskelua kohtaan. - I have a good attitude towards studying Finnish.

You almost never say Minä olen hyvä asenne – that would be ungrammatical, because olen means am and asenne is not a property of being; it is something you have.

What case is minulla in, and how do I form it for other persons?

Minulla is in the adessive case (answering roughly where? at/on whom/what?).

Personal pronouns in the adessive:

minä → minulla (at me → I have…)
sinä → sinulla (at you → you have…)
hän → hänellä (at him/her → he/she has…)
me → meillä (at us → we have…)
te → teillä (at you (pl) → you (pl) have…)
he → heillä (at them → they have…)

Examples:

Minulla on auto. – I have a car.
Heillä on hyvä opettaja. – They have a good teacher.

Why is it suomen and not suomi here?

Suomen is the genitive form of suomi (Finnish), so:

suomi = Finnish (language, basic form)
suomen = of Finnish

In the phrase suomen opiskelua, we literally have “the studying of Finnish”:

opiskelua = studying (here as a noun)
suomen opiskelua = the studying of Finnish

So the genitive suomen tells us what is being studied.

What is opiskelua exactly, and why isn’t it just opiskelu?

Dictionary forms:

opiskella – to study (verb)
opiskelu – studying, study (noun)

In the sentence you see opiskelua, which is:

partitive singular of opiskelu.

Why partitive?

Because of the postposition kohtaan. Many postpositions and prepositions in Finnish require the partitive case, and kohtaan is one of them.

Pattern:

asenne jotakin kohtaan – an attitude towards something
→ asenne suomen opiskelua kohtaan – an attitude towards the studying of Finnish.

So opiskelua is partitive because it is the word governed by kohtaan.

Why is the phrase suomen opiskelua instead of something like opiskelua suomea?

There are a few different, but related, ways to talk about studying Finnish:

suomen opiskelua
- noun + its genitive attribute
- literally: “the studying of Finnish”
- used as a noun phrase.
opiskella suomea
- verb + object in partitive
- literally: “to study Finnish” (ongoing, general).

In the sentence Minulla on hyvä asenne suomen opiskelua kohtaan, we need a noun phrase after asenne+kohtaan, so:

asenne + [something in the partitive] + kohtaan

The “something” is the noun opiskelu with its genitive modifier suomen:

suomen opiskelua (partitive) = the studying of Finnish.

If you changed structure to a verb, you’d say:

Minä opiskelen suomea. – I study/am studying Finnish.

But that’s a different sentence type.

What does kohtaan mean, and how is it different from kohti?

Kohtaan is a postposition that typically means towards in an abstract or relational sense, often with feelings, attitudes, or behavior:

asenne jotakin kohtaan – attitude towards something
rakkaus jotakuta kohtaan – love towards someone
viha jotakuta kohtaan – hatred towards someone

Kohti is more often used for physical direction:

Juoksen rantaa kohti. – I run towards the beach.
Lentokone lensi kaupunkia kohti. – The plane flew toward the city.

So in this context:

asenne suomen opiskelua kohtaan = attitude towards studying Finnish (abstract).
Using kohti here would sound odd or incorrect.

Why does kohtaan need the partitive, and which word is in the partitive?

The postposition kohtaan normally governs the partitive case:

asenne jotakin kohtaan – attitude towards something
rakkaus jotakuta kohtaan – love towards someone

In the phrase:

suomen opiskelua kohtaan

the word directly in the partitive is:

opiskelua (partitive of opiskelu).

Suomen is in the genitive, modifying opiskelua:

suomen opiskelua = the studying of Finnish (as one unit)
and this whole noun phrase is in the partitive because of kohtaan.

Could I say Minulla on hyvä asenne suomen opiskeluun instead? Is that okay?

You can hear:

Minulla on hyvä asenne suomen opiskeluun.

Here suomen opiskeluun is in the illative (into studying Finnish). It’s not wrong, but it has a slightly different feel:

asenne suomen opiskelua kohtaan – the standard, very natural way to say attitude towards studying Finnish.
asenne suomen opiskeluun – sounds more like an attitude towards the activity as something to start or enter, “towards going into studying Finnish”.

In everyday speech, many Finns might still accept asenne johonkin with the illative, but asenne jotakin kohtaan is the most idiomatic pattern for this sentence.

Can I drop hyvä and just say Minulla on asenne suomen opiskelua kohtaan?

Grammatically yes, but stylistically it becomes quite odd.

Minulla on hyvä asenne suomen opiskelua kohtaan.
→ I have a good attitude towards studying Finnish. (natural)
Minulla on asenne suomen opiskelua kohtaan.
→ I have an attitude towards studying Finnish.
This feels incomplete in Finnish, as if something is missing:
is it good, bad, negative, positive?

Normally asenne is almost always described with some adjective (hyvä, huono, neutraali, positiivinen, negatiivinen, jne.).

Can I change the word order, like Asenteeni suomen opiskelua kohtaan on hyvä?

Yes, Finnish word order is fairly flexible, and that alternative is perfectly correct:

Minulla on hyvä asenne suomen opiskelua kohtaan.
– I have a good attitude towards studying Finnish.
(focus more on the possessor: I have…)
Asenteeni suomen opiskelua kohtaan on hyvä.
– My attitude towards studying Finnish is good.
(focus on the attitude itself)

Asenteeni = asenteeni (my attitude, with possessive suffix -ni).

Both are natural; they just emphasize different parts of the information.

How do I pronounce the sentence, and where does the stress fall?

Main rules: Finnish stress is always on the first syllable of each word.

Rough breakdown (slashes show syllables; stressed syllable in ALL CAPS):

MI-nul-la – stress on MI
on – one syllable, stressed
HY-vä – stress on HY
A-sen-ne – stress on A
SUO-men – stress on SUO
O-pis-ke-lu-a – stress on O
KOH-taan – stress on KOH

So spoken:

MI-nul-la on HY-vä A-sen-ne SUO-men O-pis-ke-lu-a KOH-taan.

All vowels are pronounced clearly; there are no silent letters.