#finnish langblr

hey! ive been active here before, but never really introduced myself, so here you go!

basics

im enfys seren toive, 20, german native, university student (studying finnish and scandinavian studies along with dapping into some other stuff in the general studies field)

languages im learning

are finnish, swedish, danish, and esperanto! along with some slight dabbing into some other languages

i want to

become a translator/interpreter once im finished with university!

hello hello! if youre focusing on any of the languages im studying, feel free to lmk! i need to follow more blogs 

Sivu yksi ja takakansi - page one and the back cover - Seite eins und die Rückseite

merkillinen - weird, strange - komisch, seltsam, merkwürdig

luonnonilmiö - natural phenomenon - Naturerscheinung, Naturereignis

tulkita - translate, interpret, explain - dolmetschen, erklären, interpretieren

tuho - downfall, ruin, doom - Untergang, Verderben, Ruin, Vernichtung

merkki - sign; stamp; utterance, expression - Zeichen; Briefmarke; Äußerung

kaukainen - far away - fern

tähtitorni - observatory - Sternwarte 

selvä - bright; clear; clean - hell; deutlich; sauber

omituinen - specific; weird; curious, odd - eigentümlich; spezifisch; seltsam

pyrstötähti - comet - Komet

-> pyrstö - tail (as in a horse’s tail, an animal’s tail) - Schweif, Schwanz

liittyä - to belong to something; to join - sich jmd. anschließen; zu etw. gehören

neuvokas - perceptive, smart, innovative - erfinderisch, scharfsinnig, klug

viehättävä - delighting, enchanting; charming - begeisternd, entzückend; charmant

-> viehättää - delight, enchant - entzücken; begeistern, hinreißen

taival - distance - Strecke, Entfernung

edetä - get ahead, keep on going - weiter gehen, vorwärts kommen

huima - wild, untamed - unbändig, ungestüm, wild

seikkailu - adventure - Abenteuer

varoittaa - warn smb. from smth. - jmd. vor etw. warnen

vaarallinen - dangerous - gefährlich

syöksyä - fall - stürzen, fallen

uhkaava - threatening - drohend, bedrohlich

-> uhata - threaten - jmd. (be)drohen

kohti + Partitiivi - towards smth. - auf etw. zu

jolloin - where; whem; as, when - wo; wann; als, da

vievä - time-consuming - zeitraubend

saada valmiksi - to finish smth., get done with smth. - etw. zu Ende bringen, mit etw. fertig werden

otus - animal; beast - Tier; Biest; Vieh

keksiä - make up, discover - erfinden, entdecken

kummallinen - weird, strange - komisch, seltsam, merkwürdig

eräs - one - ein, eine, eins

aivan - entirely - ganz, genau, völlig

painua - sink; give in; boost smth. - sinken, untergehen; nachgeben; antreiben

tutkia - investigate smth. - etw. untersuchen, etw. erkunden

uskaltaa - dare - wagen, den Mut haben, sich trauen

varjoinen - shady (as in, a shady place, not a shady person) - schattig

panna - put - setzen, stellen, legen

oksa - branch - Ast

risti - cross - Kreuz

loikkia - jump, walk with big steps - springen, mit großen Schritten laufen

käpälä - paw - Pfote, Tatze

täynnä - full of - voll, voller

niitty - meadow - Wiese

Genetiivi + halki - across - über, durch, quer durch

virrata - flow - strömen, fließen, rinnen

kaartaa - bend - biegen, krümmen

kattaa - cover; encompass - decken; umfassen, beinhalten

seutu - area, region, surrounding - Gegend, Region, Umgebung

ihmetellä - wonder, admire - sich wundern, staunen, etw. bewundern

mahtaa - may, must - dürfen, mögen, werden, müssen

ihmeellinen - weird, strange; phenomenal - komisch, seltsam; phänomenal

miettiä - to think about smth. - an etw. denken, über etw. nachdenken

NOTE: I translated the words into German first, then into English, so the German translations are betterthan the English ones!

NOTE 2: etw. - etwas; jmd. - jemanden; jemandem; jemand

There are two kinds of objects in Finnish, partitiiviobjektitandtotaaliobjektit

partitive objects occur if the sentence is negative, irresultative, after numbers other than 1, if the word is an ainesana or if you are talking about an undecided amount of something
they are, as the name says, in partitive (either singular or plural)

totaaliobjektit occur if you are talking about a specific thing rather than the thing in general (luen kirjettä vs luen kirjeen - i read any letter vs i read the letter (in one sitting))
totaaliobjektit can either look like the genetiivi yksikkö or like the nominatiivi monikko, and pronouns take a certain form if they are a totaaliobjekti (the akkusatiivi)

Some prepositions alwaystake the partitiivi following them. Some of them are

monta

pari

vähän

puoli

paljon

ennen

NOTE: The difference between monta and paljon is that paljon can occur with both ainesanat andother words, whereas monta can neveroccur with ainesanat. So you can say paljon ruokaa (ruoka = ainesana) and paljon omenoita, but you cannot say monta ruokaa, only monta omenaa, which is the same as paljon omenoita. So monta + partitive singular is the same as paljon + partitive plural

Ainesanat are, easily explained, words that cannot be counted or arent usually counted. My Finnish teacher called them substance words, because they describe a substance rather than the single parts of which said substance is made up of

examples would be hiekka (sand), ruoka (food), maito (milk), and also things like omena (apple).

the difference between, for example, paljon omenaa and paljon omenoita is that in the first sentence, you treat apple as a substance (eg. there is a lot of apple in the cake), and in the second you treat apples as countable pieces (eg. i have to buy a lot of apples)

ainesanat always are a partitive singularobject

some words are only ever ainesanat, whereas others can be both ainesanat and totaaliobjektit. generally, if you wouldn’t count the thing you are referring to you use partitive singular, as the word is an ainesana then

Partitiivi yksikkö

The partitive occurs after numbers (that arent 1), after negative sentences, after certain words, after so called ainesanat, if the amount is undetermined and if an action is irresultative.

The partitive singular is formed in three ways:

if the word ends in a singel vowel or ia, eA: A

(ihanaa, sataa, sotaa)

if the word ends in two vowels or a consonant: tA

(maata, puhelinta, lasta)

if the word ends in e: ttA

(meretta, hernettä, huonetta)

NOTE:A stands for a/ä, depending on Vowel Harmony

NOTE 2: The partitive can be formed with either the nominative form or the stemof the word, you have to learn it with each word

NOTE 3: There are some negative sentences which do nottake the partitive (words that don’t follow in partitive after possessive constructions: nälkä, jano, kiire, kuuma, kylmä, hiki, hyvä/huono olo)

Verbityyppi 5

Here the infinitive marker is -ta/-tä, if the vowel before the marker is an i. The t stays, but is followed by -se- and the personal ending.

häiritä

1. häiritsen                  - häiritsemme
   
2. häiritset                   - häiritsette
3. häiritsee                  - häiritsevät

tarvita

1. tarvitsen                  - tarvitsemme
   
2. tarvitset                   - tarvitsette
3. tarvitsee                  - tarvitsevat

lukita

1. lukitsen                    - lukitsemme
   
2. lukitset                     - lukitsette
   
3. lukitsee                    - lukitsevat
   

NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)

Verbityyppi 4

Here the infinitive marker is -ta/-tä, if the vowel in front is any vowel other than i. The t is removed, thus resulting in two vowels following after each other. The personal ending is added after both vowels

tavata

1. tapaan              - tapaamme
   
2. tapaat               - tapaatte
3. tapaa                - tapaavat

juoruta

1. juoruan             - juoruamme
   
2. juoruat              - juoruatte
3. juoruaa             - juoruavat

hypätä

1. hyppään           - hyppäämme
   
2. hyppäät            - hyppäätte
   
3. hyppää            - hyppäävät
   

määrätä

1. määrään           - määräämme
   
2. määräät            - määräätte
   
3. määrää            - hyppäävät

NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)

NOTE 2: The conjugated verb is in strong form

NOTE 3: Verbs of this type where the stem ends in aa/ää do not take the -V ending in 3rd person singular

Verbityypi 3

ends in KK+a/ä, K+a/ä is the infinitive marker, meaning that the first K belongs to the stem; to form the present tense, K+a/ä is removed and an e is added after the stem and then the personal endingfollows

mennä

1. menen               - menemme
   
2. menet                - menette
3. menee               - menevät

kävellä

1. kävelen              - kävelemme
   
2. kävelet               - kävelette
3. kävelee              - kävelevät

urheilla

1. urheilen              - urheilemme
   
2. urheilet               - urheilette
3. urheilee              - urheilevat

purra

1. puren                 - puremme
   
2. puret                  - purette
3. puree                 - purevat

NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)

NOTE 2: K stands for consonant, thus KK stands for two of the same consonant following after each other

Verbityyppi 2 - tehdä/ nähdä

with tehdä/nähdä, which belong to verbityyppi 2, the forms are built slightly differently. for one, the h disappears, and for two, the 3rd ps. singular/plural are in strong form (seeastevaihtelu), and they dotake the -V ending. other than that, though, they are conjugated like the rest of group 2 verbs

tehdä

1. teen             - teemme
   
2. teet              - teette
3. tekee           - tekevät

nähdä

1. näen            - näemme
   
2. näet             - näette
3. näkee          - näkevät

NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural) 

Verbityyppi 2

ends in -da/-dä, which is the infinitive marker; the infinitive marker disappears and instead the personal ending is added (see here)

example: 

syödä

1. syön        - syömme
   
2. syöt         - syötte
3. syö          - syövät

löydä

1. löyn         - löymme
   
2. löyt          - löytte
3. löy           - löyvät

saada

1. saan        - saamme
   
2. saat         - saatte
3. saa          - saavat

voida

1. voin         - voimme
   
2. voit          - voitte
3. voi           - voivat

NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)

NOTE 2: in this group of verbs, the ending -V is notadded to the 3rd ps. singular, except for in tehdäandnähdä, which are formed slightly differently than the rest (see here)

in Finnish, intonation doesn’t (necessarily) change when a sentence is a question from the way it is intonated when the sentence is a statement. Instead, Finnish has a small particle expressing uncertainty, a -ko/-kö suffix.

It is mainly used to mark a question as such,

(example: Voit auttaa minua - You can help me

                 Voitko auttaa minua - Can you help me?)

but can also be used to mark uncertainty in other sentences.

(example: Kysyin, voitko auttaa minua - I asked ifyou can help me; literally: I asked, can you help me?)

NOTE that if a question is asked with -ko/-kö you do notneed the personal pronoun in the 3rd person singular/plural in the reply, eg. Voivatko he auttaa minua? Voivat.

BUT if a question word (1,2,3,4) is used you doneed the 3rd person pronoun, eg. Miten se tarkoittaa? Setarkoittaa x

This post is less about the declination of aforementioned words and more for completion’s sake, so that the question words on my blog are completed.

Milloin - when

Minkä-x-inen- of which x

example: Minkävärinen: of which colour

Miten/Kuinka- how

NOTE: the answer to minkä-x-inen is always an adjective, as the question includes an adjective itself

(Kuka,mikä,kumpi)

Kumpi means which of both, and can be found in singular and plural. As with the other question words it can be declinated into almost all cases to fit the meaning of the sentence.

1. Kumpi - Kummat(Nominatiivi)
   
2. Kumman - Kumpien(Genetiivi)
   
3. Kumpaa - Kumpia(Partitiivi)
   
4. Kummassa - Kummissa (Inessiivi)
   
5. Kummasta - Kummista(Elatiivi)
   
6. Kumpaan - Kumpiin(Illatiivi)
   
7. Kummalla - Kummilla(Adessiivi)
   
8. Kummalta - Kummilta(Ablatiivi)
   
9. Kummalle - Kummille(Allatiivi)
   
10. Kumpana - Kumpina(Essiivi)
    
11. Kummaksi - Kummiksi(Translatiivi)
    

NOTE: I am not sure if there is also an Abessiivi or an Instruktiivi form of kumpi, please do tell!

NOTE 2: Kumpi shows the same flexion as the comparativeof adjectives!

NOTE 3: kumpi in singular is which of both when it is about singular concepts, and in plural forms when it is about concepts which include only two groups of things, but the group includes several. an example my finnish friend gave me:

kumpi hevonen? this- or this-   as opposed to   these- or these- - kummat hevoset?

(Kuka,mikä,other questions)