Breakdown of Päivän onnistumiset ja epäonnistumiset vaikuttavat siihen, kuinka itsevarma minä olen.
Questions & Answers about Päivän onnistumiset ja epäonnistumiset vaikuttavat siihen, kuinka itsevarma minä olen.
Päivän is the genitive singular of päivä (day). Here it works like English "of the day" or "the day’s":
- päivän onnistumiset = the day’s successes / the successes of the day
In Finnish, when one noun modifies another the way "of" does in English, the first noun usually goes into the genitive:
- päivän ohjelma = the day’s program
- kesän suunnitelmat = summer’s plans / plans for the summer
So päivän onnistumiset ja epäonnistumiset literally = the day’s successes and failures.
Both are plural nouns in the nominative case.
Base forms:
- onnistuminen = a success (from the verb onnistua “to succeed”)
- epäonnistuminen = a failure (from the verb epäonnistua “to fail”)
Plural nominative:
- onnistumiset = successes
- epäonnistumiset = failures
Together (onnistumiset ja epäonnistumiset) they form the plural subject of the sentence.
Because the subject is plural:
- Subject: onnistumiset ja epäonnistumiset (successes and failures) → plural
- Verb: vaikuttavat = 3rd person plural of vaikuttaa in the present tense
Conjugation pattern (present tense, 3rd person):
- singular: hän vaikuttaa = he/she/it affects
- plural: he vaikuttavat = they affect
Since there are two things joined by ja (and), Finnish uses the plural verb form:
Päivän onnistumiset ja epäonnistumiset vaikuttavat…
Vaikuttaa has two very common meanings:
to affect / to influence
- structure: vaikuttaa johonkin (affect something)
- the thing affected is in the illative case (ending often -n or -seen, here -een in siihen).
to seem / to appear
- structure: vaikuttaa + lta/ltä
- e.g. Hän vaikuttaa väsyneeltä. = He/She seems tired.
In this sentence it clearly has meaning 1: to affect, so it takes the illative (siihen):
…vaikuttavat siihen, kuinka itsevarma minä olen.
= …affect how confident I am.
Siihen is a demonstrative pronoun referring forward to the clause kuinka itsevarma minä olen. Literally:
- vaikuttavat siihen = affect that (thing)
- se (base form) → siihen (illative singular)
Then the clause after the comma explains what that “thing” is:
- siihen, kuinka itsevarma minä olen
≈ that is, to how confident I am
This siihen + kuinka/miten -clause pattern is very typical in Finnish:
- Tämä voi vaikuttaa siihen, miten ajattelet.
- Stressi vaikuttaa siihen, kuinka hyvin nukut.
In natural standard Finnish you normally keep the siihen here.
Without siihen (…vaikuttavat, kuinka itsevarma minä olen) it sounds unusual or at least less idiomatic.
Base form: se (it / that).
Form in the sentence: siihen.
Siihen is the illative singular of se:
- se → siihen (into that / to that)
The illative usually expresses movement into something, and abstractly it often marks the target of an effect:
- vaikuttaa siihen = affect that / have an influence on that
- johtaa siihen = lead to that
- tottua siihen = get used to that
In Finnish, a subordinate clause that follows the main clause is usually separated by a comma.
Here:
- Main clause: Päivän onnistumiset ja epäonnistumiset vaikuttavat siihen
- Subordinate clause: kuinka itsevarma minä olen
The word kuinka introduces that subordinate clause, so a comma is placed before it:
- …vaikuttavat siihen, kuinka itsevarma minä olen.
This is similar to:
- Hän sanoi, että hän tulee.
- Muistan, kun olin lapsi.
Yes. Both are possible:
- …vaikuttavat siihen, kuinka itsevarma minä olen.
- …vaikuttavat siihen, miten itsevarma minä olen.
Meaning is the same: affect how confident I am.
Nuance:
- miten is more common in everyday spoken Finnish.
- kuinka can sound a bit more formal, careful, or written.
You will often see and hear the pattern:
- …vaikuttaa siihen, miten X on / toimii / kehittyy…
Minä is the subject of the verb olen, but Finnish word order is flexible, especially inside subordinate clauses.
Possible variants:
- kuinka itsevarma minä olen (your sentence)
- kuinka itsevarma olen (without minä)
- kuinka minä olen itsevarma (less natural here, but grammatical)
Two key points:
Dropping the pronoun
Finnish usually omits subject pronouns because the verb ending shows the person:- olen itsevarma already tells you it’s I am confident.
- So kuinka itsevarma olen is perfectly correct and common.
Placing the pronoun
If you keep minä, putting it after the adjective:- kuinka itsevarma minä olen
can slightly emphasize “I” (as opposed to someone else), or just sound a bit more expressive:
how confident I am (me, personally).
The version with minä is not wrong; it’s just a choice of emphasis and style.
Itsevarma is an adjective used as a predicative complement with the verb olla (to be):
- minä olen itsevarma = I am confident
In this role, with a singular subject, the adjective usually stays in basic nominative singular:
- Hän on iloinen. = He/She is happy.
- Se on tärkeä. = It is important.
- Minä olen itsevarma. = I am confident.
So in kuinka itsevarma minä olen, itsevarma stays in its dictionary form (nominative singular), which is normal in this structure.
You could, but the meaning changes slightly.
…vaikuttavat siihen, että olen itsevarma.
= affect the fact that I am confident (whether or not I am confident at all)…vaikuttavat siihen, kuinka itsevarma minä olen.
= affect how confident I am (the degree / level of confidence)
So:
- että olen itsevarma talks more about the existence of confidence.
- kuinka itsevarma olen talks about how much confidence there is.
In most contexts where you want to express a degree (more/less confident), kuinka/miten itsevarma is the more accurate choice.