Finnish Comparative and Superlative of Adverbs
Adverbs can be inflected in the comparative and the superlative for the purpose of comparing how things are done. Using the comparative, we can say for example that something is done faster or better, more slowly or more clearly. The superlative is used to express that something was done the worst, the slowest or the easiest. Let’s take a look at the Finnish comparative and superlative of adverbs!
- What Are Adverbs?
- The Use of the Finnish Comparative and Superlative of Adverbs
- Comparative: KUIN
- Comparative: using the partitive case
- Comparative: YHÄ
- Superlative: using the elative case
- Superlative: KAIKKEIN
- Superlative: MITÄ
- The Formation of the Finnish Comparative and Superlative of Adverbs
- Exceptional adverbs
- Adverbs ending in -sti: regular rules
- Adverbs with two superlative forms
- Location Adverbs in the Comparative and the Superlative
1. What are Adverbs?
Adverbs express the way in which something is done or happens. The most stereotypical group of adverbs are the ones ending in –sti (in English, the ending would be -ly). There are several types of adverbs.
2. The Use of the Comparative and Superlative of Adverbs
While writing this article, I’ve had to stop and think about what I was doing quite a few times. The superlative forms of most adverbs are extremely uncommon. While it’s important to be able to say “the most often” and “the best”, some other superlatives just lack much usage. When have you last felt the need to say that something was happening “the most abundantly”? As such, the Finnish comparative and superlative of adverbs has plenty of forms you will find little to no use for. Pick the ones you want to learn based on your needs!
| Form | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Regular | Paavo juoksee nopeasti. | Paavo runs quickly. |
| Comparative | Paavo juoksee nopeammin kuin Yrjö. | Paavo runs faster than Yrjö. |
| Superlative | Paavo juoksee kaikkein nopeimmin. | Paavo runs the fastest of all. |
| Regular | Pauliina laulaa huonosti. | Pauliina sings badly. |
| Comparative | Pauliina laulaa Ollia huonommin. | Pauliina sings worse than Olli. |
| Superlative | Pauliin laulaa huonoimmin. | Pauliina sings the worst. |
2.1. Comparative: KUIN
Just like in the comparative of adjectives, adverbs can be used to compare two things using the word kuin. This works just like in English. In spoken language, you will also hear kun instead of kuin.
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| Paavo juoksee nopeammin kuin Yrjö. | Paavo runs faster than Yrjö. |
| Minun isäni puhuu hitaammin kuin äitini. | My dad speaks more slowly than my mom. |
| Nuoret oppivat tämän nopeammin kuin vanhukset. | The young learn this faster than the old. |
| Nainen käyttäytyi kohteliaammin kuin aikaisemmin. | The woman behaved more politely than before. |
| Kokous kesti kauemmin kuin luulimme. | The meeting took longer than we had thought. |
2.2. Comparative: using the partitive case
We can also use the partitive to replace the “kuin X” part of the sentence. As such, the phrase “Uin nopeammin kuin sinä” can be rephrased as “Uin sinua nopeammin”. You can read more about this type of phrase in this article.
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| Paavo juoksee Yrjöä nopeammin. | Paavo runs faster than Yrjö. |
| Sinä laulat minua paremmin. | You sing better than me. |
| Mies kertoi elämästään muita suorasukaisemmin. | The man told about his life more upfront than others. |
2.3. Comparative: YHÄ
The adverb yhä is used to express that something keeps on increasing. For example, yhä hitaammin means “slower and slower; ever slower”.
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| Kuljettaja ajoi yhä nopeammin ja uhkarohkeammin. | The driver drove ever faster and more recklessly. |
| Hevonen juoksee yhä nopeammin ja nopeammin. | The horse runs faster and faster. |
| Hän käyttäytyy yhä huonommin. | He behaves worse all the time. |
2.4. Superlative: using the elative case
The elative case can be used to express the group from which one is the superlative one.
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| Kuka tästä porukasta opiskelee ahkerimmin? | Who of this group studies the most diligently? |
| Firmamme kasvoi teknofirmoista nopeimmin. | Our firm grew the fastest of all the techno firms. |
2.5. Superlative: KAIKKEIN
Just like for the superlative of adjectives, you can use kaikkein to mean “of all”.
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| Hän asuu kaikkein mukavimmin. | She lives the most pleasantly of all. |
| Siskoni hymyilee kaikkein söpöimmin. | The sister smiles the most cutely of all. |
| Pyöräilen kaikkein huonoiten. | I drive a bike the worst of all. |
| Pääsin yliopistoon kaikkein helpoiten. | I got into university the most easily of all. |
2.6. Superlative: MITÄ
| Finnish | English |
|---|---|
| Pyydän anteeksi mitä nöyrimmin. | I apologize most humbly. |
| Hänestä tulee mitä ilmeisimmin seuraava presidentti. | He will obviously become the next president. |
| Pihapelit sopivat mitä parhaiten juhannukseen | Yard games suit the best for midsummer. |
3. The Formation of the Comparative and Superlative of Adverbs
The comparative of adverbs has the marker –mmin, while the superlative has the marker -immin. Most adverbs can’t be inflected in any of the cases, so they won’t inflect when they’re in their comparative forms either.
3.1. Exceptional Adverbs
I’m starting with the exceptions this time! The following adverbs have an exceptional inflection, but are important to learn, because many of them are very commonly used. Notice how some of them end in –immin, and others in -iten.
| Adverb | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| hyvin | paremmin | parhaiten |
| paljon | enemmän | eniten |
| vähän | vähemmän | vähiten |
| harvoin | harvemmin | harvimmin |
| usein | useammin | useimmin |
| aikaisin | aikaisemmin | aikaisimmin |
| myöhään | myöhemmin | myöhimmin |
| kauan | kauemmin | kauimmin |
| mielellään | mieluummin | mieluiten |
3.2. Adverbs ending in -sti: regular rules
For adverbs ending in –sti, it’s common for the comparative’s –mmin and superlative’s –immin markers to be added to the same stem as the –sti. This means that adjectives of two syllables that end in an -a/ä, will have the final letter replaced with an –e– before the comparative’s marker (e.g. tyhmä : tyhmempi).
| Adverb | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| ahkerasti | ahkerammin | ahkerimmin |
| mukavasti | mukavammin | mukavimmin |
| ikävästi | ikävämmin | ikävimmin |
| selvästi | selvemmin | selvimmin |
| rumasti | rumemmin | rumimmin |
| laiskasti | laiskemmin | laiskimmin |
| hauskasti | hauskemmin | hauskimmin |
| tyhmästi | tyhmemmin | tyhmimmin |
| vilkkaasti | vilkkaammin | vilkkaimmin |
| kohteliaasti | kohteliaammin | kohteliaimmin |
| hitaasti | hitaammin | hitaimmin |
| kauniisti | kauniimmin | kauneimmin |
| iloisesti | iloisemmin | iloisimmin |
| onnettomasti | onnettomammin | onnettomimmin |
| lämpimästi | lämpimämmin | lämpimimmin |
| ilkeästi | ilkeämmin | ilkeimmin |
3.3. Adverbs with two superlative forms
Sometimes there are two options for the superlative: –iten and –immin. Both of these forms are correct. Below, each of the superlative forms has a number next to it, which indicates how many Google hits that specific form got. This is a crude way of assessing the popularity of a certain form. Marked in green is the most common of the two superlative options.
| Adverb | Comparative | Superlative #1 | Superlative #2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| helposti | helpommin | helpoimmin ~ 145 000 | helpoiten ~ 686 000 |
| pahasti | pahemmin | pahimmin ~ 38 000 | pahiten ~ 144 000 |
| huonosti | huonommin | huonoimmin ~25 000 | huonoiten ~ 47 000 |
| nopeasti | nopeammin | nopeimmin ~ 628 000 |
nopeiten ~136 000 |
| runsaasti | runsaammin | runsaimmin ~ 28 000 | runsaiten ~ 1 500 |
3.4. Location Adverbs in the Comparative and the Superlative
Adverbs of location usually have a missä, mistä and mihin form, although they don’t inflect in any of the other cases (e.g. lähellä, läheltä, lähelle). Below, you can find some of the most common location adverbs.
The “translations” added are not meant to be accurate proper English translations. Rather, I added them to convey the general feeling of the sentence. This might help you understand them better.
| Adverb | Comparative | Superlative | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| lähellä | lähempänä | lähimpänä | Antti istuu lähempänä minua kuin Pasi. “closer by me than” |
| läheltä | lähempää | lähimpää | Bussi 33 tulee lähempää kuin bussi 5. “from closer by” |
| lähelle | lähemmäksi | lähimmäksi | Tiinan arvaus tuli lähimmäksi. “came the closest” |
| kaukana | kauempana | kauimpana | Kaarina asuu kauimpana. “the furthest away” |
| kaukaa | kauempaa | kauimpaa | Kaarina tulee kouluun kauimpaa. “from the furthest away” |
| kauas | kauemmas | kauimmas | Menisitkö istumaan kauemmas? “to further away” |
| ylhäällä | ylempänä | ylimpänä | Keksit on ihan ylimpänä olevalla hyllyllä. “on the highest shelf” |
| ylhäältä | ylempää | ylimpää | Kissa hyppäsi ylimpää. “from the highest” |
| ylös | ylemmäksi | ylimmäksi | Kiipeilin ylemmäksi. “up higher” |
That’s it for the Finnish comparative and superlative of adverbs! Let me know below if there are things missing you’d like to see added to this article!
Question in studying adverbs in Finnish is I an not sure when shall I bend them, and to what form… I know adverbs rarely bend they stay the same most of the time, but they do bend some times…
Here are my examples:
Hän oppi paljon ahkerammin kuin muut. or should I use “ahkerimmin” as it compare withe the rest?
The paljon usually with partive? Shall I put ahkerampää or ahkerämpiä or ahkerimpää ahkerimpiä?
Thanks for your patient and your reply is more than appreciated for me!
Hei Liisa! You can’t put adverbs in the partitive, luckily. Adverbs like ahkerasti only get inflected in:
1) the comparative (Hän opiskelee ahkerammin kuin muut) and
2) the superlative (Hän opiskelee kaikkein ahkerimmin).
Your attempts at putting it in the partitive don’t work for the adverb ahkerasti.
The adjective ahkera can be inflected in all the cases, you can read more about that here: https://uusikielemme.fi/finnish-grammar/syntax/constructions/finnish-comparative-of-adjectives