Breakdown of Kumpi on sinusta tärkeämpi hyvinvoinnille, uni vai ruoka?
Questions & Answers about Kumpi on sinusta tärkeämpi hyvinvoinnille, uni vai ruoka?
Kumpi means which (one of two). You use it when there are exactly two options:
- Kumpi on parempi, kahvi vai tee? – Which is better, coffee or tea?
Mikä is more general: what / which (among many), often when the number of options is not fixed or not just two:
- Mikä on paras ruoka? – What is the best food?
So because the sentence contrasts uni and ruoka (two things), kumpi is the natural choice.
Sinusta is sinä (you, singular) in the elative case (the -sta/stä ending), so it literally means “from you”.
In Finnish, the elative of personal pronouns is commonly used to mean “in someone’s opinion”:
- Minusta – in my opinion
- Sinusta – in your opinion
- Hänestä – in his/her opinion
- Meistä – in our opinion
So Kumpi on sinusta tärkeämpi… = Which one is, from you, more important… → Which one do you think is more important…
A bit longer but very close in meaning is sinun mielestäsi (“in your opinion”).
Tärkeämpi is the comparative form of tärkeä (important):
- Positive: tärkeä – important
- Comparative: tärkeämpi – more important
- Superlative: tärkein – the most important
Formed as: tärkeä + -mpi → tärkeämpi.
It is in basic (nominative) singular, because it agrees with kumpi, which is also singular. The question is essentially:
- Kumpi (näistä) on tärkeämpi? – Which one is more important?
Hyvinvoinnille is hyvinvointi (well-being) in the allative case (ending -lle), which often corresponds to English “to / for”.
Many adjectives in Finnish use this pattern:
- tärkeä jollekin – important to / for someone/something
- hyödyllinen terveydelle – useful for health (here terveydelle, also allative)
So tärkeä hyvinvoinnille is literally “important for well-being”.
Morphologically:
- Nominative: hyvinvointi
- Genitive stem: hyvinvoinnin
- Allative: hyvinvoinnille (stem hyvinvoinn-
- -ille)
Can the word order around sinusta change? For example, are these correct:
- Kumpi sinusta on tärkeämpi…
- Sinusta kumpi on tärkeämpi…?
Yes, Finnish word order is quite flexible here, and all of these are grammatically correct:
- Kumpi on sinusta tärkeämpi… (original; neutral)
- Kumpi sinusta on tärkeämpi… (also very natural; slightly more spoken-feeling)
- Sinusta kumpi on tärkeämpi… (puts a bit more emphasis on “in your opinion”)
The main difference is emphasis and rhythm, not meaning. The first two are the most typical in everyday speech.
The comma separates the main question from the list of alternatives:
- Main part: Kumpi on sinusta tärkeämpi hyvinvoinnille
- Alternatives: uni vai ruoka
This is similar to English punctuation in a sentence like:
Which do you think is more important for well-being, sleep or food?
Finnish often uses a comma before a clarification or an afterthought like this list of options.
Uni (sleep) and ruoka (food) are simple nouns, and that sounds the most natural here. It sounds like a very general, conceptual question:
- uni – sleep (as a thing)
- ruoka – food
Using nukkuminen (sleeping) and syöminen (eating) would be understood, but it sounds a bit heavier or more technical, focusing more on the activities themselves:
- Kumpi on tärkeämpi, nukkuminen vai syöminen? – Which is more important, the act of sleeping or the act of eating?
In normal conversation about well-being, uni and ruoka are more idiomatic.
Onko is used for yes–no questions:
- Onko uni tärkeää? – Is sleep important?
When there is a question word like kumpi, mitä, missä, milloin, you do not use -ko/-kö on the verb:
- Kumpi on parempi? – Which one is better?
- Missä asut? – Where do you live?
So Kumpi on sinusta tärkeämpi…? is the correct structure. Kumpi onko… would be wrong.
Yes, hyvinvointi is a compound noun:
- hyvin – well
- vointi – state of being / feeling (from the verb voida, to feel / be able / be)
Together hyvinvointi literally means “well-being” in exactly the same abstract sense as English well-being.
Related words:
- hyvinvoiva – well-off, thriving
- pahoinvointi – nausea, feeling bad (literally “bad-being”)
Grammatically, the subject of the sentence is kumpi (which one), and kumpi is singular.
The structure is:
- Kumpi (which one) on (is) tärkeämpi (more important)…
- uni vai ruoka only specifies what the two options are.
So the adjective tärkeämpi agrees with kumpi, not with uni + ruoka.
Yes, you can. Both are correct and common:
- Kumpi on sinusta tärkeämpi…
- Kumpi on sinun mielestäsi tärkeämpi…
They mean essentially the same: “Which do you think is more important…?”
Nuance:
- sinusta – shorter, very natural in both spoken and written Finnish.
- sinun mielestäsi – a bit longer and more explicit; can sound slightly more informal or emphatic: literally “in your opinion”.
You will hear both all the time.
Yes. That sentence is fully correct and natural.
- With sinusta: explicitly asks for your personal opinion.
- Without sinusta: asks the question in a more general sense (which is more important in general, objectively or according to some general understanding).
Both versions are fine, depending on what you want to stress.