sillä
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Finnish
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Pronoun
[edit]sillä
Conjunction
[edit]sillä
- (coordinating) for, since, because
- Jään kotiin, sillä olen sairas.
- I'll stay at home because I am sick.
- Tiedän, että huomenna sataa, sillä niin kerrottiin televisiossa.
- I know it will rain tomorrow because that was told on television.
Usage notes
[edit]- As an explanative conjunction, sillä may be seen as roughly synonymous with the causal conjunction koska.
- The words are not always interchangeable, and koska can appear in positions where sillä cannot. For example, unlike koska, sillä cannot begin a sentence-initial subordinate clause:
- Koska tänään on maanantai, taidemuseo on suljettu. (grammatical)
- ×Sillä tänään on sunnuntai, taidemuseo on suljettu. (ungrammatical)
- In terms of nuance, it can be argued that koska implies a stronger causal link than sillä, with the latter instead used to e.g. justify an inference:
- Huomenna sataa, sillä niin sanottiin televisiossa. ― It will rain tomorrow because that was told on television. (Nuance: I assume it'll rain tomorrow, based on the fact that the television weather forecast said so.)
- Huomenna sataa, koska niin sanottiin televisiossa. ― It will rain tomorrow because that was told on television. (Nuance: the fact that they said it will rain tomorrow on television is the reason it will rain tomorrow.)
- The words are not always interchangeable, and koska can appear in positions where sillä cannot. For example, unlike koska, sillä cannot begin a sentence-initial subordinate clause:
Adverb
[edit]sillä
- for that reason or intention, because
- Sillähän minä tätä ehdotin, ettei meidän tarvitsisi enää riidellä.
- I suggested this for the reason that we wouldn't have to fight anymore, alright.
- Menin eilen pihalle sillä, että tapaisin muita ihmisiä.
- I went outside yesterday for the intention of meeting other people.
See also
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “sillä”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03