LESSON NOTES Absolute Beginner S1 #1 Welcome to Finland!

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1 LESSON NOTES Absolute Beginner S1 #1 Welcome to Finland! CONTENTS 2 Finnish 2 English 2 Vocabulary 2 Sample Sentences 3 Vocabulary Phrase Usage 4 Grammar 5 Cultural Insight # 1 COPYRIGHT 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

2 FINNISH 1. Helen: Päivää, minä olen Helen. 2. Liisa: Hyvää päivää ja tervetuloa! Minä olen Liisa. Hauska tutustua. 3. Helen: Hauska tutustua. ENGLISH 1. Helen: Hello, I'm Helen. 2. Liisa: Hello, and welcome! I'm Liisa. Nice to meet you. 3. Helen: Nice to meet you. VOCABULARY Finnish English Class päivä day noun hyvä good adjective minä I pronoun olla to be verb ja and conjunction tervetuloa welcome expressione hauska pleasant, fun adjective tutustua to meet, to get to know verb SAMPLE SENTENCES FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #1 - WELCOME TO FINLAND! 2

3 Se on huhtikuun 15. (viidestoista) päivä. "It's April 15th." Tämä on hyvä! "This is good!" Minä olen opiskelija. "I m a student." Yksi valkoviini ja kaksi olutta, kiitos. "One white wine and two beers, please." Hän on hauska mies. "He is a funny man." Hauskaa päivää! "Have a nice day!" Tämä on oikein hyvä. "This is very good." Onko sinulla siskoa? "Do you have a sister?" Tervetuloa kotiin! "Welcome home!" Näkemiin, oli hauska tutustua. Goodbye, it was nice to meet you. VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE Hyvää päivää ("Hello") Hyvää päivää is a phrase that consists of the word hyvä, meaning "good," and the word päivä, which means "day." In this expression, they are inflected for case, but you can ignore that for now. We will look at the case later. Hyvä has pretty much the same meaning as "good" in English. It can be the opposite of evil, or good as in good taste. This greeting is somewhat formal, and it can be used pretty much most of the day, from around 11 am or noon until about 6 or 7 pm. Other time-related greetings include Hyvää huomenta, or "good morning," which you can use until noon, and Hyvää iltaa, or "good evening," which you use after around 6 pm. All of these are used when you meet people, not when you part ways. When you part ways, you can say Näkemiin in formal situations, or Nähdään, or Hei hei, or Heippa, or Moikka in casual situations. When you part ways in order to go to sleep, you say Hyvää yötä. You can omit hyvää from all these greetings with only a slight change in the politeness level. If hyvää is omitted from Hyvää yötä, the word yötä is often FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #1 - WELCOME TO FINLAND! 3

4 changed to the plural form: Öitä. GRAMMAR The Focus of this Lesson is Introducing Yo urs e lf Minä olen Helen "I am Helen" You can use this expression to tell someone your name when you meet for the first time. You can also use it to express other things about yourself, such as your profession or your psychological/physiological state (happy, tired, surprised, etc.) This is one of the key phrases you need when you want to say something about yourself. Formation The pattern of this this expression is: Minä olen A. Minä is the first person singular pronoun, equivalent to "I." Olen is the first person singular form of the verb olla, "to be." We will talk more about verb conjugation in the next lesson. A is replaced by whatever you want to say about yourself, i.e. your name, profession, and so on. Sample Sentences 1. Minä olen Sari Lehtinen. "I am Sari Lehtinen." 2. Minä olen opettaja. "I am a teacher." 3. Minä olen iloinen. "I am happy." Examples from this Dialogue 1. Minä olen Helen. "I am Helen." 2. Minä olen Liisa. "I am Liisa." FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #1 - WELCOME TO FINLAND! 4

5 Note: this construction can be used to express some psychological and physiological states, but not all of them. For example, you will need a different construction to say you are hot or cold. We will get to those later. Saying "Nice to meet you" Saying "Nice to meet you" is a polite addition to introducing yourself. It is Hauska tutustua in Finnish. It literally means "nice to get to know." Just like in English, it is not a full sentence. There is only the adjective hauska "nice" and the infinitive verb tutustua "to get to know." You can also say Hauska tavata, which is literally "nice to meet." About the "Declension stem" Column in the Vocabulary Table As you may (or may not) know, few Finnish words always appear exactly the same when they are used in different sentences. Verbs, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals all take various endings. The word stem to which these endings are attached is not always the same as the infinitive (in case of verbs) or nominative (in case of the other word classes) form of the word, so you'll need to know the stem in order to attach the endings correctly. You do not need to worry about that in this lesson, but we will start gradually looking into that in the next few lessons, so it might be good to get used to the idea. We will provide the stems of new words as they come up. CULTURAL INSIGHT Finnish Introductions Introducing yourself to a Finn is a rather straightforward process. Usually, you just need to say the appropriate greeting for the time of day, tell them your name using the Minä olen A phrase, and shake hands. Saying Hauska tutustua is a nice bonus, but not compulsory. In a business setting and other formal situations, a handshake is the way to go. In more casual situations, people may hug each other or have no physical contact at all. Hugging has become more common only in recent decades, and it is still something that is mainly done among relatives and good friends. It is also considered a somewhat feminine thing to do men may hug women, but they do not really hug each other unless they have just scored a goal in an important match. A handshake, on the contrary, is rather formal, so it is not very common among friends, certainly not among young friends. Young people usually do not shake hands with each other. FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #1 - WELCOME TO FINLAND! 5

6 LESSON NOTES Absolute Beginner S1 #2 Talking About Others in Finnish CONTENTS 2 Finnish 2 English 2 Vocabulary 3 Sample Sentences 3 Vocabulary Phrase Usage 4 Grammar 6 Cultural Insight # 2 COPYRIGHT 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

7 FINNISH 1. Emmi: Hei, minä olen Emmi. 2. Helen: Hei! 3. Emmi: Hän on Jussi. 4. Jussi: Terve! Sinä olet varmaan väsynyt. 5. Helen: Vähän. ENGLISH 1. Emmi: Hi, I'm Emmi. 2. Helen: Hi! 3. Emmi: He is Jussi. 4. Jussi: Hey! You must be tired. 5. Helen: A little. VOCABULARY Finnish English Class hei hello expression hän he, she pronoun terve hey; healthy interjection; adjective sinä you pronoun FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #2 - TALKING ABOUT OTHERS IN FINNISH 2

8 varmaan surely adverb väsynyt tired adjective vähän little adjective olla to be verb SAMPLE SENTENCES Hei, Mari. "Hello, Mari." Mitä sinä teet? "What are you doing?" Hän on varmaan jääkiekkoilija. "He is surely an ice hockey player." Kyllä, minulla on vähän nälkä. "Yes, I'm a little hungry." Hän tulee kohta. "He/she will come soon." Nainen hymyilee sinulle "The woman smiles at you." Olen väsynyt. "I'm tired." Kyllä, puhun vähän. "Yes, I speak a little." Onko sinulla siskoa? "Do you have a sister?" VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE hän ("he," "she") Our first topic is the singular 3rd person pronoun hän. Just like English, Finnish has personal pronouns to refer to the speaker, the listener, and someone else. However, unlike English, Finnish does not make a distinction between men and women in the third person. Therefore, there are only 3 singular personal pronouns in Finnish. Both he and she are translated as hän. In principle, hän is only used to refer to people, not animals, even though there are some people who do call their pets hän. It also happens in fairy tales and such that personified animals are referred to as hän, especially in fairy tales translated from English into Finnish. FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #2 - TALKING ABOUT OTHERS IN FINNISH 3

9 Hei, terve ("hi") Our second vocab topic is the new greetings hei and terve. In lesson 1, we discussed the formal greetings for the various times of the day. Hei and terve are more casual, although they are still usable even in business situations. Hei is just an equivalent of the English greetings "hi" and "hello," with no other meaning. Terve, however, does have a meaning of its own. It is "healthy" in English, and it also appears in the word tervetuloa, or "welcome," which we saw in lesson 1. The second part in tervetuloa is a form of the verb tulla, "to come." There is also an opposite word tervemenoa, with the verb mennä, "to go." It has a somewhat negative meaning, and can often be translated into English as "good riddance." Another common casual greeting is moi. Casual greetings also have many modifications including heippa, moikka, moro, and tere. They are more casual than hei and terve. GRAMMAR The Focus of this Lesson is the Singular Forms of Verbs in the Present Tense Hän on Jussi. "He is Jussi." This lesson's grammar point is the singular forms of verbs in the present tense, particularly those of the verb olla, "to be." Just like English has three forms of the verb "to be" that are used according to the subject ("I am," "you are," "he"/"she is"), so does Finnish. There are differences, however. Finnish has three forms for all verbs, whereas in English, other verbs have a different form only for the third person singular. Finnish also has three plural forms, but this time we will only look at the singular forms. Formation In order to form the personal forms of a verb, you need the stem of the verb and the endings used for each person. The stem of the verb olla is ole-, and to that you attach the personal endings -n for the first person and -t for the second person. The conjugation of this verb is a bit irregular, just like the the most common verbs are in many languages, so you will need to memorize the third person. That should be no problem, though, as it is one of the most frequent verb forms you will encounter, so it will soon come automatically. minä olen sinä olet hän on "I am" "you are" "he/she is" FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #2 - TALKING ABOUT OTHERS IN FINNISH 4

10 For a regular verb of this type, the third person ending would be an extension of the last vowel of the stem. Here is the conjugation of the verb tulla, to come: minä tulen "I come" sinä tulet "you come" hän tulee "he/she comes" Sample Sentences 1. Minä olen vaihto-oppilas. "I am an exchange student." 2. Sinä olet lääkäri. "You are a doctor." 3. Hän on poliisi. "He/she is a police officer." 4. Jussi on poika. "Jussi is a boy." 5. Emmi on tyttö. "Emmi is a girl." 6. Tulen huomenna. "I will come tomorrow." 7. Olen iloinen, että olet täällä. "I'm glad you are here." Examples from this Dialogue 1. Minä olen Emmi. "I am Emmi." 2. Hän on Jussi. "He is Jussi." 3. Sinä olet varmaan väsynyt. "You must be tired." FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #2 - TALKING ABOUT OTHERS IN FINNISH 5

11 Tip Since the person of the subject is always seen from the verb, it is not necessary to include the subject in the sentence when the subject is "you" or "I," unless you want to place special emphasis on it. This may be difficult for speakers of languages such as English, where a sentence is ungrammatical without a subject, but if you want to sound natural in Finnish, you should get used to dropping minä and sinä out of your sentences. In the third person, however, it is usually not enough to know that the subject is "someone else," so you need to specify the subject in the sentence. CULTURAL INSIGHT Variants in Finnish Finnish comes in two main variants: standard (written) Finnish and spoken Finnish. Spoken Finnish is further divided into a number of regional dialects and a kind of more or less neutral variant that is not considered a regional dialect, although it is heavily based on the Finnish spoken in the Helsinki area. Standard Finnish is not really anyone's mother tongue, but the result of a conscious development effort and many compromises between the regional dialects. The father of written Finnish is Mikael Agricola, who was the first to compile an ABCbook for Finnish and to translate the New Testament in the mid-16th century. However, it took more than 300 years before written Finnish started to be used widely outside of religious contexts. Since Finland was part of Sweden until 1808 and then part of Russia, Swedish was the language used in official documents, literature, and other non-religious writing. The educated classes were largely Swedish-speaking, and Finnish was considered rural and unrefined. This was changed in the second half of the 19th century, as nationalistic ideas started gaining weight and several prominent persons started a campaign to make written Finnish fit for use in all aspects of life. A great number of new words was coined, and even the grammar was simplified a bit in the name of consistency. Many members of the Swedish-speaking intelligentsia decided to learn Finnish. Standard Finnish has its roots firmly in the written Finnish formed in the late 19th century and revised by later linguists. Standard Finnish is heard in newscasts and other forms of prepared speech, and it is the norm in all writing apart from personal messages and other forms of casual writing. Standard Finnish is learned at school, and few people use it as such in their daily conversations, but there is quite a lot of variation in how many standard vs. spoken structures people use in normal speech. The more formal the situation, the more likely people are to favor standard over spoken Finnish. FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #2 - TALKING ABOUT OTHERS IN FINNISH 6

12 Some prominent differences in standard Finnish and neutral spoken Finnish: minä, sinä, hän - mä, sä, se tulen, tulet, tulee - tuun, tuut, tulee FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #2 - TALKING ABOUT OTHERS IN FINNISH 7

13 LESSON NOTES Absolute Beginner S1 #3 What is That Finnish Thing? CONTENTS 2 Finnish 2 English 2 Vocabulary 3 Sample Sentences 4 Vocabulary Phrase Usage 4 Grammar 5 Cultural Insight # 3 COPYRIGHT 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

14 FINNISH 1. Helen: Mikä tämä on? 2. Liisa: Se on lautanen. 3. Helen: Mikä tuo on? 4. Liisa: Se on lasi. 5. Helen: Kuka tuo on? 6. Liisa: Se on presidentti Niinistö. ENGLISH 1. Helen: What's this? 2. Liisa: It's a plate. 3. Helen: What's that? 4. Liisa: It's a glass. 5. Helen: Who's that? 6. Liisa: It's President Niinistö. VOCABULARY Finnish English Class lasi glass noun FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING? 2

15 kuka who adverb presidentti president noun mikä which, what adverb tämä this pronoun se it pronoun lautanen plate noun tuo that pronoun SAMPLE SENTENCES Tämä lasi on painava. "This glass is heavy." Tarja Halonen on entinen presidentti. "Tarja Halonen is a former President." Tämä viini on hyvää. "This wine is good." Voi, tämä ei ole hyvää. "Oh, this is not good." Se on huhtikuun 15. (viidestoista) päivä. "It's April 15th." Voisitko sanoa sen uudestaan? "Could you say it once again?" Kuka siellä? "Who s there?" Mikä on tämän paikan nimi? "What is this place's name?" Tämä on kaunein paikka Suomessa. "This is the most beautiful place in Finland." Haluan tämän kirjan, kiitos. "I want this book, please." Kyllä, se on aika hyvää. "Yes, it's quite good." Tuo juustopala ei ole sinun. That piece of cheese is not yours. FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING? 3

16 Haluan tuon paidan, kiitos. "I want that shirt, please." VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE Tämä, tuo, se ("this," "that," "it") These three pronouns are used to refer to single objects in accordance to whether they are close to the speaker or not. Tämä refers to anything that is close to the speaker. Tuo refers to anything that is not close to the speaker, but can be seen. It may or may not be close to the listener. Se refers to anything that is not close to the speaker, and it does not need to be visible. Tämä and tuo are usually used when pointing at something, whereas se can be used for anything that has been spoken about before, so it is typically used in answers. They can all appear either alone, as in Tämä on punainen ("This is red") or together with a noun as in Tämä pallo on punainen ("This ball is red."). When used alone, they never need a filler word such as "one" in English: Tuo on liian suuri ("That one is too big."). In casual spoken Finnish, se is also used of people instead of hän. It does not imply any negative meaning. Presidentti ("president") The word presidentti has a narrower meaning than the English "president." In Finnish, it means almost exclusively the head of a state. The presidents of companies or other organizations have other words in Finnish. GRAMMAR The Focus of this Lesson is on Asking About What Something Is Mikä tämä on? "What is this?" Being able to ask what something is is crucial, and a great way to increase your vocabulary. Formation These questions are very simple to form in Finnish. Let us first take a very basic sentence such as Tämä on lautanen, "This is a plate." Now if we replace tämä and lautanen with placeholders, we get a general pattern A on B. A is the thing we are FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING? 4

17 talking about, and B is what we say about it. All we need to do in order to change this basic pattern into a question is add a question word to the beginning and remove B from the end, and we get: 1. Mikä A on? "What is A?" 2. Kuka A on? "Who is A?" Note that unlike in English, the word order in the rest of the sentence does not change. You just add the question word at the beginning. Kuka and mikä are pronouns used in questions. Kuka is used when you want to know the identity of a person. The answer would be something like John, my boss, the company president, etc. Mikä is used in all other situations. Sample Sentences 1. Kuka sinä olet? (Minä olen Liisa.) "Who are you?" ("I'm Liisa.") 2. Kuka minä olen? (Sinä olet Helen.) "Who am I?" ("You are Helen.") 3. Kuka hän on? (Hän on Emmi.) "Who is she?" ("She is Emmi.") 4. Mikä se on? (Se on salaisuus.) "What is it?" ("It's a secret.") Examples from this Dialogue 1. Mikä tämä on? "What's this?" 2. Mikä tuo on? "What's that?" 3. Kuka tuo on? "Who's that?" CULTURAL INSIGHT FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING? 5

18 Finland's Presidents Finland is a republic and has a President as the head of state. The President is elected by a direct popular vote every six years. A former President may only be re-elected once. The President's powers are quite limited. Finland has only had five presidents since Urho Kekkonen, who was elected in 1956, held the office for 25 years, until his health deteriorated so much that he had to retire. In Kekkonen's time, the President's position was quite strong, and in practice he ruled Finland as an autocrat, even dissolving the Parliament if its composition didn't suit him. He considered himself the only person capable of maintaining good relations with the Soviet Union while securing Finland's independence, and many shared his view. At the height of his career, he was unrivalled, and there are many anecdotes about the "Kekkonen era." His successor, Mauno Koivisto, did not interfere with parliamentary democracy. He was the first Social Democrat to be elected President, and started a 30-year era of Social Democrat Presidents (although, once elected, the President conventionally refrains from party politics and acts for the entire people). The next President, Martti Ahtisaari, had served a long career as a diplomat outside of Finland, and entered the presidential election as a dark horse at a time when the other candidates had lost public support because of the ongoing recession of the early 1990s. He has always been an active proponent of peace, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in He was succeeded by Tarja Halonen, the first woman to be elected President of Finland. Since the President is also the Commander-in-Chief of the military forces, her being unmarried at the time she took office caused an unexpected dilemma in the military: should the troops salute her as neiti presidentti ("Miss President") or rouva presidentti ("Mrs President")? It was eventually decided that rouva could be used as a respectful salutation of a woman of her age, even though technically inaccurate. At the end of her second term when the new candidates were being nominated, a young girl reportedly asked her parents, surprised, if it was possible for a man to become President. The current President is Sauli Niinistö, who took office in March He was the favorite from the start of the campaign, and took a clear victory over the Green League candidate Pekka Haavisto, who executed a great campaign and made it to the second round much to the surprise of everyone, including himself. Sauli Niinistö is the 12th President of Finland. FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING? 6

19 LESSON NOTES Absolute Beginner S1 #4 What's That in Your Finnish Cup? CONTENTS 2 Finnish 2 English 2 Vocabulary 3 Sample Sentences 3 Vocabulary Phrase Usage 4 Grammar 7 Cultural Insight # 4 COPYRIGHT 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

20 FINNISH 1. Helen: Mitä tämä on? 2. Emmi: Se on suolaa. 3. Helen: Entä tämä? 4. Emmi: Se on sokeria. 5. Helen: Hyvä. Nyt tarvitsen vielä teetä. 6. Emmi: Sitä on tässä. 7. Helen: Kiitos. ENGLISH 1. Helen: What's this? 2. Emmi: It's salt. 3. Helen: How about this? 4. Emmi: It's sugar. 5. Helen: Good. Now I still need some tea. 6. Emmi: There's tea in here. 7. Helen: Thank you. VOCABULARY FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #4 - WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR FINNISH CUP? 2

21 Finnish English Class suola salt noun entä how about adverb sokeri sugar noun nyt now adverb tarvita to need verb vielä still adverb tee tea noun tässä here noun Kiitos thank you noun SAMPLE SENTENCES Saisinko suolaa? "May I have some salt, please?" Sokeri on epäterveellistä. "Sugar is unhealthy." Tarvitsen vähän apua. "I need some help." Tässä on pubi, mennään sisään! "Here's a pub, let's go in." Entä tämä? "How about this one?" Juon nyt teetä. "I am drinking tea now." Vielä kerran, pojat! "One more time, boys!" Kiitos hyvää. "I'm fine. Thanks." Kiitos avustasi. "Thank you for your help." VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #4 - WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR FINNISH CUP? 3

22 vielä ("still") Vielä has a wide range of meanings. It may be translated into English as "still", "(not) yet," "even," or "(one/some) more," depending on the context: 1. tee on vielä kuumaa "the tea is still hot" 2. tee ei ole vielä valmista "the tea is not yet ready" 3. pidän teestä vielä enemmän "I like tea even more" 4. ottaisin vielä teetä "I would like some more tea" tässä ("here") There are a number of Finnish words that are originally nouns or pronouns, but in a certain case form are used as adverbs. Tässä is one of them. It comes from the pronoun tämä ("this") we have seen before, and it literally means "in this (place)." We will look at the grammar later on in this series. GRAMMAR The Focus of this Lesson is the Partitive Case: Talking About "some" Instead of "the whole thing" Se on suolaa. "It's salt." Finnish has a number of cases. They are used to indicate the relationship of a thing to other things in the world, just like the genitive form "my" of the English pronoun "I" indicates possession. They are also used to indicate the roles of the words in a sentence, such as whether a word is a subject or an object. Until now, our nouns have mostly been in the nominative form that is found in a dictionary. This time, we will look at the partitive case. Formation The partitive ending is -a/-ä, -ta/-tä, or -tta/-ttä. Whether the vowel in the ending is an a or an ä depends on the word it is attached to. If the word has any of the back vowels a, o, or u, the ending also has an a. If the word only has vowels from the FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #4 - WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR FINNISH CUP? 4

23 set of front vowels e, i, y, ä, ö, then the vowel in the ending is an ä. It may sound complicated, but you will soon get used to it. It is a phenomenon called vowel harmony, and it applies to all kinds of endings in Finnish. Once you have the vowel harmony down, there are still three forms to choose from. There are some basic rules for picking the ending: 1. If the word stem ends in a single vowel, use -a/-ä: Nominative Stem Partitive Translation lasi lasi- lasia glass suola suola- suolaa salt minä minu- minua I 2. If the word stem ends in two vowels or a consonant, use -ta/-tä. Also most pronouns apart from minä and sinä take this ending: tee tee- teetä tea lautanen lautas- lautasta plate hän hän- häntä he/she mikä mi- mitä what 3. Many words that end in -e in the nominative form take -tta/-ttä. Not all of them, though you will need to do some memorization. terve terve- tervettä healthy Use The basic meaning of the partitive is "a part of something." It can often be translated as "some" in English. For example: 1. Tarvitsen sokeria. "I need some sugar." FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #4 - WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR FINNISH CUP? 5

24 2. Anna Jussille maitoa. "Give Jussi some milk." 3. Lumikki puraisi omenaa. "Snow White took a bite of the apple." You also use it when referring to the material something is made of or consists of. For example: 1. Se on sokeria. "It is sugar." 2. Tämä lautanen on muovia. "This plate is (made of) plastic." There are many verbs, such as kehua "to praise" and kiittää "to thank," that always have their objects (in the case of these verbs, the person who is praised or thanked) in the partitive case. For example: 1. Hän kehuu minua. "He praises me." 2. Jussi kiittää Emmiä. "Jussi thanks Emmi." The partitive is often used when saying what something is like. For example: 1. Tee on hyvää. "Tea is delicious." Examples from this Dialogue 1. Mitä tämä on? "What's this?" FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #4 - WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR FINNISH CUP? 6

25 2. Se on suolaa. "It's salt." 3. Se on sokeria. "It's sugar." 4. Tarvitsen vielä teetä. "I still need some tea." 5. Sitä on tässä. "There's tea in here." CULTURAL INSIGHT A Favorite Finnish Drink Finland is among the biggest coffee-consuming nations. Soon after coffee was introduced into Finland in the 18th century, it became a highly prestigious drink that everyone wanted to have and serve their guests. If the real thing was not available or was too expensive, people would make substitute coffee from rye or barley. In rural areas, people slurped their coffee from the saucer. Some said that in order to enter marttakerho (a women's association) you had to be able to slurp your coffee from the saucer from a distance of 10cm without ceasing to talk. Be that as it may, coffee has been hugely popular throughout the centuries until this day. Even though there are many people who prefer tea, coffee is still the default drink at workplaces and all kinds of parties and receptions, while tea is often less prominently positioned in some corner. In recent years, new trendy specialty coffees have made sure that coffee consumption stays high. In 2011, Finns consumed an average of 9.7 kg of roasted coffee per person. Coffee is kahvi in Finnish. FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #4 - WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR FINNISH CUP? 7

26 LESSON NOTES Absolute Beginner S1 #5 How are you Doing in Finland? CONTENTS 2 Finnish 2 English 2 Vocabulary 3 Sample Sentences 3 Vocabulary Phrase Usage 4 Grammar 6 Cultural Insight # 5 COPYRIGHT 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

27 FINNISH 1. Liisa: Mitä kuuluu? 2. Helen: Kiitos hyvää. Entä itsellesi? 3. Liisa: Tässähän tämä menee. Miten koulussa menee? 4. Helen: Ihan hyvin. ENGLISH 1. Liisa: How are you? 2. Helen: I'm fine, thanks. And you? 3. Liisa: It's going OK. How's it going at school? 4. Helen: It's going well. VOCABULARY Finnish English Class ihan totally, quite adverb hyvin well adverb kuulua to be heard verb itse (one)self noun -han, hän a particle used for emphasis enclitic particle miten how, what a adverb koulu school noun FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #5 - HOW ARE YOU DOING IN FINLAND? 2

28 mennä to go noun SAMPLE SENTENCES Kaikki on ihan hyvin. "Everything is just fine." Mitä kuuluu, Matti? "How are you, Matti?" Tämähän on hyvää! "I say, this tastes great!" Miten voit? "How are you doing?" Tunnen hänet hyvin. "I know him well." Teetkö sen itse? "Will you do it yourself?" Miten pian tulet kotiin? "How soon will you come home?" Menkää toiselle puolelle katua, kiitos. Please go to the other side of the road. Menen sinne kello kahdeksan. "I will go there at 8 o'clock." VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE kuulua ("to be heard," "to be audible") This verb is related to the verb kuulla ("to hear") but while the subject of kuulla is the person (or animal) that hears a sound, the subject of kuulua is the sound itself, and a sentence with kuulua usually does not even say who (if anyone) hears the sound. For example: 1. Kalle kuulee jyrinää. (kuulla) "Kalle hears a rumble." FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #5 - HOW ARE YOU DOING IN FINLAND? 3

29 2. Kuuluu jyrinää. (kuulua) "A rumble is heard." -han, -hän (particle used for emphasis) Finnish has a number of enclitic (words that are pronounced with very little emphasis and join to the word before them, like the "'nt" in "can't") particles that are used to indicate emphasis, surprise, questions, and so on. They follow vowel harmony with the word they are attached to, that is, -han will be used after words that have any of the vowels a, o, or u, whereas -hän will be used after words that only have some of the vowels e, i, y, ä, ö. For example: 1. Jussihan on tänään iloinen. "I say, Jussi is quite happy today." 2. Tämähän on hyvää! "I say, this tastes great!" GRAMMAR The Focus of this Lesson is On Asking How Someone Is Mitä kuuluu? "How are you?" Being able to ask how someone is and reply when asked about it yourself is important in any culture. In this lesson, we will look at some common phrases used in Finnish. Question 1: Mitä kuuluu? ("How are you?") This phrase literally means "What is heard?" though it is more naturally translated as "What's new?" or "How are you?" This is probably the most common question used to find out how someone is. Anwers: 1. Kiitos hyvää. ("I'm fine, thank you.") Kiitos hyvää is the standard answer to Mitä kuuluu? Note that hyvää is in the partitive case just like mitä. You can also add words such as oikein ("really") if you want to sound more positive: Kiitos oikein hyvää ("I'm very well, thank you."). FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #5 - HOW ARE YOU DOING IN FINLAND? 4

30 2. Tässähän tämä (menee). ("It's ok.") This is a phrase you can use as a reply to Mitä kuuluu? if you are not so great or if there is nothing special going on. You can use either the longer version Tässähän tämä menee, literally something like "well, this is going along here," or the shortened version Tässähän tämä. Tämä ("this") is interpreted either as life in general or as the situation the person is in. Tässä is a form of the word tämä that means "here," and -hän is an ending indicating emphasis. We'll cover the grammar later, just learn this as a set phrase for now. The phrase can be used in a wide variety of situations from "I'm barely alive" to "I've just had the greatest day of my life, but I'm not going to tell you about it," so the tone of voice is really more important than the words. 3. Siinähän se (menee). ("It's ok.") This is a variant of Tässähän tämä, just tässä is replaced with siinä ("there") and tämä is replaced with se. The usage is similar to Tässähän tämä. 4. Mikäs tässä. ("It's ok.") This is another vague reply. It is a shortened version of Mikäs tässä ollessa, meaning something like "No problem, I'm hanging in here." Question 2: Miten menee? ("How is it going?") Miten menee? is another common question. You can use it either as a general question by itself, or you can add something in the middle to ask about that specifically. In addition to Miten koulussa menee? two other common variants are Miten töissä menee? ("How is it going at work?") and Miten kotona menee? ("How is it going at home?") Anwers: 1. Kiitos hyvin. ("It's going well, thank you.") Note that the answer to Miten menee? is almost like the answer to Mitä kuuluu? except that this answer has hyvin while the other one has hyvää. That is because miten in the question is an adverb, and therefore you also need an adverb in the answer as well. 2. Ihan hyvin. ("Quite ok.") Even though ihan literally means "quite" or "totally," Ihan hyvin does not necessarily mean any better than hyvin alone. It is more like "No problem" or "It's ok." 4. Loistavasti! ("Brilliantly!") FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #5 - HOW ARE YOU DOING IN FINLAND? 5

31 This one means "brilliantly," and you are not likely to hear it very often, but you can use it if things are really going well. 5. Tässähän tämä/siinähän se/mikäs tässä ("It's ok") You can also use these phrases that we covered before to answer this question. Question 3: Kuis hurisee? ("What's cookin'?") This is a casual question and not recommended in formal situations, but will be well received among friends. It literally means "How is it buzzing?" Anwers: You can use the same answers as with Miten menee? Returning the Question In all cases, it is polite to ask the other person how they are doing after you have answered their question. The standard phrase used for this is Entä itsellesi? which means roughly "How about you?" The grammar in itsellesi is a bit advanced, so learn this as a set phrase for now. CULTURAL INSIGHT Vague Finnish Answers Many Finns tend to be rather vague when asked about how they are. Tässähän tämä and siinähän se are very typical answers when people do not want to commit themselves. Traditionally, it has not really been considered socially appropriate to boast of your happiness, but people may also be reluctant to admit that they are not doing well. Of course, there are people who will take the opportunity to report the multimillion-euro deal they have just closed or all the illnesses they have suffered during the past year, but most of the time people will just reply politely and go on with the conversation, especially if you do not know them well. If you do know the other person well, they may start their reply with one of the noncommittal phrases, and then go on to tell you about a dramatic change that has just taken place in their lives, good or bad. FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #5 - HOW ARE YOU DOING IN FINLAND? 6

32 LESSON NOTES Absolute Beginner S1 #6 May I Have Some of that Finnish... Something? CONTENTS 2 Finnish 2 English 2 Vocabulary 3 Sample Sentences 3 Vocabulary Phrase Usage 4 Grammar 6 Cultural Insight # 6 COPYRIGHT 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

33 FINNISH 1. Emmi: Saisinko maitoa? 2. Helen: Ole hyvä. 3. Emmi: Kiitos. Otatko salaattia? 4. Helen: Kyllä kiitos. Onko tuo omenaa? 5. Emmi: Ei, se on päärynää. ENGLISH 1. Emmi: May I have some milk, please? 2. Helen: Here you are. 3. Emmi: Thank you. Would you like some salad? 4. Helen: Yes please. Is that apple? 5. Emmi: No, it's pear. VOCABULARY Finnish English Class päärynä pear noun maito milk noun Ole hyvä You're welcome/ Here you are expression kyllä yes expression FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #6 - MAY I HAVE S OME OF THAT FINNIS H... S OMETHING? 2

34 saada to get, to receive verb -ko a question particle particle ottaa to take verb salaatti salad noun omena apple noun Ei no expression SAMPLE SENTENCES Päärynä kasvaa puussa. "A pear grows in a tree." Tämä on sinulle, ole hyvä. "T his is f or you, here you are." Kyllä, se on hyvää. "Yes, it's good." Mies saa rahaa. "T he man receives money." Otan tämän kirjan. "I'll take this book." Maito on valkoista. "Milk is white." Kyllä, pidän erityisesti graavilohesta. "Yes, I especially love gravlax." Kyllä, puhun vähän. "Yes, I speak a little." Oletko väsynyt? "Are you tired?" Tämä ei ole hyvä. "This is not good." VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE saisinko...? ("may I get...?") Saisinko...? is the polite way to ask for something. Saisinko is a form of the verb saada meaning "to get" or "to receive," plus the -ko particle, but the exact formation is beyond this series, so you should learn it as a set phrase. The object is in the partitive case if the corresponding English question were to have "some" FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #6 - MAY I HAVE S OME OF THAT FINNIS H... S OMETHING? 3

35 instead of "a/the." ole hyvä ("here you are") Ole hyvä literally means "be good." It is used when giving someone something, and translates to "here you are." The recipient says Kiitos "thank you," to which the giver may reply Eipä kestä "don't mention it." When passing something at dinner table you do not need to say Eipä kestä, but it is good to use it when you have given someone a gift or done them a favor. At a casual dinner, such as among a family, also Ole hyvä is often omitted. A confusingly similar expression is Ole ystävällinen "be kind," but it is not used when giving someone something. It is a formal equivalent of "please" and can sometimes be seen on forms or instructions. otatko...? (do you take / would you like...?) There are many phrases for offering someone something at the table. Otatko...? is among the least fancy and most matter-of-fact questions. Literally, it is simply "Do you take...?" but in many cases it is better translated as "would you like..." in English. For example, your server may ask you Otatko teetä vai kahvia? "Would you like tea or coffee?" Other phrases in order of increasing politeness used when offering something include Haluaisitko...? literally is "Would you want some...?" and Saisiko olla...? "How about some...?" GRAMMAR The Focus of this Lesson is Asking Questions with -ko Onko tuo omenaa? "Is that apple?" In the previous lessons, we have been looking at questions with a question word such as mikä or kuka. Questions like that will be answered with some piece of information about the thing or person, such as a name. This time, we will learn how to ask questions that will be answered with "yes" or "no." Formation All you need to do to form a question like this is take the word that you want to contest, move it to the beginning of the sentence, and attach -ko to it. If we take the basic sentence pattern A on B "A is B," and we want to find out if A really is B or not, we would ask Onko A B? Nothing else changes in the sentence, only the verb FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #6 - MAY I HAVE S OME OF THAT FINNIS H... S OMETHING? 4

36 is moved to the beginning and gets -ko attached to it. In the following sample sentences, we have added the corresponding statement in parenthesis after the question so that you can compare them. Sample Sentences 1. Onko tämä sokeria? (Tämä on sokeria.) "Is this sugar?" ("This is sugar.") 2. Onko tuo salaatti hyvää? (Tuo salaatti on hyvää.) "Is that salad good?" 3. Tarvitsetko sokeria? (Tarvitset sokeria.) "Do you need sugar?" Note that you can attach -ko to almost any word, and the one with -ko attached is the one that is asked about. The English translations get a bit complicated sometimes, because English is not as flexible as Finnish in this respect. Sample Sentences 1. Sinäkö tarvitset suolaa? (Sinä tarvitset suolaa.) "Was it you who needs some salt?" ("You need salt.") 2. Suolaako se on? (Se on suolaa.) "Oh, is it salt? [I thought it was sugar.]" ("It is salt.") 3. Oletko sinä väsynyt? (Sinä olet väsynyt.) "Are you tired?" ("You are tired.") 4. Sinäkö olet väsynyt? "Oh, so you're the one who is tired?" Examples from this Dialogue 1. Saisinko maitoa? "May I have some milk, please?" 2. Otatko salaattia? "Would you like some salad?" FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #6 - MAY I HAVE S OME OF THAT FINNIS H... S OMETHING? 5

37 3. Onko tuo omenaa? "Is that apple?" CULTURAL INSIGHT Mind Yo ur Manners at the Finnish Table Table manners in Finland are pretty much similar to other European countries. You are not supposed to put a knife in your mouth, rest your elbows on the table while eating, talk with food in your mouth, or try to reach for something that is not close to you. It is polite to try at least a little bit of every dish. In the past, respect for food was very important, because most Finns had first-hand experience of food shortages. It used to be unacceptable to leave food on your plate, and if children did that, their mothers would remind them of all the hungry children in Africa. In the present abundance, the respect has somewhat decreased, and leftover food is more of an environmental issue. Family dinners are less common these days than they used to be, because people have many hobbies in the evenings. Most families still try to eat together in the evenings, however. The normal dinner time is around 5 or 6 p.m. FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #6 - MAY I HAVE S OME OF THAT FINNIS H... S OMETHING? 6

38 LESSON NOTES Absolute Beginner S1 #7 Let Me Have Some Delicious Finnish Blueberry Pie! CONTENTS 2 Finnish 2 English 2 Vocabulary 3 Sample Sentences 3 Vocabulary Phrase Usage 4 Grammar 6 Cultural Insight # 7 COPYRIGHT 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

39 FINNISH 1. Helen: Saisinko lisää sitä herkullista mustikkapiirakkaa? 2. Liisa: Totta kai. Ole hyvä. 3. Helen: Kiitos. 4. Liisa: Otatko myös lisää vihreää teetä? 5. Helen: Ei kiitos, mutta saisinko mustaa kahvia? ENGLISH 1. Helen: May I have some more of that delicious blueberry pie? 2. Liisa: Certainly, here you are. 3. Helen: Thank you. 4. Liisa: Would you like some more green tea as well? 5. Helen: No thanks, but could I have some black coffee, please? VOCABULARY Finnish English Class mustikkapiirakka blueberry pie noun mustikka blueberry adjective vihreä green adjective lisää more adverb FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #7 - LET ME HAVE S OME DELICIOUS FINNIS H BLUEBERRY PIE! 2

40 kahvi coffee noun herkullinen delicious adjective totta kai of course, certainly adverb myös also adverb mutta but conjunction musta black adjective SAMPLE SENTENCES Teen huomenna must ikkapiirakkaa. "I will make some blueberry pie tomorrow." Ruoho on vihreää. "T he grass is green." Juon liikaa kahvia. "I drink too much coffee." Tämä keitto on todella herkullist a! "T his soup is really delicious!" Totta kai tulen! "Of course I ll come!" Pekka on pitkä mutta laiha. "Pekka is tall but thin." Saisinko must ikkahilloa? "May I have some blueberry jam, please?" Hän haluaa aina vain lisää ja lisää. "She always wants more and more." Join jo kaksi kahvia. "I've had two cof f ees already." Nainen nauttii herkullista pizzaa. "T he woman is enjoying delicious pizza." Hän tekee myös herkullista keittoa. "He also makes delicious soup." Musta kissa etsii hiirtä. "The black cat is looking for a mouse." FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #7 - LET ME HAVE S OME DELICIOUS FINNIS H BLUEBERRY PIE! 3

41 VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE herkullinen ("delicious") We have had the word hyvä before. Hyvä can be used in many different contexts, including food. Herkullinen, however, is only limited to food. It is somewhat stronger than hyvä. mustikkapiirakka ("blueberry pie) Mustikkapiirakka consists of two words, mustikka "blueberry" and piirakka "pie." Finnish has plenty of words that consist of more than one word, and it is a very productive way of forming new words. Blueberry pies come in many varieties, but most of them are not exactly what English speakers might expect from a pie. They seldom have a crust on top, and one of the most common types is actually a kind of flat sponge cake with blueberries sprinkled on top. GRAMMAR The Focus of this Lesson is Using the Partitive Case in All Words That Belong Together Saisinko lisää sitä herkullista mustikkapiirakkaa? "May I have some more of that delicious blueberry pie?" By now, we are getting used to using the partitive case. However, so far we have had simple expressions that only have one noun, adjective, or pronoun. But we often want to use more complex expressions and modify our nouns with pronouns and adjectives and say things like "I want to try that lovely good-smelling homemade Finnish blueberry pie." No problem! However, there is one thing you need to remember when saying things like that in Finnish: all words that modify a noun take the same case ending as the noun. If there is a pronoun (tämä, tuo, se), it usually comes first, then any adjectives, and the noun they modify comes last. Let's make a few phrases with several words and turn them into the partitive. Remember that the partitive ending is determined by the last letters of the stem. If the stem ends in a single vowel, the ending is -a/-ä as in musta For example: tämä vihreä salaatti (tä-, vihreä-, salaatti-) "green salad" FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #7 - LET ME HAVE S OME DELICIOUS FINNIS H BLUEBERRY PIE! 4

42 kylmä musta kahvi (kylmä-, musta-, kahvi-) "cold black coffee" kaunis lautanen (kaunis-, lautas-) "pretty plate" Sample Sentences 1. Otan vähän tätä vihreää salaattia. "I'll take a little of this green salad." 2. Juon aamuisin kylmää mustaa kahvia. "I drink cold black coffee in the mornings." 3. Varo tuota sinistä lasia. "Be careful with that blue glass." 4. Haluan maistaa tuota ihanaa, tuoksuvaa kotitekoista suomalaista mustikkapiirakkaa. "I want to try that lovely good-smelling homemade Finnish blueberry pie." Examples from this Dialogue 1. Saisinko lisää tuota herkullista mustikkapiirakkaa? "May I have some more of that delicious blueberry pie? 2. Otatko myös lisää vihreää teetä? "Would you like some more green tea as well?" 3. Ei kiitos, mutta saisinko mustaa kahvia? "No thanks, but could I get some black coffee, please?" Pronunciation Tip FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #7 - LET ME HAVE S OME DELICIOUS FINNIS H BLUEBERRY PIE! 5

43 Remember to mind the lengths of sounds in Finnish. Both vowels and consonants may be short or long, and the length of sounds will change the meaning of the word. This is relevant also for the partitive case. Words that end in a short -a or -ä in the nominative form end in a long vowel in the partitive. The quality of the vowel does not change, you just keep saying it longer. Nominat ive Part it ive English translation suola suolaa salt päivä päivää day hyvä hyvää good omena omenaa apple The length of consonants is also relevant in the partitive, even though there are not many word pairs that would get mixed up in case of wrong consonant length. You still need to make the difference to sound natural. Nominat ive Part it ive English translation tee teetä tea perhe perhettä family mies miestä man säde sädettä ray (of light) CULTURAL INSIGHT Do Yo u Want to Pick Berries in the Finnish Forest? Finnish forests grow an abundance of wild berries, including blueberries, lingonberries, cranberries, raspberries, and cloudberries. Finland also has a custom called Everyman's Rights, which states, among other things, that anyone can freely roam the forests and pick wild berries and mushrooms as long as they do not go close to dwellings or damage cultivated plants. No permission is needed from the landowner. The best spots are well-kept secrets, and the berry and mushroom seasons are long-awaited highlights of the year for many Finns. However, there is also a great number of people who will not put a foot in the FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #7 - LET ME HAVE S OME DELICIOUS FINNIS H BLUEBERRY PIE! 6

44 forests, let alone bother to bend their back to pick berries, and it is estimated that less than ten per cent of the wild berry produce is harvested. FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #7 - LET ME HAVE S OME DELICIOUS FINNIS H BLUEBERRY PIE! 7

45 LESSON NOTES Absolute Beginner S1 #8 Have You Lost Your Favorite Finnish Co ee Mug? CONTENTS 2 Finnish 2 English 2 Vocabulary 3 Sample Sentences 4 Vocabulary Phrase Usage 4 Grammar 8 Cultural Insight # 8 COPYRIGHT 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

46 FINNISH 1. Jussi: Tiedätkö, missä sininen mukini on? 2. Helen: Se on keittiössä. 3. Jussi: Missä päin? 4. Helen: Kuivauskaapissa. 5. Jussi: Siinähän se on. Kiitos. 6. Helen: Eipä kestä. ENGLISH 1. Jussi: Do you know where my blue mug is? 2. Helen: It's in the kitchen. 3. Jussi: Whereabouts? 4. Helen: In the drying cabinet. 5. Jussi: Oh, there it is. Thanks. 6. Helen: You're welcome. VOCABULARY Finnish English Class FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #8 - HAVE YOU LOS T YOUR FAVORITE FINNIS H COFFEE MUG? 2

47 eipä kestä you re welcome, don t mention it phrase siinä there adverb kaappi cabinet, cupboard, closet noun (astian)kuivauskaappi (dish) drying cabinet noun päin towards; in the approximate area of adverb sininen blue adjective muki mug noun tietää to know verb missä where adverb keittiö kitchen noun SAMPLE SENTENCES Eipä kestä, ei siitä ollut vaivaa. "Don t mention it, it was no trouble." Siinä se on. "There it is." Kuivauskaappi on t äynnä. "T he drying cabinet is f ull." Taivas on sininen. "T he sky is blue." T iedän, kuka on Suomen presidentti. "I know who is the President of Finland." Missä olet? "Where are you?" Missä päin asut? "Whereabout s do you live?" Muki on kaapissa. "T he mug is in the cabinet." En tiedä hänen nimeään. "I don't know his/her name." Missä on johtaja? "Where is the boss?" FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #8 - HAVE YOU LOS T YOUR FAVORITE FINNIS H COFFEE MUG? 3

48 Keittiö on uusi. "The kitchen is new." Kokki laittoi ruokaa keittiössä. The chef cooked in the kitchen. VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE tietää ("to know") Tietää basically means "to have information about something." If you use it in connection with a person, it does not mean you know them personally. It only means you know something about them, such as their name or their relationship with someone else. päin ("towards") Päin is a word that means "towards" or "in the approximate area of." When combined with an adverb of location, such as missä ("where") or tuolla ("there"), it adds the meaning of -abouts: missä päin is "whereabouts," and tuolla päin is "thereabouts." GRAMMAR The Focus of this Lesson is the Inessive Case, or Where Something Is Kuivauskaapissa. "In the drying cabinet." The case we will look at in this lesson, called the inessive case, indicates where something is. More specifically, it basically adds the meaning of "inside" to the word. It is used both in expressions of physical location and in certain grammatical constructions and expressions. We will look more into the use after we have first looked at the formation. The inessive ending is -ssa/-ssä. There is no variation in the ending apart from vowel harmony. However, there is some extra learning effort involved at this point, because some words have two stems. One of them ends in a vowel, and the other one ends in a consonant. The singular partitive forms we have been making so far use the consonant stem, while the inessive and most other cases use the vowel stem. This comes quite naturally from the fact that most of the case endings are either single consonants (such as -n) or start with two consonants, like -ssa, and Finnish does not allow consonant clusters such as tss in *väsynytssä or two word-final consonants as in *väsynytn. So you need a vowel before the ending. In the following tables, you can see the partitive and inessive forms of the nouns, FI NNI S HPOD101.COM ABS OLUTE BEGINNER S 1 #8 - HAVE YOU LOS T YOUR FAVORITE FINNIS H COFFEE MUG? 4