Kiinnostaa

Kiinnostaa is a Finnish verb meaning to interest or to be of interest to someone. It is used to describe something that arouses curiosity, attention, or relevance in a person. In Finnish, the thing that causes the interest typically forms the subject of the sentence in the nominative case, while the person who is interested is expressed in the partitive case, usually with pronouns such as minua or sinua.

Common usage patterns include constructions like X kiinnostaa minima or X kiinnostaa minua, where X is the thing that interests the speaker. For example, Elokuvat kiinnostavat minua means “Movies interest me.” Tämä aihe kiinnostaa minua means “This topic interests me.” Questions such as Mikä sinua kiinnostaa? or Mikä kiinnostaa sinua? are common to ask what someone is curious about.

The verb can be negated in standard Finnish by using ei kiinnosta or ei kiinnosta minua, for example Elokuvat eivät kiinnosta minua or Tämä työ ei kiinnosta minua, meaning “Movies don’t interest me” or “This work does not interest me.” The word kiinnostaa often appears in contrast to synonyms such as mielenkiinto or kiinnostus, which refer to the state or quality of being interested rather than the act of causing interest.

In summary, kiinnosta/koínnostaa expresses personal interest in something, with the thing in the nominative and the interested person in the partitive, and it forms a core part of expressing preferences and curiosity in Finnish.