Comparison

Equality comparison

To express the same amount or value of some property, no specific forms of adjectives are used. We simply say e.g. Tämä auto on yhtä vanha kuin tuo (This car is as old as that). Thus, the pattern “X is as … as Y” is expressed with “X on yhtä … kuin Y”.

Comparison forms

Like English, Finnish has both a comparative form, e.g. isompi (bigger), and a superlative form, e.g. isoin (biggest), for any adjective for which comparison of degrees is meaningful. The base form, such as iso (big) is sometimes called the positive form, to distinguish it from the comparative and the superlative.

The comparison forms behave like other adjectives in inflection. In particular, they participate in congruence, e.g. isompi talo (bigger house) : isommat talot : isomman talon etc.

Comparison normally with suffixes only

English uses both suffixes and auxiliary words for the comparison forms of adjectives. In English we say “easy”, “easier”, “easiest” but “difficult”, “more difficult”, “most difficult”. Finnish systematically uses suffixes: helppo, helpompi, helpoin and vaikea, vaikeampi, vaikein.

Expressions like enemmän helppo (more easy) and eniten helppo (most easy) sound odd, though they are understandable. However, some people seem to regard it as natural to use them in especially expressions containing participles, e.g. enemmän kehittynyt (more advanced) and eniten kehittynyt instead of the normal kehittyneempi and kehittynein.

When comparing “negatively”, the words vähemmän and vähiten are used much like the English “less” and “least”, e.g. vähemmän kehittynyt (less advanced).

Comparative suffix mpi : mpa : mmA

The comparative suffix is mpi in the nominative singular but mpA or mmA in most other cases. For example, helpompi : helpompana : helpommat (nominative, essive, nominative plural). Apart from the vowel change i ∼ A in the comparative suffix, the case inflection is regular. It follows from general rules that plural forms (except the nominative) lose the final vowel before the plural suffix i, e.g. vaikeammissa.

The comparative suffix is appended to the inflection stem. Thus, the comparative of rikas : rikkaa|n (rich) is rikkaa|mpi, and the comparative of iloinen : iloise|n (merry) is iloise|mpi.

If the stem has two syllables and it ends with a or ä, that vowel changes to e before the comparative suffix, e.g. the comparative of paha (bad) is pahempi. Deviations from this principle occur in both directions, but they are substandard, e.g. using kivampi as the comparative of kiva (nice, pleasant) instead of the correct kivempi and extending the change to longer words, e.g. using matalempi as the comparative of matala (low) instead of the correct matalampi.

Expressing “than…”

The word kuin (often pronounced as kun or ku^x in everyday speech) is used to connect a comparative form to the thing that we are comparing against, e.g. helpompi kuin tämä (easier than this).

There is an alternative, a more idiomatic way, which does not use any connective word but uses the partitive case: tätä helpompi. In such expressions, the thing compared against precedes the adjective, in normal word order. Although the two ways have identical meaning, they are stylistically different.

The idiomatic way, with the partitive, is less common in speech and in most forms of prose, but it is used in many sayings, such as elämää suurempi (greater than life). In such sayings, and mostly in other use too, the thing compared against is expressed with a single word, like elämä in the example. It can be a longer expression, too. Then the expression as a whole needs to be in the partitive, e.g. Tämä on nopeampi kuin vanha laivamme = Tämä on vanhaa laivaamme nopeampi (This is faster than our old ship).

Use of mikä instead of or in addition to kuin

When a comparative is followed by a clause (containing a predicate verb), there is a strong tendency to to use the pronoun mikä. In standard language as defined by old style guides, we say e.g. Se oli suurempi kuin muistin (It was larger than I remembered), but it is common to say Se oli suurempi mitä muistin or Se oli suurempi kuin mitä muistin.

Current rules of standard language are more permissive: mikä is allowed (when used in addition to kuin) especially when the structure of the subclause requires a specific case form. It can even be necessary in a sentence like Jokainen on niin vanha kuin miksi itsensä tuntee (Everyone is as old as he feels to be). The verb tuntea, in a meaning like this, requires an adverbial in the translative (-ksi case). Since the conjunction kuin cannot be inflected, this calls for an inflectable pronoun, and mikä (with the translative miksi) is therefore used.

Expressing “more and more…”

Instead of repeated comparatives like “more and more frequently” and “better and better results” in English, Finnish uses a simple comparative preceded by the adverb yhä, e.g. yhä useammin and yhä parempia tuloksia. However, imitation of English and other languages is common especially in translated texts: useammin ja useammin, parempia ja parempia tuloksia.

Similarly, “they build smaller and smaller devices” is he rakentavat yhä pienempiä laitteita in idiomatic Finnish, and “fewer and fewer people remember it” is yhä harvemmat ihmiset muistavat sen.

Expressiong “the more… the more…”

In phrases like “the sooner the better”, Finnish uses the words mitä and sitä, which are partitive forms of the pronouns mikä and se, for example mitä pikemmin sitä parempi. Note that the first adjective is in the instructive plural form in the example. The forms of the words depend on their role in the expression. For example, “The more I think of it, the more I like the short version” would be translated as Mitä enemmän ajattelen asiaa, sitä enemmän pidän lyhyestä versiosta.

In these constructs, the word mitä is sometimes replaced by kuta or jota. Instead of sitä, the genitive form sen is sometimes used.

Superlative suffix in : impa : immA

The superlative suffix is in in the nominative, but impa or imma in most other cases, e.g. helpoin : helpoimpana : helpoimmat. This means that inflected forms of the comparative and the superlative are often rather similar. Even native speakers make mistakes with them, using the comparative instead of the superlative, e.g. kaikkein suuremmissa instead of the correct kaikkein suurimmissa.

The superlative suffix, like the comparative suffix, is appended to the inflection stem. Thus, the superlative of rikas : rikkaa|n (rich) is rikka|in, and the superlative of iloinen : iloise|n (merry) is ilois|in. The examples illustrate the vowel changes before an i in a suffix.

The following table illustrates the case forms of a comparative and a superlative. The sample word tarkka (exact, accurate) has been chosen to illustrate both the a ∼ e change in the comparative and consonant gradation. The plural forms are shown below the singular forms.

The nominative singular of the superlative coincides with the instructive plural of the positive form. This seldom causes confusion, because the instructive is so rare. But note e.g. that the phrase iloisin mielin (joyfully, literally: with a merry mind) is in the instructive, so it has the positive form of iloinen, not a superlative.

Expressing the reference

Superlatives are generally not absolute but relative to some set of objects. If that set is expressed, it is common to use the elative case (with stA suffix). In English, we normally use the “of” preposition for this. Example: vanhin Suomen kaupungeista (the oldest of Finnish towns). However, it is usually somewhat more natural in Finnish to use simpler expressions such as Suomen vanhin kaupunki (literally: Finland’s oldest town). Yet another expression is vanhin kaupunki Suomessa, but it is not regarded as stylistically good; it echoes expressions like the English “the oldest town in Finland”.

Strengthening the superlative

The word kaikkein (genitive plural of kaikki, ”all”, thus meaning “of them all”) is often used to strengthen a superlative, e.g. kaikkein suurin, much like we can say “the biggest of all” in English. Note that the normal genitive plural kaikkien is not used in this context.

Alternative, one can say suurin kaikista or (mainly colloquially) kaikista suurin.

Expressing “… ever”

To express things like “best ever”, Finnish uses expressions like kaikkien aikojen paras (literally: best of all times). However, it is nowadays common to imitate the shorter English phrase by saying paras ikinä or paras koskaan.

Comparison of compound words

If an adjective is a compound word, the comparison suffixes are added normally at the end of the word, e.g. hyvälaatuinen, hyvälaatuisempi, hyvälaatuisin (good-quality). This is always possible and quite often the only accepted way.

However, if the first part is an adjective, it is sometimes also possible in use a comparison form of the first part and leave the second part as is, e.g. parempilaatuinen and paraslaatuinen. This is rather regular for the comparative, but for the superlative, paras seems to be the only form that can appear as the first part. We can say e.g. kaunismuotoinen (well-shaped), kaunismuotoisempi ∼ kauniimpimuotoinen but only kaunismuotoisin (not kauneinmuotoinen).

The first part can also be in the genitive, e.g. pahanlaatuinen, pahanlaatuisempi ∼ pahemmanlaatuinen, pahanlaatuisin ∼ pahimmanlaatuinen (bad; malign). Such words can usually have the first part rather than the second part in the superlative.

For compounds with a figurative meaning, such as hyväsydäminen (kind-hearted), comparison suffixes can be added at the end only, e.g. hyväsydämisempi.

Comparison of words for left and right

The adjecives vasen and oikea mean “left” and “right”. The former has the inflection stem vasempa- (weak grade vasemma-), so by its form it is a comparative, but the nominative is vasen instead of vasempi and the partitive is usually vasenta, rarely vasempaa.

These adjectives lack comparison forms in these meanings, but oikea has the normal comparative oikeampi when it means “correct”.

Their longer synonyms vasemmanpuoleinen and oikeanpuoleinen are used in comparison forms, especially in the superlative, e.g. vasemmanpuoleisin (leftmost). The longer synonyms can be used for other reasons, too, for emphasis or for clarity. An expression like Valitse oikea ovi is ambiguous: “Choose the right door” or “Choose the door on the right”. The expression Valitse oikeanpuoleinen ovi means unambiguously the latter.

The words vasemmanpuolimmainen and oikeanpuolimmainen are sometimes used in superlative meanings. However, according to Nykysuomen sanakirja, they are just synonyms for vasemmanpuoleinen and oikeanpuoleinen.

Irregular adjectives

There is only one truly irregular adjective in Finnish as regards to comparison: hyvä, parempi, paras ∼ parhain (good, better, best). The comparative and superlative forms are based on the stem para-, which also appears in many derivations such as parantaa (to make better, to heal).

The comparative parempi has the same inflection as other comparatives (paremman etc.).

The superlative paras has irregular stem change: the inflection stem is parhaa- (e.g. the plural is parhaat). The alternative superlative parhain is inflected like normal superlatives, e.g. the plural is parhaimmat. The following table shows the inflection of these synonymous superlatives.

The genitive plural form parhainten is rare; it is probably mostly a misspelling of the adverb parhaiten (best, in the best way). The instructive parhain of paras, coinciding with the nominative of the synonym, occurs mainly in the phrase parhain terveisin (with best greetings).

There are several adverbs based on the superlative paras, partly with the h lost, partly with ha changed to ah: parahin, parahiksi, paraiksi, paraillaan, paraiten, parhaastaan, parhaiksi, parhaillaan, parhaiten.

The two somewhat different opposites of hyvä, namely paha (bad; evil) and huono (bad; poor, of low quality) have normal comparison forms: pahempi, pahin; huonompi, huonoin.

There is irregular consonant gradation in the word pitkä. Normally the k in tk is not gradated, but here it vanishes: pitempi, pisin. In the superlative, the s comes from a t that has changed to s before i. In the comparative, tk may even gradate to d: pidempi.

The vowel y may disappear from the word lyhyt : lyhye-, i.e. along with regular forms lyhyempi and lyhyin, the shorter forms lyhempi and lyhin are also in common use.

Extended use of comparative

Normally, a comparative form in Finnish refers to an actual comparison with something. Being older means being older than something or someone else. However, the comparison can be very implicit, as in vanhemmat ihmiset (older people), which may leave the question “older than who?” rather open.

Especially due to Swedish influence, vague comparatives (often misleadingly called “absolute comparatives”) are used rather often. They do not express any specific comparison but rather a moderate or considerable degree of something. For example, isompi erä literally means “larger lot”, but more often it means just a fairly large lot, a largish lot. In Finnish, it would be more appropriate to say isohko erä, if you wish to avoid the simple expression iso erä (large lot) as excessive. For almost any adjective that expresses something that has variation in degree, the suffix hko or hkö can be used to derive a moderative adjective, e.g. vanhahko (oldish; elderly), uudehko (fairly new), helpohko (rather easy), etc. However, some people might regard vanhahko as meaning older than vanhempi.

Some comparatives have become nouns, while still preserving their use as adjectives. Thus, vanhemmat can also be a noun, meaning “parents”. It is the only word for parents in Finnish, and it is normally not used in singular, so translating a word like “parent” can be difficult—in some contexts, the expression äiti tai isä (mother or father) might be needed.

Extended use of superlative

The superlative as such refers to maximal degree of something within some group, e.g. maan komein mies (the most handsome man in the country). However, when preceded by the pronoun mitä, it expresses just a very high degree of something; this is often misleadingly called “absolute superlative”. For example, mitä komein mies means “a most handsome man, a very, very handsome man”.

A few superlatives have become nouns, while still preserving their use as adjectives. The most common example is vanhin. In addition to its normal use as an adjective, it can refer to a doyen of a profession or, usually in plural, vanhimmat, to the elders of a parish.

Superlatives in expressing “as … as possible”

Superlatives can be used in two ways to express things like “as … as possible”. For example, “as old as possible” is mahdollisimman vanha or vanhin mahdollinen. See section Superlative with constraint.

Relative superlatives

An expression like “third best” can be described as relative superlative: it does not refer to the best but to the best among a set from which the two best have been omitted. In Finnish, we say kolmanneksi paras, using the translative of an ordinal numeral such as kolmas : kolmannen.

Comparison of nouns

An exotic feature of Finnish is that some nouns are used in comparison forms. For example, from ranta (shore) we can derive rannempi, using a comparative form as if we had an adjective. The meaning is “closer to a/the shore”, and such words are almost always used only in a few case forms that express locational relations: rannempana (the essive form, here meaning “in a place closer to shore”), rannempaa (the partitive, “from a place closer to the shore), and rannemmaksi (the translative, “to a place closer to the shore”). As an alternative to the last form, rannemmas can be used, with the same meaning; the ending s is an old suffix of the lative case, now extinct except for forms like this and some adverbs like ulos and alas.

In poetic language, even normal nouns sometimes have comparison forms, such as ihmisempi, “more of a human being”, from ihminen : ihmisen “human being”. Such style tends to raise mixed feelings when used in prose. E.g. mansikampi, the comparative of mansikka (strawberry), might be regarded as stylish or as odd; using mansikkaisempi, based on mansikkainen (strawberry-like, “strawberryish”), is more normal.

Comparison of names for points of compass

The nouns for the cardinal points of compass in Finnish are pohjoinen, itä, etelä, länsi (north, east, south, west). The word pohjoinen is also used as an adjective, but for the others, derived words are used: itäinen, eteläinen, läntinen. For names of areas, Finnish normally uses closed compounds, e.g. Etelä-Suomi (Southern Finland) rather than eteläinen Suomi.

The adjectives for cardinal points of compass have regular comparison, e.g. pohjoisempi : pohjoisemman, pohjoisin : pohjoisimman. It is also possible to use comparative forms of the nouns for them, e.g. idempi : idemmän instead of itäisempi : itäisemmän. Despite their shortness, they are not very common; they are mainly used in locational cases as adverbs, e.g. idempänä (more to the east).

Finnish also has one-word, non-compound names for half-cardinal points of compass: koillinen (northeast), kaakko (southeast), lounas (southwest), and luode (northwest). The first one is also used as an adjective. For the others, the cor­re­spond­ing adjectives are kaakkoinen, lounainen, and luoteinen. The word lounas also means “lunch”.