Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word kuin. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word kuin, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say kuin in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word kuin you have here. The definition of the word kuin will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofkuin, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Risto oli puhunut Pekan kanssa useammin kuin (mitä) päiväkirja antaa ymmärtää.
Risto had been talking with Pekka more often than the diary lets one understand.
Usage notes
(than, comparative): There are two comparative constructions in Finnish:
the particle construction with kuin (fixed word order: + kuin + )
SUBJECT
COPULA
COMPARATIVE
PARTICLE
COMPAREE
kissa
on
isompi
kuin
hiiri
cat-NOM
COP
big-CMPR
than
mouse-NOM
"the cat is bigger than a mouse"
the locative construction in which the comparee takes the partitive case (word order not fixed, but unmarked is + )
SUBJECT
COPULA
COMPAREE
COMPARATIVE
kissa
on
hiirtä
isompi
cat-NOM
COP
mouse-PTV
big-CMPR
"the cat is bigger than a mouse"
When the comparee and the comparative are single words, both constructions are common, and the locative construction is probably slightly more so, especially when the comparee is a common word (such as a personal pronoun).
As the comparee or the comparative gets longer, there is an increasing tendency to use the particle construction, which is the only option with relative clauses (like in the usage example above, directly under the definition).
“kuin”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-01
1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 25:
Kuin ono sooja vesi.
How warm the water is.
1936, L. G. Terehova, V. G. Erdeli, translated by Mihailov and P. I. Maksimov, Geografia: oppikirja iƶoroin alkușkoulun kolmatta klaassaa vart (ensimäine osa), Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-Pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 3:
Töö saatta tiitä kuin suur ono maa, millaist hää ono formaa ja mitä ono hänen pääl.
You will be able to know how the earth is big, what kind of shape it is and what is on top of it.