# suositeltavaa / suositeltava



## oloekis

On _suositeltavaa_ ottaa mukaan myös sanakirja.


Moi, could someone explain the rule behind why it is partitive suositeltavaa, and not suositeltava in the above sentence? 

Kiitos paljon!


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## Warped

Hei,

I don't actually know the rule, but I can say that one uses the partitive form of _suositeltava _if the sentence begins with _On_ (be verb). You can compare it with English; they use the dummy subjects _it_ and _there_.

It is advisable to [do something] = On suositeltavaa
It is acceptable to [do something] = On hyväksyttävää
It is inappropriate to [do something] = On sopimatonta
It is also advisable to take a dictionary with you = On suositeltavaa ottaa mukaan myös sanakirja.

And so on.


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## DrWatson

In the structure of the type _"On [ADJ] + verb/subordinate clause"_ the form of the adjective (nominative vs. partitive) depends on the adjective itself. Here's my translation of what ISK (Iso suomen kielioppi, "Big Grammar of Finnish", § 954) says about it:

"The case variation of the adjective depends mostly of the adjectives morphological type. Derived and otherwise long words prefer partitive: for example almost exclusively in partitive are adjectives ending in -_inen_, -_tOn _and -_kAs_, participial adjectives and superlatives (however: _olisi paras ~ parasta lähteä_). Nominative is preferred by some common basic adjectives like _kuuma _and _kylmä_, and with infinitives and clauses e.g. _hauska, hyvä, paha, kiva, turha, varma, mukava, hankala, ihana, helppo, vaikea, parempi, helpompi, vaikeampi, paras_ and (exclusively) _sama_."

So I would say that unless the adjective is one of those common ones listed above, partitive is more likely.


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## Gavril

A couple of corrections to the translation of that ISK paragraph, for the sake of clarity:



DrWatson said:


> "The case variation of the adjective depends mostly on the adjective's morphological type. Derived and otherwise long words prefer partitive: for example, adjectives ending in -_inen_, -_tOn _and -_kAs_, participial adjectives and superlatives are almost exclusively in the partitive (however: _olisi paras ~ parasta lähteä_). Nominative is preferred by some common basic adjectives like _kuuma _and _kylmä _in state clauses [i.e., subjectless clauses describing the conditions in a place, time, etc., such as _Täällä on kylmä_ "It's cold here"], and by e.g. _hauska, hyvä, paha, kiva, turha, varma, mukava, hankala, ihana, helppo, vaikea, parempi, helpompi, vaikeampi, paras_ and (exclusively) _sama _when the subject of _olla _is an infinitive or a clause."


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