ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
2. For Finnish Teachers
3. Abbreviations and symbols in this book
4. Short index of the main Chapters of Lessons
Illustration: Index of the photos in this book
I WRITING AND READING
1.2 Vowels
1.3 Diphthongs
1.4 Vowel harmony
1.5 Consonants
1.6 A consonant sound, not shown in writing
1.7 Syllables
1.8 Shortening and prolonging habits in speech
2. MORE ABOUT THE HABITS IN SPEECH
2.2 How do you spell your name to a Finn?
2.3 Useful words for your pronouncing exercises
II INFLECTING NOUNS
1.2 We use case endings rather than prepositions
1.3 We use postpositions rather than prepositions
1.4 We add suffixes onto each other
2. GRADATION
2.2 The principal parts will show if it is a word that obeys a gradation
2.3 About stems for nouns
2.4 The types of gradation, strong and week
2.5 The types of syllables, open or closed
2.6 Vowel changes, at the beginning and at the end
3. THE FINNISH CASES CASE BY CASE
3.2 The purpose of the pattern tables
3.4 Two model phrases inflected in cases
3.5 There are several types of nouns that end in \
3.6 Inflection of nouns ending in a consonant
4. PRONOUNS AND POSSESSIVE SUFFIXES
4.3 Possessive pronouns and suffixes -  an important system
4.4 Possessive suffixes can occur without any pronouns
4.5 The pronouns itse, kumpikin and toinen
5. COMPARISON
III VERBS IN ACTIVE FINITE FORMS
2. TENSES - THE PRESENT TENSE
3. THREE PAST TENSE FORMS
4. THE PRINCIPAL PARTS OF VERBS
5. MOODS, THE WAY OF HAPPENING
5.2 The potential mood \
6. SUBJECTLESS AND MONOPERSONAL USE
7. FORMING QUESTIONS
7.2 Interrogatives and subordinated questions
8. NEGATIVE FORMS OF VERBS
8.2 Negation can be contained in conjunctions and suffixes
9. ACTIVE IMPERATIVE FORMS
9.2 The form of object together with command forms
IV VERBS IN PASSIVE FINITE FORMS
2. \
3. PASSIVE IMPERATIVE FORMS
V USING THE INFLECTED FORMS OF NOUNS
2. NOMINATIVE, GENITIVE AND PARTITIVE
2.3 Subjects in nominative or partitive
2.4 Three cases for objects
2.5 Three cases for predicate complements
2.6 Genitive plural endings
2.7 Genitive attributes in the genitive case
3. ESSIVE, ABESSIVE AND TRANSLATIVE
4. THE SIX LOCAL CASES
4.2 The six local cases in special use
5. COMITATIVE AND INSTRUCTIVE
5.2 Instructive, Case number 14,'by means of
6. MORE ABOUT THE FINNISH WORDS
6.2 Compound nouns
6.3 Model sentences where things are compared
6.4 More numerals and other useful words
6.5 About singular and plural forms with numerals
6.6 Politeness through pronouns, endings, phrases
6.7 About Finnish names and titles
VI THE NON-FINITE FORMS OF VERBS
1.2 Two forms of the 2nd infinitive
1.3 The 3rd infinitive M-mA-M is inflected in many cases
1.4 The 4th infinitive \
2. PRESENT AND PAST TENSE PARTICIPLES
3. THE AGENTIAL PARTICIPLE \
3.2 From the agential participle we get \
3.3 An \
3.4 Some nouns have the same ending \
An extra exercise: Can you read recipes in Finnish?
VII EXCERCISES WITH NOUNS AND VERBS
Exercise 2 - Prepositions and postpositions that require a certain case
Exercise 3 - Verbs that require a certain case
Exercise 4 - Verbs, listed with their principal parts. Two lists of verbs with six or seven principal parts
VIII EXERCISES WITH STORIES
2. Two first stories
3. About punctuation and commas
4. Four more stories
CLOSING WORDS
TABLES Nos. 1-5

Author: Heikura V.  

Tags: linguistics   finance  

ISBN: 978-952-67875-1-0

Year: 2013

Text
                    Lessons on Finnish Grammar
in English
Vuokko Heikura
Books
Lessons on Finnish Grammar in English Vuokko Heikon


Lessons on Finnish Grammar in English
Vuokko Heikura Lessons on Finnish Grammar in English "Oppitunteja suomen kieliopista englanniksi" Books
Lessons on Finnish Grammar in English 6th impr. edition 2013 Author: Vuokko Heikura Publisher: VEA Books, Helsinki © 2013 Vuokko Heikura All rights to text, photos and tables reserved by the author. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way, or translated in whole or in part without written permission of the author, except for brief excerpts for one's own use when learning or teaching Finnish. ISBN 978-952-67875-1-0 (sid.), hard covered Hansaprint Oy, Vantaa 2013
5 CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11 INTRODUCTION 12 1. For the Reader 12 2. For Finnish Teachers 15 3. Abbreviations and symbols in this book 16 4. Short index of the main Chapters of Lessons 17 Illustration: Index of the photos in this book 18 I WRITING AND READING 19 1. ALPHABET AND WORDS 19 1.1 One sound, one letter 19 1.2 Vowels 21 1.3 Diphthongs 23 1.4 Vowel harmony 25 1.5 Consonants 26 1.6 A consonant sound, not shown in writing 30 1.7 Syllables 33 1.8 Shortening and prolonging habits in speech 34 2. MORE ABOUT THE HABITS IN SPEECH 37 2.1 The normal word order and place of stress 37 2.2 How do you spell your name to a Finn? 38 2.3 Useful words for your pronouncing exercises 40 II INFLECTING NOUNS 43 1. GENERAL REMARKS 43 1.1 No articles, no gender 43 1.2 We use case endings rather than prepositions 43
6 1.3 We use postpositions rather than prepositions 45 1.4 We add suffixes onto each other 46 2. GRADATION 47 2.1 Gradation, concerning both nouns and verbs 47 2.2 The principal parts will show if it is a word that obeys a gradation 48 2.3 About stems for nouns 49 2.4 The types of gradation, strong and week 50 2.5 The types of syllables, open or closed 52 2.6 Vowel changes, at the beginning and at the end 54 3. THE FINNISH CASES CASE BY CASE 55 3.1 The number of Finnish cases 55 3.2 The purpose of the pattern tables 58 3.3 Talo ("'house') inflected in cases 60 3.4 Two model phrases inflected in cases 60 3.5 There are several types of nouns that end in "-i" 64 3.6 Inflection of nouns ending in a consonant 65 4. PRONOUNS AND POSSESSIVE SUFFIXES 67 4.1 The personal pronouns and kuka ("Who'?) inflected in cases 67 4.2 The personal pronouns se, ne ('it, they') and some others in demonstrative use 69 4.3 Possessive pronouns and suffixes - an important system 71 4.4 Possessive suffixes can occur without any pronouns 75 4.5 The pronouns itse, kumpikin and toinen 77 5. COMPARISON 79 III VERBS IN ACTIVE FINITE FORMS 83 1. FINITE, NON-FINITE-ACTIVE, PASSIVE 83
7 2. TENSES - THE PRESENT TENSE 86 3. THREE PAST TENSE FORMS 87 4. THE PRINCIPAL PARTS OF VERBS 89 5. MOODS, THE WAY OF HAPPENING 90 5.1 The indicative and the conditional moods, "-isi-" 90 5.2 The potential mood "-ne-" is less important 91 6. SUBJECTLESS AND MONOPERSONAL USE 92 7. FORMING QUESTIONS 95 7.1 A suffix "-kO" is used for questioning 95 7.2 Interrogatives and subordinated questions 96 7.3 A little conjunction vai ('or') is used in questions 98 8. NEGATIVE FORMS OF VERBS 99 8.1 A special negative verb is used 99 8.2 Negation can be contained in conjunctions and suffixes 100 9. ACTIVE IMPERATIVE FORMS 102 9.1 Positive and negative imperative forms 102 9.2 The form of object together with command forms 104 IV VERBS IN PASSIVE FINITE FORMS 107 1. PASSIVE MOODS AND TENSES 107 2. "ME" PASSIVE IN COLLOQUIAL USE 110 3. PASSIVE IMPERATIVE FORMS 112
8 V USING THE INFLECTED FORMS OF NOUNS 113 1. GENERAL REMARKS 113 2. NOMINATIVE, GENITIVE AND PARTITIVE 115 2.1 Subjects in nominative, and objects in genitive or partitive 115 2.2 Subjects in genitive, and objects in nominative or partitive (pitää, täytyy, pakko sentences) 117 2.3 Subjects in nominative or partitive 118 2.4 Three cases for objects 121 2.5 Three cases for predicate complements 123 2.6 Genitive plural endings 124 2.7 Genitive attributes in the genitive case 125 3. ESSIVE, ABESSIVE AND TRANSLATIVE 125 4. THE SIX LOCAL CASES 126 4.1 The local use of the six local cases 126 4.2 The six local cases in special use 128 5. COMITATIVE AND INSTRUCTIVE 131 5.1 Comitative, Case number 13,'in the company of 131 5.2 Instructive, Case number 14,'by means of 132 6. MORE ABOUT THE FINNISH WORDS 134 6.1 From shorter words to longer words; derivation 134 6.2 Compound nouns 138 6.3 Model sentences where things are compared 141 6.4 More numerals and other useful words 142 6.5 About singular and plural forms with numerals 145 6.6 Politeness through pronouns, endings, phrases 146 6.7 About Finnish names and titles 148
9 VI THE NON-FINITE FORMS OF VERBS 151 1. THE FOUR FINNISH INFINITIVES 151 1.1 Two forms of the 1st infinitive 151 a) The basic form of verbs, the shorter form "-A" 151 b) The longer form "-ksi" of the 1st infinitive instead of että ('that’) clauses - 154 1.2 Two forms of the 2nd infinitive 154 a) The 2nd infinitive ’’-essA" and other temporal constructions instead of kun ('when') clauses 154 b) The 2nd infinitive ”-en" instead of ja ("and’) clauses 156 1.3 The 3rd infinitive M-mA-M is inflected in many cases 157 1.4 The 4th infinitive "-minen" is a clear noun 158 2. PRESENT AND PAST TENSE PARTICIPLES 161 2.1 The active participles M-vA" and "-nUt" 161 a) The adjectival present tense participle "-vA" 161 b) The adjectival past tense participle "-nUt" 163 c) The use of participles for shortening of että ('that’) clauses 164 d) An "as though” ending "-vinA" + possessive suffix 166 2.2 The passive participles "-(t)tAvA" and "-(t)tU" 166 a) The passive present tense participle "-(t)tAvA" as an adjective 166 b) The passive present tense participle can express necessity 167 c) The passive past tense participle f’-(t)tU’’ as an adjective 168 d) The passive past tense participle instead of kun (’when’) clauses — 169 e) Constructions with tehtyä, tehdyksi, tehneeksi (’done1) 170 3. THE AGENTIAL PARTICIPLE "-MA" 171 3.1 It replaces a relative joka (“that, which') sentence 171
10 3.2 From the agential participle we get "-mAtOn" 172 3.3 An "almost" ending "-mAisillA" + possessive suffix 173 3.4 Some nouns have the same ending "-mA" 173 An extra exercise: Can you read recipes in Finnish? 174 VII EXCERCISES WITH NOUNS AND VERBS 175 Exercise 1 - Single nouns 175 Exercise 2 - Prepositions and postpositions that require a certain case 178 Exercise 3 - Verbs that require a certain case 179 Exercise 4 - Verbs, listed with their principal parts Two lists of verbs with six or seven principal parts 185 4.a) Finnish verbs in alphabetical order 187 4.b) Verb types, numbered according to Suomen kielen perussanakirja 189 VIII EXERCISES WITH STORIES 191 1. Review of terms and principles 191 2. Two first stories 192 3. About punctuation and commas 197 4. Four more stories 198 CLOSING WORDS 201 Tables nos. 1-5 (Index) 202 TABLES Nos. 1 - 5 203
11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When I started writing my first book about the Finnish language in English, 1 pretended to write a long letter to my foreign pen friend. In fact, I wrote to my own amusement, but also in the hope that I somehow possibly could contribute to the ways in which we Finns teach Finnish to foreigners. In February 2002, I luckily got a partner, Ms. Anna Maria Toivonen, MA, from Tampere, who volunteered to help me to develop my view of a grammar book further. On the basis of her many years of experience as a Finnish teacher, she delivered me useful comments and suggestions. 1 am still grateful for her editorial work during our co-operation, which already resulted in an improved issue of the book I had published in July 2001. She still helped me get a Finnish version of the book published in spring 2003, and let that again be translated further into Russian and published in autumn 2003. My thanks may also go to the several unnamed persons who helped me with the advice and encouragement. Among them I remember especially those who proofread my texts in English and in Finnish. However, they are no way responsible of the shortcomings that can be found in this book. They worked in different phases and remained innocent of what I finally issued. 1 am also grateful to the foreigners who were willing to test-read my first English manuscripts in winter and in spring 2001. You had come to Finland from Italy, China, Turkey, Canada, Brazil, the U.S.A., Japan and Finland- thank you for your contribution to the birth of this book, and for your wishes of success! Your interest and the good learning results that some of you have achieved, especially the young man from Turkey, fortified my belief that this kind of an overview on the Finnish grammar would be needed and would help many foreigners in Finland. I also remember with gratitude those who promised early in advance to buy my books, namely the representatives of Suomen 4H-liitto ry and Suomi- Seura-Finland Society ry. In Oct. 2001, the Association of Finnish nonfiction writers-Suomen tietokirjailijat ry, accepted my membership. In Dec. 2002, in the bulletin "Virke" of the Association of Finnish language teachers, there was a positive review on my book that was then called "Lessons in Finnish Grammar”. Thanks to Ms. Sari Päivärinne, MA! - And finally, thanks to my family members for their patience and support.
12 INTRODUCTION 1. For the Reader Is it true that Finnish is a difficult language? Finnish is a logical language, and therefore, it is not more difficult than languages in general. In some respects, it is an easy language. First of all, there is the absence of articles and gender. Furthermore, the rules of writing and pronunciation are easier than in many other languages, such as English, French and Russian. Foreigners are used to complain that all Finns they meet in Finland speak English to them. Some Finns themselves even say to them that it is not necessary for a foreigner to try to learn Finnish because it is "so difficult". That's a wrong attitude. That is why many foreigners who continue living in Finland, do not mind studying Finnish at all for many years. But it is sure that they would feel more at home here if they learn Finnish at least so much that they can understand most of the written and the spoken language, and know how to consult a dictionary to find the words' meanings in their own language. I suppose that many of the young trainers and exchange students who come to Finland for a short time will return to their home countries disappointed since they did not learn Finnish at all or learned only a few words. I cannot promise foreigners that they learn to speak Finnish just by reading this book. I only promise that readers will get a good overview of the language and a sound basis on which it is easier to continue. For those who have attended language courses or otherwise manage the basic grammar, I recommend that they supply the Finnish version of this book and read it in order to refresh their knowledge, and learn Finnish more and deeper. I wrote the first version of this book in English hoping that my text could be read as easily as a letter or a novel. You can read my books in your own way by skipping some sections if you want. But then you may miss a sentence that contains an important principle or explanation. It is, of course, possible that you don't find all the explanations here, even if you read carefully. Then you must study some traditional grammar or text books, as well as consulting dictionaries or asking a native Finn.
13 Readers of this book will first learn to master the Finnish endings or suffixes quite mechanically with the help of some model words and phrases. The more you know about the surprising regularity of endings that repeat themselves, the more you learn to guess the meanings and even produce Finnish words yourself. And please note that Finns understand your purpose. You must work hard in the beginning when learning to pronounce and remember words, and to recognise them in their different forms. First you may think that Finns have words of their own for almost everything. But gradually it becomes easier for you because Finnish words are "transparent" and build "families" as you will see when turning pages of your dictionary. Short words get a new meaning when some certain syllables are added either into the middle or to the end of them. You will first note the dissimilarities between Finnish and other modem languages, but as you learn more, you will see that there are many features in the system and the wordings that resemble the European way of thinking and speaking after all. It is partly a question of cultural loan words that we have got from our Indo-European neighbours during thousands of years. Some scientists do believe that the Indo-European and the Finno-Ugric languages have a common root. You will find information about the Finno- Ugric languages and people for instance at www.ugri.net, 1 hope that the Finnish language will begin to fascinate you. The written sources such as newspapers and books are useful, but of course it would be desirable that one who really wants to learn a new language can also start speaking it with natives. Most Finns are overjoyed when they note that a foreigner is willing to learn Finnish and is able to speak it a little already. The generally spoken form of Finnish is understood everywhere in the country: Thanks to the education system and the press, radio and TV, which have given us a model how to speak Finnish clearly and in a form that it does not differ too much from the written form. The background knowledge of the written language that you get here will not disturb but help you in your life among Finns. I will present you some features of the spoken language: For instance our habits of shortening and prolonging words, and how we are used to speak in the "me passive". We say me puhutaan instead of the literary form me puhumme, which means 'we speak'.
14 My way of presenting and explaining the Finnish grammar may differ a little from the traditional way of teaching Finnish in text books, but the basic content is as it is presented in Finnish grammars for Finns themselves. The main principles of the Finnish language are handled first. Finally, in the last Chapter VIII, there are some short stories which you should be able to read and understand with the help of a dictionary. When studying the stories, you can test yourself and see if you already master the principles of the grammar. The stories are authentic. I did not simplify them whatsoever. Naturally, you will find the task hard in the beginning, and you wish that you had a native Finn to help you when learning to pronounce words and understand sentences. I admit that you must be highly motivated. Perhaps you have a good school background if you are studying Finnish about this book alone. In any case you will need a good bilingual Finnish - English - Finnish dictionary. After having read all the Lessons of this book you should have reached the stage that you manage with the quite complicated but logical structure of the Finnish language. The more you continue reading new texts in Finnish, the more you will understand the special nature of this language. You will notice that any little thing that was mentioned about the Finnish language here was useful to know when you will encounter it in speech or in any text, for instance, in comic strips {sarjakuvat). It was my idea for this book that learners will search and find suitable texts for their further exercises in real life. If you are looking for "easy readers", you should ask for books in plain language {selkokieli) in a library. For instance, there is a nice issue of Kalevala available in plain language. You could find that book and more material written in plain language at these addresses: www.selko.fi and www.papunet.net/seIko. The Internet offers a lot of written and also spoken modem Finnish. In bookshops and libraries you can find literary books recorded on CD {äänikirja 'talking book'). Furthermore, I recommend that you should watch the Finnish TV because foreign languages are not dubbed. You will hear the original speech and can read the subtitles simultaneously. Finns do not desire dubbing. First of all, we assume that all adults can read, and secondly, dubbing would amuse us. Only children's' programs are spoken in Finnish.
15 In Finland you also have the opportunity to study Finnish by comparing the bilingual or multilingual texts which you see and reach everywhere. Suomi- Seura - Finnish Society ry, www.suomi-seura.fi, offers information and news from Finland to Finns living abroad. The Research Institute for the Languages of Finland or Kotimaisten kielten keskus, www.kotus.fi, knows “everything” about the Finnish language, and they also sell books. 2. For Finnish Teachers This book is the result of the learnings and thoughts about the Finnish language that I have brooded the years of my life. For my thoughts I have found the support especially from Kalevi Tarvainen's work Suomen kielen lauseenjäsennys dependenssikieliopin mukaan (Oulu University, 1977). Dependence grammar is a theory according to which the verb is the most important word in a sentence, the core of its content. Furthermore, I have based my courage for writing this kind of booklet on the guidelines issued in 1994 for the Finnish schools by the Board of Education in a book called Kieli ja sen kieliopit, opetuksen suuntaviivoja (Edita 1988, ISBN 951-37-1384-9). On page 231 of it, there was the writers’ wish expressed that they remain awaiting new forms of experimental grammars to appear for teaching Finnish as a foreign language. This book was not originally aimed to be used by a teacher who has to teach many foreign pupils in a classroom. I know that teachers are used to start speaking Finnish to their pupils from the very beginning, and that they must try to avoid offering "too much grammar". I had those "well educated" people in my mind who have a job and do it well without speaking Finnish at all. Perhaps they would like to learn Finnish but do not know whether they can find a time for attending Finnish language courses regularly. They would, of course, feel their living here more comfortable if they could at least understand the language they see and hear around them. I hope that that kind of immigrants will find this book of mine, and they start reading it alone or with a Finnish friend as a teacher. I regret the confusion caused by changing the title of the book and the titles of its Finnish and Russian versions, as well, during the past ten years almost every time when I issued a new one. I hope that this English version as issued hard covered will remain the final one in English.
16 3. Abbreviations and symbols in this book a, o, u, k, p, t Finnish alphabet letters are pointed out with boldface letters. talo 'house' Finnish model words, phrases and sentences are mostly written in italics. Translations follow within simple quotation marks. onpa [ompa] Pronounced forms of words are given within square brackets in the Finnish way and only to show, if there is something unusual. [anna' olla] The apostrophe [anna'] represents a little stop. (See Chapter I, 1.6) *tyt-tön The asterisk (*) shows that the form is unusable, ungrammatical. (minä) olen Words which can be dropped are put within parenthesis. Parenthesis can also be used for remarks and explanations. se /sitä A slash between words or suffixes shows the alternatives. kk - k A wavy line refers to the consonant gradation. (See Chapter II, 2.4) > A forward arrow (>) means "from this form we get this". < A backward arrow (<) means "this form originates from this". "-n", "-lie" Case endings or other suffixes or meaningful markers that always occur at the end of words in the same form, are pointed out this way with small boldface letters within quotation marks. A, O, U The three block letters A, O and U occur within the suffixes and represent two alternative case endings or other parts of the words to be chosen according to the vowel harmony (see Chapter I, 1.4). Thus A = a/ä [a, ä], O = o/ö [o, ö], U = u/y [u, y]. For instance, if a suffix is given "-ssA" the alternatives are -ssä and -ssä. For "-(t)tU" the alternatives are -tu/-ty and -ttu/-tty. V; VV Any vowel; two similar vowels (e.g. a, aa). A few times V = verb. C Any consonant. (For consonants, see Chapter I, 1.5). N Noun (substantive, adjective, pronoun or numeral). NP Noun phrase. Noun phrases contain nouns.
17 sg. Singular, the form used when speaking of one person or thing, pi. Plural, the form used when speaking of several persons or things, p.sg., p.pi. The first letter "p.” in these connections is to be read ’’person", poss. Possessive, showing possession or ownership, e.g. For example, for instance, (< exempli gratia), i.e. This is, that is, in other words, (< id est). 4. Short index of the main Chapters of Lessons Chapter Concerning Page I Writing and reading, (pronouncing) 19- II Inflecting nouns, 43- (the Finnish cases, quite mechanically at first) III Verbs in active finite forms, 83- (conjugating predicate verbs in active sentences) IV Verbs in passive finite forms, (passive sentences) 107- V Using the inflected nouns, 113- (nominative, genitive, partitive, etc. in use) VI The non-finite forms of verbs, 151- (the rich stock of infinitives and participles) VII Exercises with nouns and verbs, 175- (exercises with words for repeating the Lessons) VIII Exercises with stories 191-
18 CLOSING WORDS 201 THE TABLE SECTION Index of the Tables 202 Tables, Nos. 1, 2, 3,4 and 5 203- ILLUSTRATION In this book there are the following six pictures placed before the Chapters: No. Motif Aihe Place after Page & before Chapter No. Kuva 1 A road in Sotkamo Tie Sotkamossa 18 Chapter I Kuva 2 A cat walking Kissa kävelee 42 Chapter II Kuva 3 Haymaking Heinäntekoa 82 Chapter III Kuva 4 Finnish baseball Pesäpalloa 112 Chapter V Kuva 5 A summer house Kesämökki 150 Chapter VI Kuva 6 On skiing holiday Hiihtolomalla 174 Chapter VII Photo: O Vuokko Heikura
19 Chapter 1,1.1 I WRITING AND READING 1. ALPHABET AND WORDS 1.1 One sound, one letter Finns claim that Finnish is written as it is spoken. Every Finnish sound can be expressed with a letter in writing, and vice versa, every letter is a representation of a sound of its own. Therefore, the letter a is pronounced [a], o is [o], p is [p], s is [s], and so on. There are some exceptions of the main rule, and later you will learn which they are. The stress normally lies on the first vowel of every word, and on the first word of every sentence. The written words contain different letters in a line, and every letter has to be read and pronounced as it is. None of the letters normally remains unread. Short sounds are written with one letter, long sounds with two identical letters. Vowels and consonants are treated similarly short and long. Sounds like [a], [o], [p], [s], etc. are different sounds or phonemes, because changing them affects the meaning. The Finnish words kala 'fish', gal_a 'piece', paha 'bad', raha 'money' may be enough to show you how the meaning of a word changes wholly when one letter is replaced with another. Thus, the consonant letters k, p, 1, r and h represent different sounds. We write double letters (aa, kk), if we hear a vowel or a consonant last longer than a short sound. These three word pairs, pal_o 'fire' and paUo 'ball', pako 'escape' and pakko 'necessity', takka 'fireplace' and taakka 'burden', show that duration of sounds is also something that makes words different in meaning. Prolonging and shortening of sounds against the written form will most likely result in another word and in another meaning. A Finnish k is always [k], either it is short [k], as in koti 'home', laki 'law' and maksu 'payment', or long [kk] as in kokki 'cook' and kukko 'cock'. The Finnish k is pronounced as Englishmen pronounce c, k and ck in "cook", "cock", "can" and "key" (but without any aspiration or push). •D&A
Chapter 1,1.1 20 If you see one single consonant between two vowels (koti, laki, pah, pako), you must not prolong the consonant, or the vowels around it, either. If a word begins with one vowel, you must not prolong it either or make it a diphthong (two different vowels, more about them in point 1.3 below). In English you have diphthongs around the r in "area", ala in Finnish. Finns pronounce that word like the French "ä la". Alla with two l's means 'below'. Examples of other short Finnish words: ero 'difference', elin 'organ', osa 'part', ovi 'door', ulos 'out', ylös 'up', alas 'down', alias 'basin, sink', apu 'help, appi 'father-in-law' It is necessary for you to know how to pronounce the words, which you find in your dictionary- otherwise you will not be able to use them, or recognise them when you hear them. However, when you listen to Finns singing a song, you will note that every now and then some normally short vowels in a word sound long without any effect on the word's meaning. You must not let that kind of prolonging confuse you. When you read Finnish words, you must read carefully and remember every single letter. But isn't it so and still worse in other languages, as well, e.g. English and French? In those languages we must remember to write every letter, but we must not pronounce them all, and we must learn two forms for every word, the written form and the spoken form! The Finnish alphabet: A, a B, b C, c D, d E, e F, G, g H, h I, i •U K, k L, M, m N, n 0, o P, P Q, q R, S, s T, t U, u Y’v W, w x, Y, y Z, z Ä, ä Ä, ä Ö, ö Note: The amount of Finnish letters or alphabet is 29, when including also the foreign letters f, q, w, x, z and a. Please learn to keep the alphabetical order of letters well in mind.
21 Chapter I, 1.2 1.2 Vowels The Finnish vowels are eight: a, e, i, o, u, y, ä, ö. When the sounds presented with these letters are long, they are written with two letters: aa, ee, ii, oo, uu, yy, ää, öö. It is necessary to mark long sounds this way. The vowels are grouped in three groups, front middle back front, middle and back vowels, according y i u to the place where the tongue lays when ö e o the sounds are formed in the mouth. ä a (i) An i sounds like your i in "in" and "it". A long ii you have in "eat" and "be". Our i [i] is formed near the place where y is formed in the mouth, but with inactive and open lips: isi 'daddy', liikaa 'too much', viini 'wine', siipi 'wing', kiitos 'thank you, thanks', näkemiin 'goodbye' (e) You reach e, the other central vowel, when you lift your chin from the ä position. You have the Finnish e in "yet" and "said". We have it short in ei 'no', en '1 not' and et 'you not', and short and long in eteen 'to the front'. (a) The back vowels a, o and u are all formed near the throat as in these English words: "up", "on" and "look". In British English you have our long aa in "laugh". When pronouncing an a in Finnish short or long, you open your mouth and draw your tongue backwards: ahaa 'aha', aamu 'morning', namu 'sweetie', aasi 'donkey, ass', Assi (female name), Vaasa (a town), vasa 'reindeer fawn', laatu 'quality', latu 'ski track', maantie 'road' (ä) The front vowel ä is formed equally but with a resting tongue, as in your "act" and "cat", when you say these words: ässä 'ace', tämä 'this', tässä 'here', hän 'he, she', hätä 'anxiety', sää 'weather', ääni 'voice, sound, noise', lääni 'province', täällä 'here', väärä 'wrong'
Chapter I, 1.2 22 (ö) The front vowel ö you have prolonged in "her". We would write "höö" (or "höör") when we hear it. We write likööri 'liqueur', insinööri 'engineer'. (y) In "new" and "blue" you come close to the Finnish y that is the same as the German "u" in "uber alles". In Finnish we have words such as yli 'over' and yllä 'above'. (o), (u) When pronouncing the vowel pairs o - ö and u - y, we don't round our lips very visibly, but we move the kin and round the tongue moving it from back to the front. The long Finnish oo you have long in "ought" and "horse", and uu is such as in "loose". Try with these: ooppera 'opera', uusi 'new', kuuma 'hot', huuto 'shouting', tori 'market square', tosi 'true', köhä 'dry cough', yskä 'cough', usko 'faith', yksi 'one, olut 'beer', tulot 'income', puku 'dress', kyky 'ability', tyyny 'pillow', kuulo 'hearing', ei tule kuuloonkaan! 'it is out of the question' (u), (y) Note especially that in hyvä 'good' and hyvää päivää 'good day, hello' the y is pronounced short and stressed, with the upper lip inactive, because of the following v. Please avoid making either u or y sound like the Swedish sound, which is written with u. For example in "du", the meaning of which is 'you', the Swedish sound is a sound between the Finnish u and y. These are Finnish proper names with long vowels: Aatami, Kaarina, Saara, Aaro, Aatu, Jaakko, Kustaa, Taavetti, Marjaana, Eero, Eeva, Veera, Viivi, Iita, Iivari, Uuno, Liisa, Miikka, Riitta, Siiri, Tuula, Tuulikki, Tyyne, Lyyli These are verbs with long vowels: tuulee 'it's windy', (hän) tulee 'he/she/it comes / is coming', saapua rto arrive', saapuu '(he/it) is arriving', hiipii 'is tiptoeing', istuu 'is sitting', itkee 'is crying', huutaa 'is shouting', katuu 'is regretting', kaatuu 'is falling down', kiittää 'to thank, is thanking', saastuttaa 'is polluting', teeskentelee 'is pretending'
23 Chapter I, 1.3 1.3 Diphthongs After this training with short and long vowels, you can go on to combine them. Combinations of two different vowels within the same syllable in a word are called diphthongs. We have 17 diphthongs, and only some of them are similar to the English diphthongs, as we hear them. The first vowel of the Finnish combinations is stressed, and the latter vowel must also be heard clearly. Nothing is swallowed. This and the following page contain the Finnish diphthongs and some model words to them for your practising. You can add words with comparable sounds in other languages to the right, if you know some. ei hei, seis!, eilen, keino, Heinola, eteinen Engl, day hello, stop!, yesterday, means, Heinola, hall ie tie, mies, sielu, siellä, vielä, kiero, hieno Span, quiero road/way, man, soul, there, still/yet, crooked, fine eu Eurooppa, peukalo, leuka, reuna, seura, korkeus Europe, thumb, chin, edge/margin, company/society, height iu viulu, hiukan, niukka, tiukka, liukas violin, a little, scanty/short, tight/hard, slippery au auto, sauna, Paula, vaunut, varaus, palautus Engl, out car, sauna, Paula, wagon/waggon, reservation, returning ou Oulu, joulu, koulutus, soutaja, kokous Engl, low Oulu, Christmas, education, rower, meeting äy täysi, käytävä, käynti, näytös, hylkäys full, corridor, visit/walk, show/act, rejection öy pöytä, köyhä, löytö, löyly, nöyrä, höylä table, poor, find, steam in sauna, humble, plane ai aika, aikaisin, vain, maito, paita, salainen Engl, eye time, early, only, milk, shirt, secret äi päivä, näin, äiti, kesäisin, epäilemättä day, this way, mother, every summer, undoubtedly
Chapter I, 1.3 24 oi voi, oijoi!, oikein, soittaja, poika, koira Engl, boy butter/oh!, oh dear!, right, player, boy, dog öi öisin, töissä, söimme, löivät, epäröinti every night, at job, we ate, they hit/beat, hesitation ui uima-allas, puisto, huivi, kuitti, kuuluisa Engl. Louis swimming-pool, park, scarf, receipt, famous yi hyi!, hyinen, kysyi, syttyi, nykyinen, ärtyisä fie!, icy, he asked, it took fire, current, irritable uo Suomi, Puola, suola, tuolla, huono, ruoka Finland, Poland, salt, there, bad, food yö yö, työ, hyöty, pyörä, syöminen night, work/job, use/profit, wheel/bicycle, eating ey This 17th diphthong is very seldom. One example can be given here: leyhytellä ’to fan something (with Something). Now, please look once again at this set up and find 17 diphthongs there. With your finger you can draw lines from e to i (eileri), from e to u (euro), etc. Please note that for instance the combination eo is not among the diphthongs. front vowels mid vowels back vowels y i u ö e o ä a It would be most desirable now that you could ask a Finnish person to read the above listed words and many others for you. If you are studying alone, start by pronouncing both vowels in a diphthong separately and short, and thereafter bound together. Note: Even if I say that the vowels in a diphthong belong to one and the same syllable, you will see that sometimes in a long word, a diphthong like au and äy has been broken and syllabified.
25 Chapter I, 1.4 1.4 Vowel harmony The Finnish vowel harmony is a phenomenon which comes from the fact that there are those three back and three front vowels, and that originally Finnish words cannot contain both of them simultaneously. Thus, in speech a word like olympialaiset 'the Olympic games' easily becomes "olumpia- laiset". If you look again at the list of diphthongs, you see that there are these vowel pairs according to vowel harmony: au - äy, ou - öy, uo - yö, ai - äi, oi - öi, ui - yi The middle vowels e and i can occur in a word together with front or back vowels simultaneously. If there is the diphthong ei or ie in the first syllable, the latter syllables mostly contain front vowels only. This means that the last syllables or endings in a word cannot contain but vowels ä, ö and y, and possibly also vowels e and i, if the word began with a front vowel. Sieni is a word with front vowels (etuvokaalinen sana). Therefore, we pick (poimimme) sieniä 'mushrooms'. Please remember that kieli 'language, tongue', a word that you will account often, is such a word, too: opiskella suomen kieltä to study Finnish', suomen kielellä 'in Finnish', vieraita kieliä 'foreign languages', suomenkielisiä kirjoja 'Finnish books'. Other words with front vowels: seinä 'wall', lievä 'slight, mild', viljelijä 'farmer', kiire [e'] 'hurry, rush', peili 'mirror', hiiri 'mouse', leiri 'camp'. Words with back vowels (because there is a back vowel in the basic form): leima 'stamp', keino 'means', sielu 'soul, spirit', tieto 'knowledge'. You may have been wondering what the capital letters A, O and U are for in this book. They are used by me just because of the vowel harmony and in order to save space, for instance, by writing "-11A" in stead of "-llä or -llä". This way of showing that a Finnish case ending or suffix has two alternatives in use, is a linquistic custom on the university level. If the first vowel is a back vowel a, o or u, the syllables following after it cannot contain any of the front vowels ä, ö or y. This way it goes: aamulla 'in the morning', päivällä 'by day', tuolla 'there', täällä 'here', tässä 'here'. V&A
Chapter I, 1.4, 1.5 26 If a word seems to break the vowel harmony, it obviously is a compound word. Examples of such compound nouns: aamupäivä 'forenoon', built from aamu 'morning' and päivä 'day'; yliopisto 'university', built from yli 'upper, over' and opisto 'institute, school'; hätätapaus 'emergency', määräaika 'deadline', tilapäisesti 'temporarily'. If a compound noun happens to get similar vowels in the "seam", it is necessary to put a hyphen (-) between to show that the vowels must not be read long together but with a stop between them. Example words: pinta-ala 'area', built from pinta 'surface' and ala 'area'; koti-ikävä 'homesickness', ala-arvoinen 'inferior', loma-asunto 'holiday home', aamu-uninen 'late riser', esi-isä 'forefather, ancestor', ulko-ovi 'front door'. - We shall revert to different compounds in Chapter V, 6.2. 1.5 Consonants The (short) Finnish consonants are d, g, h, j, k, 1, m, n, p, r, s, t and v. These 13 consonant letters are pronounced and called by name as follows: [dee, gee, hoo, jii, koo, äl, äm, än, pee, är, äs, tee, vee] In addition, we have two consonant sounds that haven't got a letter of their own, namely an “äng” sound [T|] and a light glottal sound [']. The "äng" sound is written with n that is found before k and g. That sound is found also in English words like "link" [lirjk] and "king". The word-final ['] sound is not marked at all in writing. I'm saving it to point 1.6, and shall handle first the exceptional pronunciation of n and some other consonants. Under this point you will learn more about the pronunciation of k, p, t and v in comparision with g, b, d and f. Thereafter, we still have to handle j and v in certain combinations where the pronunciation differs from the writing. Sometimes we write n but pronounce it as m. In some words namely the written combination np sounds like mp [mp]. This finesse does not serve any special attention from you or anybody because the change happens automatically in your mouth.
27 Chapter I, 1.5 The next list will contain consonants which are pronounced in a special way when the Finnish language is concerned: (nk), (ng) The written combinations nk and ng occur only in the middle of Finnish words, and even then only between vowels. Helsinki [helsitjki] is a good word. When inflected in the genitive case, it becomes Helsingin [helsiT|r|in], Helsingin kaupunki 'the city of Helsinki'. The combination ng is pronounced [r|T|], i.e. as a prolonged, double "-äng-" sound. [r|T|] The "-äng-" sound [t|] occurs long in such words which have the consonant combination nk in their basic form. When such a word is used in some of its inflected or conjugated forms, there happens a change from nk to ng. Kenkä [kerjkä] 'shoe' reads kengän [keT|T|än] in the genitive case, and the meaning of kengässä [keT|T|ässä] is 'in a/the shoe'. In genuine Finnish words the letter g is found in this combination ng [T|T|], only. (gn) In a few loan words, for instance in magneetti 'magnet', signaali 'signal', the combination gn is pronounced as [r|n] (but not written "ngn"). (np) A written letter n can be pronounced as m [m] when it occurs before p. Thus, onpa (= on 'is' + a confirming particle "-pA") is pronounced [ompa]. Otherwise, the combination mp is very common in Finnish, for instance kampa 'comb', lampi 'pond'. Ompi is a poetic word meaning 'it is'. (mm) If we say two separate words quickly after each others, and the first one ends in n, and the other begins with m, then the n assimilates to m in speech, for instance en minä [emminä] 'I not'. Assimilation with the next following sound happens also to the ligt glottal sound that was mentioned before. The phenomenon is comparable with the vowel harmony. Both features are useful as they make the pronunciation easier with a minimal effort. In Chapter II, point 3.6, something special will be mentioned about the word sydän 'heart'. An m arises in its inflected forms but is pronounced like mm. Finns are not used to keep k, p and t apart from the corresponding voiced sounds g, b and d because those oppositions are not important in Finnish.
Chapter I, 1.5 28 Therefore the Finnish "hard" consonants k, p and t may sound like [g, b, d] to you. You must not feel sorry, if a Finn does not or does not care to pronounce your name properly, if it contains a g, b or d. Finns do not take the differences between k and g, p and b, t and d seriously. In speech a word like bussi 'bus' becomes [pussi] even if pussi is 'bag'. From some ancient neighbours we have got "bank" in the form of pankki, and "gold" in the form of kulta 'gold, darling'. Penkki is the same word as the English 'bench, seat', pallo is 'ball', and kaasu is 'gas'. Genuine Finnish words do not contain the letters b, f or g, nor their corresponding sounds. Therefore we know that baari 'bar', geeni 'gene', faarao 'pharaoh\ filmi 'film', firma 'enterprise' and digitaalinen 'digital' are new words, because they include these sounds. Firma can be heard [virma]. The letter d is found in the middle of Finnish words, only, namely between vowels or in certain combinations together with a consonant. Genuine Finnish words never begin with a d or end in a d, and not in b, f or g, either. The letter and sound d replaces t when a consonant, for instance, the genitive case ending "-n" is added. Examples where a t in the middle of the word changes to d when the word is inflected in genitive: aito 'genuine, native' > aidon; täti 'aunt ' > tädin; tähti 'star' > tähden', kehto 'cradle' > kehdon; maito'milk'> maidon; katu 'street' > kadun Incidentally, it happens to be that kadun can also be a form of katua 'to be sorry, repent", minä kadun sitä 'I regret it'. The phenomenon that makes certain consonant pairs like t and d alternate, is called astevaihtelu, in English "gradation". You will learn to master the consonant changes or gradation in a separate point a little later, Chapter II, point 2. It is useful for you to know that in careless speech Finns tend to avoid the sound of d, drop it or replace it with another consonant. Most of the Finnish regional dialects do not use d in speech, but dodge it somehow. Äidin 'mother's' can be heard pronounced [äitin], meidän 'our, ours' [meiän], [meijjän], tehdään 'it is made / let's do (it)' [tehhään]. My examples originate from the district of Savo (Kuopio).
29 Chapter 1,1.5 The use of the letter d in writing has been a compromise once assumed between usages of the people. Forms pronounced without d are dialectal or colloquial, not usable everywhere and in writing. On this point the individual persons have many ways of speaking. 1, of course, recommend the literary forms with d to be used by a foreign learner. Genuine Finnish words never begin with a group of consonants. Words like blokki 'block', strategia 'strategy' and kriittinen 'critical' are new words. Many modem words are very old loans, even if they look fully Finnish: rata 'railway road, line' (strada in Italian), Ranska 'France', koulu 'school', Iasi 'glass' and Tukholma 'Stockholm'. You will understand and memorise many Finnish words better, if you can see a Latin, Swedish or German word behind them. Some Finnish words are of Russian origin, but we cannot recognise them as such, if we don't know Russian. You only need to bring a foreign consonant or a group of consonants back to the beginning of a modem Finnish word, and drop a word-final vowel "-i", "-a" or "-u" away, to understand that, for instance, ranta 'strand, shore' must be a very old word that the ancient Finns have assumed in a simplified form from their ancient neighbours. We have one s sound, only, and it is rather sharp. (s) The Finnish s, for instance in sairas 'sick' sounds like s in the English word "sick", but in your ear the Finnish s may sound like the English s in "she". The different s sounds in many other languages cause difficulties to Finns when trying to leam to speak foreign languages well. For instance, 'check' was loaned as shekki, but later it became allowed to write and read sekki. A similar word is shokki. Nowadays it is sokki 'shock'. Instead of sh [äshoo], you will sometimes see s [hattuässä]. We are eager to simplify the foreign words we are taking in use. Such a lovely word was kontti 'knapsack, made of birch-bark', with which we soon replaced "containers" in the field of marine traffic. (j) Our j [j] is formed with a curved tongue, as in "you" and "usual" in English. Finnish words: ja 'and\jo 'alreadyjoulu 'yule, Christmas', juhlat 'celebrations, party', jyvä 'grain', haju 'smell, odour', laaja 'wide'.
Chapter I, 1.5, 1.6 30 (v) The Finnish v is formed with teeth lightly against the lower lip. You can train it with these words: verbi 'verb', valo 'light', vain 'only', lava 'platform, stage', kiva 'cool, cute', hyvä 'good'. The letters j and v are pronounced long or double after some diphthongs. The letter j is double [jj] in combination ij: leijona 'lion', armeija 'army', Toijala, and girl's names Maija, Seija, Tuija. A single v is heard double [vv] in combination uv: vauva 'baby', sauvakävely 'Nordic walking' (with sticks), rouva 'Mrs.', Kouvola (a town), neuvo 'advice' and neuvonta 'guidance'. - In colloquial use you can hear a v sound between u and a in lauantai 'Saturday', but in writing there is no v. 1.6 A consonant sound, not shown in writing Among the consonants there is a glottal sound ['] which is not shown in writing. This sound is formed in the throat and can be explained to be only a little stop. It is part of native pronunciation, even if opinions of its intensity may differ. However, this sound gives a backbone to the language. Without it, for instance, commands are no commands, but perhaps completely other words. It is a real sound, a linguistic phoneme, because it is capable to differentiate words, and change their meanings. I have chosen to present this sound ('] to you as a consonant among consonants, and call it "loppuhenkonen" in Finnish. Examples: A girl's name Anna is pronounced [anna], but if we are aimed to command somebody to give us something, we use the verb antaa 'to give' and say anna! [anna']. Tee is 'tea', but tee, tee se! [tee', teesse] 'do it' is a command form from the verb tehdä 'to do, make'. In advertisements you may see: Voita matka [voita' matka] 'take a jumey as a prize'. In that command the verb is voittaa 'to win', but in a question otatko voita? 'do you take (some) butter', there is the noun voi 'butter' in the partitive case. The glottal consonant appears in speech at the end of certain words and grammatical forms, and it becomes more real as soon as it assimilates itself with an immediately following consonant. •»6-4
31 Chapter I, 1.6 The glottal sound, not shown in writing, is also called jäännöslopuke, the meaning of which is 'a remainder of something'. Other names are loppukahdennus 'word-final doubling' and loppuhenkonen 'word-final aspiration'. There are different historical reasons for its existence in speech. In ancient times there was a real consonant at the places where it still appears like a phantom. The appearance of this sound is a living phenomenon, and we can test it if it appears there as soon as we drop a word-final consonant. For instance milloin 'when' can be pronounced as short as [millo']. Milloin sinä tulet? [millo' sä tuut] or [millossä tuut] 'when are you coming'? Doubling of the consonants k, p, h to [kk, pp, hh] is clearly heard, if there is a modifying particle ("-kin", "-kAAn", "-pA", "-hAn" or "-kO") added to certain words and grammatical forms where the glottal sound appears. With them the little stop ['] may not be enough as an advice. When practising with the model phrases you can try to produce the glottal sound in two ways, and choose the one which is easier for you: first a little stop ['] between the words, and then a doubling of the following consonant. The little stop is there, even if a vowel follows. If you try to learn Finnish mainly from literal sources, you need a list of places where this sound occurs. The list below is quite a complete presentation of the events. You need not learn all of this finesse at the very beginning, but as noted, it is an essential part of native pronunciation. You can revert to this list later, after having learned more especially about the verbal conjugation. The little stop |'|, or alternatively an assimilation, appears on the following places before a consonant, and also before a vowel: 1) After commands of the 2nd person sg. (which end in a short vowel) Anna olla! Anna sen olla! Mene pois! Tule tänne! Tervetuloa! Ole hvvä! [anna' olla] [anna' sen olla] [mene' pois] [tule' tänne] [terve* tuloa] [ole' hyvä] Let it be!, never mind Let it be, please leave it! Go away! Come here! Welcome! "Be good!", please, here you have it
Chapter I, 1.6 32 At the end of certain negative forms of verbs 2) En mene pois. Hän ei ole vielä tullut. Älä tule tänne! Älkää olko huolissanne! Minä en aio tulla. [en mene' pois] [ei ole’ vielä tullut] [älä tule’ tänne] [älkää olko' huolissanne] [minä en aio' tulla] 1 don't go away He/she hasn't come yet Do not come here! Don't worry! I am not coming 3) At the end of the 1st infinitive or basic forms of verbs, such as olla 'to be'. haluta 'to wish. want'. saada fto get1 Ollako vai eikö olla? [ollakko vai eikö olla(')] Haluatko ostaa sen? [haluatko ostaa' sen] Minun pitää mennä kotiin, [mennä' kotiin] En enää halua saada sitä, [halua' saada' sitä] 4) To be or not to be? Do you wish to buy it? I must go home I don't want to get it any more After every noun that ends in "-e" and prolongs this ft-eft in genitive sg.. e.g. terve. terveen Tervetuloa! taideteos taiteovi tiedemies lieveilmiö liikekumppani tuote-esittelv kone käy [terve' tuloa] [taide' teos] [taite' ovi] [tiede' mies] [lieve' ilmiö] [liike' kumppani] [tuote' esittely] [kone' käy] Welcome! work of art folding door scientist side effect, by-product business partner demonstration a machine is working 5) After some adverbs that end in ft-eft (connected with places) tännekö? taaksepäin luoksepääsemätön [tännekkö] [taakseppäin] [ luokseppääsemätön] 6) After the allative case ending "-lie" tytöllekin Meille tulee vieraita, toiselle puolelle katua [tytöllekkin] [meille' tulee vieraita] [toiselle' puolelle' katua] to here? backwards inaccessible also to the girl we shall have guests to the other side of the street 7) After "-isi-". the marker of the conditional mood of verbs En menisi pois. [en menisi' pois] I wouldn't go away
33 Chapter I, 1.6, 1.7 Jos hän olisi ollut siellä., [olisi* ollut siellä] if he/she had been there Jospa hän tulisikin! [j0SPa hän tulisikkin] if only he would come 8) After the possessive suffix ending "-nsA" of 3rd person sg. and pi. hänen/heidän lapsensakin [hänen/heidän lapsensakkin] also their child/children alansa paras asiantuntija [alansa1 paras asiantuntija] the best expert within his/her field 9) After adverbs ending in "-sti" and "-tse" Tuo oli kivasti tehty! [tuo oli kivasti’ tehty] That was nicely done puhelimitse, postitse by phone, by mail 1.7 Syllables Words and syllables begin with a short or a long vowel or with a diphthong or with a consonant. A genuine Finnish word never begins with more than one consonant. Every syllable begins with one consonant, if it does not begin with a vowel. All kind of combinations of vowels can occur in Finnish words. Short sounds are written with one letter, long sounds with two similar letters. These could be and are Finnish words in their basic or inflected or conjugated forms, divided into syllables here: a-la area ta-ka back al-la below tak-ka fireplace a-laa (partitive) area ta-kan (genitive) fireplace a-las down ta-kaa from behind au-la hall taak-ka burden lau-laa to sing taak-kaa (partitive) burden lau-loi he/she sang tiuk-kaan tightly /1 press Double consonants are divided to syllables in the middle of them. If some successive vowels do not form a diphthong, they belong to different syllables. (See again the list of diphthongs in point 1.3.) In lau-an-tai 'Saturday' we divide between au and a, because ua is not a diphthong. Sanoa 'to say' is divided sa-no-a, and makeasti 'sweetly' is divided ma-ke- as-ti because oa and ea are no diphthongs. If there is a combination of several consonants in the middle of a word, the last of them belongs to the next syllable, e.g. al-ku 'beginning', palk-ki-o 'fee', tent-ti 'examination', tors-tai 'Thursday', myrs-ky 'storm'. V&A
Chapter I, 1.7, 1.8 34 Similarly, a single consonant between vowels always belongs to the next syllable, this way: ra-has-ta-ja 'conductor', saa-pu-mi-nen 'arrival'. Note: It is useful to know how Finnish words are divided into syllables in general. When you encounter a very long Finnish word you should divide it into syllables, pronounce them step by step and then draw together. This skill will help you to understand and remember new words better. Compound nouns can be problematic, if the first part happens to end in a consonant s and you don't note it at first sight, e.g. o-do-tus-ai-ka 'waiting time, pregnancy'. - Compounds are handled in Chapter V, point 6.2. 1.8 Shortening and prolonging habits in speech Colloquially shortened and prolonged forms are heard in commonly spoken language, but it is not a "must" to use them to show that you "know" Finnish. They are not used in writing, except for instance in private letters. A foreign learner should master the literary forms first. Therefore, this book concentrates on teaching the literary form of modem standard Finnish. However, it is useful for you to know something about the normal speech so you need not to be surprised when you hear how people talk. Shortening of words in speech is a normal tendency. In Finnish, for instance, the vowels i and some word-final consonants and vowels tend to fall away. Gradually, you will assume more and more of those forms you hear, but if you start using colloquial or dialectal forms too early, the natives you meet believe that you know Finnish more than you actually know. In addition, about your efforts to use colloquial language, a native will hear where in Finland you did learn your Finnish, and - note this! - a native may doubt your ability to read and write Finnish, if you speak very colloquially and he or she knows that you did not arrive here as a child. Practically, all adult Finns can read and write their language. Note: This was meant as a warning and as an advice to read books and newspapers, and listen to Finns who pronounce Finnish clearly. The newscasters on the radio and TV speak a clear standard language that people understand in the whole country. ve**
35 Chapter I, 1.8 It is always correct to speak Finnish as completely as it is written. Young people may consider that the use of the standard or literal language is hyper correct, but don't mind! Later, when you are seeking for a job, it is a merit for you if you speak Finnish like an educated person. The Finnish habit of shortening the words results in a lot of monosyllable words, especially pronouns: Literarv forms Shortened forms in informal conversation minä [mä] I sinä [sä] you minun [mun] my, mine sinun [sun] your, yours minua [mua] me sinua [sua] you minut [mut] me sinut [sut] you minulla on [mulla on, mullon] I have sinulla on [sulia on, sullon] you have ei ole [ei oo, eijjoo] (it) is/has not ei tule [ei tuu] (it) does not come tämä [tää] this nämä [nää] these minut [mut] me mutta [mut] but tuossa [tossa] there (place where) paljon [paljo'] much of milloin [millon, millo'] when (time) silloin [siilon, siilo'] then (time) sitten [sitte', sit] then, thereafter punainen [punane(n)] red kuin [kun, kui', ku'] such as (comparing) In addition in speech, we are used to drop the second component of some two-vowel combinations and pronounce the first vowel long. Such a simplifying process of vowel combinations mostly happens in the second-last syllable of a word, but the first syllable can also be concerned. 1
Chapter I, 1.8 36 At the end of a word the simplifying process of the two-vowel combinations mostly happens in speech to these four combinations, which are not found among the diphthongs: oa, ea, ua and ia and their frontal counterparts öä, eä, yä, iä according to the vowel harmony. When the prolonging happens in the first syllable the vowel combination in question can be one of the diphthongs uo, yö or ie. - Here you could repeat the diphthongs which were handled in point 1.3 of this Chapter I. Prolonging of vowel combinations in the second-last syllable: 1) oa, öä > [oo], [öö] (formula:) 0-A>00 Sanoa 'to say' becomes [sanoo], even if sanoo is the same as the 3rd p.sg. form (sanoo = hän sanoo 'he says'). Maitoa 'milk' ( maito 'milk' in partitive) becomes [maitoo]. 2) ua, yä: > [uuj, [yy] (formula:) U-A > UU Minä haluan 'I want/wish' becomes [mä haluun]. Minä en halua ‘I don't want/wish (it)' becomes [mä en haluu]. Näkyä 'to be seen, appear' (the basic verb form) becomes [näkyy], similar to the 3rd p.sg. (minä näyn, sinä näyt, hän/se näkvv). 3) ea, eä > [ee] (formula:) E-A > EE Instead of makeasti 'sweetly' you hear [makeesti]. Hirveä 'terrible' becomes [hirvee], kipeä 'ill, sick' becomes [kipee]. 4) ia, iä > [ii] (formula:) i-A > ii "Aprillii! Syö sillii!" This can be heard on the first day of April. Aprillia/aprillia, silliä ‘hedgehog’ would be the standard forms. Prolonging of vowel combinations in the first syllable: 5) uo > [uu], yö > [yy], ie > [ii] (formula) UO > UU and ie > ii juoda [juua'] 'to drink', syödä [syyä'] 'to eat', viedä [vii(jj)ä'] 'to take, lead, export', tiedä! [tiiä'] (command form of tietää 'to know') ve**
37 Chapter I, 1.8, 2.1 When the prolonging of uo, yö and i happens in the first syllable, the word generally is a verb where the said combinations are followed by a d in the second syllable. That d is usually disappears in speech. As I have noted already, people tend to avoid d, and this is one of the places where it happens. We also write kahdeksan (8), yhdeksän (9), but we are used to say [kaheksan], [yheksän]. And the genitive form of the word äiti 'mother' is mostly heard with t [äitin], not with d [äidin] as we write it. 2. MORE ABOUT THE HABITS IN SPEECH 2.1 The normal word order and place of stress You always know how to stress a Finnish word because the main stress lies on the first syllable. The third and the fifth syllables get a minor stress, e.g. Väi-nä-möi-nen (the main hero of Kalevala), tu-le-vai-suus 'future'. The very common suffix"-IAinen" always gets a strong side-stress: hel-sin-ki- läi-nen 'a resident of Helsinki', paik-ka-kun-ta-lai-nen 'local resident'. When reading sentences or clauses in a Finnish text you can always assume that the first word and exactly the first syllable of it is stressed. Note: The word sentence {lause) is mostly used for a full thought that in writing ends in a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark. Sentences contain phrases {fraasi, lauseke) which contain adjectives and substantives ('nouns' in English) that can be inflected in cases as a group. Normally the Finnish word order is the same as in English and other European languages (namely SVOA = subject + verb + object + a statement of time, place or manner), but in Finnish the order can be changed much more freely than in English. The rather free word order is in Finnish needed especially for forming questions with the help of a certain question suffix "-kO" (= -ko/-kö). That is why we must be able to begin a sentence with almost any word or phrase. Also interrogative sentences begin with a stressed word as sentences normally begin. That stressed word can be either an interrogative conjunction like miksi 'why' or any word ending in the suffix "-kO".
38 Chapter I, 2.1, 2.2 In many other languages questions are formed by converting the order of subject and predicate, and by emphasizing the tone towards the end of the sentence. In Finnish a mere converted word order does not mean a question. - In Chapter III, point 7, you will learn more about forming questions in Finnish. In Finnish the end of the sentence is the second important place where an emphatic word or a surprise moment of the message, even the subject of the sentence, can be placed without any emphasis or tone raising. The possibility of varying the word order is one of the manners, in which we compensate for the lack of definite and indefinite articles. Minä teen sen huomenna. 1 shall do it tomorrow Huomenna minä teen sen. Tomorrow 1 shall do it Sen minä teen huomenna. It 1 shall do tomorrow Teen minä sen huomenna. Do shall 1 it tomorrow Note: The translations from Finnish into English only try to imitate the Finnish word order. 2.2 How do you spell your name to a Finn? It is useful for a foreigner to know how to spell his or her own name in Finnish. Finns have difficulties in catching the letters, if they are pronounced to them in English. A misunderstanding and a confusion can happen. When somebody asks you to spell your name, perhaps you hear questions such as these: Miten se kirjoitetaan? Voisitteko / voisitko luetella kirjaimet? how do you spell it, would you please spell it out (list the letters)? You could prepare yourself for this task, to spell your name to a Finn. Please choose in advance some of the most common international or Finnish proper nouns that you happen to know, and use the first capital letters of them when you have to spell your name to a Finn. Do not use the English names of the letters in that situation.
39 Chapter I, 2.2 If your name is e.g. Arthur, you could spell it to a Finn letter by letter in Finnish as follows (niin kuin 'as in, like'): A [aa] niin kuin Aatami (= Adam) r [är] niin kuin Rooma (= Rome) t [tee] niin kuin Turku h [hoo] niin kuin Helsinki u [uu] niinkuin U.S.A. r [är] niin kuin Rooma (= Rome) Most of the case endings begin with a consonant. When a foreign name or a quoted loan word ends in a consonant we need to use the vowel i as a binding vowel so that Finnish case endings can be added. We have many old loan words such as posti 'post (office), mail', which carry an "-i" as their permanent word-final vowel. Therefore, if your name is Arthur it sounds like [artturi] and if you are Siv. it sounds like Sivi [sivi] when your name is used in Finnish, e.g. Artturille 'to Arthur', Sivin kanssa 'with Siv'. If your name is e.g. Tom, you can inflect it in Finnish cases and say Tomin in genitive sg., Tomia in partitive sg., etc., and also you can write so. Sometimes we use an apostrophe (') to show that the i does not belong to the name. Apostrophes (') are used when a Finnish case ending is added after a silent consonant of some foreign names. If we have to say "to Glasgow" in Finnish and we want that the diphthong ou of proper pronunciation is heard, we can put an apostrophe before the case ending and write Glasgow'hun 'to Glasgow', Glasgow'ssa 'in Glasgow'. - But, in my opinion, it must be allowed to write and read also "Glasgowiin", "Glasgowissa". The verb tavata 'to spell', tavaan 'I spell' is actually used only when we mean the usage of listing letters and syllables (tavu 'syllable') using the old method with which Finnish children have learned to read: the reading process begins from letters and proceeds to syllables one after another until the last syllable is cleared. Then we go back to the beginning and read the word as a whole, this way: "aa-uu-au, tee-oo-to, auto". It would be quite amusing to hear the verb tavata used in Finnish when somebody is asked to tell (spell) his name: "Voisitteko tavata nimenne?" V&A
40 Chapter I, 2.2, 2.3 Now let's repeat the letters in their alphabetical order in handwriting style: A a Bb Co Dd Et Ff G g tik li Jj KL Li M M N K 0* Pp R t Tt U a, V< Ä & Ö« The foreign letters q, w, x, z and ä were omitted above. The whole list was presented under the point 1.1. You'll need it when consulting a dictionary. 2.3 Useful words for your pronouncing exercises The shortest Finnish words consist of two letters and they are such as ja 'and’, ei ’no’, on ’it is’, me ’we’ and^ö ’night’. Also the type of one consonant followed by two similar vowels (= long vowel sound) or a diphthong exists. The following is a list of short words, useful to know, easy to pronounce and inflect in cases. The list begins with maa ’land’, which is a model word in Table 1 at the end of this book. Many nouns are inflected like maa. maa land, country luu bone jää ice muu something else, other pää head puu tree, wood kyy viper (a reptile) kuu moon, month syy reason suu mouth sää weather tee, teen, teetä tea pyy hazal-grouse (a bird) tie, tiet, teiden road, way pii pi (maths.), silicon vyö, vyöt, vöiden belt jaa yes (by voting only) häät, häiden wedding (a plural word) Numerals (numerot) Months (kuukaudet) 1 yksi tammikuu January 2 kaksi helmikuu February 3 kolme maaliskuu March 4 neljä huhtikuu April 5 viisi toukokuu May 6 kuusi kesäkuu June
41 Chapter I, 2.3 7 seitsemän heinäkuu July 8 kahdeksan elokuu August 9 yhdeksän syyskuu September 10 kymmenen lokakuu October 11 yksitoista marraskuu November 12 kaksitoista joulukuu December 13 kolmetoista itsenäisyyspäivä Independence Day 14 neljätoista joulu Christmas 15 viisitoista uusivuosi New Year 16 kuusitoista pääsiäinen Easter 17 seitsemäntoista vappu May Day 18 kahdeksantoista juhannus Midsummer 19 yhdeksäntoista juhlat celebrations 20 kaksikymmentä avajaiset opening ceremony 21 kaksikymmentäyksi ristiäiset christening ceremony 30 kolmekymmentä hautajaiset funeral The end part of all months is kuu 'moon', but here it can also be a shortening of kuukausi (= kuu + kausi) 'moon period'. The following presentation of colloquial forms of numerals is given here for your passive knowledge until now, but the list will be useful for you. The numerals that end in "-i" (1, 2, 5, 6) drop that vowel in speech: [ yks, kaks, kolme, neljä, viis, kuus, ykstoist, kakstoist, kakskyt ] When counting quickly, the numerals up to 16 are listed shorter: [ yy, kaa, koo, nee, vii, kuu, seittemä(n), kaheksa(n), yheksä(n), kymmene(n), yytoi, kaatoi, kolm(e)toist / koltoi, neltoi, viitoi, kuutoi] The numbers from one to six, and ten, and hundred, are called by names as follows: ykkönen (1), kakkonen (2), kolmonen (3), nelonen (4), viitonen (5), kuutonen (6), kymppi (10), satanen (100) Especially, in colloquial languages the names of numbers are: vitonen (5), kutonen (6), seiska (7), kasi (8) and ysi (9) V&A
Chapter I, 2.3 42 When learning the numbers by heart you can train by picking up separately the odd numbers (in Finnish parittomat) and the even numbers (parilliset). - You will learn the ordinal numbers in Chapter V, point 6.4. The seasons, in Finnish vuodenajat 'times of the year', are these: kevät spring syksy autumn kesä summer talvi winter1 The compass, in Finnish kompassi, shows ilmansuunnat or "directions of the air" which are as follows: pohjoinen north koillinen north east etelä south kaakko south east itä east lounas south west länsi west luode [luode’] north west Lounais-Suomi is situated in the south west comer of the country. Lounas (lounaan, genitive sg.) 'lunch' is the same word as 'south west'. Luode (> luoteen) 'north west' is also 'ebb', the opposite of vuoksi (> vuoksen) 'high tide'. The words laskuvesi ("down going water") and nousuvesi ("up going water ") can be used instead of luode and vuoksi. Further contrasting words, vastakohtia ("against points"), are in Finnish oikea 'right'—vasen 'left', and oikea'r\ght'-väärä'wrong', inflected this way: oikealla on the right oikeassa in the right vasemmalla on the left väärässä wrong On a question Minkä värinen se on? 'of which colour is it?' you can answer: valkoinen white musta black sininen blue vihreä green punainen red ruskea brown keltainen yellow harmaa grey, gray oranssi orange kirjava multicoloured sinipunainen purple, violet tumma dark violetti violet vaalea light When you are studying a new language it is useful to know how to consult the dictionaries between that language and your own.
43 Chapter II, 1.1, 1.2 II INFLECTING NOUNS 1. GENERAL REMARKS 1.1 No articles, no gender It is a relief for a foreign learner that we don't use any articles such as the definite "the" and the indefinite "a/an", or nil, in English. Finns find it difficult to learn to know where the articles are used and where left out. Instead of any articles, we use pronouns in our language, such as tämä, tuo, se 'this, that, it', yksi 'one', or eräs 'a certain'. Very often the matter is clear without such clarifications. We also operate with the word order to show if the matter is known or certain or something new or considerable. Furthermore, we don't see things as masculine or feminine and we don't classify nouns on that ground. The personal pronoun hän 'he, she' is used for both male and female persons. Because of accuracy, or if tautology must be avoided, we resort to the name of the person in question, or we use words that tell us the gender: mies 'man, husband', nainen 'woman', tyttö girl', poika 'boy', morsian 'bride' and sulhanen 'bridegroom'. 1.2 We use case endings rather than prepositions Case, in Finnish sija or sijamuoto, is a form, in which a Finnish word can be used in phrases and sentences. The basic form, the nominative, is also one of the cases. Because, the English word "case" has several meanings, I'll try to use it only in its grammatical meaning when I speak about the Finnish language. I rejected the word "case" in its normal meaning already when I started writing the first version of this book in English in 2000. The Finnish case endings, sijapäätteet (-pääte in nominative pi.) serve the same purpose as the separate prepositions and postpositions in most of the other European languages are used. As you know, prepositions are normally placed before and postpositions after the noun words. They are not unknown in Finnish, either.
Chapter II, 1.2 44 When using the term "noun word" or "noun", nomini in Finnish, I refer to substantives, adjectives, pronouns and numerals, for which as a group it is characteristic that they are inflected in cases when the Finnish language is concerned. The number of cases is 14 or 15, depending on the way of counting. In principle, only a fully productive ending is a "case", i.e. it should be possible to add the suffix in its permanent shape to any noun. The opposite term of nomini is verbi. Verbs are conjugated in verbal forms. The nominative case remains unmarked in singular, but in plural it always ends in "-t", e.g. talo, talot (nominative sg and pi.) 'house'. In all the other cases there is an "-i-" or "-j-" element as a signal of the plurality. Some pronouns begin with an n in plural, for instance tämä 'this', nämä 'these'. Note: At this stage, please in mind that the vowel i is a past time notation for verbs, and that the second person sinä 'you' in singular is marked by the consonant suffix "-t", e.g. (sinä) puhut 'you speak'. Pronouns have exceptional case forms, but so do pronouns have exceptional forms also in other languages, like in English "me", "his", "him", "her" which must be used when the basic forms "I", "he", "she" cannot be used. Most of the Finnish case endings are easily recognizable. For instance, one case (the translative) is known by its suffix "-ksi", and another by its ’’-lie" (allative). The case ending is visible (and audible) at the end. Sometimes, however, there is an additional suffix put after the case ending. Genitive is an important case. In its basic meaning it is possessive, i.e. something is owned by somebody, and it always ends in "-n". Let's take two phrases which contain words in nominative and inflected in genitive: sg. tuo pieni tyttö > tuon pienen tytön äiti that little girl's mother pi nuo pienet tytöt > noiden pienten tyttöjen äidit those little girls' mothers Here the words were nicely in the same order in Finnish and in English. In English those phrases could also read "the mother of that little girl" and "the mothers of those little girls". The word orders äiti tuon pienen tytön and äidit noiden pienten tyttöjen are possible in Finnish, but the result is rather odd or poetic.
45 Chapter II, 1.2, 1.3 Note: The words tyttö and äiti belong to nouns that obey a "consonant gradation", in Finnish astevaihtelu. You'll learn about it soon, in point 2. 1.3 We use postpositions rather than prepositions Prepositions such as the English "of' and "to" are not unknown in Finnish, but postpositions suit the Finnish language better. Some postpositions can be used instead of case suffixes, but with them we cannot avoid inflection, and the result is two words instead of one. We rather say shortly talossa 'in a/the house' than longer with a postposition: talon sisässä (inessive) or talon sisällä (adessive) 'inside a/the house'. Further, we rather say pöydällä 'on the table', pöydältä 'from the table', pöydälle 'to the table' than use two words to express the same thought: pöydän päällä, pöydän päältä, pöydän päälle (pöytä 'table', pää 'head'). The inflected form päällä means the same as pinnalla 'on the surface' when it is used as a postposition together with the genitive case for its main word. If we want to express the thoughts of "under" and "above" a table, we have to use postpositions (or prepositions) because there are no suitable case endings available for those purposes (yläpuoli 'upper part', puoli 'side'): pöydän alla, alta, alle or pöydän alapuolella, alapuolelta, alapuolelle pöydän yllä, vltä. vile or pöydän yläpuolella, yläpuolelta, yläpuolelle Some postpositions easily become prepositions when the word order is changed in order to reach a poetic effect: alla auringon 'under the sun' (citation from a song; aurinko 'sun'). The sentence Se on tvön alia, literally 'it's under the work', means that I am or somebody is working on it. When the word jälki 'trace' is made a postposition or a preposition, it becomes jälkeen (illative sg.) and its main word will stay in genitive, for instance, sen jälkeen 'thereafter', jälkeen puolenpäivän 'after noon'. You see that even the postpositions and prepositions themselves contain case endings such as "-ssä", "-llä", "-Itä", "-lie", "-llä". In addition to that, the postpositions and preposition are used to require that their main words stay in a certain form, which mostly is the genitive case ("-n"). This kind of requiring of a particular case is called “rektio ”.
46 Chapter II, 1.3, 1.4 When the word lähellä (adessive) 'near' is used as a postposition, the main word stays in genitive, and when the main word stays in partitive, lähellä can be either a postposition or a preposition: {minun) lähelläni = lähellä minua = minua lähellä 'near me'. Minun, the pronoun minä in genitive, is connected with the suffix "-ni", see the coming Chapter II, 4.3. The word kaukana (essive) 'far away' is mostly a preposition: kaukana Helsingistä / täältä (‘far from Helsinki / here'). The number of Finnish postpositions and prepositions is vague. You never get an entire list of them. They often denote place and time. Therefore, they can be used alone. The oppositions lähellä and kaukana are such. 1.4 We add suffixes onto each other Sometimes a Finnish word can contain several different suffixes simultaneously. We have a group of one-syllable end particles that can be added last in order to modify the the expression, namely these: "-kin", "-kAAn", "-hAn", "-pA", "-pAs" and the question particle "-kO". It is often difficult or even impossible or unnecessary to try to translate the effect of modifying particles into other languages. Many of the end particles have already been included in our model phrases and sentences as you have seen them. They strictly differ from all the other suffixes added to Finnish nouns and verbs. The end particle "-kin" and its negative form "-kAAn" are very practical as they can be used instead of a separate word myös. Examples: pöydälläkin 'also on the table', en minäkään = en myöskään minä 'I not, either'. The basic meaning of "-kin" is 'also', but its use can also express a surprise or a contrast ('anyhow', 'after all'), jo oli aikakin = vihdoinkin at last', and another particle can be put on it additionally, e.g. minäkinpä 'I, too!', sinäkinkö ? 'you, too'. The question particle "-kO" normally belongs to the end of the first word in a sentence, this way: Onko se tämä? Tähänkö se tuleel 'Is it this? Does it come here?' The question particle will be handled in Chapter III, point 7 "Forming questions".
47 Chapter II, 2.1 2. GRADATION 2.1 Gradation, concerning both nouns and verbs It is important to understand the rules of gradation because it concerns the entire vocabulary. It makes you study the changes that happen in the middle of words according to a certain regularity. Gradation is in Finnish called astevaihtelu (aste 'grade' + vaihtelu 'alternation'). Gradation happens to nouns when they are inflected in cases, and to verbs when they are conjugated in verbal forms. When we just talked about prepositions and postpositions you saw the word pöytä also in forms pöydän and pöydällä and you understood that t and d can vary this way. Jalan and jalalla belong to the case forms that we get from jalka 'foot, leg'. When you remember this word you remember that k disappears from the combination Ik when a word where that combination is in the basic form is inflected in genitive: jalka, jalan. Gradation can happen also when we build new words through derivation. For instance, from the noun jalka we get the adjectives jalallinen 'equipped with a leg' and jalaton 'without a foot'. The derived words jalallinen and jalaton loose the k component of jalka permanently. The combination lk does not appear back when we start inflecting the derived words in cases. The I remains I in the genitive form jalattoman < jalaton. The suffix "-ton" obeys the gradation between tt and t. You see that it would be too complicated to manage two gradations in a word simultaneously. You must know about this phenomenon of "gradation" before you get acquainted with the Finnish cases and the verbal conjugation. I believe that you will learn to master gradation by doing a lot of inflecting and conjugating exercises, and also by learning to trust your ear as Finns do. Note: In Finnish we talk about taivutus (< taivuttaa 'to bend, decline, inflect, conjugate') disregarding if nouns or verbs are concerned. When the Finnish grammar is concerned, it is not necessary to differentiate the concepts by wording.
Chapter II, 2.2 48 2.2 The principal parts will show you if it is a word that obeys a gradation When learning to inflect nouns in cases a little later in this book, you will mostly get four principal parts (teemamuodot) from the list (= paradigm) that would be the entire list of all forms in which that word may occur when it is used. The principal parts are given to show if some endings are added to a consonant stem, and if consonant changes and some vowel changes occur in that word. For a noun at least the next four principal parts are given: nominative sg., genitive sg., partitive sg. and partitive pi. For example, for sana 'word' these forms read sana, sanan, sanaa, sanoja. For vaikea 'difficult' they are vaikea, vaikean, vaikeaa, vaikeita. When we know the four characteristic forms for a noun, we should be able to guess the remaining singular and plural forms correctly. On the basis of the genitive form in singular, we know if there is a gradation in that noun. The partitive forms in sg. and in pi., show us if the word-final vowel will change in a special way when the noun is inflected according to its type. You should learn to recognise the words, nouns and verbs, and know what word it is, even if you encounter it in another form than in its basic form. You need the basic form when you start turning the pages of your Finnish dictionary. Then it is useful to know the Finnish alphabetical order. You certainly have some difficulties in pronouncing and remembering it all at the beginning, but you must overcome that phase. You should listen and read Finnish words carefully, and at last, learn to trust your ear. Finnish is not so difficult that learners should put every word in mind separately. The following examples show you how Finnish words and the forms that are used can differ a little but dramatically from each others. It’s because of some consonant gradations. First nouns, then verbs: aitta, aitan, aittaa, aittoja shed, storehouse aita, aidan, aitaa, aitoja fence, hedge tapa, tavan, tapaa, tapoja habit, manner, custom
49 Chapter II, 2.2, 2.3 tavata, tavaan, tavaamme tavata, tapaan, tapaamme tappaa, tapan, tapamme to spell, 1 spell, we spell to meet, I meet, we (shall) meet to kill, 1 kill, we kill Tapaan sinut siellä. He tapaavat huomenna Meillä oli tapaaminen tänään. Oli hauska tavata (sinua /sinut). I’ll meet you there They shall meet tomorrow We had an appointment today It was nice to meet you For avoiding misunderstandings, it is important to pronounce some Finnish words properly, especially these two: tavata, tapaan 'to meet, I meet' and tappaa, tapan 'to kill, I kill' as the consonants p, v and pp vary in them. The nouns tapaaminen 'meeting' and tappaminen 'killing' are derived from them. The verb tavata is conjugated differently in its two meanings: tapaan and tavaan. In its second meaning ‘to spell’, tavata, tavaan, it is used without gradation. Furthermore, the short word tapa, tavan, tapaa, tapoja 'habbit' is good to know. (Among themselves, Finns are used to joke about the pronouncing errors: Hauska *tappa vanha tuttu! 'nice to kill an old friend'.) 2.3 About stems for nouns Every noun has at least one vowel stem, to which suffixes can be added. Some words have also a consonant stem. Sometimes we choose different stems depending on the case in use. Sometimes it depends on the plural form. Lapsi 'child' (lapsi, lapsen, lasta, lapsia) is a word that seems to have three stems, lapse-, las- and laps-. The "-n" marker of the genitive case is added to the vowel stem, lapse| as it cannot be added to any of the consonant stems. In genitive pi. this word reads either lasten or lapsien. Some nouns offer two plural alternatives in the genitive case. Isä ‘father’ has its vowel stem, only. In genitive plural isä reads either isäin or isien. In this book I'm trying to manage without talking too much about "stems" (vartalo) since most of the people don't know anything about "stems" and cannot answer your questions. The stem is not the same as the basic form or the first syllable of a word. If you wish to learn about the stems in detail, I refer to other works on the market, e.g. those written by Leila White. Finnish teachers can tell you more about this part of the Finnish grammar.
50 Chapter II, 2.4 2.4 The types of gradation, strong and week Learning to remember the types of consonant gradation is useful as it will help you when you have to guess the basic forms of words. You will not need the knowledge of gradation types only when learning to inflect nouns but also when verbs are concerned. As soon as we come to the verbs you will encounter the same types of gradation and some additional types. One who knows nothing about the Finnish gradation is confused by the Finnish names which can alter the form in the middle of speach. If a surname is a meaningful word, it normally has to obey the gradation, e.g. (Alvar) Aalto > Aallon 'wave'. By some first names we can forget the consonant and vowel changes. Such are these: Lempi 'love', Impi 'maiden' and Onni 'luck'. - More about names will be said in Chapter V, point 6.7. You only need to learn to remember the main types of gradation because the remaining ones are subtypes that follow the same principle. You can study the principles of gradation with the help of the pattern words that you get in this book. You can, of course, change my pattern words, and instead bear in mind others that are inflected similarly. On the next two pages there is a list that contains almost every kind of consonant gradations. The main types of consonant gradation are thirteen: kk ~ k. pp ~ p. tt ~ t. t ~ d. k ~ — (k: disappears), nk ~ ng. mp ~ mm. p ~ v. k ~ v. k ~ j. It ~ II. nt ~nn and rt~rr The meaning of the wavy line (~) is "these two vary". The first component of the gradation pair is supposed to represent the strong grade (vahva 'strong'), and the second component is supposed to be weak (heikko 'weak'). The strong grade mostly belongs to the basic form, but it is not a rule. Such words also exist where the weak grade is found in the basic form. Those words usually end in a consonant including the "glottal sound". Among the sample nouns that follow there are two examples: hammas, hampaan fmp ~ mm) 'tooth' and murre, murteen (rt ~ rri 'dialect'. - Please repeat Chapter I, 1.6, and see Chapter II, 3.6. - Some modem words such as auto, auton 'car' and toti, totin 'toddy' are used without the gradation t~d.
51 Chapter II, 2.4 Gradation kk ~ k PP~P tt~t t ~ d ht ~ hd k ~ (nil) lk ~ 1 nkk ~ nk rkk ~ rk nk ~ ng k ~ v P-rv k^j mpp ~ mp mp ~ mm ipp ~ ip m ~ it it ~ n Model words (nouns) sukka, sukan, sukkaa, sukkia lippu, lipun, lippua, lippuja katto, katon, kattoa, kattoja katu, kadun, katua, katuja lehti, lehden, lehteä, lehtiä teko, teon, tekoa, tekoja mäki, mäen, mäkeä, mäkiä jalka, jalan, jalkaa, jalkoja selkä, selän, selkää, selkiä vankka, vankan, vankkaa, vankkoja tarkka, tarkan, tarkkaa, tarkkoja kenkä, kengän, kenkää, kenkiä suku, suvun, sukua, sukuja kyky, kyvyn, kykyä, kykyjä lupa, luvan lupaa, lupia halpa, halvan, halpaa, halpoja kurki, kurjen, kurkea, kurkia temppu, tempun, temppua, temppuja kumpi, kumman, kumpaa, kumpia hammas, hampaan, hammasta, hampaita helppo, helpon, helppoa, helppoja teltta, teltan, telttaa, telttoja pelto, pellon, peltoa, peltoja Basic meaning stocking, sock flag; ticket roof, ceiling street leaf, (news)paper act, work hill, slope foot, leg (one's) back strong, solid sharp, careful shoe tribe, family ability, talent permission cheap, inexpensive crane trick which of two tooth easy tent field
52 Chapter II, 2.4, 2.5 nt - nn hinta, hinnan, hintaa, hintoja price rtt ~ rt kortti, kortin, korttia, kortteja kartta, kartan, karttaa, karttoja card map rt ~ rr parta, parran, partaa, partoja murre [murre'], murteen, murretta, murteita beard dialect rs ~ rr /z/ns7, hirren, hirttä, hirsiä korsi, korren, kortta, korsia timber, log straw, stick 2.5 The types of syllables, open or closed Nouns are not classified according to the types of consonant gradation. The gradation has its own rules that all words, nouns and verbs have to obey, and the changes are predictable. Instead, nouns can be classified according to the number of syllables and according to their last written (or pronounced) letters. If a syllable ends in a consonant like "-n”, "-t" or "-1", the syllable is called to be "closed" (suljettu, umpitavu). A syllable that ends in a vowel, is "an open syllable" (avoin, avotavu). Thus, a syllable can be either open or closed. In addition to that each syllable has to contain either a short vowel (ty-tön, tyt-tö-ja) or a long vowel (tyt-töön), or a diphthong (ty-töil-le). According to this feature, syllables can be either short or long. When in the inflection process a word like tyttö is made to end in a consonant (tytön), the originally word-final vowel "-Ö" remains short and the syllables are still two. When looking at the written form it looks like the first syllable loosed its t (tyt-tö > ty-tön). When listening, we can suppose that the double tt was shortened, [tt] > [t]. Please don't stick on the written. But shut your eyes every now and then, and listen to your voice! When learning to inflect nouns and conjugate verbs in Finnish, it is useful for you to learn some model words by heart. For that purpose there are the "Pattern tables of nouns and verbs" at the end of this book. You still remember the fact that a Finnish syllable never begins with two consonants. Most of the case endings, however, begin with two consonants, namely these: "-ttA", "-ksi", "-ssA", "-stA", "-HA", "-ItA", "-He". V&A
53 Chapter II, 2.5 Talo 'house' is an easy model word because all case endings, also those beginning with two consonants, can be added to it as such. When we start dividing an inflected noun into syllables, we note that the first consonant of a case ending will belong to the next final syllable and make it a closed syllable ("-t-ta", "-k-si", "-s-sA", etc.). This way the words mostly become one syllable longer when they are inflected in cases. At the seam between the last and the second-last syllable, there often is a weak grade, for instance ty-tök-si < tyt-tö, and äi-dil-le < äi-ti. The reason of the weak grade is the fact that an originally open last syllable becomes second-last in the inflection process, and when that syllable is closed by a consonant, it is preceeded by a weak grade. The weak and the strong grades vary according to the same rules without any difference between nouns with front vowels and with back vowels, for instance kat-to, ka-ton, kat-toa, kattoja 'roof, ceiling' and tau-ti, tau-din-tauti-a, tau-te-ja 'illness'. With the following 12 inflected forms of tyttö and äiti, first, and poika and aika, next, you can study the basic rules of gradation. The four underlined forms of each word below are the principal parts. The order of the cases is from 1 to 12 as it is in Table 1 at the end of this book: sg. tvt-tö. tv-tön. tvt-töä. tyt-tö-nä, ty-töt-tä, ty-tök-si pl. ty-töt, tyt-tö-jen, tvt-tö-iä. tyt-töi-nä, ty-töit-tä, ty-töik-si sg. ty-tös-sä, ty-tös-tä, tyt-töön, ty-töl-lä, ty-töl-tä, ty-töl-le pl. ty-töis-sä, ty-töis-tä, tyt-töi-hin, ty-töil-lä, ty-töil-tä, ty-töil-le sg. äi-ti. äi-din. äi-ti-ä. äi-ti-nä, äi-dit-tä, äi-dik-si pl. äi-dit, äi-ti-en, äi-te-iä. äi-tei-nä, äi-deit-tä, äi-deik-si sg. äi-dis-sä, äi-dis-tä, äi-tiin, äi-dil-lä, äi-dil-tä, äi-dille pl. äi-deis-sä, äi-deis-tä, äi-tei-hin, äi-deil-lä, äi-deil-tä, äi-deil le The words poika 'boy, son' and aika 'time' loose their k regularly, but simultaneously a j can appear, as you see: sg. poi-ka. po-ian. poi-kaa. poi-ka-na, po-jat-ta, po-jak-si pl. po-jat, poi-ki-en, poi-ki-a. poi-ki-na, po-jit-ta, po-jik-si sg. po-jas-sa, po-jas-ta, poi-kaan, po-jal-la, po-jal-ta, po-jal-le pl. po-jis-sa, po-jis-ta, poi-kiin, po-jil-la, po-jil-ta, po-jil-le
54 Chapter II, 2.5, 2.6 sg. ai-ka. a-ian. ai-kaa. ai-ka-na, a-jat-ta, a-jak-si pl. a-jat, ai-ko-jen, ai-ko-ia. ai-koi-na, a-joit-ta, a-joik-si sg. a-jas-sa, a-jas-ta, ai-kaan, a-jal-la, a-jal-ta, a-jal-le pl. a-jois-sa, a-jois-ta, ai-koi-hin, a-joil-la, a-joil-ta, a-joil-le Note: Tai-ka, tai-an, tai-kaa, tai-ko-ja 'magic, charm', tai-at in nominative sg, is inflected without the j element (*tajan). The first syllable tai- is permanent even if k disappears according to the gradation k ~ - when the last syllable is closed, for instance by the consonant n in genitive sg. In addition to the four principal parts, the illative (case number 9) is also remarkable. It namely shows a strong grade: tyttöön, tyttöihin and äitiin, äiteihin. The inflection of some few words is exceptional, and you only have to learn to remember them separately. We shall study the inflection of Finnish words thoroughly in the next point 3 and do it with the help of more "normal" words than tyttö, äiti, poika and aika.. In addition, please study the inflection of nouns in Table 1. 2.6 Vowel changes, at the beginning and at the end Some short nouns change their diphthong of the first syllable when inflected, and the same diphthongs may vary also by verbs when they are conjugated. These diphthongs may vary in the first syllables: ie > ei, yö > öi, uo > oi This kind of a change of the vowels is a matter of some nouns, and it only happens in the plural case forms. Let's take the nouns tie 'way, road', työ 'job, work' and suo 'bog, swamp' here as a sample and inflect them in twelve cases in plural. Please note how the change happens from the genitive pl. form (teiden, töiden, soiden) onwards: tie tiet, teiden, teitä, teinä, teittä, teiksi, teissä, teistä, teihin, teillä, teiltä, teille työ työt, töiden, töitä, töinä, töittä, töiksi, töissä, töistä, töihin, töillä, töiltä, töille
55 Chapter II, 2.6, 3.1 suo suot, soiden, soita, soina, soitta, soiksi, soissa, soista, soihin, soilla, soilta, soille In the following we take laiva ’ship, vessel', helmi ’pearl’ and veli 'brother’ as model nouns: sg. laiva, laivan, laivaa, laivana, laivatta, laivaksi, laivassa, laivasta, laivaan, laivalla, laivalta, laivalle pl. laivat, laivojen, laivoja, laivoina, laivoitta, laivoiksi, laivoissa, laivoista, laivoihin, laivoilla, laivoilta, laivoille sg. helmi, helmen, helmeä, helmenä, helmettä, helmeksi helmessä, helmestä, helmeen, helmellä, helmeltä, helmelle pl. helmet, helmien, helmiä, helminä, helmittä, helmiksi, helmissä, helmistä, helman, helmillä, helmiltä, helmille sg. veli, veljen, veljeä. veljen, veljettä, veljeksi, veljessä, veljestä, veljeen, veljellä, veljeltä, veljelle pl. veljet, veljien, veljiä, veljinä, veljittä, veljiksi, veljissä, veljistä, veljiin, veljillä, veljiltä, veljielle Words ending in the vowels a and i can cause a problem for you at the beginning. 3. THE FINNISH CASES CASE BY CASE 3.1 The number of Finnish cases Sija 'case' refers to the form, in which a noun is used. In German there are four cases or "Kasus": nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. The English language knows two cases: nominative and genitive. Some special forms of pronouns, like me and him, could be called an accusative. Most grammars distinguish 15 cases in Finnish. The "accusative" case is then included among the cases, and explained to be the form, in which words are used to fill the place where objects belong to in transitive sentences. The Finnish "accusative" is problematic because it occurs in two
Chapter II, 3.1 56 different forms. The two different forms of "accusative" are identical with two normal cases, the nominative and the genitive (genitive only in sg.) The ending "-n" (< "-m"once in ancient times) is found to be essential, and it has even been called the "n-case". The terms "nominative-accusative" and "genitive-accusative" are also used. The partive case must not be forgotten as a case for objects. Partitive is a very important case of object: statistically it is the most usual case among the three possible cases for an object. In this book the number of Finnish cases is 14, because I am making an attempt of my own to explain the Finnish system of objects, subjects and predicative complements without using the term "accusative" at all. That term has long been adopted in teaching how the rules for the forms of object are. In my opinion, in that way the matter has been made too difficult. When the Iso suomen kielioppi Big Finnish grammar' was issued in 2004 it contained a simple announcement saying that the cases of object are nominative, genitive and partitive. Thus, the accusative case could already be omitted in the Finnish grammar. The said work is a really big Finnish grammer in red coveres, and a net version of it is available without any charge at the address www.kotus.fi. If you are interested in it, search for Ison suomen kieliopin verkkoversio, and open it. Please note that it is a descriptive, not a normative grammar. The names of the most common 12 cases and their distinctive singular suffixes are shortly as follows: 1. Nominative = nominatiivi (pl. -t) 7. Inessive = inessiivi (-ssA) 2. Genitive = genetiivi (-“) 8. Elative = elatiivi (-stA) 3. Partitive = partitiivi (-(t)A) 9. Illative = illatiivi (-V(h)V+ n) 4. Essive = essiivi (-nA) 10. Adessive = adessiivi (-11A) 5. Abessive = abessiivi (-ttA) 11. Ablative = ablatiivi (-UA) 6. Translative = translatiivi (-ksi) 12. Allative = allatiivi (-lie) The first thing for you to do could be to learn to remember the numbers I have given the cases from 1 to 12, and their places on the Tables of this book. Thereafter, perhaps you still learn the names from nominative to allative. Knowing the names makes it easier to talk about the cases.
57 Chapter II, 3.1 Nominative, genitive and partitive are the most important forms. You should remember them. In addition to those 12, we still have comitative = komitatiivi (number 13) and instructive = instruktiivi (number 14). These two cases are not included in my pattern tables, but you will get explanations about their endings and use in Chapter V, points 5.1 and 5.2. The big number of cases is not so bad as it may sound first. The English names of the cases tell you something about the use and the meaning of each case if you know a little Latin. The part "-essive" in the names of the cases has something to do with being somewhere, and the "-lative" refers to movement from place to place. Something about the abessive case: My numbering the cases from 1 to 14 in this book is a consequence of my trials to find place for so many cases as possible on one page. When I gave number 5 to the abessive case (-ttA"), it became one of the 12 cases on Table 1 concerning the inflection of nouns. On the last Table in this book, those 12 cases are dealt in four groups and presented with the help of four triangels. Abessive is found on the top of the second triangel. Please note which cases there are on the tops of the other three triangels. The basic meaning of elative and ablative is "away from something", and that is the original meaning of partitive, too. The syllable "-tA" is found on the top of each of the four triangels. In traditional grammars abessive is mostly regarded as a marginal or rare case, and it is mentioned together with comitative and instructive. When valo 'light' is inflected in abessive, we get valotta = ilman valoa 'without light', from työ 'work, job' we get työttä = ilman työtä 'without a job' or työtön 'jobless', which is a negative adjective and formed from työ with the help of the ending "-tOn". In Chapter VI, point 1.3 you will learn that the 3rd infinitive form "-mA" gets a negative meaning, 'without doing something' when the abessive ending "-ttA" is added to it, e.g. olla syömättä ia juomatta 'to be without eating and drinking'. These forms are used often nowadays.
58 Chapter II, 3.1, 3.2 The basic meaning of abessive is "without something". You can avoid the use of this case with the help of the word ilman, which is a preposition as well as a postposition and requires the partitive case: the main noun and the whole phrase with the word ilman before or after the phrase is inflected in partitive. 3.2 The purpose of the pattern tables The pattern nouns and verbs at the end of this book will give you an idea about the regularity and logic, with which the case endings repeat themselves. Inflecting exercises will help you to accept the gradation and the idea of inflection in so many cases as a natural and easy thing in Finnish. At the beginning if you learn to inflect nouns fully mechanically, the skill will help you to proceed and make you finally understand also the rest of the Finnish grammar. The pattern tables contain forms that you may never need or use. At this stage of your learning you must not worry about the meanings of the inflected forms. You certainly have been astonished at noting that a lot of different words, not only names of things and persons but also numerals, pronouns, prepositions and postpositions, adjectives, and even words based on a verb, are equipped with case endings. You will get acquainted with them in Chapter VI, after having first learned to know the personal forms of verbs. Inflecting nouns is a mechanical process in spite of the consonant changes that occur in the middle of words (gradation) and in spite of some changes that happen to the end vowels "-a" and "-i". Gradation occurs quite independently from the noun types, so one has to learn to master the types of gradation first and separately before learning to inflect nouns in cases. Table 1 contains substantives, adjectives and numerals inflected in 12 cases, singular and plural. You could read the tables horizontally and vertically, and compare the forms. It is good for you to learn to identify the cases and keep them apart from other cases and suffixes. There is a logic in them that repeats itself. V&A
59 Chapter II, 3.2 Every time you go and check the meaning of a word in your dictionary, you should study several successive words at the same time. Finnish words form families, and together they help you to understand the meanings correctly. The basic forms have a basic idea, but actually each word and especially its inflected form has a meaning only when it is used in a certain situation. When learning to inflect nouns and thereafter to conjugate verbs, you need not worry too much about the situations where you might need the forms. You must not keep asking yourself or native speakers about the words' meanings in their inflected forms. When you write your inflecting exercises down on a piece of paper and you are unsure, you should let a native Finn check it. You need not be afraid of "gradation errors" when trying to speak Finnish. The errors by inflection are understandable to native speakers of Finnish. They will guide you automatically to say the correct form as if you were a child who were learning to speak and needed guidance. Don't worry if they simultaneously smile a little! They, however, did understand you on grounds of the situation. It is true that Nykysuomen sanakirja (SKS, 1970) and Käänteissanakirja - Reverse Dictionary of Modern Standard Finnish (SKS, 1979) count up to 82 classes of noun types (83 with the inflexible ones, such as ensi 'next', viime 'last'), but a much smaller amount is enough to give you the idea. Finns themselves are not aware of that many types. The large number is partly caused by alternative endings in genitive, partitive, essive and illative. A music instrument called kantele: Some nouns have alternative forms already in the basic form, and consequently alternative forms also in most of the cases. Such is the name of an old Finnish music instrument called either kannel or kantele [-e']. In genitive sg. the word kantele reads either kantelen or kanteleen. Respectively in the partitive case, two forms can be used: joku soittaa kanteletta or kannelta ('somebody is playing kannel'). V6-4
60 Chapter II, 3.3, 3.4 3.3 Talo ("house') inflected in cases The noun word talo 'house' is often given as the first model word. It is an easy word because the basic form is the same as the stem and the endings can be added to it directly. It is also a word which easily shows that plurality is marked with i or j, except that the plural marker of nominative is "-t". Case: 1. Nominative 4. Essive 7. Inessive 10. Adessive sg- talo talona talossa talolla pl- talot taloina taloissa taloilla Case: 2. Genitive 5. Abessive 8. Elative 11. Ablative sg- talon talotta talosta talolta pl- talojen taloitta taloista taloilta Case: 3. Partitive 6. Translative 9. Illative 12. Allative sg- taloa taloksi taloon talolle pl- taloja taloiksi taloihin taloille Note: See Table 1 at the end of this book. There are the following nouns fully inflected in 12 cases: 1. teko, 2. sana, 3. teos, 4. maa, 5. pieni, 6. lapsi, 1. pankki, 8. paperi, 9. korkea, 10. toinen, 11. kolmas, 12. kone, 13. kevät, 14. kaunis, 15. lämmin, 16. sisar, 17. mies, 18. vastaus and 19. korkeus. After them there still are the numbers from yksi (1) to kymmenen HO) and sata and tuhat fully inflected. 3.4 Two model phrases inflected in cases Let's take two phrases that consist of an adjective and a substantive: vanha ystävä 'old friend' and uusi koti 'new home', and inflect them in 12 cases. Please note that the translations given to the words cannot give more than a vague idea because the meanings are always bom when the words are used. The first phrase is easy without any consonant changes. The second phrase is more difficult since both parts of it obey gradation, in which t and d vary. In addition, the words uusi and koti represent two different types of nouns that end in "-i". Therefore, you must look carefully and note where the word-final i is used to change to e.
61 Chapter II, 3.4 Uusi ’new’ is a special word because the last syllable -si sometimes changes to -ti, which then obeys the gradation t - d as if the basic form were "uuti" (children’s language). When the word uusi is inflected in the partitive case, we must use the consonant stem uut\-to be able to add the case ending ff-tA" to it and to get the form uutta. 1. Nominative, singular - vanha ystävä an/the old friend uusi koti a/the new home plural vanhat ystävät the old friends uudet kodit the new homes 2. Genitive, sg. -n vanhan ystävän (of) the old friend uuden kodin (of) a/the new home pl. -Ien /-den/-(it)ten/-in vanhojen ystävien of the old friends uusien kotien of the/some new homes 3. Partitive, sg. -A / -tA vanhaa ystävää (of) the/an old friend uutta kotia (of) a/the new home pl. -IA / -itA vanhoja ystäviä (some) old friends uusia koteja (some) new homes 4. Essive, sg. -nA vanhana ystävänä as the/an old friend uutena kotina as a/the new home pl. -inA vanhoina ystävinä as (the) old friends uusina koteina as the/some new homes 5. Abessive, sg. -ttA vanhatta ystävättä without an old friend uudetta koditta without a new home pl. -ittA vanhoitta ystävittä without old friends uusitta kodeitta without new homes 6. Translative, sg. -ksi vanhaksi ystäväksi to/as the/an old friend pl. -iksi vanhoiksi ystäviksi as (the) old friends
Chapter II, 3.4 62 uudeksi kodiksi for a new home uusiksi kodeiksi for (the) new homes 7. Inessive, sg. -ssA vanhassa ystävässä in the/an old friend uudessa kodissa in the/a new home 8. Elative, sg. -stA vanhasta ystävästä from the/an old friend' uudesta kodista from the/a new home 9. Illative, sg. -V(h)Vn/-seen vanhaan ystävään to the/an old friend uuteen kotiin to the/a new home pl. -issA vanhoissa ystävissä in (the) old friends uusissa kodeissa in (the) new homes pl. -istA vanhoista ystävistä from (the) old friends uusista kodeista from (the) new homes pl. -i(h)in /-siin vanhoihin ystäviin to (the) old friends uusiin koteihin to (the) new homes 10. Adessive, sg. -HA vanhalla ystävällä by the/an old friend uudella kodilla by the/a new home pl. -illA vanhoilla ystävillä by (the) old friends uusilla kodeilla by (the) new homes 11. Ablative, sg. -ItA vanhalta ystävältä from the/an old friend uudelta kodilta from the/a new home pl. -iltA vanhoilta ystäviltä from (the) old friends uusilta kodeilta from (the) new homes 12. Allative, sg. Jie vanhalle ystävälle for/to the/an old friend uudelle kodille for/to the/a new home pl. -ille vanhoille ystäville for/to (the) old friends uusille kodeille for/to (the) new homes
63 Chapter II, 3.4 Please study the forms of genitive, partitive, essive and illative (the cases number 2, 3, 4 and 9) carefully and learn to remember where there is a strong grade and where a weak grade, and for which reason it is so. You could train your inflecting skills further by arranging the words of the ready inflected phrases otherwise and starting to inflect your new phrases vanha koti and uusi ystävä in all the 12 cases. It is worth learning to inflect uusi by heart because a lot of words are inflected similarly. Among them are the numerals 5 and 6, and some others: viisi, viiden, viittä, viisiä five kuusi, kuuden, kuutta, kuusia six kausi, kauden, kautta, kausia period vuosi, vuoden, vuotta, vuosia year vesi, veden, vettä, vesiä water käsi, käden, kättä, käsiä hand liesi, lieden, liettä, liesiä cooker, range reisi, reiden, reittä, reisiä thigh susi, suden, sutta, susia wolf tosi, toden, totta, tosia true In Finnish we have some pairs of words that look (and sound) similar in their basic forms, but are different when inflected in cases. Kuusi is an example of such words. Do you know the word that is inflected this way: sg. kuusi, kuusen, kuusta, kuusena, kuusetta (ilman kuusta), kuuseksi, kuusessa, kuusesta, kuuseen, kuusella, kuuselta, kuuselle pl. kuuset, kuusien / kuusten, kuusia, kuusina, kuusitta, kuusiksi kuusissa, kuusista, kuusiin, kuusilla, kuusilta, kuusille Lastly, something about the illative, case number 9: When forming the illative case ("-VVn") we prolong the last vowel and add an n, e.g. taloon 'into the house'. Alternatively, the suffix can be explained longer"-(V)hVn", and read: "h and n and between them the same vowel that was before the h". Thus, in plural the illative suffix is "-ihin". Maa 'land' is a simple word of this type: maahan (illative sg.), maihin (illative pl.), see Table 1, example noun number 4.
64 Chapter II, 3.4. 3.5 Another pattern word in Table 1, namely toinen 'other, second' uses in illative the ending variants "-seen" in sg and "-siin" in pl., toiseen, toisiin. All nouns and adjectives that end in the syllable "-nen" are like toinen. The nouns ending in "-minen" are similar. You cannot find all of the "-minen" words in dictionaries because we can add that ending to any Finnish verb. In dictionaries the words are mostly listed according to their basic forms. When you are consulting your dictionary, you will find and understand the words better if you did put the consonant pairs of gradation well in mind. They were listed under point 2.4 of this Chapter II. In addition, you must still learn to know how Finnish words are built through derivation (derivointi or johtaminen). Derivation is a way to build new longer words on grounds of old shorter words by adding meaningful syllables to them. For instance ystävällisesti 'kindly' is a word derived from ystävällinen 'kind', and pahasti (sairas) 'badly (ill)' is built on paha 'bad'. 3.5 There are several types of nouns that end in "-i" Among the nouns that end in "-i" in their basic form, some retain that vowel i in genitive sg. (kodin < koti). Some words change the i to e, just as uusi and pieni do in genitive: uusi, uuden; pieni, pienen. In nominative pl. they read uudet, pienet. If you know the four principal parts of a noun, the genitive sg. form is the second among them. Note: Most nouns which end in "-e" in their basic form belong to another inflection type and are inflected like the model noun kone (Table 1). The noun perhe, perheen, perhettä, perheitä 'family' is similar. It is easy to keep them apart from nouns that end in "-i" and change it sometimes to an -e-. About the binding vowel i: When a foreign word or name ends in a consonant, we need to add an i vowel between the word and a case ending beginning with a consonant. In many loan words the word-final "-i" is permanent. Those words do not change their binding vowel i to an -e- when the word is inflected in genitive sg. and nominative pl. - Here you could repeat point 2.2 of Chapter I. V&A
65 Chapter II, 3.5. 3.6 Posti 'mail, post office' and peli 'game, match' are typical loan words that you can learn to inflect as model words: sg. posti, postin, postia, postina, postitta, postiksi, postissa, postista, postiin, postilla, postilta, postille pl. postit, postien, posteja, posteina, posteitta, posteiksi, posteissa... sg. peli, pelin, peliä, pelinä, pelittä, peliksi, pelissä, pelistä, peliin, pelillä, peliltä, pelille pl. pelit, pelien, peleiä. peleinä, peleittä, peleiksi, peleissä, peleistä... The name Helsinki has been built by adding an i to the Swedish ending "-ing". So it has got its "-inki" that obeys the gradation nk ~ ng [rjk ~ rjrj]: Helsinki. Helsingin. Helsinkiä. Helsinkinä, Helsingittä, Helsingiksi, Helsingissä, Helsingistä, Helsinkiin, Helsingillä, Helsingiltä, Helsingille We need not inflect the name of a capital city in plural. Lehti, lehden, lehteä, lehtiä is a word whose original meaning "leaf' of any plant has found use in many new fields. When I hear the word lehti, its first meaning in my mind is sanomalehti 'newspaper". When Lehti is a surname it is written with a capital first letter and inflected like lehti. 3.6 Inflection of nouns ending in a consonant Nouns that end in a consonant are a little more complicated than those ending in a vowel. The consonants, in which the Finnish nouns can end are "-s", "-n", "-r", "-1" and "-t", as well as the glottal sound, jäännöslopuke or "loppuhenkonen", which has not got a letter of its own in the Finnish writing system. - Here you could repeat Chapter I, point 1.6. The light glottal sound belongs, for instance, to kone [kone'], koneen, konetta, koneita 'engine' which is a model word in Table 1. Please compare it with kevät, kevään, kevättä, keväitä 'spring', another model noun there. Note especially the difference between these two forms: konetta, koneetta and kevättä, keväättä. V&A
Chapter II, 3.6 66 Nouns which end in "-e" but do not follow the pattern of kone, koneen are exceptional as they can be pronounced with or without any glottal sound ['] in their basic form. Among them there is the number kolme, kolmen 'three', as well as the pronoun itse, itsen, itseä 'self' (see point 4.5). Furthermore, we have the words nukke, nuken, nukkea, nukkeja 'puppet' and nalle, nallen, nallea, nalleja 'teddy bear'. Also olut, oluen, olutta, oluita 'beer' that ends in "-t" is exceptional: in illative sg. it reads olueen, in pl. oluisiin / oluihin. If a word in its basic form, ends in a consonant, the glottal sound included, and happens to contain a place ("seem") between two syllables before a case ending where a consonant gradation can occur, then the weak grade is found in the basic form and the strong grade in the inflected forms of the word. Traditional grammars call this type of gradadion converted gradation and B- type's gradation. (By verbs the rules are much the same but now we are talking about noun words.) Example nouns which obey this type of gradation: parveke, parvekkeen, parveketta, parvekkeita balcony tiede, tieteen, tiedettä, tieteitä science väite, väitteen, väitettä, väitteitä claim, argument farkut, farkkujen, farkkuja (plural like housut) jeans, denims In this book I avoid from speaking about converted gradation because I deciced to nominate the glottal sound [-e'] a real consonant even if it is not marked with a letter in writing. It is a sound that makes a syllable closed, just as consonants in general do and cause a weak gradation in the word. Nouns that end in "-n" can be difficult when we have to inflect them in cases. One of those words is tulostin or printteri 'output devise'. The four principal parts of that word are: tulostin, tulostimen, tulostinta, tulostimia. Sydän, sydämen [sydämmen]: Let's inflect sydän 'heart', where we have the problematic d in the written basic form. Furthermore, a consonant m appears in inflected forms: sg. svdän. sydämen [mm], sydäntä, sydämenä, sydämeltä, sydämeksi, sydämessä... pl. sydämet, sydämien, sydämiä, sydäminä, sydämittä, sydämiksi, sydämissä...
67 Chapter II, 3.6,4.1 To our relief, there is no gradation t ~ d in the word sydän when people speak formal or standard language. In dialects the d is replaced by, for instance, r or dropped wholly [syrän, syän], Sydämeni 'my heart' has in a song got the form "syömmein" which sounds very poetic. Note: The m is pronounced double [mm] in all of the inflected forms of sydän, e.g. sydämen [sydämmen], and in its derivations, sydämellisesti 'cordially' [svdämmellisesti]. Finns remember the writing rule of one m as they have been told: "In a Finnish man's heart there is no place for two m's (suomalaisen miehen sydämeen ei mahdu kahta ämmää). The coin of the joke is that m is pronounced [äm, ämmä], like ämmä 'old woman, grandmother, wife'. In today's language, ämmä is a little uggly word. Other disrespectful words for a woman are akka, eukko and muija. Young people have found a new word that they can use in all friendship: mummeli (< mummo, mummu). (I have heard it!) Correspondingly, a male ukko is called ukkeli. 4. PRONOUNS AND POSSESSIVE SUFFIXES 4.1 The personal pronouns and kuka ('who'?) inflected in cases In many languages pronouns have special forms to be used as object. In Finnish we have a special "accusative" form minut sinut for the six personal pronouns minä, sinä, etc. and kenet for the interrogative pronoun kuka, kenen, ketä, keitä 'who?'. In the table below, I have placed these special forms of "accusative" case in the second column near the nominative case and called them the "t-case". - In this connection, it is remarkable that the consonant t is used as the case ending of nominative pl. when normal nouns are concerned. 1. Nominative "t-case” 2. Genitive 3. Partitive minä I minut minun minua sinä you sinut sinun sinua
Chapter II, 4.1 68 1. Nominative "t-case" 2. Genitive 3. Partitive hän he/she hänet hänen häntä se it (se) sen sitä me we meidät meidän meitä te you teidät teidän teitä he they heidät heidän heitä ne they (ne) niiden / niitten niitä kuka who, sg. kenet kenen ketä ketkä who, pl. ketkä keiden / keitten keitä 4. Essive 6. Translative 7. Inessive 8. Elative minuna minuksi minussa minusta sinuna sinuksi sinussa sinusta hänenä häneksi hänessä hänestä sinä siksi siinä siitä meinä meiksi meissä meistä teinä teiksi teissä teistä heinä heiksi heissä heistä niinä niiksi niissä niistä kenenä keneksi kenessä kenestä keinä keiksi keissä keistä 9. Illative 10. Adessive 11. Ablative 12. Allative minuun minulla minulta minulle sinuun sinulla sinulta sinulle häneen hänellä häneltä hänelle siihen sillä siltä sille meihin meillä meiltä meille teihin teillä teiltä teille heihin heillä heiltä heille niihin niillä niiltä niille kehen kenellä keneltä kenelle keihin keillä keiltä keille V&A
69 Chapter II, 4.1,4.2 Case number 5, abessive, is missing in the previous table because those forms (minuttä. sinutta. etc.) would be hardly usable. The abessive case can be replaced by the preposition ilman 'without' (ilman minua, ilman sinua). The partitive forms of pronouns (minua, sinua, etc.) can also be used as an object, and many verbs always require partitive. In negative sentences the pronouns must stay in the partitive form when they have the role of an object in the negative sentence. The special "accusative" or "total" form of pronouns (the "t-case") must be used when partitive is impossible because of the total or resultative meaning. You will understand this usage as soon as we start conjugating verbs. However, some model sentences will follow here: Tapasin hänet eilen. En tavannut häntä eilen. Ota minut mukaasi! 1 met him (or her) yesterday I did not meet him (or her) yesterday take me with you! En ota sinua mukaani. Otan lapsen / lapset mukaani. En ota lasta / lapsia mukaani. I don't take vou with me I'll take the kid/kids with me I am not taking a/the kid/ kids with me 4.2 The personal pronouns se, ne ('it, they1) and some others in demonstrative use The demonstrative pronouns are tämä, tuo, se, nämä, nuo, ne. The pronouns se and ne were contained in the previous table but let's take them once more separately: sg. se, sen, sitä, sinä, (ilman sitä), siksi, siinä, siitä, siihen, sillä, siitä, sille pl. ne, niiden (niitten), niitä, niinä, (ilman niitä), niiksi, niissä, niistä, niihin, niillä, niiltä, niille As the abessive ending ("-ttA") is not available for the pronouns se and ne we have to use the preposition ilman ’without’. Ilman requires partitive and may also occur as postposition, ilman sitä = sitä ilman.
Chapter II, 4.2 70 Tuo (sg.) 'that' and nuo (pl.) 'those' point at something that is situated at some distance from the speaker. Tuo is inflected normally in singular: tuon, tuota, tuona, tuoksi. Nuo is the respective plural basic form of nominative. From the genitive pl. case onwards it reads: noiden, noita, noina, noiksi, etc. Thus, the plural forms of tuo contain an n and an i as plural markers, and there is the vowel change from uo to oi. Please note the difference between the forms sinä and siinä when the pronoun se 'it' is concerned: sinä is essive sg. ("-nA"), e.g. sinä päivänä 'on that day' while siinä is a special inessive sg. form ("-ssA") of the pronoun se 'it'. This nominal phrase is in inessive sg: siinä talossa 'in that house'. As to the difference between se and hän, it is very common in speech that we use se 'it' for persons, and hän 'he, she' for pets such as cats and dogs. It is, of course, advisable to be cautious and use hän for people, and se for things and animals. Se 'it' and ne 'they' for people can be considered impolite. In speech, we are used to change the pronouns systematically: Se sanoo, että hän sanoi.. (same person) He says that he said Hän sanoo, että se sanoi. (different persons) He says that he said We use the demonstrative pronouns tämä, tuo, se, nämä, nuo, ne ('this, that, it, these, those, they') to refer to a certain thing. Eräs, erään, erästä, eräitä 'a certain' is an indefinite pronoun seldom used. Sometimes it feels like an alternative to the numeral yksi, yhden, yhtä, yksiä. It is difficult to explain the difference. Anyhow, eräs and yksi are no articles. As you remember, the Finnish language doesn't need any articles. The nominative sg. form means already alone that there is one of that kind of things. Yksi is added when caunting the number of things, but it can also mean the same as joku or jokin. One example of that kind of indefinite use of yksi: Siellä oli (yksi/joku) ihminen 'there was a man / somebody'. At the end of a meeting somebody can say "yksi asia vielä" ('one more thing') when he had forgotten something. "Eräs asia vielä" would, in my opinion, mean that the person just got a new idea. In your dictionary you can find translations for the English word "one": eräänä päivänä 'one day', yksi heistä 'one of them. 1>6*4
71 Chapter II, 4.2, 4.3 The indefinite pronoun jokin, jonkin, jotakin, joitakin 'something', in nominative pl .jotkin, genitive pl. joidenkin, is used to refer to things, but it can also refer to persons in the meaning of 'some' and used instead of joku. Joku, jonkun, jotakuta, joitakuita 'somebody' gets quite complicated forms when inflected in cases, for instance: jotkut (nominative pl.), joidenkuiden (genitive \A.), joillekuille... The long forms are used exclusively for persons. Joka, jonka, jota, joita 'who', in nominative pl .jotka, in genitive pl .joiden, is a very common relative pronoun. Normally, it is necessary that there is a preceding word as a correlat, to which joka refers. It is correct to use the demonstrative (pointing) pronoun se 'it/that' as an anticedent (korrelaatti) of the relative joka even if a person is concerned this way: se, joka näin sanoo, and the same in plural: ne, jotka näin sanovat 'those who say so'. Korrelaatti and the relative pronoun should follow each others so tightly that no other words are placed between them. However, if the preceding pronoun se is stressed, a lot of words, i.e. the main word and its attributes and the adverbs belonging to them, can be placed before the relative clause. One sentence as an example about the possibilites: Kiitän niitä erittäin ystävällisiä ihmisiä, jotka auttoivat minua. I thank those very kind people who helped me Mikä, minkä, mitä 'what, which' is a relative pronoun that is used instead of joka when there is before it a whole sentence as an antecedent. Mikä is not only a relative but also an interrogative (asking) pronoun and is inflected in cases: mitkä (nominative pl.), miksi, missä, mistä, mihin? 'which (ones), how, why, where, where (from), where (to)'. 4.3 Possessive pronouns and suffixes - an important system The possessive suffixes are endings that normally occur together with their corresponding possessive pronouns minun, sinun, etc. which are genitive forms of the personal pronouns minä, sinä, etc. Sometimes it is correct that the possessive pronoun is missing before the noun that is equipped with a possessive suffix, and vice versa that the possessive suffix is missing. V&Ji
Chapter II, 4.3 72 Possessive suffixes are frequently used suffixes. As an example, we take pieni talo ’the/a small house' and add different possessive suffixes to it: pieni taloni pieni talosi pieni talonsa pieni talomme pieni talonne pieni talonsa my little house your his/her our your their pienet taloni pienet talosi pienet talonsa pienet talomme pienet talonne pienet talonsa my little houses your his/her our your their You should learn to recognise a possessive suffix whenever it is contained in a word. In the 1st person plural, the suffix "-mme" (unfortunately) looks like that of the corresponding finite (predicate) form of verb, e.g. Suomessa (me) puhumme suomea. in Finland we speak Finnish Matkustamme kohta Ouluun. we shall soon take a trip (travel) to Oulu The corresponding nouns are puhef puheen, puhetta, puheita ’speech’ and matka, matkan, matkaa, matkoja ’trip’. Together with the poss. suffix "-mme" they read as follows: puheemme ’our speech’, matkamme ’our trip’. The possessive pronouns of 3rd person have the same form in singular and plural. When we say talonsa his/her/their house’ the missing pronoun can be either hänen or heidän (talonsa), and furthermore, the number of houses can be either one or more, and the case can be either nominative or genitive. If talonsa is a plural form, the case is nominative pl. without its ending "-t": talot + "-nsa" > talonsa. The plural ending "-t" is lost in the poss. suffix. In some cases the suffix "-nsA" of the 3rd p.sg. occurs alternatively prolonged to "-VVn". If the prolongation is possible, people prefer those forms (see the 3rd p.sg. and pl. forms in the next table). The word-final "-n" of the illative ending (case number 9) is assimilated with the first consonant of the possessive suffixes. The "-n" of the illative case is lost in the poss. suffix: sg. taloon + "Mii" > talooni into my house1 Sg- taloon + "^si" > taloosi into your house pl. taloihin + "-nsA" > taloihinsa in his/her/their houses
73 Chapter II, 4.3 Pronoun in Possessive Model phrase pieni talo 'a little house’ nominative suffix of the inflected in partitive, inessive and illative and genitive pronoun sg. forms with proper possessive suffixes minä, minun "-ni" pientä taloani (of) my small house pienessä talossani in my pieneen talooni into my sinä, sinun "-si " pientä taloasi (of) your pienessä talossasi in your pieneen taloosi into your hän, hänen "-nsA/-AAn" pientä taloa\nsa/taloaan (of) his/her “ pienessä talossa\nsa/-an in his/her pieneen taloonsa into his/her “ me, meidän "-mme" pientä taloamme (of) our pienessä talossamme in our pieneen taloomme into our te, teidän "-nne" pientä taloanne (of) your “ pienessä talossanne in your pieneen taloonne into your he, heidän "-nsA/-VVn" pientä taloa\nsa/taloaan (of) their pienessä talossa\nsa/-an in their pieneen taloonsa into their Note: The 3rd person possessive suffix can be missing if the owner is a stressed demonstrative pronoun (se, ne) or a name of a thing or a person, for instance: sen (miehen) pieni talo, niiden / niitten pieni talo (but heidän pieni talonsa), Tolosten talo, meidän talo (= meidän talomme). Talo, that we have had as sample word, is such that it does not show us how the inflection goes if the word happens to contain a consonant gradation. Therefore, we must still study the word koti ’home’ as an example of the gradation type t ~d. The n consonants are assimilated with the possessive suffixes normally. In the illative case the grade of koti remains strong (-t-) this way: kotiin + "-si " > kotiisi.
Chapter II, 4.3 74 But: In the genitive case, the grade is strong if there is a poss. suffix of the 3rd person or of the 1st or the 2nd p.pl. is added to the form kodin of koti: (hänen) kotinsa, (meidän) kotimme, (teidän) kotinne. (heidän) kotinsa The strong grade with t of the closed syllables "-tin-" and "-tim-" is against the general rules for gradation (kodin, äidin), and leads to similar strong grade forms in several cases when poss. suffixes are added. Let's study the gradation and the ambiguity of the nominative and the genitive forms of koti 'home' together with poss. suffixes: Case: Nominative sg. kotini < koti + "-ni" my home = Genitive sg. *(kodin + "-ni") of my home = Nominative pl. *(kodit + "-ni") my homes kotinsa < koti + "-nsa" his/her home *(kodin + "-nsa") of his/her home *(kodit + "-nsa") his/her/their homes taloni < talo + "-ni" my house *(talon + "-ni") of my house *(talot + "-ni") my houses Conclusion: All the usual poss. suffixes begin with a consonant and that consonant seems to "eat" the end of the inflected word if it ends in "-n" or in "-t". Simultaneously the poss. suffix only accepts a strong grade (kotin-sa 'his/her home/homes', kotim-me 'our home/homes', kotin-ne 'your home/homes'). Strong grade in the beginning of a closed syllable is exceptional. You could study this phenomenon further to accept it. Examples of a normal grading of t ~ d in the middle of the word koti 'home': Strong: koti-ani, kote-jani partitive sg, pl., partitive koti-aan, kote-jaan partitive sg. pl., partitive koti-nani, kotei-nani essive sg., pl., essive kotiim-me. kotei-himme illative sg., pl., illative
75 Chapter II, 4.3, 4.4 Weak: kodittanne, kodeittanne abessive sg., pl., case 5 translative sg., pl., case 6 kodikseni, kodeikseni kodissaan, kodeissaan kodil-leni. kodeil-leni inessive sg., pl., case 7 allative sg., pl., case 12 As you see, the translative ending "-ksi" changes into "-kse" when a poss. suffix is added (e.g. "-kseni"). Poss. suffixes are added after the case endings but before the end particles such as "-kin", "-pA", "-hAn", "-kAAn" and the question particle "-kO". We say either minun talossanikin or minunkin talossani 'in my house as well'. The 3rd person pronouns se 'it' that' and ne 'they, those' are demonstrative and stressed pronouns, if they occur in the company of poss. suffixes: sen kotimme 'of that home of ours', siinä kodissamme 'in that home of ours'. Note this: An adjective, such as (samankokoinen 'of the same size', can be used with poss. suffixes: (minun) kokoiseni 'as big/tall as I am', 'of my size'. But there is no use for a possessive pronoun if it cannot be connected to a person. Therefore, kissan kokoinen 'as big as a cat' remains without suffix. You must not be too concerned about suffixes and gradation. Native speakers of Finnish will understand learners' errors and perhaps correct them for you automatically if you said an odd form. 4.4 Possessive suffixes can occur without any pronouns The separate pronoun in genitive (minun, sinun) is not always necessary. It can or must be dropped according to the rules that depend on the subject's importance: is it the same or another person? If a poss. suffix stays at the end of a noun without any pronoun in genitive with it, the suffix is able to refer to the "possessor" even alone. Let's study now a sentence where we have a poss. suffix but no pronoun in the genitive case: Hän / mies osti vaimolleen / vaimollensa kukkia. He / the/a man bought flowers for his wife
Chapter II, 4.4 76 If somebody says "Hän osti hänen vaimolleen", he would mean another man's wife, and there are supposed to be two different hän persons in that situation. The presence of the separate pronoun hänen would make a big difference. Thus, possessive pronouns must not be added automatically before every noun word carrying a poss. suffix. The possessive suffix is added to the main word. They do not belong to the attributes. Case endings are repeated so many times they are needed, but one poss. suffix is enough: omalle vaimolleen 'to/for his (own) wife', hyvän ystävänsä kanssa 'with his/her good friend'. A sentence or a phrase can begin with the noun where the poss. suffix is placed: (Minun) kotini on nyt täällä. - Kotini on linnani! My home is here now — My home is my castle If a phrase begins with a possessive pronoun, there should also be a poss. suffix at the end of the pronouns main word. Nevertheless, people are used to drop the "compulsory" poss. suffixes and speak like this: minun koti 'my home', sinun kirja 'your book'. In speech also the pronouns are shortened this way: minun mieheni > mun mies 'my husband'. However, it is acceptable and according to the norms of the written standard language that we drop the poss. suffix when speaking about domestic matters, e.g. meidän isä 'our father', meidän maa = maamme 'our country'. This is not a strong rule, but explains sometimes the lack of poss. suffixes. As to the personal forms of verbs and their pronoun subjects, the personal endings of verbal conjugation are in general enough to express who is concerned, except in the 3rd persons where a separate subject is mostly necessary. In other persons the pronouns are not needed to make the message clear. In speech, however, the pronouns minä, me, sinä, te (of the 1st and 2nd person) are mostly added as a subject when the speaker wants to stress the pronoun and simultaneously even the minä person: (Minä) ostin kukkia vaimolleni. I /1 bought flowers for my wife Me menemme huomenna teatteriin. Tomorrow we go to the theatre
77 Chapter II, 4.4. 4.5 However, pronouns can be needed for grammatical reasons as a subject. Pronouns of the 3rd person cannot usually be left out wholly. A statement like hän/se puhuu or he/ne puhuvat may not be understood without a pronoun or some other word suitable to be the subject to puhua 'to speak'. If a verb is conjugated in the 3rd person and does not have a subject, the sentence can be understood as a general statement. The same thought could be said by using the Finnish passive. You will learn about the subjectless usages of the Finnish language later as soon as we start conjugating verbs in active finite forms in the following Chapter III. A poss. suffix always belongs to nouns when the comitative case is concerned. The poss. suffix is a part of this case, for instance, rakkaine vaimoineen 'with his dear wife'. The poss. suffix is put to the main word; the attribute is left without it. - You will learn more about the cases comitative and instructive in Chapter V, point 5. - Poss. suffixes also belong to many non-finite forms of verbs. We come to them in Chapter VI. For the one who is learning Finnish it can be a little confusing that such endings as "-mme" and "-vAt" are added both to verbs and to nouns. The verbal ending "-mme" of the me person is quite easy to note and to keep apart from the poss. suffix "-mme". The ending "-vAt" is more difficult. haukkuvat koirat (the) barking dogs Koirat haukkuvat. Dogs bark / the dogs are barking. saunamme our sauna Lauantaina saunomme. We shall take a sauna bath on Saturday. 4.5 The pronouns itse, kumpikin and toinen Itse 'self is a singular pronoun that is inflected in cases and can also receive poss. suffixes. If there is a personal pronoun before itse, both words are inflected in the same case. Examples with approximate translations: 1st p.sg. 1st p.sg 1st p.sg. 2nd p.sg. nominative genitive allative elative minä itse minun itseni minulle itselleni sinusta itsestäsi I myself of myself to myself of / from yourself
78 Chapter II, 4.5 1st. p.pl. 2nd p.pl. 3rd p.sg. 3rd p.pl. elative illative nominative genetive meistä itsestämme teihin itseenne hän/se itse heidän / niiden itsensä of / from ourselves to yourselves he/she/it self of themselves Note again: Translations of short phrases into English are guessings only. Words will get a meaning in the sentences where they are used. The pronoun itse can be used in addressing speech to somebody when one is trying to be polite (stressed words underlined): Onko johtaja itse paikalla? Is the director himself/herself Onko itse johtaja paikalla? available? May 1 talk with Saanko puhua itsensä iohtaian kanssa? the director him-/herself? If the role of the itse phrase is that of an object, we take the personal pronouns in the special "t-case" or "accusative": minut itseni, or in partive: minua itseäni. The forms of the pronoun itse as a total object and as a partitive object: sg. minut itseni, sinut itsesi, hänet itsensä (sen itsensä, genitive) pl. meidät itsemme, teidät itsenne, heidät itsensä sg. minua itseäni, sinua itseäsi, häntä/sitä itseään pl. meitä itseämme, teitä itseänne, heitä/niitä itseään The pronoun itse is used in fixed sayings: Itsekseen 'alone' and itsestään 'by itself are fixed forms and contain a poss. suffix of the 3rd person. With the alternative forms of poss. suffixes these phrases would read itseksensä and itsestänsä. Itsestään selvä 'self-evident', "by-itself clear", is an adjectival phrase where the latter part selvä, selvän, selvää, selviä 'clear' is inflected. Kumpikin and kumpi: V&A
79 Chapter II, 4.5, 5. Kumpikin, kummankin, kumpaakin, kumpiakin 'both two, each of two" is a reciprocal or mutual pronoun that refers to two persons or things. It can occur with the personal pronouns me, te and he, which are plural: me kumpikin 'both of us' (nominative), meidän kummankin (genitive) Kumpi, kumman, kumpaa, kumpia 'which of two' is an interrogative pronoun asking to choose between two persons or things, for instance, Kumman näistä haluat? 'which of these two do you want?, Kumpi voitti? 'who of them won'. Toinen, toisen, toista, toisia is first, an indefinite pronun ('other, another'), and second, a numeral ('second'). Toinen on lihava ja toinen on laiha. Toiset ovat rikkaita, toiset köyhiä. Missä te tapasitte (toinen) toisenne? Sisarukset muistuttavat toisiaan. He auttoivat toisiaan / toinen toistaan. One is fat and the other is thin Some are rich, some are poor Where did you meet each other Brothers and sisters resemble each others They helped each other A repetition toinen toinen means reciprocity. Only the latter "toinen" can receive suffixes, first a case ending and then a poss. suffix. The alternative endings of poss. suffixes are used this way: toinen toistansa / toistaan (partitive "-ta"), toinen toisellensa / toiselleen (allative "-lie"). The meaning of the adverb toisinaan is 'every now and then'. The adverb is built this way: toinen > toiset > toisina (essive "-na" in pl.) + the long form of 3rd p. poss. suffix. 5. COMPARISON In English the endings of comparison of adjectives are "-er" in comparative ("more") and "-est" for superlative ("most"). In Finnish the corresponding endings are "-mpi" and "-in". With them we build new adjectives which again can be inflected in all of the at least 12 cases. To the next, let's inflect a group of comparing adjectives in cases. First, we choose the adjectives to be compared and write them down in their positive, comparative and superlative basic forms:
Chapter II, 5. 80 Adjectives in their positive (basic), comparative ("more") and superlative ("most") forms: iso, isompi, isoin suuri, suurempi, suurin pieni, pienempi, pienin kiltti, kiltimpi, kiltein nuori, nuorempi, nuorin vanha, vanhempi, vanhin heikko, heikompi, heikoin mukava, mukavampi, mukavin haluttu, halutumpi, halutuin myyty, myydympi, myydyin valkoinen, valkoisempi, valkoisin kaunis, kauniimpi, kaunein rikas, rikkaampi, rikkain tuore [’], tuoreempi, tuorein Some adjectives have irregular forms: pitkä, pitempi, pisin long/tall, longer, longest lyhyt, lyh(y)empi, lyh(y)in short, shorter, shortest hyvä, parempi, paras good, better, best As to the variation "-empi"/"-Ampi" in comparative of words that end in "-A11 above, the rule is that "-empi" belongs to bisyllables, "-Ampi" to trisyllables: van-ha, vanhempi old, older/elder laiha, laihempi slim, slimmer mu-ka-va, mukavampi nice, more nice lihava, lihavampi thick, thicker Note: You will hear the form *kivampi 'more nice’ instead of kiva > kivempi as it should read if we hold on the clear rule. Please observe the strong grades (kk, tt) and weak grades (k, t) and ask yourself in which forms in the middle of the word they occur. Please also note the prolongation of vowels in comparative when the words that end in a consonant are concerned, for example, like these: kaunis, rikas, tuore [tuore'] > kauniimpi, rikkaampi. tuoreempi big, bigger, biggest great, greater, greatest small, smaller, smallest nice/good, nicer, nicest young, younger, youngest old, older/elder, eldest weak, weaker, weakest nice/pleasant, nicer, nicest desired, more desired, most desired sold, more sold, most sold white, whiter, whitest beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful rich, richer, richest fresh, more fresh, most fresh V6*A
81 Chapter II, 5. Inflection of the comparative "more" forms: The four principal parts are given on the first line. On the second line the cases are: 1. nominative pl.. 2. genitive pl. 7. inessive pl.. 9. illative pl. iso > isompi, isomman, isompaa, isompia isommat, isompien, isommissa, isommista, isompiin suuri > suurempi, suuremman, suurempaa, suurempia suuremmat, suurempien, suuremmissa, suuremmista, suurempiin pieni kiltti nuori vanha > > > > mukava > haluttu > valkoinen > rikas > tuore [-ef] > hyvä > pienempi, pienemmän, pienempää, pienempiä pienemmät, pienempien, pienemmissä, pienemmistä, pienempiin kiltimpi, kiltimmän, kiltimpää, kiltimpiä kiltimmät, kiltimpien, kiltimmissä, kiltimmistä, kiltimpiin nuorempi, nuoremman, nuorempaa, nuorempia nuoremmat, nuorempien, nuoremmissa, nuoremmista, nuorempiin vanhempi, vanhemman, vanhempaa, vanhempia vanhemmat, vanhempien, vanhemmissa, vanhemmista, vanhempiin mukavampi, mukavamman, mukavampaa, mukavampia mukavammat, mukavampien, mukavammissa, mukavammista, mukavampiin halutumpi, halutumman, halutumpaa, halutumpia halutummat, halutumpien, halutummissa, halutummista, halutumpiin valkoisempi, valkoisemman, valkoisempaa, valkoisempia valkoisemmat, valkoisempien, valkoisemmissa, valkoisemmista, valkoisempiin rikkaampi, rikkaamman, rikkaampaa, rikkaampia rikkaammat, rikkaampien, rikkaammissa, rikkaammmista, rikkaampiin tuoreempi, tuoreemman, tuoreempaa, tuoreempia tuoreemmat, tuoreempien, tuoreemmissa, tuoreemmista, tuoreempiin parempi, paremman, parempaa, parempia paremmat, parempien, paremmissa, paremmista, parempiin
Chapter II, 5. 82 Inflection of the superlative "most" forms: iso > isoin, isoimman, isointa, isoimpia isoimmat, isoimpien, isoimmissa, isoimmista, isoimpiin suuri > suurin, suurimman, suurinta, suurimpia, suurimmat, suurimpien, suurimmissa, suurimmista, suurimpiin pieni kiltti > > pienin, pienimmän, pienintä, pienimpiä pienimmät, pienimpien, pienimmissä, -pienimmistä, pienimpiin kiltein, kilteimmän, kilteintä, kilteimpiä kilteimmät, kilteimpien, kilteimmissä, kilteimmistä, kilteimpiin nuori vanha > > mukava > haluttu > valkoinen > rikas > tuore [-e’] > hyvä > nuorin, nuorimman, nuorinta, nuorimpia nuorimmat, nuorimpien, nuorimmissa, nuorimmista, nuorimpiin vanhin, vanhimman, vanhinta, vanhimpia vanhimmat, vanhimpien, vanhimmissa, vanhimmista, vanhimpiin mukavin, mukavimman, mukavinta, mukavimpia mukavimmat, mukavimpien, mukavimmissa, mukavimmista, mukavimpiin halutuin, halutuimman, halutuinta, halutuimpia halutuimmat, halutuimpien, halutuimmissa, halutuimmista, halutuimpiin valkoisin, valkoisimman, valkoisimpaa, valkoisimpia valkoisimmat, valkoisimpien, valkoisimmissa, valko is i mm is ta, valkoisimpiin rikkain, rikkaimman, rikkainta, rikkaimpia rikkaimmat, rikkaimpien, rikkaimmissa, rikkaimmista, rikkaimpiin tuorein, tuoreimman, tuoreinta, tuoreimpia tuoreimmat, tuoreimpien, tuoreimmissa, tuoreimmista, tuoreimpiin paras, parhaan, parasta, parhaita parhaat, parhaimpien /parhaitten, parhaissa, parhaista, parhaisiin 1)6*4
83 Chapter III, 1. Ill VERBS IN ACTIVE FINITE FORMS 1. FINITE. NON-FINITE - ACTIVE. PASSIVE The difference between finite and non-finite (or infinite) forms of verbs is very important in Finnish, and so is the difference between active and passive forms. The infinitives are many and they can be inflected in cases. The finite forms of verbs (e.g. minä olen, sinä olet 'I am, you are') are used as a predicate in a sentence. These forms have in general their clear counterparts in most of the other languages. The active finite forms of verbs are equipped with endings which belong to the company of the personal pronouns minä, sinä, hän/se, me, te, he/ne. - It is another matter that in Finnish the pronouns can be omitted because all the six forms are different and alone capable of expressing the person. Both active and passive finite forms are conjugated in moods or the ways of happening, and in tenses or the classes of time, positively and negatively. At the end of this book there are three Tables, numbered from 2 to 4, to serve you as a collection of pattern verbs and to help you to understand the Finnish system. The personal pronouns are given only once on top of the Tables 2 and 3, containing active finite forms of verbs. You can pick up the pronouns there if you wish to do so. - See back to Lesson II, point 4. The pupose of this practice, listing the personal forms of verbs without any personal pronouns, is to accustom you to use the active forms without any separate pronouns, and feel that the person is there in the individual ending {asun, asut, asuu, asumme. etc.). Many of our example sentences have already contained verbs in their conjugated forms, and if there were a personal pronoun as a subject, I often had put it within parenthesis, claiming that pronouns are not always needed. For the next we take the verbs puhua 'to talk', siivota 'to clean', valittaa 'to complain, groan', kävellä 'to walk' and lyödä 'to hit, punch' and conjugate them in their six present tense personal forms without the pronouns minä, sinä, hän/se, me, te, he/ne: V&A
Chapter III, 1. 84 puhua: puhun puhui puhuu, puhumme, puhutte, puhuvat siivota: siivoan siivoat siivoaa, siivoamme, siivoatte, siivoavat valittaa: valitan, valitat, valittaa, valitamme, valitatte, valittavat kävellä: kävelen kävelet kävelee, kävelemme, kävelette, kävelevät lyödä: lyön fyöL lyö, lyömme, lyötte, lyövät In the point where the poss. suffixes were presented (Chapter II, point 4.3), we had the man who bought flowers for his wife, and you learned to avoid using the possessive pronouns (minun, sinun etc.) misleadingly or unnecessarily stressed. All the nine points of this Chapter III contain explanations to the active conjugation of verbs. The main part of it is contained in the next point 2. The presentation is short because you should study the pattern verbs, which are fully conjugated in Table 2, 3 and 4 at the end of this book. Please note how the suffixes and the changes of consonants and vowels repeat themselves amazingly regularly. The point 7 is about the Finnish way of forming questions, the point 8 is about the negative forms of verbs, and the point 9 is about giving commands. The next Chapter IV concerns the passive conjugation of finite forms of verbs. Table 4 at the end of this book contains verbs conjugated in passive finite forms positively and negatively, and additionally there are the active and passive forms of the potential mood. The Finnish passive is a little peculiar. The passive finite forms are not completed with any pronoun se 'it' as subject because normally the Finnish passive is used without any subject or agent at all. In spite of the missing subject, a passive form always lets us assume that there is or was a personal "agent", or several persons, who are or were active in the situation, and sometimes the speaker can mean that he or she is one of those involved. If the verb is such that it can have a target of the acting, i.e. an object, the case you can choose for it is either nominative or partitive, e.g. se or sitä, and this is the rule in passive sentences in general. V&.A
85 Chapter III, 1. In Chapter VI you will learn about the non-finite forms, which are first divided into two big groups, namely first the four infinitives, and then the active and passive, present tense and past tense participles. The Finnish non-finite forms have English counterparts in the "-ing" and "-ed" forms. For instance, "doing" and "done" are based on the verb "do". In Finnish, from tehdä 'to do, make' we get a 3rd infinitive verbal form olla tekemässä 'to be doing'. The adjectival words like tekevä, tekevän, tekevää, tekeviä and tehnyt. tehneen, tehnyttä, tehneitä refer to present time and past time ative doing correspondingly. Tehtv. tehdyn, tehtyä, tehtyjä is understood to be a past tense passive word as an adjective when placed before a noun. Many of the Finnish non-finite forms of verbs can be inflected in cases and equipped with possessive suffixes, i.e. used just as nouns are used. With them you will get an opportunity to repeat the inflection of nouns in 12 to 14 cases, so you will not forget them while learning to conjugate verbs in these Chapters III and IV. Note: From now on, I will bring following abbreviations into use: p.sg. = person in singular (one person): minä (1st), sinä (2nd) and hän / se (3rd) p.pl. = person in plural (several persons): me (1st), te (2nd) and he / ne (3rd) The personal pronouns se 'it' and ne 'they' (3rd p.sg. and 3rd p.pl.) refer to things, and he 'they' (of the 3rd p.pl.) refers to a group of people. Se and ne can also be used as demonstrative pronouns, which point out things and persons as well. Here you could see Chapter II, point 4.2, once again.
Chapter III, 2. 86 2. TENSES - THE PRESENT TENSE The Finnish language features four tenses or degrees of time for telling about events. The tenses are called by their Finnish names and explained in English, as follows: 1) Preesens = present tense, 'today / in general / in the future' sg. (minä) olen, (sinä) olet, (hän/se) on I am, you are, he/she/it is pl. (me) olemme, (te) olette, (he/ne) ovat we are, you are, they are 2) Imperfekti = past tense or preterite, 'yesterday' sg. (minä) olin, (sinä) olit, (hän/se) oli I was, you were, he/she/it was pl. (me) olimme, (te) olitte, (he/ne) olivat we were, you were, they were 3) Perfekti = perfect, just completed or long lasted action, 'since' sg. (minä) olen ollut, (sinä) olet ollut, (hän/se) on ollut I have been) pl. (me) olemme olleet, (te) olette olleet, (he/ne) ovat olleet we have been 4) Pluskvamperfekti = pluperfect tense, earlier completed or long lasted sg. (minä) olin ollut, (sinä) olit ollut, (hän/se) oli ollut 1 had been pl. (me) olimme olleet, (te) olitte olleet, (he/ne) olivat olleet we had been Note: In this book I have numbered the tenses Tense 1. Tense 2. Tense 3. and Tense 4. The present tense (number 1) can refer also to the future because actually we don't have any special forms of verbs for the coming time. All the remaining three tenses refer to the past. Tense 3 and Tense 4 consist of two words: first, one of the six personal forms of the verb olla 'to be' as an auxiliary, and second, a past tense participle form of the meaningful verb. More about them in next point 3. These are normal active sentences of the indicative mood, telling us about present facts, for which we use the present tense:
87 Chapter III, 2., 3. (Me) asumme Suomessa. (Me) opiskelemme vieraita kieliä. We live (have a home) in Finland We study foreign languages Te luette sanomalehtiä ja kirjoja. Te kuuntelette radiota ja katsotte televisiota. He käyvät kaupassa ostoksilla. He ostavat ruokaa ja vaatteita. You read newspapers and books You listen to the radio and watch the tv They go shopping They buy food and cloths The pronouns me are put in parenthesis to show that when unstressed, they can be left away. 3. THREE PAST TENSE FORMS In Tense 2, the simple past tense form, there is always an i element, and it can be included in a diphthong oi/öi, ui/yi, e.g. sanoin fI said', kysyin fI asked', or in a short syllable si, ti, ni, li, e.g. hän kuunteli ja vastasi 'he/she listened and answered1. Perfect and pluperfect are formed with two words. The first part is a conjugated form of the verb olla 'to be', and the meaningful verb follows it as a past tense participle "-nUt" in singular, "-neet" in plural, e.g. olet kysynyt 'you have asked', olitte kysyneet 'you had asked'. The following model verbs are in the present tense and past tense forms of the 1st p.sg. (minä), and of the 1st p.pl. (me). The verbs are hankkia 'to supply', kysellä 'to keep asking', laulaa 'to sing', lukea ’to read', myydä 'to sell’, ostaa 'to buy', tietää 'to know', and palata 'to return'. hankin, hankin, kyselen, kyselin, laulan, lauloin, luen, luin, myyn, myin, ostan,, ostin, tiedän, tiesin, palaan, palasin, olen hankkinut, olen kysellyt, olen laulanut, olen lukenut, olen myynyt, olen ostanut olen tiennyt, olen palannut, hankimme, hankimme, kyselemme, kyselimme, laulamme, lauloimme, luemme, luimme, myymme, myimme, ostamme, ostimme, tiedämme, tiesimme, palaamme, palasimme, olemme hankkineet olemme kyselleet olemme laulaneet olemme lukeneet olemme myyneet olemme ostaneet olemme tienneet olemme palanneet
Chapter III, 3. 88 Note: Palannut with two n letters comes from palata 'to return', but palanut would be the corresponding form of palaa 'to bum'. The participles are known by their endings "-nUt" and "-neet" when active sentences are concerned. The n component of the participle suffixes can have been disappeared through assimilation. For instance, the forms on ollut 'has been', ovat olleet 'have been' originate from *ol-nut, *ol-neet. (For passive sentences, this ending is different, namely "-(t)tU" alone: on oltu, on myyty, on ostettu.) The suffix "-nUt" is used in the three singular and "-neet" in the three plural persons. Each of the six personal forms contains information about the number of persons. You must not let it confuse you that "-nUt" is a singular form, but in "-neet", the "-t" is a marker of plurality, like the nominative case ending "-t" is by nouns. - In Chapter VI, point 2, you will learn to know the singular and plural adjectival present tense endings "-vA" and "-vAt", and the corresponding past tense endings "-nUt" and "-neet". Tuo lintu on laulanut koko aamun. That bird has been singing all the morning Linnut laulavat, ovat aina laulaneet. Birds (are used to) sing, have always sung. In colloquial speech it is not quite correct, but people often use such singular forms as linnut laulaa. Literary forms like he sanovat 'they say' and he sanoivat 'they said' become in uncareful speech he/ne sanoo (present tense) and he/ne sano (past tense). The endings "-nUt" and "-neet" make a big difference in everyday life. The singular "-nUt" is used also when we speak to one person, to whom we say politely te (Te in writing) 'you', i.e. in plural. Let's study how the verb opiskella 'to study' changes in Tense 3, if we speak with our mates, and if we speak with our "superiors": 2nd p.sg. (sinä) opiskelet, (sinä) opiskelit, (sinä) olet opiskellut 2nd p.pl. (te/Te) opiskelette,(te/Te) opiskelitte, (te) olette opiskelleet. (Te) olette opiskellut This is a polite form to ask an older or unfamiliar person: oletteko (Te) ollut terve? 'have you been well?' But, if we are interested in a whole family's healthy, we ask: Oletteko (te) olleet terveitä? or Oletteko pysyneet terveinä?
89 Chapter III, 4. 4. THE PRINCIPAL PARTS OF VERBS The idea of principal parts for nouns was explained in Chapter II, point 2.2. For verbs, the number of principal parts given is mostly also four. Their purpose is to show how the verb is conjugated: The first form is The second form is The third form is The fourth form is the basic form (1st infinitive) the active indicative present, 1st p.sg. the active indicative imperfect, 3rd p.sg. the active past tense participle in sg. The principal parts of a group of verbs: elää, elän, eli, elänyt arvata, arvaan, arvasi, arvannut istua, istun, istui, istunut juosta, juoksen, juoksi, juossut kävellä, kävelen, käveli, kävellyt mennä, menen, meni, mennyt nousta, nousen, nousi, noussut puhua, puhun, puhui, puhunut sanoa, sanon, sanoi, sanonut soittaa, soitan, soitti, soittanut tilata, tilaan, tilasi, tilannut viedä, vien, vei, vienyt viettää, vietän, vietti, viettänyt to live to guess to sit to run to walk to go to rise, go/come up to taik to say to play, ring, make a phone call to order, call, subscribe to take away, export to spend (time), celebrate; slope Later in this book we shall add two passive forms to the principal parts of verbs and make the list consist of six forms. See Exercise 4 of Chapter VII, and the Tables 2, 3, 4 at the end of this book. When learning new verbs, you should get all the six forms of a verb to be able to conjugate it in all persons, moods and tenses, in active and passive, positively and negatively. Please remember that there is the glottal sound or a short stop ['] at the end of the basic forms of verbs, e.g. Voimmeko tavata huomenna? [tavata' huomenna] 'can we meet tomorrow'? - See again point 1.6 of Chapter I.
Chapter III, 5.1 90 5. MOODS. THE WAY OF HAPPENING 5.1 The indicative and the conditional moods, "-isi-" The choice between the moods depends on the grade or degree of your certainty about the truth, as you see from the translations of the first two pattern verbs, olla 'to be, exist' and asua ('to reside, have a home'). Indicative forms of verbs are the most common, but the conditional mood is also common. With both ways we can refer also to the future, especially if we complete the sentence with a clarification such as huomenna 'tomorrow', pian and kohta 'soon, after a while', ylihuomenna 'day after tomorrow'. Tulen pian Helsinkiin. Jos voisin, matkustaisin jo huomenna. 1 am coming to Helsinki soon. If 1 could, I would travel tomorrow already. If we wish to refer to the future more clearly, we can also (mostly unnecessarily) take the verb tulla 'to come' as an auxiliary, and use the meaningful verb in a special illative form "-mAAn", e.g. tulen tekemään sen, or in another way: olen tekevä sen 'I will do it'; tulen matkustamaan or olen matkustava 'I shall travel'. In Finnish we come and arrive (saapua, saavun, saapui, saapunut) "to" (johonkin), not "in" (*jossakin) somewhere. The conditional mood is marked with its marker "-isi-" that is placed before the personal endings: tulisin, tulisit, tulisi, tulisimme, tulisitte, tulisivat 'I would come', etc. The conditional is used to tell about conditions, wishes and possibilities. Therefore, it is well suited to polite questions and requests: Anteeksi, voisitteko (ystävällisesti) neuvoa minua? Excuse me, could you please kindly advise me? Sanoisitteko, missä on lähin pankkiautomaatti? Would you please tell me where the nearest cash machine is? Olisin kiitollinen, jos saisin sen takaisin huomenna. 1 would be grateful, if 1 could get it back tomorrow Olisitko hyvä ja tekisit tämän? Would you please (kindly) do this?
91 Chapter III, 5.2 5.2 The potential mood "-ne-" is less important The potential mood, the marker of which is "-ne-", is used to express doubt and possibility. That syllable is placed before the personal endings of any verb. See Table 4, page 3, at the end of this book. - Please note that the verb olla 'to be' has a special form in potential: the syllable "-ne-" is added directly to another verb, of which we only know the stem lie-: lienen, lienet, lienee, etc. The same stem lie- + ne is conjugated and used as an auxiliary to express a potential matter in the past as well as in the perfect tense: Asia lienee niin, että.. (= asia on ehkä niin, että) It may be so that.. Hän lienee tehnvt sen (= ehkä hän teki / on tehnyt sen) He may have done it He lienevät olleet siellä (= he ovat ehkä olleet siellä) They may have been there Here we conjugate voida 'can, may, to be abiq', juosta 'to run', lentää 'to fly' and suostua 'to agree' in the potential mood of Tense 1: voida > voinen, voinet, voinee voinemme, voinette, voinevat juosta > juossen, juosset, iuossee. juossemme, juossette, juossevat lentää > lentänen, lentänet, lentänee, lentänemme, lentänette, lentänevät suostua > suostunen, suostunet, suostunee, suostunemme, -nette. -nevat Voida is often connected with another verb in its basic form, e.g. sanoa 'to say', e.g. voinemme sanoa 'we may say'. If the verb has a consonant stem in the basic form, the potential suffix is added to it, e.g. teh\dä, teen, teki, tehnyt > tehnen. Juossen 'I may run' comes through assimilation from *juos-nen. Lentänen and suostunen present verbs of the vowel stem type. You can easily avoid these forms of the potential by using the indicative forms and connect them with such words as kai and ehkä 'maybe', luultavasti 'probably', as it is usual in everyday speech. Such forms as (me) matkustanemme 'we may travel' instead of me kai matkustamme 'perhaps we shall travel' sound stilted. Instead of halunnen 'I may want', we would be much more likely to say ehkäpä minä haluan (for instance matkustaa). In colloquial language this again becomes [ehkä mä haluun]. We also have normal verbs, namely saattaa, saatan, saattoi, saattanut, voida (above), taitaa, taidan, taisi, taitanut and mahtaa, mahdan, mahtoi, mahtanut, with which we can refer to an unsure future or to an unsure fact. V&A
92 Chapter III, 5.2, 6. In addition, these verbs are frequently used in conditional mood. It makes the matter still more uncertain. The example sentences: 6. SUBJECTLESS AND MONOPERSONAL USE In comparison with the other languages it can sometimes seem to you, as if the subject, at least a short word se 'it', were missing in a Finnish sentence, where the verb is in the 3rd p.sg. form. For instance, on hyvä '(it) is good' can continue with an että clause On hyvä, että siitä puhutaan 'it is good that they/we speak about it'. In such sentence we can also consider the että clause to be the subject that would answer the question "what is good?" Otherwise, without any subject at all, we understand the sentence as a general statement about what people are used to do. The 3rd p.sg. offers an alternative way to speak about general matters without using the passive forms of verbs. The following two sentences contain active and passive verbal forms to show you how we can expres she same thought in two ways: syö or syödään; ulkoilee or ulkoillaan; asuu or asutaan. Kun (ihminen) syö hyvin ja ulkoilee paljon, (hän) pvsvv terveenä. = Kun syödään hyvin ja ulkoillaan pation. pysytään terveenä / terveinä. When you eat well and are outdoors a lot, you stay healthy Turussa (kuka tahansa) asuu / Turussa asutaan halvemmalla kuin täällä. In Turku one lives, or. they / you / we live, more cheaply than here Menee nyt siitä! 'please go now' would be a harsh command in 3rd p.sg. form. To say it in passive Mennään nyt siitä! would sound equally angry. For better understanding that the active forms syö and ulkoilee are general statements without any subject at all, you can add ihminen, joku, kuka tahansa 'man, somebody, anybody' to the place of a missing subject. Saattaa / taitaa olla (niin), että... Se saattaisi / voisi olla hyvä asia. Mikähän mahtoi olla syy(nä)? Minä taidan lähteä nyt ja tulla huomenna takaisin. It may/can be that... It might/could be a good thing 1 wonder what the reason was? 1 may leave now and come back tomorrow.
93 Chapter III, 6. In active sentences, normally there is a subject or "an actor" present. Especially the pronouns of 3rd person hän, se, he, ne are not dropped, if the clarity would suffer from their absence. The pronouns minä and sinä are more often unnecessary additions. For instance, puhun is as clearly said as minä puhun 1 speak'. The passive sentences do not need any word as a subject because any word in the nominative or the partitive case would be understood as an object. For instance, lounas / lounasta syödään klo 12 'lunch is eaten (served) at 12 o'clock'. However, in colloquial speech we are, however, used to add the pronoun me to passive verbal forms but it is done in a way that makes you feel it like a clarification of the situation: me syödään (lounas / lounasta), 'we shall eat (lunch)', me mennään 'we shall go'.- This "me" passive will be explained in Chapter IV, point 2. And the Chapter IV will concern the passive solely. The whole idea of passive is an important part of the Finnish grammar. Some phenomena in the nature are described with the 3rd p.sg. forms, and according to the norms, without adding any se *it' as subject: Ulkona tuulee ia on kylmä. outside it is windy and cold Yöllä on satanut. it has rained in the night Eilen satoi lunta. it snowed yesterday Vettä sataa. / Nvt sataa (vettä). it's raining now Nyt se sataa! (colloquial speech) it's raining now The verb sataa, satoi, on satanut 'to rain' mostly refers to water falling down (taivaalta 'from the sky'; taivas, taivaan, taivasta, taivaita), but if necessary, we add vettä 'water' (vesi, veden, vettä, vesiä) or lunta 'snow' (lumi, lumen, lunta, lumia) or rakeita Tiail' (rae, rakeen, rakeita) in partitive to the verb sataa. Vesi and lumi have both a consonant stem and take therefore "-tA". I don't know if water, snow and hail in the partitive case could be called objects. Yöllä satoi ensilumen 'the first snow fell in the night' is a possible announcement. Therefore, the answer could be "yes".- The missing subject in many Finnish sentences is a linguistic problem, too, and that problem has been solved by the term "zero person" (nollapersoona). V&A
Chapter III, 6. 94 Further, we have a group of verbs that tell about feelings of a person: When a verb expresses feelings, it can also look as if the subject were missing. Then the suffering or enjoying person is inflected in partitive, and there is no cause to his or her feelings mentioned. Usually, verbs like these are derived from short nouns. From itku 'crying' and itkeä 'to cry' we form itkettää 'to feel like crying' or 'to make somebody cry', and it is easy to see that the origin of the verb is itku. Minua itkettää / suututtaa. I feel like crying / something makes me angry Häntä nukuttaa / väsyttää. He/she is sleepy / he/she feels tired Mikä / Kuka sinua itkettää? What/who is making you cry? Asia suututtaa minua. The matter makes me angry/mad Hän on suututtanut minut /sen / ne. He/she has made me/it/them angry When itkettää, itketän is used in the meaning 'to make somebody cry' and the reason of crying is known we add it as a subject, for instance: se_ itkettää, hän suututtaa minua 'it makes me cry; he/she makes me angry'. Thus, the factor hän/se stays in nominative, and the feeling or suffering person stays in partitive minua if the feeling is momentary or transitory. If the result is final, as it is possible with suututtaa, suututan, suututti, suututtanut 'to make someb. angry', we must choose a form for "total" objects, by pronouns the "t-case" form (minut, sinut), to refer to the insulted person. The opposite verb suuttua, suutun, suuttui, suuttunut 'to get angry' can be used with the illative, elative or allative case, if the reason is mentioned: suuttua johonkin Avith'). jostakin (fox'), jollekin ('to someb,'), for instance: Tästä isä suuttuu minulje 'for this (reason) father will get angry with me'. Sattua 'to happen, occur, hit' is an intransitive verb. In the meaning 'to feel pain', it is used with illative: minuun sattuu 'I feel pain'. With satuttaa, satutan 'to hurt somebody' we use the partitive case for the object: sinä satutat minua 'you are hurting me'. From nukkua 'to sleep' we form nukuttaa 'to feel sleepy',or 'to try to make somebody, e.g. a child sleep', are a similar pair of verbs as sattua and satuttaa. As a medical term nukuttaa is used like a normal transitive verb, with which there is a certain subject (doctor) and an object (patient). V&A
95 Chapter III, 6., 7.1 Lääkäri nukutti potilaan / hänet ennen leikkausta. The patient / he/she was anaesthetised by a/the doctor before the operation Normally, because the anaesthesia is performed quickly, the partitive case <potilasta / häntä) would be unsuitable for the patient in this situation. 7. FORMING QUESTIONS 7.1 A suffix "-kO" is used for questioning Based on the explanations of the place of stress and normal word order in Chapter I, point 2, you already know something about this matter. Questions are simply built by adding the suffix "-kO" (= -ko/-kö according to the vowel harmony) to any word, verb, noun or adverb, that you want to point out, in order to make a question concerning it. A question must begin with the word or group of words where the question particle is placed. Thanks to the quite free word order, the suffix "-kO" can always be added as required, to the end of the first word of a sentence, or to the main word of a noun phrase within a sentence. Oletko (sinä) kotona tänä iltana? Sinäkö olet kotona? Will you be at home tonight? (Is it true that) you are at home? Teinäkö iltana (or tänä iltanako) olet kotona ja huomenna kylässä? You are at home töni uh t and away on a visit tomorrow? Is that correct? Onko se tämä? - Tämäkö se on? - Sekö tämä on? Is it this? Is it this it is? Is it this what it is? Asutko sinä tässä? - Tässäkö sinä asut? - Sinäkö tässä asut? Do you live here? Is it here where you live? Is it you who lives here? Questions can, of course, also begin with interrogatives such as mikä / mitä 'what', kuinka / miten 'how', milloin / koska 'when'. Kuka olet? Mistä tulet? Mihin menet? Who are you? Where are you coming from? Where are you going to?' The general intonation is falling from beginning to end even if it is a question. The stress normally lies on the first word and on the first syllable.
96 Chapter III, 7.1, 7.2 The asking syllable "-kO" is placed at the end of the word, after case endings and verbal endings, but it is still possible to add an end particle "-hAn" to it. This particle makes your wondering or begging sound very polite and unsure. Onkohan asia niin, että... ? is the matter perhaps such that...? Anteeksi, voisittekohan auttaa? excuse me, could you please help me Mitähän minun pitäisi sanoa? 1 wonder what 1 should say We normally do not answer a question beginning with the words ei 'no' or kyllä 'yes', as it is normal in other languages, but instead we (should) answer with the verb or with the point of the presented question. However, it is usual that we start an answer with kyllä 'yes' or colloquially "joo", and then continue with the same verb or word, with which the other person began her or his question. A negative answer can consist of a mere "ei", but then it is one of the forms en, et, ei emme, ette, eivät. - You will learn the negative forms of verbs in point 8 of this Chapter III. To such a question as otatko / haluatko? 'do you take, would you like?' we answer positively (kiitos,) otan / haluan 'yes, I do/would', and negatively (kiitos,) en ota /en halua, but we may also say kvllä. kiitos and ei. kiitos. In Finnish it is polite and more according to Finnish habits to answer repeating the same verb or word that the other person used with the question particle "-kO". 7.2 Interrogatives and subordinated questions mikä what, which kuka who miksi why, for what reason kuinka how, in which way missä where millainen of what kind mistä from where miten how, in which way mihin to where milloin when, at what time mitä what, how? joko (= jo + ko) already? It is easy to make a direct interrogative clause dependent of a main clause.
97 Chapter III, 7.2 We do not use any conjunction jos (fif) for subordinated questions because the use of jos is restricted to conditional events and the verbal form "isi". We simply continue with the same word, with which the direct question clause began. We maintain the question particle "-kO" or the interrogative pronoun, but we may need to change the tense and personal pronouns when we turn a question into a subordinated clause. We don't use any question marks (?) and any quoting marks either. Please note the comma. Direct questions Indirect, subordinated question clauses Oletteko jo syöneet? Have you eaten already? > Hän kysyi (meiltä), olimmeko jo syöneet He asked us if we had eaten already Joko te söitte? > Did you eat already? > Hän kysyi (meiltä), joko olimme syöneet. He asked us if we had eaten already Mitä sinä nyt teet? What are you doing? > Kysyin (sinulta), mitä sinä nyt teet. 1 asked you what you are doing now Kuka hän on? > Who is he/she? > Tiedätkö, kuka hän on? Do you know who he/she is? Milloin Sibelius eli? > (or Milloin Sibelius eli?) When did Sibelius live? Muistatko, milloin Sibelius eli? (or Muistatko, milloin Sibelius eli?) Do you remember when Sibelius lived? Normally, the stress (above underlined) lies on the first word. If you give an unusual stress to Sibelius here, you are thinking about him in opposite to other famous persons. Also, the word order is notable especially when you are searching for something that you did not see earlier, for instance, a bank when there might be several banks: Missä (täällä) on pankki? > Hän kysyi minulta, missä on pankki. Where is a bank (here)? He asked me where was a bank. In a previous model sentence we had the conjunction entä 'and?', entä huomenna? 'and tomorrow?'. This entä can be used when a question should begin with the little word ja 'and'. In point 8.2 below you will be able to compare this entä with other negative co-ordination conjunctions. V&A
Chapter III, 7.3 98 7.3 A little conjunction vai ('or') is used in questions The little conjunctions eli. tai and vai make a big difference even if they are translated with the same "or" into English. Vai ('or') is an interrogative conjunction used when a choice between two alternatives is concerned. Eli and tai are used when weighing facts, not asking anything. Tai ('or') is for optional alternatives, and eli for comparisons between two things that are equal, synonyms in meaning "or in other words, called by another name". Tai can be completed with joko and form a two-pair conjunction with it: joko - tai 'either - or', as you see below. The opposite of joko - tai is sekä - että 'both - and', or perhaps ei kumpikaan 'none of them'. Examples: Juotko kahvia vai teetä? Do you drink coffee or tea? Otatko tämän vai tämän? Do you take this or this Ota (joko) tämä tai tämä! (Please) take (either) this or this! Kiitos, en ota kumpaakaan Thanks, I don't take none of them. Kukan nimi on pelargoni The flower is called Geranium eli suomeksi "pelakuu". or in Finnish "pelakuu" Kumpi and mikä? The interrogative pronoun kumpi, kumman, kumpaa, kumpia 'which of the two' requires us to make a choice between two alternatives. When inflected it obeys the gradation mp ~ mm. Kumpi kissa on poika, kumpi tyttö? Which of the cats is male, and which female? Kummanako) näistä (kahdesta) otat? Which of these two do you take? Tämän vai tämän? this or this? The pronoun mikä, minkä, mitä, mitkä (nominative pl.) 'what, which' is used interrogatively when the alternatives are more than two: Mikä näistä vaihtoehdoista on paras? Which of these alternatives is the best? Mitä mieltä olet siitä asiasta? What is your opinion about that matter?
99 Chapter III, 8.1 8. NEGATIVE FORMS OF VERBS 8.1 A special negative verb is used The Finnish language features a negative word, which is conjugated as a verb in the six personal forms: en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät. The negative verb does not have a basic form. It is an auxiliary, but the moods and tenses are expressed with forms of the meaningful verb, for instance, en ollut syönyt '1 had not eaten'. Tables 3 and 4 at the end of this book contain negative verbal forms. Let's take negative forms of juoda 'to drink' here: Tense 1. indicative en juo, et juo, ei juo, emme juo, ette juo, eivät juo Tense 3. indicative en, et, ei + ole juonut, emme, ette, eivät + ole juoneet Tense 1. conditional en, et, ei + joisi, emme, ette, eivät + joisi As to the pronunciation of negative forms, the negative word is stressed, and in this construction there is always a verb form that ends in the light glottal sound, which can be realised through a little stop (see Chapter I, point 1.6): En ole kotona [en ole' kotona] I am not at home. En ole ollut [en ole' ollut] I have not been. Jos en olisi ollut [en olisi' ollut] If 1 had not been Ette liene olleet [ette liene'olleet] You may not have been. In speech it is easier to operate with stress and intonation than in writing where you can actually always assume that the first word is stressed. The Finnish word order is rather free but it has some effect on the style and meaning. We can even begin as saying kyllä, and then continue with the negative verb en, et, ei: En kvllä tule! = kvllä en tule I am surely not coming Minä en tule = en minä tule \ am not coming = no, I am not coming Negative questions begin with the negative verb and the suffix "-kO" is found attached to it: enkö, etkö, eikö, emmekö, ettekö, eivätkö? Sample sentences follow: pitää, pidätkö? Etkö pidä tästä? Do you not like this?
Chapter III, 8.1, 8.2 100 puhua, puhutteko? Ettekö puhu englantia? Do you not speak English? tietää, tiesitkö? Etkö tiennyt sitä? Didn't you know that? tulla, tulisiko hän? Eikö hän tulisi? Would he/she not come? voida, voisimmeko? Emmekö voisi jo lähteä? Could we not leave already ? olla, oletteko Ettekö ole väsyneitä? Are you not tired? Note: A negative form of verb requires all objects to be in partitive. Therefore we say for instance minä teen sen 'I do it', but minä en tee sitä 'I don't do it'. It is another matter that many verbs require their objects to be in partitive, for instance: puhua (jotakin kieltä) 'to speak (a language)' may serve as an example. 8.2 Negation can be contained in conjunctions and suffixes It is something special that such words as enkä, etten, jollen, mutten are negative conjunctions which are built by adding the Finnish negative verb to the actual conjunction, this way: ja + en, et, ei + -kä > enkä, etkä, eikä, emmekä, ettekä, eivätkä =ja minä en, ja sinä et, etc. ’and I not, and you not...' että + en, et, ei > etten, ettet, ettei, ettemme, ettette, etteivät = että minä en, että sinä et, etc ’that I not, you not...” jos + en, et, ei > jollen, jollet, jollei, jollemme, jollette, jolleivät = ellen, ellet, ellei, ellemme, ellette, elleivät =jos minä en, jos sinä et, etc. ’if I not, if you not...’ mutta + en, et, ei > mutten, muttet, muttei, muttemme, mutteivät = mutta minä en, mutta sinä et, etc. 'but 1 not, you not... The end particle "-kin" has the same meaning as the word myös 'also1 and the use of them is alternative. People often say myöskin even if myös would be enough. Anyhow, the negative form of it reads ei myöskään. 1)6*4
101 Chapter III, 8.2 The pronoun kumpikin 'both' is not interrogative. In negative sentences it reads ei kumpikaan 'neither'. The change into "-kAAn" happens to all "-kin" particles in negative sentences, and even more widely, as these examples prove: The negative forms of mikä, kuka and jompikumpi: The pronouns mikä 'what' and kuka 'who' are used negatively in forms ei_ mikään 'nothing, none' and ei kukaan 'nobody'. - The pronoun kuka 'who' was inflected positively in Chapter II, point 4.1. End particles were handled already in Chapter II, point 1.4. Se ei ole kummankaan etu, eikä kukaan halua sitä. It is not a mutual benefit, and nobody wants (to get) it Kukaan ei ole tiennyt tästä mitään. Hän ei kertonut siitä kenellekään. Nobody has known about this. He/she did not tell anybody about it. Eikö kukaan todellakaan tiedä sitä vieläkään? Eikö hänkään? Is it really true that nobody knows it even yet? He eivät käy koskaan elokuvissa eivätkä missään ulkonakaan. They never go to the cinema and they don't go somewhere out, either. Jompikumpi 'one or the other' a two-part pronoun, the both parts of which are inflected in cases. The result is complicated: jommankumman, jompaakumpaa, jommallekummalle. The negative form of jompikumpi reads ei kumpikaan. When that word is inflected the case endings are placed before the suffis "-kAA", i.e. in the middle of the word: ei kumpiakaan, ei kummallekaan. It can be a little difficult to learn to inflect negative pronouns in cases. Further examples where the particle "-kin" occurs negativelv: kuitenkin > ei kuitenkaan however not yksikin > ei yksikään nothing, none tähänkin > ei tähänkään not hereto either tuotakin > ei tuotakaan not that either
Chapter III, 8.2, 9.1 102 milloin > ei milloinkaan never mihin > ei mihinkään nowhere (to) missä > ei missään nowhere (in) mitä > ei mitään nothing 9. ACTIVE IMPERATIVE FORMS 9.1 Positive and negative imperative forms Here you will get acquainted with active imperative or command forms, positively and negatively. These forms are not included in the enclosed pattern tables. The imperative forms belong to the finite forms of verbs, i.e. it is alone the main verb or the meaningful verb in the sentence. For a command to a person of the 2nd p.sg., for instance mene [mene'] 'go!', you get the form simply from the 1st p.sg. present tense, e.g. menen 'I go', by dropping the last "-n", or you can take it ready from the negation en mene pronounced [en mene'] 'I don't go'. In 1st and 2nd person plural imperative forms there is always a component "-kAA" which by some certain verbs is added to a consonant stem (mennä > men\kää go!), and by the remaining verbs to a vowel stem {puhua > puhu\kaa speak!). Lapset, olkaa hiljaa ja kuunnelkaa minua! Kids, be quiet and listen (< olla hiljaa ja kuunnella) to me (please)! Different ways to express orders and denials: 1) To command and forbid by using the negative verb For negative commands, we have a negative auxiliary such as älä in 2 p.sg. for one person and älkää in 3 p.pl. for a group of persons: 2nd p.sg. Älä (sinä) mene sinne! Don't go there! 2nd p.pl. Älkää (te) menkö sinne! Don't go there!
103 Chapter III, 9.1 2nd p.pl. Älkää (te) tehkö niin kuin minä teen, Don't do as I do vaan niin kuin minä opetan. but do as 1 teach. 2) Commands to you, 2nd p.sg. Positively: ole, mene, tule, istu, syö, lähde be!, go!, come!, sit down!, eat!, leave! Negatively: älä ole, älä mene, älä tule, älä istu, älä syö, älä lähde don't be!, don't go!, don't come!, don't sit!, don't eat! 3) Commands to you. 2nd p.pl. Positively: olkaa, menkää, tulkaa, istukaa, syökää, lähtekää Negatively: älkää olko, älkää menkö, - tulko, - istuko, - syökö, - lähtekö 4) Commands to he/she/it, 3rd p.sg. The commanding component "-kOOn" expresses a wish concerning what another person should do, in English 'he/she/it mav do', e.g. Sanokoon mitä tahansa! lie/she may say anything'. Positively: (hän) olkoon, menköön, tulkoon, istukoon, syököön, lähteköön Negatively: (hän) älköön olko, - menkö, - tulko, - istuko, - syökö, - lähtekö Sanokoon Eläköön! Kissa vieköön! Hitto soikoon! (hän) mitä tahansa! (< sanoa) (< elää ’to live’) (< viedä ’to take with’) (< soida ’to ring’) He/she may say anything'! Hurrah, viva! To hell with it! Damn it! In songs, poems and dialects you may encounter the form tehköhön instead of tehköön 'he/she may make/do'. There is only an additional h in the middle of the long ending "-köön". It makes the command word one syllable longer. 5) Commands to they, 3rd p.pl. Positively: olkoot, menkööt, tulkoot, istukoot, syökööt, lähtekööt let them be, they may go, they may come, etc.
Chapter III, 9.1, 9.2 104 The sixth point that still follows is a very ceremonious plural form of commands. 6) Commands to us, 1st p.pl. There is still a command form of solemn style that can be addressed in plural to a group of people, e.g. olkaamme means 'let's be'. The ending "-mme" lets the audience understand that the speaker sees himself as a member of the group: Positively: menkäämme, tulkaamme, istukaamme, syökäämme Let's go, come, sit, eat Negatively: älkäämme olko, älkäämme pelätkö We shall not be, we shall not be afraid 9.2 The form of object together with command forms As for the "object rules" together with the command forms, the forms vary according to the person who is being given the command. The object of a denial is in the partitive case as it is usual in negative sentences. Älä unohda hymyä! Do not forget the smile! Älkää tehkö sitä! Please, don't do it! In positive sentences the choice is more free between "partial" and "total", "process" and "result". And it depends on what you want to say because it is only you who knows it whether the situation is unfinished or completed. Note: The rules of forms for object (and subject) are a central matter in the Finnish language. Therefore, I shall revert to these matters on several occasions With the following imperative forms, the alternative objects are se and sitä (representing the nominative and the partitive case):
105 Chapter III, 9.2 2nd p.sg. tee se Please, do it or tee sitä or continue doing it! 2nd p.pl. tehkää se Plese, do it or tehkää sitä or continue doing it Is' p.pl. tehkäämme se Let's do it or tehkäämme sitä or Let's continue doing it With these following forms, the alternatives are sen and sitä (genitive and partitive): 3rd p.sg. tehköön (hän) sen He may do it or tehköön (hän) sitä or He may continue doing it 3rd p.pl. tehkööt (he) sen They may do it or tehkööt (he) sitä or They may continue doing it The choice of the case for an object in Finnish partly depends on the person whom the command is addressed, partly on the situation how it is, and also on the verbs meaning. Thus, the most of the usual commands, those which are addressed to sinä 'you' of the 2nd p.sg. and to te 'you' of the 2nd p.pl., require their objects either in the nominative or in the partitive case. Note: The genitive plural form is not used at all for objects of any kind. The genitive case is unsuitable for plural objects in general. In plural the choice of case form for an objet happens between nominative and partitive. You remember that "-t" is the suffix of nominative pl. and that nominative pl. also is the only case form for total objects in plural. You remember that the six personal pronouns and kuka 'who' have a special "t-case" or "accusative" form for total objects, namely minut, sinut, etc. are marked by "-t". - For inflection of pronouns, see back to Chapter II, 4.1. Jos tarvitset apua, kutsu vain minut (or minua) apuun! If you need help, you may freely call me to come and help you
Chapter III, 9.2 106 Me voisimme hakea sinut sieltä kotiin omalla autolla. We could drive there and take you home in our car When command forms are concerned, it is possible to add modifying end particles such as "-pA(s)", "-hAn" and "-kin", to command forms of verbs in order to make the command softer: Olkaapa, lapset, hiljaa! Children, please be quiet! Tulehan tänne! Istupas tuohon! Please come here! sit down there! No! Olkoonkin sitten niin! Well, it may be as it is Here once again you can check Chapter II, point 4 about the end particles.
107 Chapter IV, 1. IV VERBS IN PASSIVE FINITE FORMS 1. PASSIVE MOODS AND TENSES The passive finite forms are not connected with any pronoun, e.g. se 'it', as subject because the Finnish passive is used without any subject or agent. The Finnish passive is special. In spite of the missing subject, it always lets us assume that there is or was a personal "agent", or several persons who are acting or who have been active, and also that the speaking person may be or may have been involved in the activity. Passive finite forms are found in the same four tenses and three moods as the active forms, which were mentioned in Chapter III, point 4, except that the conditional and potential moods do it with two tenses, tense 1 and tense 3. From now on, we shall add two more forms to the four principal parts of verbs, namely the passive indicative present and imperfect (or preteriti). Let's take the verbs nukkua 'to sleep', pyytää 'to ask' and hakea 'to pick up; look, apply for', and see the six principal parts for each of them. Thereafter, we are going to conjugate the verb hakea in moods and tenses, adding the passive indicative present form as the seventh form. nukkua, nukun, nukkui, nukkunut, nukutaan, nukuttiin kk ~ k pyytää, pyydän, pyysi, pyytänyt, pyydetään, pyydettiin t ~ d hakea, haen, haki, hakenut, haetaan, haettiin k Mood: Indicative Tense 1 haen, haet, hakee, haemme, haette, hakevat, haetaan Tense 2: hain, hait, haki, haimme, haitte, hakivat, haettiin Tense 3: olen hakenut, olet hakenut, on hakenut, olemme hakeneet, olette hakeneet, ovat hakeneet, on haettu Mood: Conditional Tense 1: hakisin, hakisit, hakisi, hakisimme, hakisitte, hakisivat, haettaisiin ve~4
108 Chapter IV, 1. Tense 3: olisin hakenut, olisit hakenut, olisi hakenut, olisimme hakeneet, olisitte hakeneet, olisivat hakeneet, olisi haettu Mood: Potential Tense 1: hakenen, hakenet, hakenee, hakenemme, hakenette, hakenevat, haettaneen Tense 3: lienen hakenut, lienet hakenut, lienee hakenut, lienemme hakeneet, lienette hakeneet, lienevät hakeneet, lienee haettu Because the passive forms are used very much, I recommend that you learn to add the corresponding passive form to the six personal forms of verbs so the forms become seven as done above in every modus. The conjugation of the verb olla goes this way in the indicative modus: Tense 1: olen, olet, on, olemme, olette, ovat, ollaan Tense 2: olin, olit, oli, olimme, olitte, olivat, oltiin Tense 3: olen ollut, olet ollut, on ollut, olemme olleet, ovat olleet, on oltu Passive sentences can also have objects if the verb is transitive. A verb like rakentaa 'to build' is transitive because it is possible to build something, for instance, talo 'a house'. One sentence for example follows: Kvlä /Kylän talot rakennettiin hyvin nopeasti, The village / the houses of the village was/were built very quickly, mutta kirkkoa rakennettiin monta vuotta. but it took many years (of the people) to build the church If the verb in a passive sentence is not such a verb that always requires the partitive case for its object and the sentence is positive, not negative, then the object can stay either in nominative (talo, talo) or partitive case (taloa, taloja), never in genitive. If the object is one of the pronouns that have got the so-called "t-case", the pronoun takes it instead of the nominative form. When using the passive form and saying in Finnish, for instance, talo rakennettiin, the focus is on the activity of people, and not on the object, the "house". I have been told that in English you think more on what happens to the object (target): the house was being built and was ready built. V&A
109 Chapter IV, 1. "Made in Finland" is translated into Finnish by using the passive form tehty Suomessa = (tämä) on valmistettu Suomessa. The Finnish passive has a nature that differs from the English passive. The Finnish passive is somehow active: it always contains human activity. However, the Finnish passive does not or needs not reveal exactly who it was who does or did something. To the English words "made in Finland" it is easy to add an agent, "by whom", while in Finnish we must revert to an active form if we have to announce the manufacturer or who it was who made something. If there is the possibility that the "mysterious" agent was an animal or a group of animals, the use of passive brings a humorous aspect to the situation. We smile a little if somebody says juusto / juustoa on syöty '(the) cheese has been eaten', and we know that it must have been one or more mice who ate the cheese, acting like human beings. If it is not our intention to hide the person behind the passive form or if we wish to avoid giving the impression that we ourselves are involved in the activity, we reject the passive and arrange our thought otherwise. By using the active forms we can say it direct who it was who built the house or whom we accuse for the cheese eating. (Me) rakensimme talon / tämän talon. = Tämän talon me rakensimme. Joku on tehnyt tämän /Joku tämän on tehnyt. Hiiret ovat syöneet juustoa/juuston. We built a/this house = this house was built by us Somebody has made this Mice have eaten (the) cheese In fact, however, we do have a construction that is a "better" translation from English: (tämä on) tehty jonkun toimesta '(this is) made by somebody'. Sometimes, but rather only in writing, when we find passive and the word toimesta practical in the actual connection, we use it. Verb in a passive form, a name in genitive and the word toimesta is often a useless construction also for another reason. We namely have a special active construction that corresponds to the English "made by" construction in a Finnish way. We use an agential participle. The formula reads jonkun tekemä 'made by somebody'. An example sentence follows:
110 Chapter IV, 1., 2. Tämä on hänen rakentamansa / Oy Ab:n rakentama talo. This is a house built by him / by Messrs. Oy Ab' Here we have the subject (agent) in genitive and thereafter an adjectival past time participle "-raA". From rakentaa we get rakentama, from tehdä we get tekemä, and so on. Because the "-mA" participles are adjectives, they can be inflected in cases. You will learn to know the agential construction with "-mA" better in Chapter VI, point 3. See also the coming point 1.3 of the same Chapter VI. There the syllable "-mA" is in a different use, and it is called "the 3rd infinive". Wishes can be said by using verbs in passive: The normal passive forms of verbs can be used also for forming wishes that are addressed to groups of people. Often at the end of the verb there is a modifying particle like "-pA" or "-hAn". When a teacher is asking pupils to sit down, he or she may say istutaan! 'sit down, let's sit down!' by using the passive indicative present tense form, if he/she doesn't say it by using a direct command form istukaa! '(please) sit down'. Examples in which a teacher uses passive forms: Ollaanpa(s) ihmisiksi! Behave like human beings! Tehdäänpä (se) sitten näin. Let’s do it this way then! Nyt mennään, lähdetään! Let's go, let's leave now Ja nyt mentiin! (past tense!) And now, let's go / go quickly! 2. "ME" PASSIVE IN COLLOQUIAL USE Me tehdään se/sitä. < me teemme sen/sitä We shall do it Me ei tulla teille. < me emme tule teille We shall not come to you Me mennään kotiin. < me menemme kotiin We shall go home Ei me olla apinoita. < me emme ole apinoita We are not monkeys/apes Eilen me oltiin kotona. < eilen olimme kotona Yesterday we were at home
111 Chapter IV, 2. Me voisimme jo lähteä 'we could leave already' turns easily to passive: me voitaisiin io lähteä. Still shorter we say it colloquially: me voitas jo lähtee. Furthermore, instead of the literary correct negative form emmekö me voisi? 'could we not?' you may hear it shortened to eikö me voitas? In this connection you could repeat what was said about "Shortening and prolonging habits in speech" in Chapter I, point 1.8. We did not have passive verbal forms there among examples of everyday speech. The »i£-passive and the shortenings used in connection with it are colloquial forms but even academic persons use them freely. For the time being, until further notice, the use of iwe-passive is not recommended in writing. Almost every Finn, however, finds it natural to speak this way in the passive form, and in fact it is a handy form because then the object mostly can occur in nominative, the easy basic case, or at least in partitive, and we need not (cannot) use the genitive case. Note: In spite of the pronoun me (1st p.pl.) the construction is passive and the cases in which the objects can stay in a passive sentence are nominative and partitive: se or sitä (tehdään). Me 'we' is an additional declaration to a passive form, comparable with the pronouns sinä and te that can be added to command forms. Its function is to make it clear who the people behind the action are, namely we together, not you or they, people in general. I consider the /ne-passive to be acceptable, it is okey in speech, as long as the constructions are not mixed, i.e. if the object's form is chosen correctly according to the effect of the passive. People can forget this if they think or they are told that the "wie-passive" is equal with the me person and with the verbal conjugation in 1st p.pl. that belongs to it. As said, me tehdään instead of the normal form me teemme, it is not quite correct in standard written Finnish, yet, but in speech it is normal and need not be avoided even by a foreigner. However, a foreign learner of Finnish should master the literary correct forms first.
112 Chapter IV, 2, 3. You must not let it confuse you that in the me-passive it looks as if subject and object were in the same case nominative (me tehdään se) as they never should be. You need not be astonished if you hear that Finns themselves violate the object rules that according to me are so important to obey to ensure that the language we use is understandable. It is natural that people err and mix the constructions when talking, especially when they cut the speech, think over, change words or the word order. It is also true that sometimes, when we write long and complicated phrases and sentences, the result can cause difficulties to Finns themselves, too. Usually, we believe on our "ear" and trust on what it "says" to be the correct form of an object (or subject). Another person's ear can "hear" differently, and then the explanation to the problem can be that both forms which we were considering, suit equally well just in that sentence. 3. PASSIVE IMPERATIVE FORMS The Finnish language has also one command form in the passive. The passive imperative ending is ”-(tHAkOOn”. The passive imperative is a seldom used solemn verbal form that refers to groups of people, possibly including the speaker himself. When the verb is, for instance, sanoa 'to say' we formulate our proclamation this way in passive: vowel stem sano- + passive -tta- + -koon. From the verb mennä, menen, meni, mennyt, mennään, mentiin 'to go' this passive form would read: mentäköön (= (on) mentävä > mentäköön). In everyday life we use the normal passive and say mennään! when we suggest to a group that they or we should go. The passive command forms live in some idiomatic sayings: sanoa > Sanottakoon siitä mitä tahansa! Whatever one/they may say about it suoda > Suotakoon se hänelle! It shall be permitted to him ottaa > Tämä otettakoon huomioon! this must be considered
113 Chapter V, 1. V USING THE INFLECTED NOUNS 1. GENERAL REMARKS I will try to explain the use of the different cases to you, but in the end, it is the real texts and real speech that will teach you. In this book, you get model phrases and model sentences, as well as the possibility to do exercises by reading some short stories in Chapter VIII. Then at last (if not earlier) you will need a good dictionary, preferably both Finnish-English and English-Finnish. Without a predicate verb, one's thoughts normally remain incomplete. Nevertheless, the verb is the core, the most important word in a sentence, and the surrounding nouns complete its meaning. But we often understand for instance the newspaper headlines even if there is no verb because we guess the missing verb. The Finnish case endings are helpful by this! Commands can be given without a verb if there is a case ending that helps us to guess the meaning. When you knock at a door you hear sisään! (sisä- in illative) 'please come in'. We say hyvää päivää 'good day, hello', using the partitive forms of hyvä and päivä because the obviously missing verb toivottaa 'to express wishes' requires the partitive form: toivotan (sinulle) hvvää päivää 'I wish you a good day'. If one says hyvä päivä, it is a statement, not a greeting. There are grammar theories that explain that all the nominal phrases in a sentence could be called objects (or agents, arguments, satellites, etc.) of the predicate verb, but in this book, I use the term "object" (objekti, in Finnish) traditionally, and only in connection with transitive verbs. - Here you could repeat an earlier point (Chapter I, 2.1) about the normal word order because subjects, objects, verbs and adverbs were mentioned there. Now the predicate complement (predikatiivi) must be mentioned in addition to them. Predicate complements occur in sentences where the predicate verb is olla 'to be'. The verb olla is connected to a substantive (noun) or an adjective to announce how, or what, or whose something (the subject) is. As such the verb olla itself lacks meaning.
Chapter V, 1. 114 The verb olla often only draws parallels between things. Two examples of predicate complements in nominative sg: Hän on hyvä ystäväni. He/she is my good friend Hän on hvvin iloinen. He/she is very cheerful/happy If we think that the predicate verb on is the core, then we may see it surrounded by phrases that consist of nouns (hän, hyvä ystäväni, hyvin iloinen in the previous sentences). A noun phrase (= NP) may consist of one or several nouns that move together, in the same shape as an item, if the word order is changed. This is possible because in a Finnish sentence the NPs usually carry different case endings when compared each other. They are as if "dressed" differently for their different roles as subject, object, adverb. First of all, subjects differ from objects by their endings, and vice versa. This is a very important principle to know, and it will help you when you must make choices between the case endings. It is exceptional when the Finnish grammar falls short of that ideal principle of clarity, and subject and object fall similar. One exception is caused by the nominative pl. case "-t" for an object. Another is caused by the possibility to add a clarification to the active command forms and to the "me" passive forms. This question is basic when you wish to learn a new language: How do people communicate? With which forms and word orders do they tell each other, for instance, such an important message that somebody was hit or hurt and what the result was? Was the person wounded or dead? In Finnish we can give that kind of messages by mere case endings. It is a Finnish speciality that subject, object and predicate complement, all the three, can make use of the same three cases (nominative, genitive, partitive), in spite of the rather free word order. This fact makes the Finnish grammar system sensitive to errors and unclear utterances.
115 Chapter V, l.,2.1 Thus, the cases 1, 2 and 3 are said to be the most grammatical cases. In addition, the genitive case is very versatile in use. - Please look at the first triangle of Table 5. In a positive sentence, the partitive case of an object tells us that something was half-done, and the nominative and the genitive cases tell us that the result was final. The case forms partly depend on the choices that the speaker or the writer makes to express his thoughts, and partly on the special demands that the individual words, especially verbs, may have. In Chapter VII there is a list of verbs which require the nouns around them to stay in a certain case. If a verb has such requirements, your freedom in choosing the case form is restricted to a certain case, and it may be the partitive, elative, illative or something else. If you have strength enough to study the examples and exercises in this book with a dictionary in hand, you will be able to dive deep into the Finnish language. First of all, please study the case forms of different types of nouns and learn to inflect most nouns in cases. In this task the triangles of Table 5 will be helpful to you. 2. NOMINATIVE. GENITIVE AND PARTITIVE 2.1 Subjects in nominative, objects in genitive or partitive As meant in the heading, the objects can take either genitive or partitive if the subject is already in the nominative case. We could imagine that the subject can choose first, and, of course, it chooses the easy basic form. Lapsi haluaa jäätelön/jäätelöä. The child wants (to get) (an) ice-cream Mies ostaa ison talon. The man is going to buy a big house Mies ostaa (or on ostamassa) isoa taloa. The man is buying a big house (as you see / as I heard)
Chapter V, 2.1 116 The latest model sentences represent the "normal" word order (SVO): subject (lapsi, mies) + predicate verb (accordingly conjugated) + object. The word order is not fixed. We mostly can consider it and begin the sentence with almost any word and know how to continue as the situation and grammar demand. Thanks to the different case endings sentence constituents the Finnish word order is flexible. Following model sentences prove that it is fully possible to begin a sentence with an object: Isoa(pa) taloa on(kin) mies ostamassa. Kylläpä mies ostoakin ison talon. On(pa)(han) ostamassa mies isoa taloa. Ison(pa) talon mies ostaafkin). The man is buying a big house. Jäätelön/jäätelöä lapsi haluaa. The child wants (to get) (an) ice-cream (and nothing else). Jäätelöä, lapsi ei halua. The child does not wish any ice-cream. There is the noun talo and an adjective iso that is describing it. Together they form phrases in which the same case endings "-n" and "-a" are repeated: ison talon, isoa taloa. - For the modifying end particle "-pA", see back to Chapter II, point 1.4. Here the use of partitive for the object jäätelöä 'ice-cream' indicates that it is a question of a mass of material, or that the happening is still going on. - It is another matter that in negative sentences the object can only stay in the partitive form. The tautological repetition of the endings throughout the whole unit of a phrase, like isossa talossa, belongs to the system, and is useful. It makes it easy to recognise the separate NPs in a sentence, and it also contributes to proper understanding even if the attribute unit inside an NP sometimes happens to be long and complicated. Thanks to the different case endings of subjects and objects in Finnish sentences, the word order does not need to be fixed to the formula SVO.
117 Chapter V, 2.2 2.2 Subjects in genitive, objects in nominative or partitive {pitää, täytyy, pakko sentences) Pitää, täytyy and on pakko, all of them meaning 'must, be compelled', are used together with a subject (or agent) in genitive). These verbs can be called modal auxiliaries just as e.g. "miissen" ('must') in German, and this construction is called necessive construction. We conjugate our modal auxiliaries in the 3rd p.sg. form, with which we can express time and the way of happening. (minun, sinun, hänen) pitää, piti, on pitänyt, olisi pitänyt, pitänee (sen, meidän, teidän) täytyy, täytyi, on täytynyt, olisi täytynyt, täytynee The meaningful verb follows in its basic form, with which we cannot express time and the way of happening, e.g. (minun) pitää ostaa '(I) must buy'. The genitive case in these constructions is like reserved for the subject who must do something. This "who" can be mentioned or omitted according to what the speaker wants to say or leave open. If the genitive subject is omitted, the speaker is speaking generally, but may also mean that he himself is the one who must do something. (Minun) pitää ostaa oma asunto / matkalippu / mokaa. (1 or) one must buy a dwelling of my own / a ticket / food Asunto (meidän) on pakko ostaa tai vuokrata. One (or we) must buy or rent a dwelling Because the subject takes genitive (minun, meidän), the object (asunto, ruokaa) of a transitive verb can follow either in nominative or in partitive, but not in the genitive case. For instance, in the above sentences, it would be too unclear and ungrammatical to say two different NPs in genitive this way: * (minun) pitää ostaa + *oman *asunnon in order to mean 'I must buy an own dwelling'. If you try to express your thought of buying a dwelling of your own that way to a Finn, he opens his mouth and remains waiting a word coming in the nominative or partitive case to finish your incomplete sentence. ve-A
Chapter V, 2.3 118 2.3 Subjects in nominative or partitive Of course, nominative is the most normal case form for the subject of a transitive verb. In the previous point, genitive was presented as a case that subjects can use in a Finnish sentence if there is a modal auxiliary in the construction. Here you will learn about the partitive as a case for subjects in Finnish sentences, alternatively with the nominative case. Subject either in partitive or in nominative is possible if the predicate verb is intransitive, e.g. olla 'to be', tulla 'to come'. Because the verb does not have any, there is no risk of subjects and objects falling simutaneously into partitive in one and the same sentence. In the following collection of examples we have the intransitive verb olla in its existential meaning 'to exist, be found somewhere' together with a statement of time or place. Please note the importance of word order in these sentences: Tässä talossa on isäntä. This house has a master mutta emäntää ei ole. but there is no mistress of the house (existence or possession of a fact or person: nominative) (negation of existence: partitive) Emäntä ei ole kotona. The mistress is not at home Lasissa on maitoa / vettä. - Maito / vesi on lasissa. In the glass there is / the glass contains milk/water — The milk/water is in a/the glass Meillä on vieras / vieraita. - Talossa on vieras / vieraita. We have a guest / guests/visitors in the house Talossa pitää olla isäntä. - Pitäähän talossa olla isäntä! - Kyllä talossa isäntä olla pitää! A house must have a master (a temporary fact: nominative) (in this house there is a mistress but she is not at home.) (existence of material: partitive) (nominative + place where) (possession or existence: nominative or partitive) (necessity or possession: nominative)
119 Chapter V, 2.3 Ihmisellä pitää olla asunto / rahaa / ystäviä. (possession, existence: - Asunto / rahaa /ystäviä ihmisellä olla pitää. nominative or partitive) Man (one, you) must have a dwelling / money / friends Hänen (isännän) kvllä piti olla tänään kotona (belief in a fact: genitive) I was sure that he (the master) would be at home today Please note how the partitive case such as maitoa, vettä, rahaa 'milk, water, money' is used to refer to material and masses of things while the nominative would refer to a certain amount of material or to countable things in general. These constructions may be difficult to understand if you want to know precisely which word is the subject or is it something else like object, adverb or predicate complement because some sentences contain words in adessive ("-HA"). Don't worry. We can let linguists solve the problem. In fact, on this point the Finnish grammar is difficult in theory, but not necessarily in practice. If you hesitate when choosing a form, it can be a question of alternative ways to say the same thought. Please try to learn some model sentences by heart, and note the alternative forms. After having studied the previous model sentences, we shall now compare that usage with two more constructions where we use the verb olla: a) the way of expressing necessity with pitää, täytyy, on pakko together with the verb olla, and the subject in nominative (or genitive), and b) the Finnish way of expressing possession with the help of the same verb olla, and the owner in adessive case ("-11A") The verbs of necessity deserve a special attention when they occur before the basic form of olla in its normal intransitive meaning 'to be somewhere or something', often together with an announcement of place (kotona 'at home') or a predicate complement (ahkera 'studious'), e.g. Hänen (minun) pitää olla kotona. He/she (I) must be/remain at home Meidän tävtvv olla kärsivällisiä. We must be patient Sinun pitää olla ahkera. You must be studious
Chapter V, 2.3 120 Please note ahkera 'studious' in the last example. According to an old habit, some people put this kind of complements in genitive especially in more complicated sentences, which may contain a participle construction instead of a full että 'that' subordinate clause. More in Chapter VI. The Finnish language features a special possessive construction: We express possession by using the adessive case "-I1A" for the "possessor" (psychological subject). The verb olla 'to be' is fixed in its 3rd p.sg. form on, and the possessed things follow it either in nominative or partitive. We say minulla on 'I have' as if we were announcing that something is near by me or with me. The adessive case "-11A" can be understood this way locally even if a clear possession is concerned: minulla on, sinulla on, hänellä on, etc. The verb olla can be conjugated in moods and tenses. - More about the adessive case, number 10, will follow in point 4.2. Note: The word order is not fixed in the possessive constructions, either. A sentence can begin, for instance, with the verbal form on ("is"). Like olla, some other verbs can also be used in a singular form: Tulla 'to come' and leikkiä 'to play' can occur in their singular forms tulee '(it) comes', leikkii '(it) plays', and be followed by a subject in partitive, singular or plural, especially plural. The verb must be intransitive. Verbs that express movement usually are intransitive. Sentences can begin with the partitive subject, or the subject is saved until the end where it comes as a surprise. This kind of sentences which contain a surprise moment normally begin with a statement of place: Meille tulee vieraita. = Meille on tulossa vieraita. We are having guests, guests are coming to visit us Pihalla on (joukko) poikia leikkimässä. There are (some) boys playing in the yard Pihalla on kaksi poikaa leikkimässä. = Pihalla leikkii kaksi poikaa. There are two boys playing in the yard
121 Chapter V, 2.3, 2.4 But: Nuo kaksi poikaa leikkivät = (Ne / nuo) poiat leikkivät pihalla. Those two boys are playing in the yard Singular forms of predicate verbs are used if the subject is a numeral from two upwards just as kaksi 'two' in one of the model sentences above. In the last sentence there are two or more known boys who are playing, leikkivät. 2.4 Three cases for objects As in mies ostaa talon 'a/the man buys a house' the predicate verb ostaa stays in the present tense it refers to the present day or to the future: the man has decided to buy a house, and it is a fact. If we say mies ostaa taloa or mies on ostamassa taloa 'a/the man is buying a house', we are observing a situation and don't know how it will end. - See back to point 2.1. Thanks to the different case endings, we can begin a sentence with an object or some other word than the subject if we want to point it out e.g. talon mies osti ('it was a house that the man bought'), osti mies talon ('oh yes, he bought') and mies talon osti ('there was a/the man who bought'). As the subject mies 'man' stays in nominative, the object talo cannot take that case but either genitive or partitive. The partitive form taloa would be possible in a situation where the buying is just happening and the result is not seen yet. The choice between between a "total" and a "partitive" object in the above active sentence (osti is an active past tense form) is up to you. It is only the speaker who knows the situation how it is, or what he is going to tell about it. The following headlines tell us the result of shooting (ampua, ammun, ampui, ampunut, ammutaan 'to shoot') and the destiny of the object (karhu, karhun, karhua, karhuja 'bear') precisely: Mies ampui karhun. / Mies ampui karhua. a/the man shot a bear a/the man shot at a bear In the same way, lapsi juo maitoa describes a situation where a child is drinking milk, or it is fact that a/the child generally drinks milk.
122 Chapter V, 2.4 But, if lapsi juo maidon. the child drinks all of it or a certain amount that was given. (The verb is juoda, juon, joi, juonut, juodaan, juotiin 'to drink'.) If the milk is in a glass (lasissa), the child drinks lasin (or lasillisen) maitoa 'a glass of milk', if the child drinks all of it. Furthermore, the child may drink koko lasin maitoa 'a whole glass of milk', puoli lasia maitoa 'half a glass of milk' or kaksi lasia maitoa 'two glasses of milk'. Lapsi ei juo maitoa. - Maitoa lapsi ei juo. The child doesn't drink milk Mies ei osta taloa. - Ei mies taloa osta. The man doesn't buy a house If we deny a result or see a negative result, being or coming, we use the partitive case. This was something you already knew. Another basic rule or principle is this: Among the three possible cases for an object (nominative, genitive and partitive), at least one is always impossible. In general, we choose between two cases of those three, or we can be compelled to take the only possible case if the verb requires a certain case, and that is often partitive. You know Finnish quite well already, if you can avoid choosing just the impossible form, and do not say *minä teen *se, but either minä teen sen or minä teen sitä. Many verbs require their objects to be in partitive on the grounds of their durable or uncompleted meaning. Rakastaa 'to love' is such a verb that requires partitive: minä rakastan sinua 'I love you'. Unfortunately, the opposite vihata 'to hate' - vihaan sinua 'I hate you' - is similarly durable but, luckily, can also be only momentary ("until further notice"). We have such transitive verbs that require either genitive or nominative (a "total" object) and for which the partitive case is impossible. Another group of verbs may require translative "-ksi" or some ending of the six local cases, from number 7 to number 12. - See Chapter VII, Exercise 3. As noted already, the genitive plural form is not used for an object. For plural objects, there are only two cases: nominative pl. and partitive pl. Therefore, it sometimes happens that subject and object get the same nominative pl. ending "-t", for instance:
123 Chapter V, 2.4, 2.5 Koirat söivät (meiltä) voileivät / eväät (The) dogs ate the (our) sandwiches / packed lunch This ambiguity (nominative pl. twice) is a weakness of the system, but the most usual word order (SVO) and our general knowledge about the world will help us: sandwiches do not eat dogs, so the eaters must have been dogs. - T he word voileipä is a compound noun the parts of which are voi, voin, voita 'butter' and leipä, leivän, leipää, leipiä 'bread'. Eväs, eväät, eväitä 'food, packed lunch' is mostly used in its plural form. 2.5 Three cases for predicate complements Predicate complements describe things and persons using the intransitive verb olla 'to be' as a "middleman". The predicate complements obey the number of the main word to be described, and they can then use either the nominative or the partitive case. Ruoka oli maukasta / maukas. Mehu oli liian kuumaa. Elämä on lyhyt / ihanaa. Nämä ovat hyviä asioita. Sinun pitää olla ahkera. Sepä oli yllätys! The food was tasty The juice was loo hot. Life is short / lovely These are good things You must be busy What a surprise it was! Ruoka oli maukas could mean that the portion smelt good. The combination of a plural subject in partitive plus a plural predicative complement in partitive is impossible: *ihmisiä on *iloisia. This is correct use of partitive pl. for predicate complements: Ihmiset ovat iloisia. He ovat iloisia ihmisiä. The impossibility of the same case in two different roles is comparable with the corresponding "object rules". Ihmiset ovat iloiset is a possible sentence, but it is better to avoid also this similarity of endings in different roles. In singular we say lapsi on surullinen / kaunis 'the child is sad / beautiful', but not * lapsi on *surullista /*kaunista (partitive sg. forms)- that would be odd, unpleasant and ungrammatical because it is not a question of a mass noun or a abstract matter like here: Kahvi oli hvvää 'the coffee was good', Elämämme oli vaikeaa 'our life was difficult'. V6-4
124 Chapter V, 2.5, 2.6 The choice between two forms for predicate complements is comparable with the construction where we have a "possessor" in the adessive case "-11A" and the "possessed" things in nominative or in partitive, but not in genitive (see back to point 2.3): Liisalla on nätti mekko / kauniita mekkoja / kauniit vaatteet. Meillä oli sirkuksessa oikein hauskaa. Liisa has/wears a nice dress / Liisa owns nice dresses We had it very nice in the circus With the genitive forms we naturally announce possession: Se on minun. Se on Kallen. Kenen nämä kirjat ovat? Ne ovat meidän. Mikä näistä nyt on minun mikä sinun? It is mine, it belongs to Kalle Whose are these books? They are ours Which one of these now is mine and which is yours? 2.6 Genitive plural endings In genitive pl. some variants of the suffix are equivalent, i.e. we can choose either "-den" or "-(t)ten". If you see this or that ending in a noun, you know that the other ending is also possible, e.g. kauniiden = kauniitten ('of the beautiful ones'). The former forms with d are more common in writing than the others (according to frequency statistics), but as said, in speech people tend to avoid forms with d and can there prefer the plural forms with tt. The "-dän" ending of pronouns meidän, teidän, heidän is exceptional and literary. People avoid it by saying "meiän, meijjän, meirän". Furthermore, if you see that a noun ends in "-jA" or "-iA" in partitive pl., you know that in genitive pl. it reads "-Ien" (= "-ien" or "-jen", my solution here!). The actual ending is "-en" while i and j are plural markers. Partitive pl. forms Genitive sg. Genitive pl. taloja houses talon talojen kaloja fishes kalan kalojen äitejä mothers äidin äitien kieliä languages kielen kielien (or kielten) päiviä days päivän päivien (or päiväin)
Chapter V, 2.6, 2.7,3. 125 The ending "-ten" can occur if the noun has a consonant stem in addition to the vowel stem that every noun must have, e.g. ihmisten 'of men, people', toisten lasten äidit 'the mothers of the other children'. With the alternative case endings we get ihmisien, toisien lapsien äidit. For my pupils I would recommend the former forms "-ten" that are built on consonant stems because they may be easier to pronounce. 2.7 Genitive attributes in the genitive case The genitive case is basically possessive, according to its name and the usage in other languages. It may be odd that in Finnish this case also is in use of objects and subjects. The distinctive feature of genitive is "-n", and there are no prepositions or postpositions that could replace it. The normal position of a genitive attribute is before the main word where the descriptive attributes are placed, too, e.g. pienen tytön nuori äiti the young mother of a/the small girl pienten lasten nuoret äidit the young mothers of small children Genitive is also the case of many qualifiers to adjectival words, e.g. pienen pieni 'very little', suurenmoinen [suuremmoinen] 'magnificent'. 3. ESSIVE. ABESSIVE AND TRANSLATIVE Chapter II, point 3.1 already contained a lot of each of the Finnish cases, abessive included. Therefore, a short overview of the three cases which I have numbered with numbers 4, 5 and 6 is enough here. Essive ("-nA", case number 4) is capable of competing with nominative. Somebody can be either opettaja or opettajana 'teacher'. The meaning of the nominative case here is 'by profession'. The second teacher in essive (opettajana) works as a teacher, but may not have a permanent job.
Chapter V, 3., 4.1 126 Abessive ("-ttA", case number 5) is a case whose ending can be replaced by a separate word ilman that requires partitive: rahatta — ilman rahaa 'without money'. Therefore, abessive is said to be a marginal case. However, this case form is much used by a non-finite verb form called the 3rd infinitive (Chapter VI, point 1.3): sanaakaan sanomatta 'without saying a word'. Translative ("-ksi", case number 6) is used to express direction and movement "to" or change "into", but the case is also used in fixed expressions, e.g. anteeksi 'excuse me', toistaiseksi 'for the present, for now', onneksi 'fortunately, luckily', ilmaiseksi 'for nothing, without money'. Se muuttui mustaksi. Kääntäisitkö tämän englanniksi. Annan sen sinulle lahjaksi. Hän sanoi tietä hyväksi. Luulin sinua toiseksi ihmiseksi. Sisareni opiskeli ja valmistui sairaanhoitajaksi. It turned black Please, translate this into English! 1 am giving it as a present for you He/she said the road was/is good I took you for another man/woman My sister studied and qualified as a nurse maid. Translative is also used in fixed sayings such as anteeksi 'excuse me', toistaiseksi 'for the present', for now', onneksi 'fortunately, luckily', ilmaiseksi 'for nothing, without money'. 4. THE SIX LOCAL CASES 4.1 The local use of the six local cases The first three local cases, numbers 7, 8, 9 or inessive. elative and illative are "internal" cases. The next three cases numbers 10, 11, 12 or abessive. ablative and allative are "external". In principle, the local cases contain a clear local meaning: 'in/on a place', 'from a place' and 'to/into/onto a place'. Inessive ("-ssA", case number 7) and adessive ("-11A", case number 10) answer the question "where?", for instance, with these forms: talossa 'in a/the house', and talolla 'by a/the side of the house, near a house'.
127 Chapter V, 4.1 Elative ("-stA", case number 8) and ablative ("-ItA", case number 11) answer the question "from where?" for instance with these forms: talosta and talolta 'from inside' and 'from outside a/the house'. Illative (case number 9, different endings, see the headings of Table 1) and allative ("-lie", case number 12) answer the question "where to?" for instance with these forms: mihin?— taloon (illative) 'into the house', minne / mihin?- talolle (allative) 'near to the house'. The choice between the internal cases (numbers 7, 8, 9) and the external cases (numbers 10, 11, 12) is not always simple because the Finnish place names are divided into two groups: some use the internal local cases while the others use the external local cases. You - and we Finns, too - must learn to choose the case for each name separately, or according to some logic. When smaller places and towns are concerned, the habitants know best and tell the others how to inflect their place names in cases. Place names that are inflected in internal cases: Helsingissä, Espoossa, Lahdessa, Turussa, Kuopiossa, Oulussa, Porissa Vaasasta, Jyväskylästä, Pietarsaaresta, Englannista, Islannista, Ruotsista Kouvolaan, Espooseen, Lontooseen, Lahteen, Turkuun, Raaheen, Viroon Place names that are inflected in external cases: Vantaalla, Keravalla, Rovaniemellä, Tampereella, Raumalla, Lapualla Viitasaarelta, Ruotsinpyhtäältä, Lapinlahdelta, Lohjalta, Keuruulta Hyvinkäälle, Riihimäelle, Tampereelle, Suomussalmelle, Venäjälle The difference between the use of the local cases sometimes becomes clear only on the place itself. For instance, if you are Vuokatilla, you are high on the hill or on its slope. Vuokatti is situated in Kainuu, in Sotkamo, the rural district. If you are Vuokatissa. you are in the village and the tourist centre around the hill. Vuokatti, about 350 m high, is that kind of a mountain which is called vaara, vaaran, vaaraa, vaaroja. Vaara hills are found in eastern and middle Finland while tunturi hills belong to Lapland. - We say Pyhäjärvessä if we swim in a lake called Pyhäjärvi (Holy Lake'). Pyhäjärvellä people live. Pielisellä refers to boating and fishing because Pielinen is neither a town nor a village. It is a large lake in Northern Karelia.
128 Chapter V, 4.1, 4.2 Thus, some knowledge about the geography may help a lot for a foreigner when he is choosing the case form for a place name in Finnish. 4.2 The six local cases in special use Sometimes you will certainly consider the usage of an internal case to be odd. We are really are used to say when we need a doctor: menen lääkäriin 'I am going to see a doctor'. Further expressions: Taivas meni pilveen. The sky clouded over Nousen hevosen selkään. I am mounting a horse Istun hevosen selässä. I am sitting on a horse, riding Panen hatun päähän. 1 will put my hat on Lähden marjaan, kalaan.. 1 will go picking berries, fishing Puut puhkeavat lehteen / kukkaan. The trees are bursting into leaf / bloom Menen ulos hattu päässä I'll go out with my hat on ja käsineet kädessä. and my gloves on Saappaat / kengät ovat jalassa. The boots are on Riisun saappaat / kengät jalasta. I take off my boots Panen saappaat / kengät jalkaa(ni). 1 put the boots / shoes on The meening of jalka, jalan, jalkaa, jalkoja, nominative pl. jalat, is in Finnish not only the foot but the whole leg, also called sääri, säären, säärtä, sääriä. In the above examples jalka was used in singular. Plural forms are used if there is an adjective before the body part, e.g. vedän sukat kylmiin jalkoihini 'I am dragging socks on my cold feet'. But if somebody says saappaat ovat jaloissa, the boots are lying on the floor in people's way. The expression olla päissään (inessive pl. + poss. suffix = humalassa, with inessive sg.) 'to be drunk' is a phrase that has gone further from the concrete use of a local case. Similarly we say e.g. olen tosissani 'I mean it seriously'. The external cases of pää 'head' {päällä, päältä, päälle) are used when pieces of clothing are put on somebody's "shoulders". The formula reads: panna vaatteet / takki päälle 'to put on one's clothes / coat/jacket'. Päähineet 'headgear', like hattu 'hat' and kypärä 'helmet' are put päähän 'on the head, actually "into one's head'.
129 Chapter V, 4.2 About the use of the elative case: Elative ("-stA", case number 8). In the phrase jonkun mielestä 'in somebody's opinion', mieli 'mind' is in elative sg. Minun mielestäni 'in my opinion' can be said more shortly either minusta or mielestäni. Please note that pitää 'must' (+ basic form of another verb) is used in another meaning and as a completely other verb when it is conjugated as a normal verb pitää, pidän, piti, pitänyt, pidetään, pidettiin. In the meanings 'to like somebody/something' and 'to keep hold of it requires elative: pitää jostakin and pitää kiinni jostakin. Tykätä, tykkään jostakin 'to like something/somebody' means the same as pitää jostakin, but as it is felt to be a Swedish loan, it is not recommended in writing, until further notice. Pärjätä, pärjään jossakin / jollekin 'to get along, beat' and meinata, meinaan 'to mean to do' are similarly colloquial verbs. In fact, pärjätä is used widely and already felt a normal, useful verb. Tästä (elative) minä tykkään. I'm fond of this = Minä pidän tästä (elative). I like this = Tämä (nominative) miellyttää minua (partitive). This pleases me = Tätä (partitive) minä rakastan. I love this About the use of the adessive case: Adessive ("-HA" , case number 10) is used often because with it we express possession. This was mentioned in point 2.3 of this Chapter V, but it is worth of repeating before you read further. The way how we normally express possession with the help of a grammatical construction, in Finnish it is called omistusrakenne, may sound odd to foreigners. The said possessive construction is built on the normally intransitive verb olla 'to be'. The "possessor" that belongs to it is inflected in the adessive case "-I1A". The predicate verb olla remains fixed in its 3rd p.sg. form, mostly on, which is the indicative present tense form, but the past time forms oli, on ollut and oli ollut, and the conditional and the potential moods are also usable. - In my opinion, the possessed things are felt to be objects as in other languages, too.
Chapter V, 4.2 130 The choice between case forms for the "possessed things" or objects, as we are used to call them normally, goes between nominative and partitive, the genitive case being impossible. For some pronouns we have special forms marked by the ending "-t" to be used when the pronoun is understood to be a "total object". - Go back to Chapter II, point 4.1. Conclusion: Obviously the possessed things are objects also in the Finnish language, apart from the fact that the possessive construction uses the normally intransitive olla as the predicate verb and inflects the noun in adessive "-11A" to represent the "possessor" or "subject". When we say, for instance, on hyvä (or oli hyvä), että minulla oli sinut 'it is/was good that I had got you', we take use of the "t-case" or the "accusative" forms minut, sinut, hänet of some pronouns and give them the place that is "reserved" for objects inflected in a case called "accusative", like e.g. in the German language. Thus, that should mean that also all the other words that are given that place in nominative or partitive are objects! Naapureillamme on loistoauto, mutta heillä on myös polkupyöriä. = Naapurimme (subject) omistaa loistoauton, mutta myös polkupyöriä (objects) Our neighbours own a luxury car but also a lot of bikes Minulla (tai minussa) on paha nuha ja vähän kuumetta 1 have a bad cold and some fever The "possessor" that is inflected in adessive has got the role of being the actual subject that is still and owns the things that are "around him". The same thought can be expressed also by using the verb omistaa (< oma 'own') 'to own' which is a normal transitive verb. Omata, omaan 'to have' is more seldom used in the same meaning. The adjective omaava 'having' is derived from it. These words will be mentioned again in Chapter VI, point 2.1. Adessive "-HA" is also widely used in adverbs of tools and manner (in Finnish tavan adverbiaali). Then its meaning is 'with the help of, by means of. In some expressions adessive is in temporal use. Examples: Voit kirjoittaa sen (joko) kynällä (= käsin) tai koneella. You can write it with a pen (= by hand) or you can type it up
131 Chapter V, 4.2, 5.1 Matkustatteko sinne junalla, laivalla vai lentokoneella? Are you going to travel there by train, ship or aeroplane? Sinun pitää nukkua völlä ia valvoa päivällä. You must sleep at night and be awake by day About the use of allative: Allative ("-lie", case number 12) is widely used to express the thought of addressing something to or for a person, e.g. sanon / annan sen sinulle 'I’ll say / give it to you'. Sen 'it' is here the object in genitive sg. and sinulle 'to you' is like a statement of place, the receiver, explained to be one kind of the adverbials in the Finnish grammar, as far as I know. Note: Terms like “second object” or "objective" of the English grammar are not used in the Finnish grammar. The words objektiivi and linssi 'lens' are connected with cameras. Objektiivinen 'objective' is puolueeton 'neutral'. The adverb suunnilleen 'approximately, nearly' contains suunta 'direction' in allative pl. "-ille", and in addition there is a possessive suffix. 5. COMITATIVE AND INSTRUCTIVE 5.1 Comitative, Case number 13, 'in the company of The ending of comitative is "-ne", and it is always equipped with an i ("-ine") as a marker of plurality, and with a possessive suffix, which is added once and to the main noun only, not to an attribute before it. The comitative case has no singular forms. We cannot help it that vaimoineen 'with his wife' sounds plural, and that lapsineen 'with her/his child/children' or ystävineen 'with her/his friends' does not tell other people if they are one or more. kaksi kättä > kaksine käsineen with his/her two hands monta vaivaa > monine vaivoineen with his/her many troubles Comitative is in one respect similar with the abessive case: both of them can be replaced by a suitable preposition or postposition.
132 Chapter V, 5.1, 5.2 Kanssa 'with' is postposition that is well suitable to replace the comitative case. It requires genitive and a possessive suffix can be added to it: If there is a gradation before the comitative ending, the grade is strong. The ending "-tAr" in tytär, tyttären, tytärtä, tyttäriä 'daughter' obeys gradation, tt ~ t. just as "-tOn" does, for instance, rahaton, rahattoman, rahatonta, rahattomia 'without money'. The comitative form likaisine comes from likainen 'dirty' and that again comes from lika, lian, likaa, likoja 'dirt'. The suffixes of derivation will be handled in point 6.1 of this Chapter V. In Chapter II, point 4, I warned you about excessive use of pronouns and possessive suffixes. 5.2 Instructive, case number 14, 'by means of The ending is ”-n" in singular and "-in" in plural. In singular the forms are identical with genitive sg. Therefore, instructive sg. is considered to be a marginal case that no longer exists as a productive case. However, it still exists in many fixed expressions, in which the endings look like genitive sg. endings. For instance, ilman 'without' is ilma 'air' in the old instructive sg. The word form jalan is both the genitive sg. and the instructive sg. form of jalka 'foot, leg'. In connection with a suitable verb, such as mennä, menen 'and kulkea, kuljen 'to go' the meaning of jalan is 'by/on foot'. The Finnish language also features a non-finite verbal form that ends in ”-en" and is called the 2nd infinitive in the instructive form (see Chapter VI, point 1.2). Examples of it follow: vaimon kanssa / vaimonsa kanssa (= vaimoineen) pienen lapseni kanssa / pienten lasteni kanssa (= pienine lapsineni) kaksine / molempine tvttärineen < kaksi tytärtä with his wife with my small child / with my small children with her/his two daughters' with his/her dirty shoes' with his troops likaisine kenkineen < likaiset kengät joukkoineen < joukko V&«4
133 Chapter V, 5.2 kävellen (= jalan, jalaisin) < kävellä on foot mennen tullen < mennä, tulla "going coming”, there and back tieten tahtoen < tietää, tahtoa "knowing willing", knowingly In Chapter II, point 5 you got acquainted with the superlative of adjectives, and now we note that superlative uses the same suffix "-in" in its basic form as this instructive pl. In fact, these forms, the superlative and the plural form of instructive are mostly identical as long as adjectives are concerned. Suurin toiveeni (nominative sg.) would mean ’my greatest hope’. The "superlative rule" is helpful. The instructive pl. forms are often phrases that consist of two nouns, of which the first one can also occur in another case: Nominative sg. and pl. forms Instructive pl. forms kaksi kättä, kahdet kädet paljas pää, paljaat päät tyhjä suu, tyhjät suut herkkä mieli, herkät mielet sankka joukko , sankat joukot tämä tapa, nämä tavat tämä maa, nämä tavat hyvä mieli, hyvät mielet kaksin käsin paljain päin tyhjin suin herkin mielin sankoin joukoin tällä tavoin (= näin) näillä main hyvillä mielin with two hands hatless, bare-headed empty (mouth) with sensitive minds in vast crowds in this way around here in happy mood Instructive pl. forms pienin, suurin löysin rantein (< ranne') Genitive pl. forms pienien /pienten; suurien / suurten löysien / löysäin; ranteiden / ranteitten The instructive pl. forms with "-in" might be confused with those alternative genitive pl. forms that also end in "-in". Words that end in the vowel a can have two alternative forms in genitive plural: herkkä ’sensitive’ herkkäin = herkkien ranta ’shore’ rantain = rantojen Kautta rantain is a phrase where rantain must be ranta in genitive pl. because kautta ’via, through’ is here a preposition that requires genitive.
Chapter V, 5.2, 6.1 134 Ranta and herkkä would read rannoin and herkin in instructive pl. If a noun obeys gradation, it is weak before the instructive pl. forms, as you see. Vaivoin 'with difficulty' is instructive pl., but vaivoin 'of difficulties' is genitive pl. Both forms are built on the same noun vaiva, vaivan, vaivaa, vaivoja 'trouble'. The word-final a has turned to o in instructive pl. Because of an i vowel in the basic form, adjectives like kaunis, kauniin 'beautiful' > kauniimpi and kaunein (comparative and superlative) can get similar forms when inflected in singular and plural cases. The superlative form can do also for instructive (kaunein sanoin) but the use of it can be avoided by using the adessive case: kaunilla sanoilla' with nice words'. In principle, all the case forms of a Finnish noun always differ from each other and cannot be confused. 6. MORE ABOUT THE FINNISH WORDS 6.1 From shorter words to longer words; derivation You have already noticed how Finnish words are built on each other, and how they form families. Let's take the word kirja 'book' and make a list of some of its "descendants or relatives": kirje, kirjeen, kirjettä, kirjeitä > kirjoittaa to write kirjasto, kirjaston, kirjastoa, kirjastoja > kirjoitus writing, text kirjailija, kirjailijan, kirjailijaa, kirjailijoita > kirjallisuus literature Adverbs ending in "-min" are bom from other adverbs as well as from the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives. From kova 'hard, loud' we get the adverb kovaa on which we can ask miten kovaa, kuinka nopeasti or äänekkäästi. From the comparing degrees kovempi and kovin we can derive the adverbs kovemmin 'louder' and kovimmin 'most loudly'. The corresponding derivations of hyvä 'good' are parempi and paras, and furthermore of them we get paremmin 'in a better way' and parhaimmin / parhaiten 'in the best way'.
135 Chapter V, 6.1 With a "-minen" ending we make nouns (substantives) from all verbs, e.g. kirjoittaa > kirjoittaminen 'writing'. The form is called the 4th infinitive. From nouns we build adjectives with the ending "-(i)nen". From tuli, tulen, tulta, tulia 'fire' we get tulinen, tulisen, tulista, tulisia 'fiery, hot', and from this we build an adverb of manner: tulisesti 'hotly'. More examples: kirje letter > kirjeellinen > kirjeellisesti by letter kirja book > kirjallinen > kirjallisesti in writing kirjain letter > kirjaimellinen > kirjaimellisesti literally onni luck > onnellinen > onnellisesti happily ystävä friend > ystävällinen > ystävällisesti friendly With a shorter ending "-sti" wc form adverbs from every adjective this way: suuri, suuren big, great > suuresti greatly valitettava regrettable > valitettavasti regrettably hidas, hitaan slow > hitaasti slowly The above adverbs of manner answer the question "miten / kuinka jokin tapahtuu" 'how, in which way something happens'. Many undeclinable derivations are marked by an ending that is the instructive pl. case, for instance, hyvin 'well', oikein 'right'. If such an undeclinable word looks like the genitive sg., the case obviously is the singular form of instructive: ihan oikein 'just right'. A group of widely used endings, with which we build new words: "-in: -ime-" tulostin 'printer' (genitive sg. tulostimen) puhelin, puhelimen 'telephone' < tulostaa (< tulla < puhua to print to come) to speak "-isin" päivisin 'on day times' iltaisin 'in the evenings' < päivä < ilta day evening "-ittAin" ajoittain 'at times' parittain 'in pairs, two by two' < aika, ajan < pari time pair "-jA" tekijä 'maker, factor' < tehdä to make, do ve-4
Chapter V, 6.1 136 -1A" ravintola ’restaurant' huvila ’villa, cottage' < ravinto < huvi food, eating pleasure, fun -lAinen" pakolainen ’fugitive, refugee' < pako flight, escape -Uinen" pakollinen 'compulsory, obligatory' < pakko compulsion, force -ntA" hallinta ’occupation, possession' < hallita to control -ntO" tuotanto ’production' < tuottaa to produce -stO" laivasto ’navy' vesistö ’river and lake system' < laiva < vesi ship water -tUs" hallitus ’government, board' hälytys ’alarm' < hallita < hälyttää to rule over to alarm -tAr" tarjoilijatar 'waitress' < tarjoilla to serve -tOn" sanaton, sanattoman 'speechless' arvoton, arvottoman 'worthless' < sana < arvo word worth About the "-tOn" words: The ending "-tOn" is added to nouns directly as done above: sana ('word') + "-tOn" = sanaton. From the word haju ('smell, odour1) we get: haju > hajuton, hajuttoman, hajutonta, hajuttomia odourless asunto > asunnoton, asunnottoman, asunnotonta, homeless asunnottomia luonto > luonnoton, luonnottoman, luonnotonta unnatural luonnottomia (opposite: luonnollinen 'natural') Please note that the "-tOn" words have a weak grade and a vowel stem in the middle of their basic form: asunto > asunno-, ehto > ehdo- and luonto > luonno-. The reason of the weak grade in ”-tOn" words is that it would be U6-4
137 Chapter V, 6.1 too complicated to master two places of gradation in a word simultaneously: first nt ~ nn or ht ~ hd and then the variation between t and tt in the suffix. Later, in Chapter VI, 3.2, you will get acquainted with "-mAtOn". with which we build adjectives from all verbs (for instance, sanoa 'to say' > sanomaton 'unsaid'). About the "-kAs" words: We have an ending "-kas" the meaning of which is 'equipped with, containing or owing something'. Thus, it is an opposite of "-tOn" ('without something'). For instance, from maku 'taste' we can derive two words which have opposite meanings: maukas, maukkaan, maukasta, maukkaita 'tasty' and mauton, mauttoman, mautonta, mauttomia 'tasteless'. The consonant k of the suffix "-kAs" represents the weak grade of kk. More examples of words derived using the ending "-kAs": onni > onnekas, onnekkaan, onnekasta, onnekkaita lucky pelko > pelokas, pelokkaan, pelokasta, pelokkaita fearful vara(t) > varakas, varakkaan, varakasta, varakkaita wealthy About "-tAr" words: The ending "-tAr" obeys the consonant grading tt ~ t. The "-tAr" words refer to female persons and are inflected like tytär 'daughter': tytär, tyttären, tytärtä, tyttäriä. In earlier times, such words as sairaanhoitajatar, -hoitajattaren 'nurse', opettajatar 'woman teacher' were used but in the modem world this suffix "-tAr" is mostly unnecessary. Instead, we say naisopettaja 'woman teacher', miesopettaja 'teacher' and naispoliisi 'woman police officer', if the gender is significant in a situation and the words opettaja and poliisi don't say enough. Some female words are playful, e.g. pariisitar, pariisittaren 'Parisienne'.
138 Chapter V, 6.2 6.2 Compound nouns You should leam- like Finns themselves already in school should learn- to master the compounds and know when two words are written together and when apart. Forming compounds is a usual way to make new words. In English you mostly write compound nouns separately or put a hyphen (-) between the parts. In Finnish compounds it is notable that the stress lies on the first part of the combination. If the parts shall not be written together, both parts are equally stressed. If you hear both parts equally stressed, you can be quite sure that the successive words are not written together but are two separate words. Finnish compounds are not always found in dictionaries because we can build new ones and we can guess the meanings on the basis of their parts. Compounds are mostly such nouns that we call substantiivi, and sometimes they look very long. You will find the parts of a long word by reading it syllable by syllable. That way it becomes easier to note, for instance, that omakotitalo = o-ma-ko-ti-ta-lo 'a single-family house' consists of three parts: oma 'own' + koti 'home' + talo 'house'. Externally the compounds often seem to break the rule of vowel harmony like aamupäivä 'forenoon', väliaika 'interval'. On these words you know immediately that they must be compounds consisting of aamu + päivä and väli + aika. In Finland we have created norms for the written language. For instance, it has been agreed that we write suomen kieli 'the Finnish language' with two words. Please note that suomi, the language, is written with the small initial. Written with a capital letter it means the country (Suomi = 'Finland'). The corresponding adjectives are written together with small initials: suomen kieli > suomenkielinen 'written/spoken in Finnish'. Keski-Suomi 'Central Finland' > keskisuomalainen 'from Central Finland'. We write äidinkieli 'native tongue' together while äidin kieli would refer to the concrete thing ("mother's tongue"). Thus, separation of parts may give another meaning, especially if the first part is in genitive.
139 Chapter V, 6.2 If the separation of parts does not affect meaning, then the parts can sometimes be written apart in order to make the text look lighter. It is not advisable to separate a compound word where the first part is in nominative. It would be very confusing to see e.g. kirjakauppa 'bookshop' written with two separate, independent words - actually it would mean nothing at all. For instance, hyvä kauppa 'good deal, shop' would be a meaningful nominal phrase. - Not at all all the Finns are experts to know which words are written together and which apart. Usually the first part of a compound noun is either in the nominative or in the genitive case form. The first part of a compound word often ends in "-n" or ”-s". The "-s" ending mostly originates from "-nen" which has been shortened to end in "-s": aamiaistunti < aamiainen + tunti 'breakfast time', suomalais- < suomalainen. A dictionary is suomalais-englantilainen (= suomalainen + englantilainen) sanakirja. Pohjois-Suomi 'northern Finland' is written so. However, sometimes the "-s" in the middle of a compound noun is original and not made of "-nen" but belongs to the first part. Keskus, keskuksen 'central' ends in "-s":, keskussairaala 'central hospital' as well as tapaus 'case, instance' > tapauskohtainen 'case by case', täysi 'full, complete' > täysistunto 'plenary session'. In some compound nouns the genitive form of the first part is possessive while in some it is objective in its relation to the second part. The first part must then be a derivation from a transitive verb, i.e. stay in the role of an object to the second part. Even then it can be acceptable that the first part is in nominative if a similar use of nominative is found in comparable words. Uninflected first parts (in nominative) usually describe, explain or classify the second part, or it can also be that the parts are of the same value, in balance and therefore, both in nominative. Other case forms are also met in compounds, for instance, the ablative (case number 11): maaltapako 'rural depopulation' (< pako, paon, pakoa, pakoja 'escape, flight' < paeta 'to flee, pakenen 'I flee).
Chapter V, 6.2 140 Examples with first parts the in nominative or in the genitive case: maailma maa + ilma kukkakauppa kukka + kauppa tulovero tulo + vero yksipuolinen yksi + puoli- + nen kaksikielinen kaksi + kieli- + nen hyväkuntoinen hyvä + kunto- + inen earth + air = world florist's income tax one-sided bilingual in good condition/shape hyvännäköinen hyvä- n + näkö- + inen äitienpäivä äiti- en + päivä lainananto laina- n + anto (< antaa ’to give’) illanvietto il-(ta) lan + vietto (< viettää) työnantaja työ- n + antaja (<antaa) veronpidätys vero- n + pidätys (< pidättää) lending of money evening entertainment employer tax deduction good looking mother's day Separation of parts can result in another meaning, especially when the first part is in genitive. The possibility to cut a too long compound into two parts is sometimes welcome. Separation can also be used occasionally to ensure proper understanding. In speech we bind the words correct together through stress and intonation. In writing it is possible to add a hyphen (-) when there are two successive words in genitive in order to avoid possessive associations where it is not a question of owning a thing: Dalai Laman Kiinan-matka = Dalai Laman matka Kiinaan Dalai Lama's trip to China Suomen Oslon-suurlähettiläs Ole Norrback Ole Norrback, the Finnish Ambassador to Oslo About compound verbs: Compound verbs are new, usually very modem verbs, such as koeajaa ’to test drive’ (a car), built after the noun koeajo. This word (koe + ajo) obviously existed first. Our verbs are normally simple without any prefixes, either, but "-epä" can be mentioned here. From e.g. onnistua ’to succeed’ and onni ’luck’ we get epäonnistua ’to fail, not succeed’, and epäonni ’failure, misfortune’.
141 Chapter V, 6.2, 6.3 We have the verb uida ’to swim’, and from the expression uida avannossa ’to swim in a hole in the ice’ we get a name for the hobby, avantouinti (spelled: a-van-to-uin-ti) ’winter swimming’. We do not have such a verb as *avantouida, but we must say uida avannossa ’to swim in avanto’. Many foreigners in Finland hear the word maahanmuuttaja ’immigrant’, but the corresponding verb *maahanmuuttaa does not exist yet. If a verb is needed to express that thought, the parts are used separately, mostly in converted order: muuttaa maahan ’to immigrate (into the country)’. 6.3 Model sentences where things are compared Now we revert to the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives that you learned in Chapter 2, point 5 ’’Comparison”. You noticed that gradation mp - mm happens both in comparative and in superlative endings when they are inflected in cases. When we compare things we need words like kuin ’like, as’ and yhtä ’equal’, and the word pair yhtä - kuin ’as - as’ (+ the basic form). Se oli kuin unta / uni. Kaikki olivat yhtä hyviä. Se on yhtä hyvä kuin tämä. Se on parempi kuin tuo. Mikä näistä on paras? Mitä näistä pidät parhaana? Hän oli paljon nopeampi kuin me / Hän oli meitä nopeampi Sinä puhut englantia vähän paremmin kuin minä. It was like a dream All (of them) were equally good It is as good as this It is better than that Which of these is the best? Which of these do you find best? He/she was much quicker than we are/were. You speak English a little better than 1 do. The positive grade is emphasised with adverbs: erittäin hyvä 'very good', hyvin pieni 'very small', liian iso 'too big'. The comparative forms are emphasised with the word pair mitä - sitä (or alternatively mitä - sen) 'the - the', but for the superlative forms the mere mitä is used: ve-4
142 Chapter V, 6.3, 6.4 Mitä nopeampi lento, sitä/ sen parempi. the quicker the flight (is), the better Sää on mitä parhain / mitä kaunein. the weather is most beautiful It may be something special in the Finnish language that even some adverbs and nouns can be equipped with a comparative or a superlative suffix and inflected in cases, e.g. kaukana far away > kauempana, kauimpana more / most far away tuolla there > tuonnempi > tuonnempana more there lähi near > lähin > lähimpänä / lähinnä most near (to) ranta shore > rannempi > rannemmalla more there on the shore kevät spring > keväämpi > keväämmällä later in the spring Note: If you find the forms of comparison difficult in the beginning, you may simplify the matter with the little words enemmän 'more' and eniten 'most' and say: enemmän hyvä, enemmän kaunis, eniten hyvä, eniten kaunis, etc. But, please note that this usage is quite odd to a Finn, and only complicates the adjectival inflection. 6.4 More numerals and other useful words Here we continue listing useful words for your pronouncing exercises: 100 sata {sata, sadan, sataa, satoja) 500 viisi sataa / viisisataa 1000 tuhat {tuhat, tuhannen, tuhatta, tuhansia) 2001 kaksituhattayksi 1 000 000 miljoona 2 000 000 kaksi miljoonaa / kaksimiljoonaa 500 000 puoli miljoonaa / viisisataa tuhatta Toista, kymmentä, sataa* tuhatta and miljoonaa are partitive singular forms. Toista is the partitive sg. form of toinen 'second, other' and its meaning is 'of the second (tenth)'. Yksitoista is the first number of "ten again"and kaksitoista is the second number of the second group of ten. The word yksi 'one' is not needed before sata, tuhat, tuhatyhdeksänsataa, miljoona, etc. because, of course, a word in nominative sg. is "one". Yksi is used when counting things, as in mathematics. ve-A
143 Chapter V, 6.4 Thus, when reading the years from our last century you must not start saying [*yksituhatyhdeksänsataa] but you say tuhatyhdeksänsataa '1900'. The abbreviation of the word vuosi is v. (= the letter v + point). If we see "v. 2012" we read it: vuonna kaksituhatta kaksitoista. In numerals from 11 to 19 the second part "-toista" remains even if the first part were inflected: neliäksitoista päiväksi 'for 14 days' (translative sg.). Therefore, by shortening, we need not write " 14:ksitoista", but "14:ksi" is enough. Toista is the word toinen in nominative sg. Ordinal numbers are equipped with a point, 20. = kahdeskymmenes. The point should not be left out. The inflected forms of ordinals are quite complicated because the suffix is repeated. For example, in genitive it goes this way: 20. > "kahdennenkymmenennen", 11. > "yhdennentoista". - For numerals, see Table 1, pages 3/6 and 6/6. Ordinals (järjestysluvut) Davs of the week (viikonpäivät) 1. ensimmäinen, ensimmäisen maanantai 2. toinen, toisen tiistai 3. kolmas, kolmannen keskiviikko 4. neljäs, neljännen torstai 5. viides, viidennen perjantai 6. kuudes, kuudennen lauantai 7. seitsemäs, seitsemännen sunnuntai 8. kahdeksas, kahdeksannen 9. yhdeksäs, yhdeksännen 10. kymmenes, kymmenennen 11. yhdestoista, yhdennentoista 12. kahdestoista, kahdennentoista 13. kolmastoista, kolmannentoista Monday T uesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday The ending "-tai" of the days of week has something in common with the words that mean "day" in other European languages. It is a loaned ending. Keskiviikko 'Wednesday' is a direct translation from the German "Mittwoche" ('middle of the week'). On notice boards giving the office hours, you see how the days of week are shortened to consist of two letters only: ma, ti, ke, to, pe, la, su. 1)&A
144 Chapter V, 6.4 Auki or avoinna means 'open', and kiinni or suljettu means 'closed', aukioloaika (singular form) or aukioloajat (plural form) 'opening hours'. The clock times are given after klo = kello 'clock'. In Finland the expression kello 10 ('at 10 o'clock') can be understood either as aamupäivällä 'a.m., before noon' or iltapäivällä / illalla 'p.m., in the evening'. We don't use the Latin (and English) abbreviations a.m. and p.m. but our ones ap. and ip. The evening times are mostly announced by saying kello 18, kello 22, but if it is clear that we are talking about the evening, then we can announce it shorter: kello 6 = kuudelta (illalla) and kello 10 = kymmeneltä (illalla). A date like 15.4.1900 is read [viidentenätoista päivänä huhtikuuta (vuonna) tuhatyhdeksänsataa]. Alternatively, we can read it shorter: [viidestoista neljättä 1900] or [huhtikuun viidestoista 1900]. - Please note that the partitive form neljättä is used for the month. Neljännettä would be the abessive form ("-ttA") of neljäs 'fourth'. The essive case ("-nA") is used for weekdays, the word vuosi, etc.: perjantaina, tänä vuonna, talvella > tänä talvena 'in winter, this winter'. Viikko 'week' is inflected in adessive (-11A") when we say tällä viikolla, ensi viikolla 'this week, next week'. Kuukausi 'month' occurs in inessive, for instance, viime kuussa 'last month'. When a text contains numbers we must know how to read them even if the relevant case endings are not marked there but are meant to be read from the following word, e.g. 27 [kahdestakymmenestäseitsemästä] maasta 'from 27 countries'. Other abbreviations, which may consist of capital letters, are equipped with case endings after a colon, e.g. A:sta Ö. hön 'from A to Ö'. Case ending is added when it is needed for a proper reading and understanding. To leave the case endings away, it is the same as to demand that a language that operates with prepositions should be understandable also without prepositions. You will get exercising in learning to read Finnish numerals as soon as you are ready to read the last story "Winter tourism in Finland" in Chapter VIII of this book where there are numbers with and without case endings.
145 Chapter V, 6.5 6.5 About singular and plural forms with numerals If a figure before a noun is bigger than one (number 1 in its basic form), then the counted thing gets the suffix of partitive singular ("-A/-tA"). Therefore, we say sata (100), but viisi sataa (500), kaksi pientä leipää 'two little breads', seitsemän veljestä '7 brothers' (veli > veljes, veljeksen). If we inflect the numeral in a phrase, we must inflect the whole phrase which may consist of pronouns, numerals, adjectives and nouns. (Note the English word "noun"; in Finnish I would like to use the word substantiivi.) Phrases in nominative and inflected in genitive and allative: yksi vihainen koira yhden vihasen koiran takia because of 1 angry dog kaksi mustaa kissaa kahdelle mustalle kissalle for (the) 2 black cats seitsemän päivää seitsemän päivän aikana during/in 7 days When the subject phrase contains a numeral, the predicate verb can stay either in singular or in plural but not freely. This choosing possibility is one of the ways we have in Finnish to replace the lack of definite and indefinite articles. If the verb stays in plural (3rd p.pl. "-vAt"), it can be a question of a certain group. Let's compare the sentences: sg. Kaksi miestä tekee työn nopeammin kuin yksi (mies). Two men do a/the job faster than one sg. Neliä turistia hautautui lumeen Itävallassa. Four tourists were buried in snow in Austria But: Mitkä ovat Suomen neliä suurinta kaupunkia? Which are the four biggest cities in Finland? The first sentence was a general statement; nothing was said about two particular men. The second was a piece of news that we could read as the first news of an accident, (hautautua 'to be buried' < hauta 'grave'). If the predicate verb had been hautautuivat. 3rd p.pl., it would sound very odd and make us ask: Where did we hear about them earlier? Were they the only tourists ever seen there? Some nouns have their basic form in nominative plural: V&Ji
Chapter V, 6.5, 6.6 146 aivot, aivojen, aivoja kasvot, kasvojen, kasvoja häät, häiden / häitten, häitä hautajaiset, haustajaisten, hautajaisia brain face wedding funeral When a plural word like häät has a numeral before it the numeral is inflected in plural in the same case with it: yksi > yhdet 'ones', yksien, yksiä. Olemme olleet kaksissa häissä 'we have visit two weddings'. A newspaper (sanomalehti) writes as an institution in singular even if its name should carry a plural ending: Helsingin Sanomat kirjoittaa '(the newspaper) HS writes'. Furthermore, 'Yhdysvallat julisti sodan terrorismia vastaan 'the U.S.A. waged war against terrorism'. 6.6 Politeness through pronouns, endings, phrases We do not have such a simple word as "please" in our language. Finns may sound impolite when speaking English as they often forget to say "please". Now I will try to explain why. Our ole hyvä and olkaa hyvä are not used in the same way and as much as "please" is used. Ole and olkaa are imperative forms of the verb olla - we ask, not even beg an other person to be "good". And furthermore: When addressing our speech to a new person we meet, we must first decide if we are going to speak formally or informally to the other person, i.e. if we conjugate the verbs in the 2nd p.sg. or 2nd p.pl. and if we use the pronoun sinä or te (Te in writing). In Finnish we say: sinä > ole hyvä (to one person, familiarly) te (Te) > olkaa hyvä (to one person, politely) te > olkaa hyvä(t) (to several persons, familiarly or politely) We use these words easily, for instance, when handing something over to somebody: Tässä, ole hyvä! But we don't repeat our "ole hyvä" too often. We have other ways to express courtesy, for instance, some special forms of verbs like the conditional "-isi", with which we can tone down the message: Olisitko hyvä ja...? 'would you please'. V&A
147 Chapter V, 6.6 Between friends, co-workers and young people we use the pronoun sinä 'you' quite freely everywhere. Therefore, you must not feel offended when a Finn, according to his feeling of being "equal" with you, or being accustomed to say sinä to everybody in his or her own surroundings, calls you sinä, especially if you have introduced yourself with your first name. If we use the first names, we also use the pronoun sinä. The pronoun te 'you' (2nd p.pl.) and the word olkaa hyvä refer either to several persons or a group of friends or strangers, or to one person, perhaps a unfamiliar person or an elder person, to whom you address your speech in a formal way. Finns, at least old people, still use the pronoun te (Te) to one person more than Swedes use their courtesy pronoun "Ni" in Sweden. In Finland many middle-aged woman can take it also as a compliment on her "young" appearance or voice if she is called sinä, not tel When speaking on streets, in shops or on the phone, it still is advisable to use the pronoun te 'you' to somebody we are meeting and speaking to for the first time, and may not meet many times later, or if we doubt that the other is much older and more notable than we are. - Formal speaking can, however, also be used deliberately insulting. It depends on the situation. Please note these special verbs we have in Finnish: sinutella 'to be on first name terms with somebody' and teititellä 'to address somebody formally'. Sinuttelemme toisiamme 'we say "sinä" to each other'. The verbs are derived from pronouns sinä and te to which "-tellA" has been added. Puhutella 'to speak to' < puhua 'to speak' and kätellä 'to shake hands' < käsi 'hand' have been built with the same formula. The "-tellA" verbs require the partitive case (toisiamme) and obey the consonant gradation tt ~ t. Hvvästellä. hyvästelen 'to say goodbye to' comes from hyvä 'good'. It can be used also with the total object's cases because it is possible to say goodbye forever. The Finnish goodbye words are hyvästi and näkemiin (< nähdä). The words we say on the phone are kuulemiin (< kuulla) or kiitos, hei, moi or whatever people are used to say. About the difference of verbal endings "-nUt" and "-neet": (Te) olette tehnyt hyvää työtä. (said o one person) (Te) olette tehneet hyvää työtä. (said to many persons)
Chapter V, 6.6, 6.7 148 Even if the translations of the Finnish words sinä olet tehnyt, Te olette tehnyt and te olette tehneet into English is the same 'you have done', the difference is big in Finnish. If we wish to be very polite to one person, we use the plural pronoun te (Te) together with the singular verbal ending "-nUt"of perfect and pluperfect tenses (times of gone happening), but we use te (Te) and the plural ending "-neet" when we speak to several persons. In business and private letters we write the pronouns of the first person with lower case initials (minä, me), and the courtesy pronouns of the second person with upper case initials - Te, always and Sinä sometimes. We choose the past time suffixes for verbs accordingly. We don't use separate pronouns as subject unless they a stressed. We must not add possessive pronouns or possessive suffixes unnecessarily to our utterances. We usually end a letter with a phrase like Ystävällisin terveisin, Parhain terveisin or only Terveisin 'Kind regards'. Only formal letters are closed Kunnioittavasti or Kunnioittaen 'Yours faithfully / truly, Sincerely yours'. 6.7 About Finnish names and titles All Finnish family names that end in the syllable "-nen", for example, Nykänen and Ahonen (< Aho 'meadow) reduce that ending to "se-" or a mere s. Thus, the these words get a vowel stem and a consonant stem, to which case endings are added. The content of the adjectival suffix "-nen" is classifying, descriptive or diminishing,- See Table 1, where toinen is given as a model word. Finnish surnames usually obey gradation according to the corresponding nouns, if the name happens to have a meaning as a Finnish word. Thus, if a text contains surnames in inflected cases, you have to guess how they read in their basic forms. For instance, Mäen is a weak form (genitive) of Mäki ('hill') and Kokon is Kokko ('bonfire, midsummer pyre') in it genitive case. Most but not all of the Finnish first names obey gradation, e.g. Matti, Matin 'Mats', Heikki, Heikin 'Henry', Jaakko, Jaakon 'Jack' and Satu, Sadun. V&A
149 Chapter V, 6.7 If a first name ends in "-s", it is possible that this end consonant changes to "-kse-", as in vastaus, vastauksen 'reply'. Tuomas reads in genitive Tuomaksen or Tuomaan according to the pattern word kevät, kevään, kevättä. Tuomasta is its only form in partitive. Tuomaata is hardly usable as a partitive form. Tuomaasta would be elative ("-stA"). Elvis is a foreign name and should get a binding vowel i before the case endings (*Elvisin) but it does not get it. The name Elvis is inflected in Finnish cases like vastaus, vastauksen: Elvis, Elviksen, Elvistä, Elviksiä. The stress normally lies on the surname: Matti Meikäläinen. but people often introduce themselves giving stress on the first name: Matti Meikäläinen, as opposed to e.g. Mikko Meikäläinen. Meikäläinen is hiding the pronoun me 'we' in it. Teikäläinen is equally derived from te 'you'. Täkäläinen is rather an adjective than a surname. The meaning of täkäläinen is 'a person living in this district' or 'something from here'. The opposite word is sikäläinen. It means 'somebody or something from there'. Where relatives are concerned, the stress lies on the first word of expressions, as in Anni-täti with stress on the name Anni (täti 'aunt'), and as in Matti-enoni 'my uncle Matti' (eno 'maternal uncle'). Anna-sisar / Anna- sisko 'sister Anna', with stress on the name, would also be one's relative. Inflected in allative it would read Anni-siskolle. Please note the use of hyphen (-) and try to understand where it is used. Sisar Anna would be a nun. Sisar, sisaren, sisarta, sisaria stays in its basic form before the first name. In a children's song we have a "täti Monika" who tryes to be sophisticated. - Here you could repeat Chapter I, point 2.2 "How do you spell your name to a Finn?" On grounds of a person's occupation, people have got titles that stay as such before their surname, for instance, toimitusjohtaja 'managing director', johtaja 'director' and asianajaja 'solicitor, attorney-at-law'. Otherwise in general, it is a custom to use nothing but the surname or the whole name, i.e. first name and family name together. Finns do not use the word herra, the Finnish equivalent of Mr., in the same way and as much as "Mr." is used in other countries, in speech and writing. V&A
Chapter V, 6.7 150 In Finnish the word herra has many contrasting meanings. Dictionaries translate it with words like 'man, Mr., master, the Lord, superior, chief, boss, gentleman'. Herra is not used before names very often in Finland. The use of the word herra lightly gives the impression that the man doesn't own a "title" which could be used in speech and documents together with his name to refer to his position or educational level: he possibly is a mere workman (työläinen). The plural form herrat often refers to the elite class of the society and to the employers. Herra sounds suitable in certain situations where one's personal name does not matter at all but the person is called according to his (or her) position. In the court of justice a citizen may talk: Anteeksi, herra tuomari (or rouva tuomari) 'excuse me, Your Honour'. On festivities, when opening the occasion, the first speeker can say: Arvoisa herra (or rouva) Tasavallan Presidentti ja muut juhlavieraat... As it has already been mentioned, we are used to call persons, men and women as well by the whole name or nothing but the last name. As to the female words "Mrs. / Frau / fru" which are used in other languages, the word rouva plus a surname can be used in Finnish speech. For "Miss / Fräulein / fröken" we have a beautiful Finnish word neiti, neidin, neitiä, neitejä. The first name remains unsaid when these female "titles" are used in the purpose to be polite. When people are calling each others with the first names they usually also use the singular pronoun sinä. If two persons have started to address each other using the pronouns te (Te) and have not yet, according to an old custom, agreed about first name terms (made sinunkaupat), they continue on the formal level and use the plural forms, or turn to singular forms unnoticed. For "Messrs." we have T:mi (= toiminimi 'private firm'), but it is used only if it belongs to the registered name. The abbreviation Oy comes from osakeyhtiö 'limited' or "share company" (osake 'share' + yhtiö company, firm). In Oyj the j stays for julkinen 'public' possibly referring to a big pörssiyhtiö 'stock exchange company'.
151 Chapter VI, 1.1 VI THE NON-FINITE FORMS OF VERBS 1. THE FOUR FINNISH INFINITIVES The non-finite forms do not serve as predicates, i.e. they cannot be the main verb in a sentence because only finite forms will do. The non-finite forms of verbs, including the infinitives and participles, are inflected in cases. The number of Finnish infinitives is four but two of them have two subtypes. We begin with the infinitives, and proceed then to deal with the participles. 1.1 Two forms of the 1st infinitive a) The basic form of verbs, the shorter form "-A" The basic form of a verb is called the first infinitive. You know about it because verbs are listed in dictionaries according to their basic forms. The basic forms of verbs are like these: laulaa, asua, syödä, pestä, purra, tulla, mennä ('to sing, live, eat, wash, bite, come, go). The first infinitive always ends in "-A" (A = a or ä). Before it, the verb- final A there can be the same vowel, put in other words, the basic forms can end in a long vowel. Before the verb-final A there can also be a different vowel or a consonant. The possible consonants are d, t, r, 1 and n. Normally, verbs occur in their basic forms only together with finite forms of verbs as a complement to their meaning. There can be several basic forms of verbs after each other, for instance, minun piti yrittää juosta 'I had to try to run'. Sometimes but seldom, a basic form of a verb can be given the role of a subject which does not suit it very well. Instead of the basic form, we use the fourth infinitive that ends in "-minen" as subject. With that suffix the basic forms of verbs are turned to nouns ("substantives"). - More about this follows in point 1.4 of this Chapter VI. Some predicate verbs easily take one or several infinitives after itself and build a chain of verbs together with them.
Chapter VI, 1.1 152 A verbal chain usually contains the predicate verb and one infinitive of the basic form and often, in addition to that, also another infinitive or still more of the infinitives that the Finnish language can offer: Aion lähteä /mennä uimaan. 1 am going to swim Nyt alan opiskella / Nyt rupean opiskelemaan. Now I'll start studying Six principal parts of some different verbs: aikoa aion, aikoi, aikonut, aiotaan, aiottiin to intend lähteä lähden, lähti, lähtenyt, lähdetään, lähdettiin to leave, go' ruveta rupean, rupesi, ruvennut, ruvetaan, ruvettiin to start ryhtyä ryhdyn, ryhtyi, ryhtynyt, ryhdytään, ryhdyttiin to start mennä menen, meni, mennyt, mennään, mentiin to go uida uin, ui, uinut, uidaan, uitiin to swim saunoa saunon, saunoi, saunonut, saunotaan, to take a sauna bath saunottiin Ways in which the first infinitive is used: There is a verbal construction, in which we only have the short basic form and in addition to that, before it, a past tense form oli of the verb olla. You will understand the meaning if you add to it an adverb, vähällä, lähellä 'near'. Hän oli (vähällä) kuolla siihen. He almost died of it, was about dying Hän oli (vähällä) menettää henkensä siinä. He was about dying/loosing his life in it It is also possible to say the first infinitive first and the finite verbal form after it. This is a popular style of speaking in a lively manner that authors use. When somebody came unexpectedly, hän tulla tupsahti, or said something unkindly, hän vain sanoa töksäytti sen. When this "somebody" rang the doorbell, he perhaps did it quickly, hän soittaa rimpautti ovikelloa. Perfect and pluperfect tenses can also be used in this construction: Hän on / oli tulla tupsahtanut. She has/had come fully unexpected The basic forms of verbs are also used to complete the modal verbs pitää, täytyy 'must' that express necessity. - You can go back and refresh your knowledge about the Finnish modal verbs in Chapter V, point 2.3.
153 Chapter VI, 1.1 Note: The general "object rules” are in effect also in connection with the pitää, täytyy verbs that can form verbal chains. Because the subject stays in genitive, the case forms available for objects belonging to the infinitives are nominative (the"t-case" of pronouns included) and partitive: Minun pitää tehdä se/sitä. Minun pitää mennä tekemään se/sitä. Minun pitää ehtiä tehdä se/sitä. Sinun täytyy saada tavata hänet. 1 must do it 1 must go and do it 1 must have the time to do it You must be allowed meet him The basic form of a verb can also be placed after an adjective or a noun ("substantive"), like in the following sentences after vaikea, aika and lupa: Tätä asiaa (minun) on / (Tämä asia) on vaikea ymmärtää, (active, monopersonal) This matter is (for me) difficult to understand Nyt on (meidän) aika sanoa näkemiin. Now it is time (for us) to say goodbye Äiti antoi (meille) luvan ottaa lapsestaan valokuvan. The mother permitted us to take a picture of her child Saimme äidiltä luvan ottaa lapsesta valokuvan. (The mother permitted us to take a picture of her child) Äidiltä pyydettiin lupa / lupaa ottaa lapsesta valokuva. The mother was asked for permission to take a picture of the child (active, monopersonal) (active form) (active form) (passive form) The nominative case in lupa. luvan, lupaa, lupia (as in the last passive sentence before) lets us understand that the permission was granted. It is good to remember the strong effect of passive (no objects in genitive) as well as of negation (all objects in partitive if the message is negative). The above model sentences were to describe the difference between active and passive sentences when there are several verbs and their objects or complements in a chain. Long chains of verbs easily create difficult constructions and problems with the objects. Therefore, it can be more advisable to let the object remain uninflected than inflect it unnecessarily in the genitive case. ve-4
Chapter VI, 1.1, 1.2 154 b) The longer form "-ksi" of the 1st infinitive instead of 'että' clauses If we add the translative ending "-ksi" (> "-kse") and a possessive suffix to a verb's basic form, we get a construction called "the final construction". This is used instead of an että / jotta clause where the predicate's form would be the conditional "-isi" mood: että olisin > (minun) ollakseni. The possessive suffix (here "-ni") refers to the subject of the sentence. The subject is mostly missing, but if it is there, it is in genitive minun, sinun, etc. ollakseni, ollaksesi, ollakseen. in order to be (+ I, you, he, etc.) ollaksemme, ollaksenne, ollakseen (minun) tietääkseni, (sinun) tietääksesi. as far as 1 know, as far as you know, etc. (hänen) tietääkseen, tietääksemme, etc Emme elä syödäksemme. We are not living to eat Totta puhuakseni olen hyvin yllättynyt. To be honest, 1 am very surprised 1.2 Two forms of the 2nd infinitive a) The 2nd infinitive "-essA" and and other temporal constructions instead of 'kun1 clauses An active subordinated sentence that begins with the temporal conjunction kun ’when, while’) can be shortened and replaced by an active temporal construction in which the inessive case and a poss. suffix are featuring. The predicate verb is turned to end in "-essA" and a poss. suffix is mostly added to refer to the subject of the same person. The case of the subject is genitive, if the subject is put or can be put out. olla > ollessani, ollessasi, ollessaan, ollessamme, ollessanne, ollessaan When I am/while being, I, you, he/she, we, you, they... tietää > tietäessäni. tietäessäsi. tietäessään. tietäessämme. tietäessänne... When/while knowing, I, you, he/she, we, you, they... Kun opiskelen suomea /Kun opiskelin suomea When 1 study/studied Finnish = suomea opiskellessani minä = while studying Finnish, 1
155 Chapter VI, 1.2 a) Lasten syödessä päivällistä... Kuollessaan hän oli vain 40-vuotias. Kirjaa lukiessani minua alkoi väsyttää. While the children were dining... He was only 40 years old when he died When reading the book 1 got tired The possessive suffix should always refer to the actual subject that is understood to be there in the situation, e.g. suomea opiskellessasi (sinä)... Partitive is the natural case for an object of a transitive verb in this construction. In the model sentences, suomea, päivällistä and kirjaa are objects. Inessive "-ssA" suits to the 2nd infinitive where the happening is going on. Here again you note that the subject is in the genitive form in all kind of the Finnish constructions with non-finite forms, if the subject is somehow present (lasten). The poss. suffix is alone enough without the corresponding pronoun in genitive minun, sinun etc. when it should refer to the same person in the main sentence. Thus, for instance, in the last sentence it would be tautological to add minun before lukiessani: Kirjaa (*minun) lukiessani minua alkoi väsyttää < Kun (minä) luin kirjaa, minua alkoi väsyttää. Also a passive "kun" sentence can be shortened: For passive temporal sentences, the suffix of the 2nd infinitive in inessive is a little longer, namely "-(t)tAessaA". With it kun ollaan (and also oltiin) 'when we/you are/were' turns to oltaessa 'when being, when one is', and furthermore: syödä > syötäessä, lukea > luettaessa, mennä > mentäessä, haluta > haluttaessa, pyytää > pyydettäessä. Because of the passive feature this passive construction does not contain any possessive suffixes. Kun opiskellaan suomea (= kun opiskelee suomea) = suomea opiskeltaessa When one is (you are) learning An active "kun" sentence referring to past times can be shortened: The suffix "-(t)tUA" + a poss. suffix, often including the partitive ending "-A", is based on an active verb in the "kun" clause. It only looks passive because the main part ”-(t)tU" comes from from the passive conjugation. (Ruokansa) syötyään lapset saivat mennä katsomaan TV. tä. As soon as the children had eaten the food, they could go and watch the TV Työnsä tehtyään ja sen sanottuaan hän lähti. After having done his job and said that, he left / went away
Chapter VI, 1.2, a), b) 156 When you are still studying Finnish you should use the complete "kun" sentences rather than to try to shorten them. You will read and hear how the non-finite constructions are used, and then you will learn them. b) The 2nd infinitive "-en" instead of 'ja' clauses The second infinitive is used in the instructive case for shortening if a conjunction ja 'and' between two verbs in their finite forms can be avoided, and a simultaneous happening is concerned. A proverb like "mikä laulaen tulee, se viheltäen menee" ('what singing somes, whistling goes') could but is not returned to the form "mikä laulaa ja tulee, se viheltää ja menee". These non-finite instructive sg. forms "-en" of verbs are common in many fixed expressions, and there often but not always is a subject in genitive and an object either in nominative or in partitive: tilaisuuden tullen when there is (comes) an opportunity näin ollen under these circumstances totta puhuen true speaking, to be honest toisin sanoen put in other words Notes about the forms alkaen ('beginning'') and koskien ('concerning'): Alkaen beginning (< alkaa, alan, alkoi, alkanut 'to begin') is widely used: alkaen klo 10 = kello 10:stä alkaen 'from 10 o'clock onwards'. In shops and advertisements you may see alkaen shortened to "alk." and placed before a a price quotation: alkaen 100 euroa which actually means 'from 100 euros upwards, at least' because alkaa and lähteä would require elative, "-stA": Kello kymmenestä alkaen beginning at ten o'clock Sain työpaikan maanantaista lähtien. 1 got a job from Monday onwards In English the word "concerning" is frequently used. In Finnish we try to avoid its literal translation koskien (< koskea, kosken, koski, koskenut) 'to concern, regard' + "something" in partitive because "koskien" doesn't always sound quite "Finnish", and koskea johonkin (with illative) is very concrete. We prefer to use our adjectival participles (jotakin) koskeva and koskenut. Tämä on sinuakin koskeva asia This is a matter (that is) concerning you, too = Tämä on asia, ioka koskee sinuakin.
157 Chapter VI, 1.3 1.3 The 3rd infinitive "-mA-" is inflected in many cases The third infinitive looks like the adjectival agential participle that ends in "-mA". We haven't had the agential participle yet, it will be handled in point 3 of this Chapter VI. The third infinitive is built with the same syllable "-mA-" but it is a different non-finite form of verbs. It is inflected in cases, and it is used to complete the meaning of many other verbs. With the help of the third infinitive's features we can produce adverbs of manner from transitive and intransitive verbs, for instance syödä and juoda: syömättä without eating syömään to eat syömässä (when/while) eating syömällä by eating syömästä from eating juomalla by drinking As the third infinitive completes the meaning of the main verb, it suits well to olla, e.g. olla syömättä, and to verbs that express movement like mennä syömään 'go to eat', tulla syömästä 'return from eating', and action like juomalla joi, i.e. drunk a lot. In the following sentences we have a predicate verb and a "-mA" infinitive of some second verb which are nukkua, sanoa, lukea and tehdä inflected in different cases: Lapsi on nukkumassa - nousee nukkumasta -menee nukkumaan a/the child is sleeping - gets up - goes to bed Hän lähti talosta sanaakaan sanomatta. he left the house without saying a word Kirjoja lukemalla oppii (3rd p.sg., present tense, generally used) uusia asioita. by reading books, you learn (one learns) new things Tämä työ jouduttiin (passive, past tense) tekemään toiseen kertaan. it became necessary to do this work a second time Jouduin (active, past tense) tekemään tämän työn toiseen kertaan. 1 had to do this work once again Notes about the verb joutua, joudun. joutui, joutunut. joudutaan {johonkin ):
158 Chapter VI, 1.3, 1.4 The meaning of joutua (+ tekemään, jotakin) contains the thought of being forced and a direction somewhere. Therefore, the third infinitive appears with it inflected in illative, i.e. case number 9, and also in translative and allative, number 6 and number 12, according to my numbering from 1 to 12. The first infinitive cannot replace the third infinitive if the main verb, like joutua, requires to get the complement in some of the three cases of direction somewhere to, for instance joutua tappelemaan = joutua tappeluun to get into a fight' joutua todistamaan = joutua todistajaksi to become a witness Note: When a verb, or an adjective or a preposition, is said to require a certain case of other words in connection to it, it is the question of a linguistic phenomena that is called rektio.- See Chapter VIII, Ex. 3.c. 1.4 The 4th infinitive "-minen" is a clear noun This ending "-minen" can be added to any verb, and the form is commonly used instead of the first infinitive forms as a subject, or when a noun (substantive) is needed. The "-minen" words are used when in English one would use the basic forms of verbs, with or without the marker "to", or when you use gerund which in English is built with the ending "-ing". All "-minen" words are inflected in cases according to nouns ending in "-nen". You won't find all "-minen" words in your dictionary, so you have to guess the basic form and conclude the meaning on grounds of that. olla > oleminen, olemisen, olemista being, existence tulla > tuleminen, tulemisen, tulemista coming, arrival mennä > meneminen, menemisen, menemistä going The advantage of the "-minen" derivations of verbs is just the possibility to use a noun instead of a personal form of the verb in an että sentence {oleminen = että ollaan). The result is a different construction of the sentence, a new point of view to the things, and a generalisation of the verb's meaning. - The same thought is often expressed with shorter nouns from the same family of words: olo, tulo, meno (= oleminen, tuleminen, meneminen).
159 Chapter VI, 1.4 Different attributes in different cases that are like subjects or objects can be placed before the "-minen" infinitives. The cases depend on the verb's original requirements, for instance, pitää jostakin 'to like something'. Words in this kind of a "-minen" compound is written apart. puhua jostakin > vaikeuksista(an) puhuminen to talk about something > talking about (one s) difficulties tulla johonkin > kotiin tuleminen / kotiintulo home coming (tulla to come somewhere, direction "to") talking about home coming lähteä jostakin jonnekin /johonkin, e.g. eläkkeelle > eläkkeelle lähteminen / lähtö to retire, retirement After such words as paljon 'much', vähän 'a little', jotain 'something', and mitään 'no, any, nothing', the "-minen" word follows in the partitive case: Meillä on paljon puhumista. We have much to talk about Siihen minulla ei ole mitään sanomista. 1 have nothing to say to that Genitive attributes are commonly used before the "-minen" words, and they can be either objective or subjective and therefore they deserve a special attention. If the genitive attribute is objective, the "-minen" word must be built on a transitive verb, such as oppia 'to learn something'. In the phrase suomen kielen oppiminen 'learning the Finnish language', the genitive attribute kielen is objective, kieli is the concern (object) of the learning. In the phrase oppilaan suomen oppiminen, the genitive attribute oppilaan is subjective, not objective. He is the learner, and the purpose was to say: Oppilas oppi suomea nopeasti The pupil learned Finnish quickly = Se että oppilas oppi suomea, His learning Finnish happened quickly tapahtui nopeasti. Further examples with subjective and objective attributes in genitive: 1>6-4
Chapter VI, 1.4 160 Opettajien hakeutuminen paremmin palkattuihin töihin (subjective) jatkuu (= Opettajat hakeutuvat jatkuvasti töihin, jotka ovat paremmin palkattuja.) teachers keep seeking better paid jobs Taudin paheneminen alkoi olla huolestuttavaa (subjective) the illness was getting worse alarmingly Pientenkin muutosten tekeminen (= teko) siihen on vaikeaa. (objective) (= Siihen on vaikea tehdä edes pieniäkään muutoksia.) it is difficult to make even small changes in it Jatkamme tämän asian opettelemista (= opettelua) huomenna. (objective) we shall continue learning this matter tomorrow The different ways of understanding the genitive attribute of a "-minen" infinitive can sometimes cause problems. However, we usually understand the meanings correctly and do not note the possible ambiguity. Our general knowledge about the world helps us to interpret the meanings correctly. Translative is one of the further cases, in which "-minen" infinitives are used often. In translative the ending turns to "-miseksi", e.g. asian ymmärtämiseksi = jotta ymmärtäisin / ymmärtäisimme asian = jotta asia ymmärrettäisiin that we would understand the matter tiedon saamiseksi asiasta = jotta (minä) saisin / (me) saisimme tiedon /tietoa asiasta = jotta asiasta saataisiin tietoa / tieto in order to get (the) information Note: On the phone we say kuulemiin and when leaving a place we say näkemiin. No doubt the forms are plural forms of illative (case number 9), and, of course, these wishes of hearing and seeing again were once bom from the verbs kuulla, kuulen and nähdä, näen. I propose that they are shortened forms from kuulemisiin and näkemisiin which would be illative plural forms from kuuleminen and näkeminen.
161 Chapter VI, 2. 2. PRESENT AND PAST TENSE PARTICIPLES Both the present tense and the past tense participles are available separately in active and passive forms to be used as descriptive adjectives, and in order to shorten a longer construction. The participles mostly replace an että clause ('that') but also a relative joka clause ('that, which') can be concerned. In English you have the gerund forms of verbs that end in "-ing". To some extent they correspond to the Finnish present tense participles. When conjugating verbs you get a past tense participle that ends in "-ed" or "-en". In Finnish the corresponding verbal participles are adjectives and are therefore inflected in cases. In Finnish we differentiate between active and passive events, as well as between endless (present tense) and completed (past tense) forms. The Finnish system of non-finite forms of verbs is a rather complicated but logical. According to the idea of the Finnish passive, there is always behind the event a human being who has done or is doing something, but who it is that is not mentioned. 2.1 The active participles "-vA" and "-nUt" a) The adjectival present tense participle "-vA" We participle ending in the syllable "-vA" is called present tense participle. With the help of it we can turn the basic forms of verbs to describing adjectives that refer to the present time. The English “-ing” gerund has the same use and content. In both languages the meaning is active, i.e. something is happening or somebody is just doing something. The present tense participle is "-vA" in singular and "-vAt" in plural. The plural form can be taken directly from the personal forms of 3rd p.pl. e.g. jossain (= jossakin) Belgiassa asuvat ihmiset = ihmiset, jotka asuvat jossain Belgiassa those who lie / are living somewhere in Belgium V&A
162 Chapter VI, 2.1 a) As you see, this form can replace a relative joka (and mikä) sentence. One more phrase as an example: lapsi, joka itkee = itkevä lapsi a/the crying child (itkevän lapsen, itkevää lasta, itkeviä lapsia) From the verb istua 'to sit' we get a concrete adjective istuva 'sitting'. However, istuva presidentti most likely is 'the incumbent president', and not just 'a sitting president'. These adjectives that end in the syllable “-vA” are inflected in cases like the pattern words hyvä 'good' and ystävä 'friend': olemassa olevat rakennukset the existing buildings = rakennukset, jotka ovat olemassa Sano tähän sopivia esimerkkejää Please give examples = Sano esimerkkejä, jotka sopivat tähän. here suitable. The adjective omaava < omata, omaan 'to own' is very formal. You can see it in job advertisements: hyvän kokemuksen omaya ‘(equipped) with a good experience’. Especially, in the TV news and newspapers we encounter long noun phrases in which a person's name is equipped with participle attributes before the name, and those attributes may again have their own attributes. Look at this excerpt that I read in the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on 9.10.2000: Ensimmäistä kertaa myös \ Belgiassa asuvat muiden EU-maiden kansalaiset \ saivat äänestää kunnallisvaaleissa. For the first time, also the citizens of other EU countries living in Belgium could vote in local government elections The first occurring "-vAt" word is an adjective inflected in nominative pl., and the second "-vAt" word saivat is a predicate verb conjugated in the 3rd p.pl., past tense indicative form. The past tense is marked by the i before the ending of 3rd p.pl. You must remain alert and wait until you hear the predicate verb of the sentence, before you can understand the whole message.
163 Chapter VI, 2.1 a), b) Note: We have words like päivä 'day', hyvä 'good', tulva 'flood', selvä 'clear', vakava 'serious' that end in "-vA" but are not derived from any verbs, or we cannot state it. Instead, they themselves are a source for many new words, e.g. päiväys 'date', päivällinen 'dinner,' hyvyys 'goodness', selvyys ‘clearness’, selvittää 'to clear, find out', selvitys ‘account’, vakavuus ‘seriousness’. b) The adjectival past tense participle "-nUt" You remember the forms on ollut, ovat olleet, on asunut, ovat asuneet (see Table 2 at the end of this book). In English you have an ending "-ed" in a comparable use, e.g. "they have lived". When these forms are taken into adjectival use in Finnish, they are called "past tense participle". The ending "-nUt" represents the nominative singular case, and the ending "-neet" is the same in plural. Note: forms like ol-lut and ol-leet contain an old assimilation from n to 1 < *ol-nut and *ol-neet. These forms refer to a time that has gone or to a happening that is ended or that was long lasting. Below follows a group of adjectival nouns that are derived from verbs listed with their four principal parts: olla > ollut, olleen, ollutta, olleita been, existed mennä > mennyt, menneen, mennyttä, menneitä gone syntyä > syntynyt, syntyneen, syntynyttä, syntyneitä bom kuolla > kuollut, kuolleen, kuollutta, kuolleita dead kuulua > kuulunut, kuuluneen, kuulunutta, kuuluneita belonged Näin tiellä kuolleen koiran = Näin tiellä koiran, joka oli kuollut. (= Näin koiran, joka oli kuollut tiellä. ?) I saw a dead dog on the road Nämä ovat isälleni kuuluneita esineitä = Nämä ovat esineitä, jotka kuuluivat (tai ovat kuuluneet) isälleni. These are things which belonged to my father V6-A
164 Chapter VI, 2.1 c) c) The use of participles for shortening of että ('that') clauses Both the genitive forms of the active present tense participles ("-vA" in nominative sg., "-vAn" in genitive sg.) and the perfect participles ("-nUt" in nominative sg., "-neen" in genitive sg.) can be used for shortening of että clauses. The Finnish name for this construction is partisiippirakenne. The original subject is usually in the genitive form, but may also occur in the partitive or nominative form, if those forms could occur in the complete että clause. Jotta is sometimes used instead of että. The participle represents the original predicate verb and will always stay fixed in its genitive form, ending in "-n". Uskon, että hän tulee. = Uskon hänen tulevan. I believe that he / she is coming Tiedän, että hän tuli / on tullut. = Tiedän hänen tulleen. 1 know that he / she came / has come Näen, että lapsi juoksee. = Näen lapsen juoksevan . 1 see that the child is running. 1 see a/the child running But if the word order is this: näen juoksevan lapsen, the situation is the same, but grammatically this now originates from a relative joka sentence, namely näen lapsen, joka juoksee 'I see a child who is running'. We could imagine that there are the phrases "hän tuleva", "hän tullut" and "lapsi juokseva" inflected in genitive in these constructions. Active and passive sentences that contain such intransitive verbs as näkyä 'to be seen' (used in the 3rd p.sg. form näkyy) näyttää + joltakin 'to seem, look like' (conjugated in all persons), are difficult to analyse, but let's try: Näin lapsen syöneen omenaa / omenan. = Näin, että lapsi oli syönyt omenaa / omenan. (active main clause) I saw that the child had eaten an / the apple (partly/wholly) Hänen nähtiin tekevän sen / sitä. = Nähtiin, että hän teki sen /sitä. (passive main clause) he/she was seen doing it
165 Chapter VI, 2.1 c) Se näkyy olevan / Se näyttää olevan maan tapa = Näyttää siltä, että se on maan tapa. It seems to be a custom in the country (active main clause) (active main clause, mono personal) Lähes 70 kaivosmiehen pelätään kuolleen. = Pelätään, että lähes 70 kaivosmiestä on kuollut. They are afraid that nearly 70 miners died [seitsemänkymmenen] (passive main clauses) Pojan katoamiseen uskotaan liittyvän rikos = Uskotaan, että pojan katoamiseen liittyy rikos. They believe that there is a crime involved in the disappearance of the boy (passive main clause) (subject at the end!) Ihmiset kertoivat heille vakuutetun, että... = Ihmiset kertoivat, että heille oli vakuutettu, että. People told (us) that they had been assured that... (passive että sub-clause) In the last example the first että sentence is a passive sub-clause You see that by using the participle construction we avoid the result of two että clauses after each other. In a passive shortening there is no subject or ’’agent" in genitive (or nominative or partitive). Vakuutetun (< vakuutettu. passive past tense participle) is in the genitive form without any subject to it because the corresponding complete että clause would read in passive: että heille vakuutettiin or heille on vakuutettu. without any subject. If we have to say a thought negatively the predicate verb is made negative in the main sentence because a negative että sub-clause cannot be shortened. Negation is placed in the finite verb as it cannot be added to the participle. Example sentences and their alternatives: En usko heidän pitävän siitä (active, negative) = Uskon, että he eivät (= etteivät he) pidä siitä. I don't believe that they (would) like it Pojan katoamiseen ei uskota liittyvän rikosta (passive, negative) = Uskotaan, että pojan katoamiseen ei liity rikosta. = Ei uskota, että pojan katomaiseen liittyy / liittyisi rikos(ta). They do not believe that the boy's disappearance is connected with a crime
Chapter VI, 2.1 d, 2.2 a) 166 d) An "as though" ending "-vinA" + possessive suffix Please note this prolongation of the "-vA" forms with an essive plural ending and a poss. suffix added to it (tekevänä sg. >: tekevinä pl. + poss. suffix): olla tekevinään jotakin (= muka tehdä jotakin) ‘to pretend doing something’. olla tekevinään jotakin = muka(mas) tehdä jotakin to pretend doing something Olin uskovinani häntä I behaved as if I had believed him/her Hän ei ollut näkevinäänkään minua. He pretended as if he did not see me at all = Hän oli kuin ei näkisi minua. 2.2 The passive participles "-(t)tAvA" and "-(t)tU" The change from active forms to passive forms makes you to change your view from subject to object. We have two different classes of passive participles: one for the present tense view, and another for the past tense view. a) The passive present tense participle M-(t)tAvAM as an adjective The active present tense participle ff-vAff is made passive by adding a syllable ff-(t)tA-ff to it. These forms are very common, but a foreigner may have difficulties in trying to imagine the meaning of these passive parts of speech. They can be inflected in cases and used in phrases. oleva > oltava That must be (on the consonant stem ol-) asuva > asuttava That allows living in or where one can live nukkuva > nukuttava That allows sleeping on or makes you sleep itkevä > itkettävä That makes you cry menevä > mentävä That allows going to or through sanova > sanottava That must or can be said myyvä > myytävä It allows selling or is something that must be sold Talo (on) myytävänä, (essive sg.) The house (is) for sale Auto on korjattavana. The car is being repaired
167 Chapter VI, 2.2 a), b) A person can be added also before these passive participles as an "agent" or subject in the genitive case, as it is usual for subjects when non-finite verbal forms are concerned: Kenen tehtäväksi se annettiin? Kenen tehtäväksi annoit sen? Se annettiin minun tehtäväkseni. Jätin sen heidän tehtäväkseen. To whom was it (the task) given? To whom did you give the task? It (the task) was given to me I left it for them to do b) The passive present tense participle "-(t)tAvA" can express necessity The necessity can be expressed through a passive participle form"-(t)tAvA" of a meaningful verb. Olla 'to be' is used as an auxiliary verb and conjugated always in its 3rd p.sg. form expressing also the relevant tense and modus. Because the meaningful verb is fixed in its passive participle form, it cannot express time and manner: olla > on oltava, oli oltava, on/oli ollut oltava, olisi oltava, olisi ollut... has to be, had to be, should have been, should have had to be sanoa > on sanottava, oli sanottava, on/oli/olisi ollut sanottava... has to say, had to say, has had to say / had had to say (something) If there is a subject, its case is genitive as it is usual with the non-finite phrases. The form of the verb is passive, and there is an inactive object either in nominative or partitive in the situation if the verb is transitive: Kenen on oltava (siellä)? Who must be (there)? Sinun on oltava siellä You must be there Minun on oltava ahkera. 1 must be diligent Sinun on tehtävä se tvö /sitä työtä You must do that work If we drop the genitive subject of these "necessity constructions", the meaning of the main verb becomes general: the speaker speaks about human beings in general, perhaps including himself.
Chapter VI, 2.2 b), c) 168 When there is no subject, there is an empty place where the human being can be added in genitive, if somebody so wishes. Thus, when there is a place like "reserved", such as minun, jonkun, kaikkien, could be added there. Työ on (sinun) tehtävä huolellisesti. The work must be done carefully (by you) Tuohon (minun) on sanottava (se), että... To that it is to be said /1 must say that This passive participle is an alternative to another, more frequently used construction which uses the modal verbs täytyy / pitää together with the basic forms of verbs. (See the end of Exercise 3 in Chapter VIII.) Therefore, these forms mean the same: Nyt täytyy mennä kotiin = Nyt on mentävä kotiin. = Nyt (sinun / meidän) tävtvv (pitää / on pakko ) mennä kotiin. Now you (or we) must go home. c) The passive past tense participle "-(t)tU" as an adjective The ending is ff-(t)tUff in sg., ,f-tUtff or ff-dUt" in pl., e.g. tehdä > tehty, tehdyn, tehtyä, tehtyjä done suosia > suosittu, suositun, suosittua, suosittuja popular hylätä > hylätty, hylätyn, hylättyä, hylättyjä rejected varata > varattu, varatun, varattua, varattuja reserved valmistaa > valmistettu, valmistetun, valmistettua, valmistettuja prepared Asuttu kaupunki is an inhabited city. The opposite is asumaton 'uninhabited, unoccupied' or autio 'uninhabited, empty'. Here the verb asua 'to reside' is in transitive use (kaupunki, jota asutaan) just as the English verb 'to inhabit something'. In Finnish we normally say the place names in inessive when we use this verb asua 'to live somewhere' (jossakin).
169 Chapter VI, 2.2 d) d) The passive past tense participle instead of 'kun' clauses You should now look back to point 1.2 a) of this Chapter VI where we had the 2nd infinitive in inessive, and the temporal past tense ending "-(t)tUA" was mentioned. The ending "-t(t)U" is used equally temporarily when an active kun clause is shortened. The passive past tense participles like oltu 'been', tultu 'come', nähty 'seen' are used together with a subject in genitive, if subject is needed, and the relevant possessive suffixes "-ni", "-si", etc. come last. Oltuani = (sen jälkeen) kun olin ollut. The passive past tense participle that is based on a verb can be inflected in partitive: oltua, tultua, nähtyä. The short vowel "-A" is there for the partitive case. It is prolonged when a possessive suffix of the third person {hän, he) that ends in -n is added: tulla > Kotiin tultuaan hän lepäsi After his arrival at home he rested sanoa > Sen sanottuani minä lähdin. After having said it I left alkaa > Te lähditte heti ohjelman alettua. You left as soon as the program had begun From the intransitive verb lähteä 'to leave', the participle in question reads lähdetty. It comes from the the past tense conjugation on/oli lähdetty. Let's replace '£w«' clauses with help of it and possessive suffixes: sg. lähdettyäni, lähdettyäsi, lähdettyään / lähdettyänsä pl. lähdettyämme, lähdettyänne, lähdettyään / lähdettyänsä Note: The difference between passive and active participles can be remarkable. Please compare the differences in the following phrases containing adjectival shortenings (actually from relative joka clauses!): pass. (se on) syötävää ruokaa (it is) eat able food pass. puoliksi syöty omena a half-eaten apple (half of it eaten) pass. hyvin syötetty sika a well fed big act. hyvin syönyt ihminen a person who has eaten well Syöty = joka on syöty, on tullut syödyksi. Syötetty (=jota on syötetty) comes from the verb syöttää, syötän 'to give food to somebody'. V&Ji
Chapter VI, 2.2 e) 170 e) Constructions with tehtyä, tehdyksi, tehneeksi ('done') Let's take up another, but common construction which actually does not hide a kun sentence, even if the same passive past tense participle "-(t)tU" is characteristic by this formulating. In the following model sentences, the predicate verb is either saada, saan, sai, saanut, saadaan 'to get' or tulla, tulen, tuli, tullut, tullaan 'to come, manage', and the meaningful verbs are hidden in the passive past tense participles, which are inflected either in partitive or translative (syöty, 'eaten' > syötyä / syödyksi: säästetty 'saved' > säätettyä / säätetyksi, and sanottu 'said' > sanottua and sanotuksi). Two examples to show two alternative ways to express the same thought by using the verb saada together with a passive past tense participle: saada > (Minä) en saanut mitään syötyä / syödyksi. I could not eat anything at all saada > (Minä) sain säästettyä /säästetyksi rahaa lomamatkaan. 1 managed to save money for a holiday/vacation trip If the verb tulla is used together with a passive past tense participle, then the subject's case is genitive, and the passive participle's case is only partitive (tehtyä, sanottua). Plese note how these sentences are different: tulla > Mitä (sinun) tuli tehtyä? = Mitä (sinä) tulit tehneeksi? What did you happen to do? tulla > Mitä (sinun) tuli sanottua? = Mitä (sinä) tulit sanoneeksi? What did you happen to do / say? The second alternative on the above lines contains subjects in nominative isinä), followed by active past tense participles in translative (tehnyt 'done, made' > tulin tehneeksi: sanonut 'said' > tulin sanoneeksi). Mitä is the partitive form of the relative and interrogative pronoun mikä 'what'. Pattern sentences with approximate translations into English:
171 Chapter VI, 2.2 e), 3.1 These constructions should not be mixed: Joku saa tehtyä jotakin. = Joku saa tehdyksi jotakin (= sen / sitä). Somebody gets something done Jonkun tulee tehtyä jotakin (se / sitä). = Joku tulee tehneeksi jotakin (= sen / sitä). Somebody manages or happens to do something 3. THE AGENTIAL PARTICIPLE "-MA" 3.1 It replaces a relative 'joka' sentence Here we have the construction of jonkun tekemä that corresponds to the English construction 'made by somebody'. In Finnish there is this active, adjectival participle that ends in "-mA" and requires an agent in the genitive form always present: (jonkun) sanoma < sanoa, sanon, sanoi, sanonut to say message, something said by somebody (jonkun) pelkäämä < pelätä, pelkään, pelkäsi, pelännyt to be afraid something of what somebody is afraid (jonkun) syömä < syödä, syön, söi, syönyt to eat something that is eaten by somebody (jonkun) haluama < haluta, haluan, halusi, halunnut to desire something that is desired by somebody When this participle is used as an adjectival attribute it is inflected in the same case as the main word of the phrase. It is also used alone as a predicate complement to the verb olla ’to be’. One possessive suffix is enough, and it is placed to the participle when there is a possessive pronoun before it. To a question like kenen tekemä teos? the answer is: hänen tekemänsä teos (not *tekemänsä *teoksensa). Tytöllä on äidin tekemät vaatteet. (adjectival attribute) = Tytön vaatteet ovat äidin tekemät / tekemiä. (predicate complements) The girl wears clothes that her mother has made
172 Chapter VI, 3.1, 3.2 Asumme hänen tekemässään talossa /Asumme isän tekemässä talossa.. We live in a house built by him / built by Father (Minun) eilen näkemäni filmi oli hyvä. = Filmi, jonka eilen näin, oli hyvä. The film that I saw yesterday was good Elokuvan nimi oli Tuulen viemää (= "jotain, minkä tuuli vei"). The name of the film was "Gone with the Wind" Note: The 3rd infinitive (point 1.3 above) contains the same syllable ff-mA-ff as this agential participle, but its use is different even if both of them are inflected in cases. The third infinitive is often used in verbal chains with predicate verbs. These are sentences, where we have the third infinitive, do not contain an agential participle: Mies on tekemässä / tekee ostoksia rautakaupassa, koska hän on rakentamassa / rakentaa taloa. The man is shopping in a hardware shop/store because he is building a house 3.2 From the agential participle we get "-mAtOn" If we add a syllable "-tOn" (= ilman 'without, -less') as a suffix to the above mentioned agential participle "-mA", we get an adjective of the opposite meaning: "something that has not been or cannot be done". When these negative adjectives are inflected in cases, we see that their suffix obeys the consonant gradation tt~ t. asua > asumaton, asumattoman uninhabited, waste sanoa > sanomaton, sanomattoman unsaid, what cannot be said tietää > tietämätön, tietämättömän ignorant, who doesn't know syödä > syömätön, syömättömän someth. that was not eaten, someb. who does not eat tehdä > tekemätön työ, tekemättömän työn, tekemätöntä työtä, tekemättömiä töitä undone work’
173 Chapter VI, 3.2 - 3.4 uskoa > uskomaton asia, uskomattoman asian, unbelievable matter uskomatonta asiaa, uskomattomia asioita The syllable "-mA" lacks when the suffix ”-tOn" is added to a noun, for instance, leipä, leivän > leivätön pöytä 'breadless table' and rasva > rasvaton maito 'skimmed milk, fatless milk'. Voi hyvä tavaton! 'goodness me!'. Actually, the suffix "-tOn" is a totally different suffix because it is not connected with verbs. 3.3 An "almost" ending "-mAisillA" + possessive suffix Note this pattern: olla sanomaisillaan 'to be near/about to say something' where the ending is "-maisillaan/-mäisillään" = "-mA" + "isi" + the adessive case "-11A" + a poss. suffix. This non-finite form is also called "the 5th infinitive". Olin tekemäisilläni tyhmyyden = Olin (vähällä) tehdä tyhmyyden. 1 almost did a stupid thing / made a fool of myself An alternative form to this expression was mentioned in point 1.1a) where the first infinitive was handled. 3.4 Some nouns have the same ending "-mA" There are nouns that end in "-mA" and are clearly built on a verb, e.g. näkymä 'view', syntymä 'birth', elämä 'life, living', kuolema 'death', halkeama 'split, crack', juoma 'drink', tuntuma 'touch, contact', kokoelma 'collection'. Furthermore, there are some words whose origin we don't know, namely e.g. maisema 'landscape', kylmä 'cold', kuuma 'hot', loma 'holiday, vacation'. Most of these words have the ending "-miA" in the partitive pl. form, but ilma 'air, weather', sama 'same' and lama 'depression' read ilmoja, samoja, lamoja (better: lamakausia). V&A
Chapter VI 174 An extra exercise: Can you read recipes in Finnish? Do you know how to make a cake? Piimäkakku Ainekset: (ingredients) (buttermilk cake) 4 dl vehnäjauhoja leipoa leivon 2 dl sokeria leivot 1 tl soodaa leipoo 2 tl neilikkaa leivomme 2 tl inkivääriä leivotte 1 dl rusinoita leipovat 1 dl voisulaa leivotaan 3 dl piimää leivottiin Sekoita kuivat aineet keskenään. Lisää mukaan voisula ja piimä. Hämmennä taikina tasaiseksi. Kaada taikina voideltuun ja korppujauhotettuun vuokaan. Paista 175 asteessa tunnin verran. Tarkista kypsyys puutikulla. Kumoa kakku taijoiluvadille hiukan jäähtyneenä. You could use this recipe (resepti) as a basis, on which you can exercise your skill to manage the different forms of conjugation and declination. First of all, you must consult your dictionary to understand every word separately. The basic forms of the verbs that occur are: leipoa, valmistaa, sekoittaa, lisätä, hämmentää, kaataa, paistaa, tarkistaa, kumota, jäähtyä... Please turn the singular commands into plural: sekoittakaa, lisätkää, or into passive forms sekoitetaan, lisätään. Then you could read the text in the first person sg. and different tenses: sekoitan, lisään, sekoitin, lisäsin, etc. You could imagine how you would tell your friend that you made a cake: Leivoin / Olen leiponut kakun. Tein sen näin: ensin sekoitin ainekset, sitten.. Please remember to change the forms of the objects when you move from the active verbal forms to passive forms. If the partitive case is possible, use it. Anyhow, please try it, too, for the objects. Valmistus: (preparation)
175 Chapter VII, 1. VII EXCERCISES WITH NOUNS AND VERBS By now, you may already know many sample words by heart, so you have an idea about the possibilities of the different endings or suffixes for substantives, adjectives, pronouns, numerals and verbs. When starting to do the following exercises, you will need a good dictionary as everything is not translated into English. The first two exercises concern nouns, and the last two exercises concern verbs. Exercise 1 - Single nouns The type numbers are mentioned as per the types of nouns in Nykysuomen sanakirja, 1970, and Käänteissanakirja - Reverse Dictionary of Modern Standard Finnish, 1979. (See point 3.2 in Chapter II.) Please try to inflect the words in all the 12 cases in sg. and in pl. (If comitative and instructive are included, the number of cases is 14.) 1. a) talo, talon, taloa, taloja ‘house’ or teko, teon, tekoa, tekoja ‘act, deed, work’ or tyttö, tytön, tyttöä, tyttöjä ‘girl’ (Type 01) lasku bill, invoice aalto, aallon wave lähetystö embassy, delegation apu, avun help, aid, support neuvo advice, suggestion kunto, kunnon condition, order puuro porridge polku, polun path sivu page serkku, serkun cousin suihku shower taito, taidon skill syksy autumn veto, vedon tag/bet sähkö electricity vety, vedyn hydrogen vero tax, duty voitto, voiton victory, profits 1. b) hyvä, hyvän, hyvää, hyviä ‘good’ (Types 11, 13, 16) isoisä grandfather luokka, luokan class, category kynä pen, pencil nurkka, nurkan comer, nook lentäjä flyer, pilot sulka, sulan feather, plume nolla zero, nil kuoppa, kuopan pit, hollow ohjelma program ruoka, ruoan/ruuan food, meal opettaja teacher setä, sedän (paternal) uncle, man 1>6-4
Chapter VII, 1. 176 But. please note this partitive plural form: (Types 14, 15, 17, 18) harjoittelija, -n, -a, harjoittelijoita trainee, pupil opiskelija, -n, -a, opiskelijoita student, pupil hallitsija, -n, -a, hallitsijoita ruler, monarch kulkija, -n, -a, kulkijoita wanderer, vagabond peruna, -n, -a, perunoita potato 1. c) vanha, vanhan, vanhaa, vanhoja ‘old’ (Type 10) kansa people, nation halpa, halvan cheap, inexpensive kirja book hinta, hinnan price lahja gift, present kampa, kamman comb paha bad, evil kauppa, kaupan business, shop patja mattress palkka, palkan salary, payment sarja series, set takka, takan fireplace sauna bath ranta, rannan shore, strand seura company, society vapa, vavan rod suola salt velka, velan debt tarha kindergarten lauta, laudan board, plank 1. d) pieni, pienen, pientä, pieniä ‘little, small’ (Types 38, 39, 32, 33) §hiiri mouse huoli care, anxiety liemi bouillon, liquid lohi salmon meri sea moni many nuori young saari island suuri big, great sääri leg tiili brick, tile tuli fire tuuli wind uni sleep, dream veri blood ääni voice, sound 1. e) pankki, pankin, pankkia, pankkeja ‘bank’ (Types 04, 06) bensiini petrol, gasoline englanti, englannin English hissi elevator laki, lain law, act, statute insinööri engineer merkki, merkin mark, sign konkurssi bankruptcy muoti, muodin fashion kriisi crisis sentti, sentin cent muovi plastic tauti, taudin illness pianisti piano-player tuonti, tuonnin import vitsi joke vienti, viennin export
177 Chapter VII, 1. 1. f) paperi, paperin, paperia, papereita ‘paper’ (Type 05) or kaupunki, kaupungin, kaupunkia, kaupunkeja ‘city, town9 kiikari, kiikarin, kiikaria, kiikareita leninki, leningin, leninkiä, leninkejä lääkäri, lääkärin, lääkäriä, lääkäreitä moottori, moottorin, moottoria, moottoreita taikuri, taikurin, taikuria taikureita pastilli, pastillin, pastillia, pastilleja / pastilleita sipuli, sipulin, sipulia, sipuleja / sipuleita field-glasses dress, frock doctor, physician motor, engine magician pastille onion, bulb 1. g) toinen, toisen, toista, toisia ‘second, another’ (Type 63) ensimmäinen hevonen ihminen kotimainen suomalainen ulkomaalainen ulkomainen viranomainen first (in order) horse man, person, human being domestic, home, native Finn, Finnish foreigner foreign (proper) authority 1. h) kone [kone’], koneen, konetta, koneita ‘machine, appliance' or tuote [tuote’], tuotteen, tuotetta, tuotteita ‘product’ (Type 78) aihe theme, subject aloite, aloitteen initiative ase weapon eläke, eläkkeen pension ennuste forecast, prognosis kastike, kastikkeen sauce, dressing esine object, thing laite, laitteen device, gadget haave dream liike, liikkeen motion, business hiutale flake liikenne, liikenteen traffic home mould, mildew liite, liitteen enclosure, appendix huone room osake, osakkeen share ihme wonder, miracle ote, otteen hold, grip, extract kiire hurry, rush pyörre, pyörteen whirl kirje letter (to somebody) sade, sateen rain nokare pat (e.g. of butter) taide, taiteen art perhe family tiede, tieteen science piste point, full stop tarve, tarpeen need, want sose mash, (apple) sauce turve, turpeen turf, peat valhe lie, an untrue statem. vaate, vaatteen piece of clothing virhe fault, slip, error viihde, viihteen light entertainment
Chapter VII, 1. 178 1. i) kaunis, kauniin, kaunista, kauniita ‘nice’ or opas, oppaan, opasta, oppaita ‘guide’ (Types 66, 68, 69) autuas blissful, blessed asukas, asukkaan inhabitant, resident kallis expensive, dear itsekäs, itsekkään selfish, egoistic pylväs pillar, column kirkas, kirkkaan clear, bright saalis prey, catch porras, portaan step, stair sairas sick, ill rengas, renkaan ring, link, tyre/tire taivas sky, heaven ruis, rukiin rye, cereal tiivis tight, compact tehdas, tehtaan factory valmis ready, prepared tehokas, tehokkaan efficient vieras strange®, guest varas, varkaan thief 1. j) vastaus, vastauksen, vastausta, vastauksia ‘answer, reply’ (Type 64) aikomus intention, pian koulutus schooling, training kysymys question tarkastus examination,control rakennus building määräys order, prescription hius hear ennätys record, achievement ananas pineapple tulos result, outcome annos portion, dose jäljennös copy, reproduction teräs steel ymmärrys understanding, sence 1. k) korkeus, korkeuden, korkeutta, korkeuksia ‘height’ (Type 65) ikävyys trouble, tedium tyhmyys stupidity, nonsense lapsuus childhood uutuus newness, novelty totuus truth vaikeus difficulty tulevaisuus future yhteys connection, context Exercise 2 - Prepositions and postpositions that require a certain case Requiring the partitive case (se > sitä ‘it’): ilman sitä / sitä ilman without it ennen sitä / sitä ennen before it kohti sitä / sitä kohti towards it paitsi sitä / sitä paitsi without it / besides päin sitä / sitä päin towards, against it pitkin sitä / sitä pitkin along it
179 Chapter VII, 2., 3. vastapäätä sitä / sitä vastapäätä opposite to it vasten sitä / sitä vasten against it keskellä, keskeltä, keskelle sitä / sen keskellä, keskeltä, -lie among, in the middle of it lähellä, läheltä, lähelle sitä / sen lähellä, läheltä, lähelle near it Requiring the genitive case (se > sen ‘its’): (sen) alla, alta, alle under it (sen) edellä, edeltä, edelle before it (sen) edessä, edestä, eteen before it (sen) päällä, päältä, päälle above it, on it (sen) takana, takaa, taakse behind it (sen) kohdalla, kohdalta, -lie by/at, from, to it (sen) luona, luota, luokse by/at, from, to it (sen) lähellä, läheltä, lähelle by/at, from, to it (sen) ansiosta thanks to it (sen) aikana during it (sen) jäljessä, jälkeen after it (sen) halki /poikki across it (sen) kautta / läpi through it (sen) mukaan according to it (sen) mukana / kanssa with it (sen) perusteella on grounds of it (sen) hyväksi for it, for the benefit of it (sen) johdosta because of it Requiring the elative case (se > siitä. “-stA,v): siitä / jostakin huolimatta in spite of, despite something siitä/jostakin lähtien from, since Exercise 3 - Verbs that require a certain case jta = jotakin (partitive) (a part of) something, person or thing jna = jonakin (essive) as somebody, something jks = joksikin (translative) to (be or become) somebody, something jssa = jossakin (inessive) in somebody, something, in/on a place jsta = jostakin (elative) from/of somebody, something, from a place
Chapter VII, 3.a) 180 jhn = johonkin (illative) jlla = jollakin (adessive) jlta = joltakin (ablative) jlle = jollekin (allative) to somebody, something, somewhere on/by somebody, something, on/by a place from/of somebody, something, from a place to somebody, something, to a place 3. a) Verbs that occur with their objects always in partitive “-(t)tA”) Note: Nominative and genitive cases would be unnatural or require an explanation of the totality or the finality of the action. (Now you need your dictionary.) ajatella jta sta Ajattelen sinua (usein): mitä sinä ajattelet tästä? arvostaa j ta Arvostan sinua (suuresti) auttaa jta jssä Autan sinua (siinä, sen tekemisessä, tekemään jta) edellyttää jta jlta Edellytän sitä (sinulta) edustaa jta j ssä Edustan sinua (siinä, siellä) epäillä jta jsta Epäilen sinua (siitä, sen tekemisestä) etsiä/hakea jta jsta Etsin / hain sinua (siitä, sieltä) harkita jta Harkitsen sitä (sinne menemistä) harrastaa jta Harrastan sitä (lukemista) haukkua jta jks Minä haukuin häntä (siaksH (but note: Hän haukkui minut pataluhaksi.) hävetä jta Minä häpeän sinua ihailla jta Ihailen sinua ihmetellä jta Ihmettelen sinua ikävöidä jta Ikävöin sinua inhota jta Minä inhoan riitelyä (riitelemistä) jatkaa jta Jatkan sitä (lukemista) (huomenna) juhlia jta Minä juhlin sitä (syntymäpäivääni) kannustaa jta jhn Kannustan sinua (jatkamaan sitä, tekemään sen) katsella jta Katselen sinua (televisiota koko illan) katsoa jta jhn Katson sinua (suoraan silmiin) kiittää jta jsta Kiitän sinua (siitä, sen tekemisestä) kiusata jta Onko joku kiusannut sinua? kohdella jta Kohtele häntä varovasti! kokeilla jta Kokeile tätä (sen tekemistä)! korostaa jta Korostan sitä (että asia on tärkeä) kosia jta jks Mies kosii naista (vaimokseen) kuunnella jta Kuuntelen sinua (mielelläni) käskeä jta jhn Käsken sinua siihen (lähtemään pois) V&A
181 Chapter VII, 3 a) loukata j tä Nyt sinä loukkaat minua! luulla jtajks Luulin sinua ystäväksi lyödä j tä j llä jhn Mies löi (toista miestä) (pullolla) (päähän) lähestyä j tä Auto lähestyy (Helsinkiä), kello lähestyy kuutta mainostaa j tä j ssä Tuotetta on mainostettu (televisiossa) (paljon) merkitä j tä j lie Mitä tämä merkitsee (sinulle)? miellyttää jta Asunto miellyttää minua miettiä j tä Mitä sinä mietit? moittia jta jsta Tästä (sen tekemisestä) minä moitin sinua muistella jta Muistelen sinua (usein) muistuttaa jta Lapset muistuttavat vanhempiaan neuvoa j ta j ssa/j hn Neuvon sinua (siinä asiassa) (olemaan hiljaa) noudattaa jta Neuvon sinua vain noudattamaan ohjeita näytellä jta jssa Hän on näytellyt Hamletia (teatterissa) odottaa jta j ssä Vaimo odottaa lasta (huhtikuussa). Odota minua! onnitella jta jsta Onnittelen sinua (siitä, sen johdosta) opiskella jta jssa Opiskelen venäjää (yliopistossa, kursseilla) palvella jta jssa Palveltiinko sinua (siellä) (ystävällisesti)? pelata jta Suomessa pelataan pesäpalloa pelästyä jta Minä pelästyin (haukkuvaa koiraa) pelätä jta Minä pelkään pimeää. Mitä sinä pelkäät? pitää jta jna Pidän sinua mukavana (ihmisenä). Koiria ja kissoja pidetään kotieläiminä. puolustaa jta j lie Puolustan sinua (hänelle) (mielelläni) purra jta jhn Koira puri Kallea (jalkaan) pyytää jta jltä Pyydän sinulta tätä (palvelusta) rakastaa jta Minä rakastan sinua (ja syömistä ja nukkumista) rukoilla jta jlta Rukoilemme Jumalaa (Jumalalta apua) sanoa jta jks Hän sanoi (kutsui) minua Kalleksi seurata jta jhn Seuraan sinua (sinne, bussipysäkille) sinutella jta Saanko sinutella teitä? soittaa jta / jlla Soitan viulua / ovikelloa / puhelimella suosia jta Suosin sitä (kotimaista ruokaa) (aina) surra jta Suren sitä (asiaa) (valtavasti) suunnitella jta Suunnittelen sitä (etelänmatkaa) (kevääksi) syyttää jta jsta Sinä syytät minua (aina) (kaikesta) sääliä jta jsta Minä säälin sinua (siitä syystä) tarkoittaa jta jlla Ketä sinä (sillä) tarkoitat? tervehtiä jta Hän tervehtii minua (aina) (ystävällisesti) toivoa jta Toivon sitä (sinne pääsemistä / pääseväni sinne). Toivon sinulle kaikkea hyvää. V6*A
Chapter VII, 3 b), c) 182 totella jta Kiltti lapsi tottelee äitiä varoa jta Varokaa vihaista koiraa! vastustaa jta jssa Vastustan sinua (tässä asiassa) verrata jta jhn Vertaan sinua häneen (hintaa laatuun) vertailla jta jhn Vertailemme hintoja (kaksosia toisiinsa) vihata jta Vihaan sitä (epärehellisyyttä) 3. b) Verbs that require elative (”-stA”) erehtyä jsta (jssa) Erehdyin ovesta (ovissa, nimissä) erota j sta esim. työpaikasta, puolisostaan, toisistaan erottaa (joku/jokin) jsta Kaksoset erotettiin (pieninä) toisistaan etsiä jta jsta Etsin sinua sieltä (siitä talosta, kaikkialta) haaveilla jsta Mistä (kenestä) sinä haaveilet? huolehtia jsta Huolehtisitko tästä (työstä) (vähän aikaa)? huolestua jsta Olen huolestunut sinusta hämmästyä jsta Hämmästyin siitä (hänen sanoistaan) iloita jsta Lapsi iloitsee siitä (uusista leluista) innostua jsta Olen innostunut tästä (lukemisesta) johtua jsta Mistä tämä johtuu? kertoa jsta jlie Mitä olet kertonut minusta hänelle? keskustella jsta Keskustelemme asioista (yhdessä) kieltäytyä jsta Et voi kieltäytyä tästä (tarjouksesta) kiinnostua jsta Kiinnostuin (heti) siitä asiasta kärsiä jsta Olen kärsinyt unettomuudesta (viime aikoina) luopua jsta Hän luopui palkinnostaan löytää jsta Löysin sen tästä paikasta (kadulta) nauttia jsta Nautin tästä (vapaa-ajasta) neuvotella jsta Tästä (asiasta) pitää neuvotella piristyä jsta Kahvista (ihminen) piristyy (nopeasti) pitää jsta Minä pidän sinusta (lukemisesta) puhua jsta jlie Oletko puhunut minusta hänelle? riidellä jsta Ei (nyt) riidellä tästä (asiasta)! riippua jsta Riippuu asianhaaroista! Lamppu riippuu katosta. selvitä jsta Selviätkö tästä (yksin)? valittaa jsta jlle Aion valittaa sinusta hänelle (opettajalle) vastata j sta j lie Tehdas vastaa tuotteistaan kuluttajille välittää jsta Älä välitä hänestä! yllättyä jsta Hän yllättyi siitä (saamastaan palkinnosta)
183 Chapter VII, 3 c) 3. c) Verbs that require illative (”-VhVn”, ’’-seen”, ”-siin”, ”-mAAn”) asettua jhn Asetuimme taloon (asumaan) (taloksi) erikoistua jhn Hän on erikoistunut siihen (sen tekemiseen) hukkuajhn Veteen voi hukkua ihastua jhn Poika ihastui tyttöön joutua jhn Mies joutui (menemään) vankilaan. jättää jta jhn Hän jätti meidät sinne (bussipysäkille) (seisomaan) keskittyä jhn Keskityn nyt vain tähän (lukemiseen) kokoontua jhn/jssa Kokoonnumme tähän / tässä (kello 10) kompastua jhn Lapsi kompastui kiveen kyetä jhn Kyllä sinä kykenet tähän (työhön) kyllästyä jhn Olen kyllästynyt tähän (työhön) laskeutua jhn Kone laskeutuu Helsinkiin (lentokentälle) liittyä jhn Mihin asiaan tämä liittyy? lisätä jhn Lisään kirjeeseen jotakin (pari lausetta) luottaa jhn Minä luotan sinuun mahtua jhn Bussiin mahtuu 40 henkeä nojata jhn Nojatkaa tähän (seinään, minun käsivarteeni)! osallistua jhn Mc osallistumme siihen (keräykseen, kurssille) pakottaa jhn Ystäväni pakotti minut lähtemään mukaansa pyrkiä jhn Pyrin (pääsemään) johonkin (koulutukseen) päästä jhn Pääsin (mukaan) koulutukseen rakastua jhn Tyttö rakastui poikaan saapuajhn Saavuimme Lontooseen (hyvissä ajoin) sairastua jhn Mihin (tautiin) hän sairastui? sisältyä jhn Hintaan sisältyy alv (= arvonlisävero) sopeutua jhn Olen sopeutunut tähän (elämään täällä) suhtautua jhn Suhtaudun siihen (elämään) rauhallisesti suostua jhn Suostun siihen (tekemään sitä/sen) tarttua jhn Liima tarttuu tähän (paperiin) (hyvin) tottua jhn Olen tottunut siihen (tekemään sitä) tutustua jhn Olen tutustunut häneen (Suomessa) (vähitellen) tyytyä jhn Olen tyytynyt (= tyytyväinen) siihen (vähään) unohtaa jta jhn Unohdin sen (matkalippuni) sinne (kotiin) vaihtaa jta jhn Vaihdoin tämän (tavaran) uuteen (tavaraan) valmistautua jhn Valmistaudumme siihen (laskeutumaan) vedota jhn Vetoan asiantuntijoihin väsyäjhn Väsyn tähän (lukemiseen) (nopeasti) yhtyä jhn Yhdyn mielipiteeseesi (= olen samaa mieltä)
Chapter VII, 3 d), c) 184 opetella tekemään jta Olen opetellut hiihtämään oppia tekemään jta Olen oppinut ymmärtämään suomalaisia opettaa jku/jkuta teke- Kuka sinut/sinua on opettanut puhumaan suomea? mään jta 3. d) Verbs that occur with a personal pronoun in "accusative" (= "t-case") with other kind of objects either in genitive sg. or in nominative. The result is in general final. Partitive comes only in negative sentences. erottaa joku sta haastaa joku jhn jst julistaa joku jks kiinnittää joku jhn jks kutsua joku jhn jks määrätä joku jks jhn nimittää joku jks jhn palkita joku jsta pelastaa joku jst päästää joku jsta jhn todeta joku jks tunnistaa joku jks valita joku jks äänestää joku jks Erotin sinut heti muiden joukosta. Haastan sinut tästä oikeuteen (kaksintaisteluun) Mika Häkkinen julistettiin voittajaksi Hänet kiinnitettiin oopperan johtajaksi Hänet kutsuttiin kentälle erotuomariksi Hänet määrättiin lähettilääksi Singaporeen Kimmo Sasi nimitettiin ministeriksi hallitukseen Kilpailijat palkitaan hyvistä suorituksista Äiti pelasti lapsensa vedestä (hukkumasta) Päästän sinut ovesta (ulos tai sisään) (menemään) Tuomari totesi miehen syylliseksi Tunnistin (= tunsin) hänet (samaksi ihmiseksi) Valitsimme hänet (joukon johtajaksi) Suomalaiset äänestivät presidentiksi Tarja Halosen 3. e) Verbs that mostly occur with the first infinitive form (basic form) of another verb. (The second verb can be either transitive or intransitive, with or without an object.) Ability to think and work: aikoa tehdä jta ajatella tehdä jta ehtiä tehdä jta huomata tehdä jta jaksaa tehdä jta koettaa tehdä jta luvata (jlle) tehdä jta muistaa tehdä jta osata tehdä jta pelätä tehdä jta Aioin opiskella (suomea) ahkerasti Ajattelin mennä nukkumaan Ehdit mennä kotiin myöhemminkin Huomasitko ottaa sateenvarjon mukaasi? En jaksa opiskella (englantia) (jatkuvasti) Koeta nyt vain olla kärsivällinen! Lupasit (minulle) opiskella (suomea) (ahkerasti) Muista ottaa sateenvarjo mukaasi! Osaatko luetella numerot suomeksi? Lapsi pelkää mennä kouluun
185 Chapter VII, 3 c) päättää tehdä jta Päätin pitää (opiskeluissani) pienen tauon saada tehdä jta Saat syödä niin paljon kuin haluat uhata tehdä jta Hän uhkasi lyödä minua (kepillä) unohtaa tehdä jta Unohdin sanoa sinulle yhden asian uskaltaa tehdä jta Uskallatko lähteä yksin merelle? Making other people do something (+ genitive of the person): käskeä, antaa sallia (jonkun) tehdä jotakin Minun käskettiin mennä kotiin / tehdä se/sitä They told me to go home (passive) Käskin hänen lähteä / tehdä sen/sitä. I told him to leave / to do it (active) Annan muiden (ihmisten) tehdä sen/sitä. 1 am letting other people do it Anna minun tehdä se/sitä. Please let me do it! En anna/salli sinun tehdä sellaista. I don't let you do such a thing. Sitä heidän ei annettu tehdä. They were not allowed to do it. Pakottaa, saada (joku) tekemään jotakin (third infinitive) Heidät pakotettiin /saatiin lähtemään They were compelled to leave kodeistaan. their homes. People are put obligations to do someting: (jonkun) on hyvä /pakko /paras /parasta tehdä jotakin (se tai sitä) Sinun on hyvä levätä hetki (hetken verran). It is good for you to take a rest Oliko (sinun) pakko sanoa se (ääneen)? Was i necessary to say it (aloud)? (Sinun) on paras olla paikalla,. It is best (for you) to be present kun posti tulee. when the mail arrives (jonkun) kannattaa / tarvitsee / kuuluu / tulee tehdä jotakin (se tai sitä) (Sinun) kannattaa opiskella (sitä). It's worth your studying / learning it. Kaikkien kannattaisi lukea (tätä/tämä). Everybody should gain by reading this (partly or wholly)
Chapter VII, 4 a) 186 Sinun tarvitsee (vain) lukea se/sitä. You only need to read it / in it. Sinun ei tarvitse syödä (sitä kaikkea). You need not eat (all of it) Kansalaisten kuuluu noudattaa lakeja. Citizens are supposed to follow the laws (jonkun) pitää /täytyy tehdä jotakin (se tai sitä) Minun pitää tehdä nämä tehtävät (tämä työ). I must do these tasks (this work) (Tässä) (meidän) täytyy vain odottaa bussia. (Here) we just have to wait for the bus Note this: The modal verb täytyy is not used in negative forms. The verbs pitää and saada can be used negatively instead of it. Tästä sinun ei pidä hermostua. You must not get nervous = Sinä et saa hermostua tästä. about this Tästä ei pidä kenenkään luulla, että... No one must think (= Kukaan ei saa luulla tästä, että...) about this that.. Exercise 4 - Verbs, listed with their principal parts Two lists of verbs with six or seven principal parts As to the principal parts, see Chapter II, point 2.2 (nouns), Chapter III, point 4 (active) and the beginning of IV (passive). From a basic form like alkaa ‘to begin’, you know to say the forms of personal conjugation: alan, alat, alkaa, alamme, alatte, alkavat, aletaan. The types of conjugation that repeat themselves are not very many, five or six, if grouped as usually done in textbooks. I am not going to copy one of them here but give my own collection of verbs, see 4. a) below. In addition to that, I have chosen to complete this version of my book with a list of verb types (see 4. b) below), as is given in Suomen kielen perussanakirja, much shorter there than the types are given in the older basic work, Nykysuomen sanakirja. 1)6*4
187 Chapter VII, 4 a) 4. a) Finnish verbs in alphabetical order ajatella, ajattelen, ajatteli, ajatellut, ajatellaan, ajateltiin to think ampua, ammun, ampui, ampunut, ammutaan, ammuttiin to shoot, fire antaa, annan, antoi, antanut, annetaan, annettiin to give, hand ehtiä, ehdin, ehti, ehtinyt, ehditään, ehdittiin to arrive in time hakea, haen, haki, hakenut, haetaan, haettiin to get, look for hylätä, hylkään, hylkäsi, hylännyt, hylätään, hylättiin to reject, eliminate hymyillä, hymyilen, hymyili, hymyillyt, hymyillään, -tiin to smile istua, istun, istui, istunut, istutaan, istuttiin tosit kaivata, kaipaan, kaipasi, kaivannut, kaivataan, -ttiin to long for, miss karata, karkaan, karkasi, karannut, karataan, -ttiin to escape keittää, keitän, keitti, keittänyt, keitetään, keitettiin to cook kerrata, kertaan, kertasi, kerrannut, kerrataan, -ttiin to repeat kertoa, kerron, kertoi, kertonut, kerrotaan, kerrottiin to tell kiertää, kierrän, kiersi, kiertänyt, kierretään, kierrettiin to turn, go round kietoa, kiedon, kietoi, kietonut, kiedotaan, kiedottiin to wind, wrap kiivetä, kiipeän, kiipesi, kiivennyt, kiivetään, kiivettiin to climb kulkea, kuljen, kulki, kulkenut, kuljetaan, kuljettiin to go, walk laskea, lasken, laski, laskenut, lasketaan, laskettiin to go/take down; count leikata, leikkaan, leikkasi, leikannut, leikataan, -ttiin to cut, operate levätä, lepään, lepäsi, levännyt, levätään, levättiin to rest, repose liata, likaan, likasi, liannut, liataan, liattiin to dirty loppua, lopun, loppui, loppunut, (loputaan, loputttiin) to end, run out luvata, lupaan, lupasi, luvannut, luvataan, luvattiin to promise lyödä, lyön, löi, lyönyt, lyödään, lyötiin to hit, beat maata, makaan, makasi, maannut, maataan, -ttiin to lie, lie around menetellä, menettelen, menetteli, -tellyt, -tellään, -teltiin to act, do
Chapter VII, 4 a) 188 menettää, menetän, menetti, menettänyt, menetetään, -ttiin to lose muistaa, muistan, muisti, muistanut, muistetaan, -ttiin to remember näytellä, näyttelen, näytteli, näytellyt, näytellään, -tiin to play näyttää, näytän, näytti, näyttänyt, näytetään, -ttiin to show paeta, pakenen, pakeni, paennut, paetaan, paettiin to flee, take to flight pakata, pakkaan, pakkasi, pakannut, pakataan, -ttiin to pack palkata, palkkaan, palkkasi, palkannut, palkataan, -ttiin to hire peitellä, peittelen, peitteli, peitellyt, peitellään, -tiin to cover, hide pesettää, pesetän, pesetti, pesettänyt, pesetetään, -ttiin to let sb wash, clean pestä, pesen, pesi, pessyt, pestään, pestiin to wash pudota, putoan, putosi, pudonnut, pudotaan, -ttiin to fall pudottaa, pudotan, pudotti, pudottanut, pudotetaan, -ttiin to let fall, drop purra, puren, puri, purrut, purraan, purtiin to bite päättää, päätän, päätti, päättänyt, päätetään, -ttiin to decide, end rohjeta, rohkenen, rohkeni, rohjennut, rohjetaan, -ttiin to dear saapua, saavun, saapui, saapunut, saavutaan, -ttiin to arrive sitoa, sidon, sitoi, sitonut, sidotaan, sidottiin to bind sitoutua, sitoudun, sitoutui, sitoutunut, sitoudutaan, -ttiin to commit oneself suoda, suon, soi, suonut, suodaan, suotiin to allow, let, give suudella, suutelen, suuteli, suudellut, suudellaan, -tiin to kiss tahtoa, tahdon, tahtoi, tahtonut, tahdotaan, -ttiin to will, wish taikoa, taion, taikoi, taikonut, taiotaan, taiottiin to do magic tarvita, tarvitsen, tarvitsi, tarvinnut, tarvitaan, -ttiin to need tuntea, tunnen, tunsi, tuntenut, tunnetaan, -ttiin to know; feel tuoda, tuon, toi, tuonut, tuodaan, tuotiin to bring, import tuottaa, tuotan, tuotti, tuottanut, tuotetaan, -ttiin to cause; produce udella, utelen, uteli, udellut, udellaan, udeltiin to pyr, keep asking uhata, uhkaan, uhkasi, uhannut, uhataan, uhattiin to threaten
189 Chapter VII, 4 a), b) vaatia, vaadin, vaati, vaatinut, vaaditaan, vaadittiin to demand, require valita, valitsen, valitsi, valinnut, valitaan, -ttiin to choose, elect valittaa, valitan, valitti, valittanut, valitetaan, -ttiin to complain, be sorry vetää, vedän, veti, vetänyt, vedetään, vedettiin to draw vetäytyä, vetäydyn, vetäytyi, vetäytynyt, vetäydytään, -ttiin to withdraw, move back viihtyä, viihdyn, viihtyi, viihtynyt, viihdytään, viihdyttiin to be happy, feel at home väittää, väitän, väitti, väittänyt, väitetään, väitettiin to claim, say 4. b) Verb types, numbered according to Suomen kielen perussanakirja See Volume A-K, page XVII Verbs, Edita, Helsinki 2004, or some latter issue of Research Institute for the Languages of Finland, www.kotus.fi. Verb type number and the principal parts: Type Verb 52 sanoa, sanon, sanoi, sanoisi, sanokoon, sanonut, sanottiin 53 muistaa, muistan, muisti, muistaisi, muistakoon, muistanut, muistettiin 54 huutaa, huudan, huusi, huutaisi, huutakoon, huutanut, huudettiin 55 soutaa, soudan, souti /sousi, soutaisi, soutakoon, soutanut, soudettiin 56 kaivaa, kaivan, kaivoi, kaivaisi, kaivakoon, kaivanut, kaivettiin 57 saartaa, saarran, saartoi /saarsi, saartaisi, saatakoon, saartanut, saarrettiin 58 laskea, lasken, laski, laskisi, laskekoon, laskenut, laskettiin 59 tuntea, tunnen, tunsi, tuntisi, tuntekoon, tuntenut, tunnettiin 60 lähteä, lähden, lähti (läksi), lähtisi, lähteköön, lähtenyt, lähdettiin 61 sallia, sallin, salli, sallisi, sallikoon, sallinut, sallittiin
Chapter VII, 4 b) 190 62 voida, voin, voi, voisi, voikoon, voinut, voitiin 63 saada, saan, sai, saisi, saakoon, saanut, saatiin 64 juoda, juon, joi, joisi, juokoon, juonut, juotiin 65 käydä, käyn, kävi, kävisi, käyköön, käynyt, käytiin 66 rohkaista, rohkaisen, rohkaisi, rohkaisisi, rohkaiskoon, rohkaissut, rohkaistiin 67 tulla, tulen, tuli, tulisi, tulkoon, tullut, tultiin 68 tupakoida, tupakoin (tupakoitsen), tupakoi (tupakoitsi), tupakoisi (tupakoitsisi), tupakoikoon, tupakoinut, tupakoitiin 69 valita, valitsen, valitsi, valitsisi, valitkoon, valinnut, valittiin 70 juosta, juoksen, juoksi, juoksisi, juoskoon, juossut, juostiin 71 nähdä, näen, näki, näkisi, nähköön, nähnyt, nähtiin 72 vanheta, vanhenen, vanheni, vanhenisi, vanhetkoon, vanhennut, vanhettiin 73 salata, salaan, säläsi, salannut, salataan, salattiin 74 katketa, katkean, katkesi, katkeaisi (katkeisi), katketkoon, katkennut, katkettiin 75 selvitä, selviän, selvisi, selviäisi, selvitköön, selvinnyt, selvittiin 76 taitaa, taidan, taisi, taitaisi, taitakoon, taitanut / tainnut, taidettiin 77 78 V&A
191 Chapter VIII, 1. VIII EXERCISES WITH STORIES 1. Review of terms and principles Let's repeat the lessons so that you can recollect the importance of the many opposite terms that you have noticed. Please try to recall in which connection you should have learned these opposite terms: Vowels: frontal back Consonants: single double Sounds: short long Change of sounds, through consonant changes vowel changes or grading assimilation Grade (consonant changes): strong weak Syllables: open closed or short long Stems: vowel stem consonant stem Number: singular plural Words: nouns verbs Phrases: noun phrase verbal phrase (chain) Forms of words: basic inflected / conjugated Compound nouns: genitive: objective nominative: (mostly) or possessive (first part) descriptive (first part) Subjects nominative case partitive case or nominative case genitive case Objects: partial (in partitive) total (in genitive or in nominative) or unfinished (action) completed (action) Verbal classes: transitive intransitive Main classes (voices): active passive Verbal forms: finite non-finite (infinite) or positive (affirmative) negative Moods (manners): indicative conditional/potential Tenses (times): present tense past tense perfect pluperfect
192 Chapter VIII, 2. 2. Two first stories When trying to read any short text in Finnish, you will soon note that you may encounter any of the grammatical forms you have just learned. Therefore, you might need some good advice to encourage you to start reading headlines, news and comics in Finnish newspapers, for instance. You need not take it for granted that all written Finnish is correct as to the forms of objects and subjects, which I find most important to be correct to ensure proper understanding. The written language sometimes contains typographical errors, but in general, you can rely on written Finnish and study Finnish in newspapers, as well. With the help of the next short text taken from a newspaper, I am showing you one way how you can proceed systematically when trying to understand a text. After this first reading exercise, you will get five real stories that you can try to manage more and more alone with another alternative technique. The first text Explanation, the word bv word: basic form and the ending Translation of the words Suomessa Suomi case 7 sg. in Finland huvipuistojen huvi + puisto case 2 pl. fun-fair, amusement park laitteille laite case 12 pl. device, equipment ei ole olla (neg.) 3rd p.sg. is not, there are no teknisiä tekninen case 3 pl. technical, technological määräyksiä, määräys case 3 pl. order, rule mutta mutta but poliisi poliisi case 1 sg. the police vaatii vaatia 3rd p.sg. demands, requires tarkastukset tarkastus case 1 pl. inspection, check, control kuukausittain. kuukausi case 14 pl. monthly Tarkastaja tarkastaja case 1 sg. inspector, examiner katsoo katsoa 3rd p.sg. looks, checks rakenteiden rakenne case 2 pl. structure, construction kunnon kunto case2 sg. condition, shape ja ja and laitteiden laite case 2 pl. device, equipment toiminnan. toiminta case 2 sg. operation, functioning V&*4
193 Chapter VIII, 2. Hiukankin epäilyttävään pitää puuttua heti, hiukan (+ "-kin") epäilyttävä case 9 sg. pitää 3rd p.sg. puuttua I st inf. heti sanoa 3rd p.sg. = DI case 1 sg. (name omitted) a little suspicious, dubious must to step in, intervene at once says graduate engineer, master of science sanoo diplomi-insinööri = DI How much did you understand with the help of that kind of listing the words? - Now we proceed to the first "real" story, and to a different technique. This is a report that was issued in the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat 50 years ago when the United Nations completed its huge new headquarters. Because the predicate verb is the heart of the message, you should preferably start by underlining the finite verbal forms (as done already). The suffixes of those forms are shown in the pattern tables of verbs at the end of this book. The second text: YK muuttanut pilvenpiirtäjäänsä (Helsingin Sanomien kirjeenvaihtajalta) New York, 27.12. (UP) YK siirtyi tiistaina virallisesti Manhattanilla sijaitsevaan lasi-ja marmori- pilvenpiirtäjäänsä jo elokuussa alkaneen muuttotoiminnan päätyttyä. YK:n sihteeristö, 3.500-jäsenisine hcnkilökuntineen, ei löytänyt paperipalaakaan väärältä paikalta, sanoi muuttoa johtanut Byron Wood tähdentäen muuton joustavuutta. V6>A
194 Chapter VIII, 2. Sihteeristön siirtäminen Lake Successista alkoi io elokuussa, mutta ettei yleiskokouksen istuntoa häirittäisi, kuljetettiin tavaroita vanhasta päämajasta uuteen ainoastaan öisin ja viikonloppuina. Jokaiseen huonekaluun ja asiakirjamappiin merkittiin tarkkaan sen sijoituspaikka uudessa rakennuksessa, ettei sekaannusta pääsisi syntymään. When reading a Finnish text, which you want to understand, you can proceed in this order: 1. verbs, 2. nouns, 3. vocabulary, 4. translation. Together with the finite forms of verbs, you can pick up entire chains of verbs if there are several verbs (both finite and non-finite), such as the basic forms and the third infinitives of verbs if there are any. Study the forms of verbs by asking yourself: - Positive or negative? - Active or passive? - Which mood (indicative, conditional, potential)? - Which tense (present or past)? - Is there a separate subject or any subject at all? Or is the subject contained in the verb or the previous clause? - Are there any shortened verbal clauses containing a hidden kun or että? Next you should study the noun phrases, the units that consist of one or several words with case endings including the "-minen" infinitives: - Which case endings do you see there? - Are there some possessive suffixes or end particles (-pA, -kin, -kAAn, -hAn)? - Are there any verbal participles as adjectival attributes which can be replaced with a sub-clause? - How do the nouns read in their basic forms? If a noun phrase is long, you must first understand it in its basic form. In this story you find many phrases that consist of more than one word. The underlined words are present tense and past tense participles, here used as adjectival attributes. The underlining of them helps you to note that you can study them as verbs, e.g. yhdistyneet is a plural past tense participle form of yhdistyä 'to be united', which you can find in your dictionary. The ending "- neet" is the nominative pl. form of "-nUt". Yhdistyä, (on) yhdistynyt (sg.), (ovat) yhdistyneet (pl.).
195 Chapter VIII, 2. Yhdistyneet kansakunnat (= YK) Helsingin Sanomien kirjeenvaihtaja Manhattanilla sijaitseva lasi- ja marmoripilvenpiirtäjä jo elokuussa alkanut muuttotoiminta YK:n sihteeristö 3.500-jäseninen henkilökunta väärä paikka muuttoa johtanut Byron Wood muuton joustavuus sihteeristön siirtäminen Lake Successista yleiskokouksen istunto vanha päämaja uusi (päämaja) jokainen huonekalu ja asiakirjamappi sen sijoituspaikka uudessa rakennuksessa United Nations (= UN) a correspondent of HS the skyscraper of glass and marble (situated) at Manhattan removal activity which began already in August Secretariat of the UN a staff of 3 500 members wrong place B.W. who lead the removing flexibility of the removal the act of removing the Secretariat from Lake Success (elsewhere) session of the General Assembly old head quarter new head quarter every piece of furniture and each file its location in the new building Note: Did you also notice this shortening? kun muuttotoiminta oli päättynyt = muuttotoiminnan päätyttyä after the removing (act) had ended After having settled the basic forms of the meaningful verbs and the noun phrase units, you could also study the roles of the noun phrases: are they subjects or objects, or do they express time, manner or place? Then you can start making a list of the words that are new to you in the story. Perhaps you should first list the verbs, then the conjunctions and other small words, and lastly the nouns, or you can proceed from word to word. If you typed it all into your computer, you can arrange the words alphabetically (as I have done below). Words in "YK muuttanut pilvenpiirtäjäänsä": ainoastaan only < ainoa alkoi, alkaneen (< alkanut) started < alkaa asiakirjamappi file < asia + kirja + mappi elokuu August < elo + kuu ettei that not < että + ei henkilökunta staff, personnel < henkilö + kunta V£*A
196 Chapter VIII, 2. huonekalu ei häirittäisi istunto jo johtanut jokainen joustavuus 3.500-jäseninen kansakunta kirjeeenvaihtaja kuljetettiin lasi ei löytänyt marmori merkittiin muutto muuttotoiminta paikka /?tf/?m'(n)pala pilvenpiirtäjä päämaja pääsisi päätyttyä rakennus sekaannus sihteeristö siirtyi siirtyminen siirtäminen (jssa) sijaitseva sijoituspaikka (jssa) syntymään tarkasti = tarkkaan tavara tiistai tähdentäen uusi vanha viikonloppu virallisesti väärä yhdistynyt yleiskokous öisin piece of furniture not be disturbed session already lead, manage every, each flexibility (how many members) nation correspondent was/were carried glass did not find marble was/were labelled removal act of removing place piece of paper skyscraper headquarter could not (happen) after the end building confusion, "mix-up" secretariat moved, was moved removal being removed situated place, location be bom, appear precisely goods T uesday laying stress on new old weekend officially wrong united general assemble by night, all nights < huone + kalu < häiritä jta < istua < johtaa < joka + -inen < joustaa <jäsen < kansa + kunta < vaihtaa kirjeitä < kuljettaa (jsta jhn) < löytää (jsta / jlta) < merkitä (jhk) < muuttaa (jsta jhk) < muutto + toimia < paperi + pala < pilvi + piirtää < pää + maja < päästä (jsta jhk) < päättyä (jhk / jssa) < rakentaa < sekoittaa, sekaantua < sihteeri + -stö < siirtyä (jsta jhk) < siirtyä (jsta jhk) < siirtää (jsta jhk) < sijaita (jssa) < sijoittaa (jhk) < syntyä < tarkka < tähdentää jta < viikko + loppu < virallinen < yhdistyä jhk < yleinen + kokous < yö 1)6*4
197 Chapter VIII, 2. You should still consider the context for a while before trying to translate the sentences. What is the situation in the story? Then try to say roughly the same thoughts in your language. Here you also have an opportunity to start thinking in Finnish if you imagine how you would tell the story further to a Finn in Finnish and describe what you understood and remember about it. Or you can change the story and make it completely new if you change the words into new ones and try to find the corresponding forms for them 3. About punctuation and commas Commas are used for grammatical reasons in Finnish, and not to show a stop. With commas we make a list of words, or we show that a part of a longer sentence is submitted or added to the main clause. The presence of commas when placed according to the Finnish norms, will also be a help to you when trying to understand a Finnish text. I advise you to pay some attention to the commas in Finnish when you read Finnish texts because commas belong to school texts and business letters and other informative reading. And they are used even in comic strips as they should be used. Commas must not be left out entirely or used too much, either. 4. Four more stories The finite forms of verbs (the predicates) are also already underlined to help you to get a safe starting point. The first text is a short presentation of a new book of fairy tales for children. (Unfortunately the book is out of sale already, but it was published by Aika Oy, home page: www.aikaoy.fi.) Number 2 and Number 3 among these "stories" consist of two news or reports, which were issued for the first time 50 years ago, and now in November 2000, they were repeated again in Helsingin Sanomat. Number 4 was a statistical report concerning tourism in Finland in winter as issued in February 2001. V&A
Chapter VIII, 2. 198 The first story: "A fearful squirrel" Carlson - Reichstein TUPSU - satu pelokkaasta oravasta Tupsu rakastaa suurta metsää, kotimetsäänsä. Eräänä päivänä ilkeä Kettu kertoo Tupsulle monista vaaroista, jotka vaanivat metsässä. Tupsu alkaa nähdä pelottavia asioita ympärillään. Se säikähtää valtavaa nälkäistä karhua. Se kauhistuu nähdessään suuren, oravia syövän hirviöpuun. Tupsu ei enää uskalla leikkiä ystäviensä kanssa. Lopulta eräs ystävä auttaa Tupsua huomaamaan, että asiat, joita se pelkäsi, ovatkin tavallisia metsään kuuluvia asioita. The second storv: "Winter storms in Europe" Talvimyrskyt riehuvat Euroopassa Lontoo, 21.11. (STT - Reuter) Ensimmäiset talvimyrskyt ja niitä seuranneet kaatosateet aiheuttivat tiistaina suuria vahinkoja Länsi-Euroopan maissa. Monet laivat joutuivat merihätään. Eiffelin tornin huipulla Pariisissa mitattiin tuulen nopeudeksi 130 km tunnissa. Ranskan ja Sveitsin rajalla on esiintynyt pahoja tulvia. Sveitsissä Simplonin tunnelissa aiheutti maanvyörymä - jo toinen viikon kuluessa - monen tunnin liikenneseisauksen.
199 Chapter VIII, 2. The third story: "A mother cow" Lehmä-äiti, joka rakasti yksinäisyyttä Oulu, tiistaina Suomussalmen Selkoskylässä pääsi Anni Korhosen omistama lehmä karkaamaan navetasta metsään. Aamulla navettaan mentyään emäntä havaitsi lehmän lähteneen omille teilleen ja hälytti etsijöitä. Lehmä lövdettiinkin noin kahden kilometrin päästä talosta erään puun alta, jonne se yöllä oli poikinut terveen vasikan. Lehmä saatettiin "lapsineen" lähimpään navettaan. The fourth storv: "Winter tourism in Finland" Talvituristien määrä kaksinkertaistui vajaassa kymmenessä vuodessa Ulkomaiset lomailijat suosivat lunta ja pakkasta: talven vapaa-ajan matkat ovat yli kaksinkertaistuneet vajaassa kymmenessä vuodessa. Talvikaudella 1993-1994 yöpyjiä oli 325 000 ja 1999-2000 noin 660 600. Liikematkustus kasvoi samaan aikaan 31 prosenttia. Yhteensä liike-ja vapaa-ajan matkojen yöpymisiä kertyi viime talvena 1,425 miljoonaa. Turistien suosituin talvipuuha on perinteinen maastohiihto.
200 Chapter VIII, 2. Sen jälkeen tulevat moottorikelkkasafarit, koira- ja porosafarit. Eteläeurooppalaisia kiinnostavat yhä enemmän pitkät ja raskaat hiihtovaellukset sekä useampien päivien huskysafarit. Erityisesti britit ja venäläiset ovat löytäneet Suomen. Venäläisten määrä kasvoi 39 000:11a, brittien 6 200:11a ja ruotsalaisten 22 300:11a matkailijalla. Myös saksalaisten matkustus kääntyi nousuun, heidän määränsä kasvoi 7 000:11a. Sen sijaan virolaisten määrä väheni. Japanilaisia Suomeen vetävät revontulet. He uskovat revontulien tuovan hyvää onnea, erityisesti lapsionnea. Hankyu Express -matkatoimisto tuo Suomeen tänä talvena 1 700 japanilaista. Talvituristit tuovat Suomeen yli 700 miljoonaa markkaa. Jos mukaan lasketaan sukulaisten ja tuttavien vierailut, summa nousee lähes miljardiin. Suomen talvituotteita markkinoidaan parhaillaan Saariselällä Matkailun edistämiskeskuksen, Finnairin ja alueellisten organisaatioiden ja yrittäjien markkinointitapahtumassa Snowballissa. Mukana on 370 matkailun ammattilaista. Ostajia tulee 27 maasta. Tapahtuma jäljestetään joka toinen vuosi. Snowball-myyntitapahtuma Saariselällä 12. - 14. helmikuuta 2001. Source: Helsingin Sanomat 14.2.2001
201 CLOSING WORDS Dear Readers, It is my hope that by now you have learned to master the Finnish grammar system and to use your dictionary. You have reached the goal of this book, even if you have only understood the "stories", but cannot produce a translation of everything yet. I believe that after having settled these stories that way, you can go ahead with any Finnish text and try to understand it. Now you know in what kind of forms you can expect to encounter words in Finnish sentences. Finally, I wish that you will also get your opportunity to learn to speak Finnish. End of the Lessons and Exercises. Thank you. Helsinki, June 2002 (and January 2013) Vuokko Heikura Books
202 ENCLOSURE = TABLES, 1 -5 Page INDEX 202 Table 1 Model nouns inflected in 12 cases, singular and plural 216 Table 2 Model verbs conjugated in active finite forms, positively 222 Table 3 Model verbs conjugated in active finite forms, negatively 226 Table 4 Model verbs conjugated in passive finite forms, positively 228 and negatively 229 Model verbs conjugated in forms of the potential mood 230 Table 5 Repetition of the Finnish cases (with help of four triangles) 231 Note / Huomautus: Pictures nos. 1 -6 were added before the Chapters I-III and V-VII without page numbers. For that reason, 12 pages are missing in the total numbering of pages and considered here before the Tables. See page 18. Kuvat 1- 6 on lisätty sivujen väleihin numeroimattomilla lehdillä. Jotta viimeinen sivu näyttäisi kokonaissivumäärän 233 oikein, sivujen numerointi hyppää tässä taulukko-osan edellä 12 sivun yli. Kuvien luettelo s. 18.
KUVA 1 Ristijärventie Sotkamosta Ristijärvelle. Ristijärventie from Sotkamo to Ristijärvi.
KUVA 2 Kissa on kotieläin ja lemmikki. Cat is a domestic animal and pet.
KUVA 3 Heinäpelloilla voi heinäkuussa nähdä vielä tällaistakin työskentelyä käsivoimin ilman heinänkorjuukoneitten apua. Kumoon niitetyt heinät nostetaan seipäille kuivumaan. On a hay field in July, you can still see people working this way without any help of harvesters. The burdens of mown hay are lifted up by hand to dry on poles.
KUVA 4 Pesäpallo on suosittu urheilulaji kesällä Suomessa. Joillakin paikkakunnilla se on näkyvämpi harrastus kuin jalkapallo. Finnish baseball is a popular sport in summer in Finland. In some localities it is an interest that seems to occupy people more than football.
KUVA 5 Oma kesämökki järven rannalla on suomalaisten unelma. Mökkejä myös vuokrataan lomalaisille. Summer cottage of your own, situated on a lake, is the Finnish dream. Cottages are also hired out to holidaymakers. 1>6-4
KUVA 6 Paluu kotiin tai mökille hiihtolenkin jälkeen. Tämä kuva on otettu keväällä pääsiäisen tienoilla. Coming back home or to the cottage after having made a skiing trip. This picture was taken in the springtime at about Easter.
NOUNS / Table 1, Page 1 /6 Cases: 1. Nominative 2. Genitive-n; 3. Partitive 4. Essive 5. Abessive 6. Translative Endings: sg. pi. -t -Ien/-iden/-(it)ten/-in -A/-tA; -IAZ-itA -nA; -inA -ttA; -ittA -ksi; -iksi Cases: 7. Inessive 8. Elative 9. Illative 10. Adessive 11. Ablative 12. Allative Endings: -ssA: -issA -stA: -istA -VrhWn/-seen: -i(¥)in/-siin -11A; -illA -ItA: -iltA -lie: -ille 1. TEKO 'act, deed, work' (noun, Type 01, like TALO but with gradation) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: teko teon tekoa tekona teotta teoksi Pl: teot tekojen tekoja tekoina teoitta teoiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: teossa teosta tekoon teolla teolta teolle Pl: teoissa teoista tekoihin teoilla teoilta teoille 2. SANA 'word' (noun, Type 10) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: sana sanan sanaa sanana sanatta sanaksi Pl: sanat sanojen sanoja sanoina sanoitta sanoiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: sanassa sanasta sanaan sanalla sanalta sanalle Pl: sanoissa sanoista sanoihin sanoilla sanoilta sanoille 3. TEOS 'work, book' (noun, Type 64) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: teos teoksen teosta teoksena teoksetta teokseksi Pl: teokset teoksien / teosten teoksia teoksina teoksitta teoksiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: teoksessa teoksesta teokseen teoksella teoksesta teokselle Pl: teoksissa teoksista teoksiin teoksilla teoksilta teoksille 216
NOUNS / Table 1, Page 2 / 6 4. MAA ’land, earth, country* (noun, Type 28) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: maa maan maata maana maatta maaksi Pl: maat maiden / maitten maita maina maitta maiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: maassa maasta maahan maalla maalta maalle Pl: maissa maista maihin mailla mailta maille 5. PIENI 'little, small' (adjective, Type 38) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: pieni pienen pientä pienenä pienettä pieneksi Pl: pienet pienien / pienten pieniä pieninä pienittä pieniksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: pienessä pienestä pieneen pienellä pieneltä pienelle Pl: pienissä pienistä pieniin pienillä pieniltä pienille 6. LAPSI ’child’ (noun, Type 45) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: lapsi lapsen lasta lapsena lapsetta lapseksi Pl: lapset lapsien / lasten lapsia lapsina lapsitta lapsiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: lapsessa lapsesta lapseen lapsella lapselta lapselle Pl: lapsissa lapsista lapsiin lapsilla lapsilta lapsille 7. PANKKI ’bank’ (noun, Type 04) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: pankki pankin pankkia pankkina pankitta pankiksi Pl: pankit pankkien pankkeja pankkeina pankeitta pankeiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: pankissa pankista pankkiin pankilla pankilta pankille Pl: pankeissa pankeista pankkeihin pankeilla pankeilta pankeille 217
Mi NOUNS / Table 1, Page 3/6 8. PAPERI 'paper' (noun, Type 05) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: paperi paperin paperia paperina paperitta paperiksi Pl: paperit paperien / papereiden papereita papereina papereitta papereiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: paperissa paperista paperiin paperilla paperilta paperille Pl: papereissa papereista papereihin papereilla papereilta papereille 9. KORKEA 'high'(adjective, Type 21) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: korkea korkean korkeaa / korkeata korkeana korkeatta korkeaksi Pl: korkeat korkeiden / korkeitten korkeita korkeina korkeitta korkeiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: korkeassa korkeasta korkeaan korkealla korkealta korkealle Pl: korkeissa korkeista korkeisiin /korkeihin korkeilla korkeilta korkeille 10. TOINEN 'second, another' (ordinal number and pronoun, Type 63) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: toinen toisen toista toisena toisetta toiseksi Pl: toiset toisien / toisten toisia toisina toisitta toisiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: toisessa toisesta toiseen toisella toiselta toiselle Pl: toisissa toisista toisiin toisilla toisilta toisille 11. KOLMAS 'third' (ordinal number, Type 75). 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: kolmas kolmannen kolmatta kolmantena kolmannetta kolmanneksi Pl: kolmannet kolmansien kolmansia kolmansina kolmansitta kolmansiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: kolmannessa kolmannesta kolmanteen kolmannella kolmannelta kolmannelle Pl: kolmansissa kolmansista kolmansiin kolmansilla kolmansilta kolmansille 218
Mi NOUNS / Table 1, Page 4 / 6 12. KONE 'machine, engine' (noun, Type 78) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: kone [kone'] koneen konetta koneena koneetta koneeksi Pl: koneet koneiden / koneitten koneita koneina koneitta koneiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: koneessa koneesta koneeseen koneella koneelta koneelle Pl: koneissa koneista koneisiin koneilla koneilta koneille 13. KEVÄT 'spring' (noun, Type 74) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: kevät kevään kevättä keväänä keväättä kevääksi Pl: keväät keväiden keväitä keväinä keväittä keväiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: keväässä keväästä kevääseen keväällä keväältä keväälle Pl: keväissä keväistä keväisiin keväillä keväiltä keväille 14. KAUNIS 'beautiful, pretty' (adjective, Type 69) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: kaunis kauniin kaunista kauniina kauniitta kauniiksi Pl: kauniit kauniiden / kauniitten kauniita kauniina kauniitta kauniiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: kauniissa kauniista kauniiseen kauniilla kauniilta kauniille Pl: kauniissa kauniista kauniisiin kauniilla kauniilta kauniille 15. LÄMMIN 'warm' (adjective, Type 58) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: lämmin lämpimän lämmintä lämpimänä lämpimänä lämpimäksi Pl: lämpimät lämpimien lämpimiä lämpiminä lämpimittä lämpimiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: lämpimässä lämpimästä lämpimään lämpimällä lämpimältä lämpimälle Pl: lämpimissä lämpimistä lämpimiin lämpimillä lämpimiltä lämpimille 219
Mi NOUNS / Table 1, Page 5/6 16. SISAR 'sister' (noun, Type 54) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: sisar sisaren sisarta sisarena sisaretta sisareksi Pl: sisaret sisarien / sisarten sisaria sisarina sisaritta sisariksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: sisaressa sisaresta sisareen sisarella sisarelta sisarelle Pl: sisarissa sisarista sisariin sisarilla sisarilta sisarille 17. MIES 'man, male' (noun, Type72) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: mies miehen miestä miehenä miehettä mieheksi Pl: miehet miehien / miesten miehiä miehinä miehittä miehiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: miehessä miehestä mieheen miehellä mieheltä miehelle Pl: miehissä miehistä miehiin miehillä miehiltä miehille 18. VASTAUS 'reply, answer' (noun, Type 64) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: vastaus vastauksen vastausta vastauksena vastauksetta vastaukseksi Pl: vastaukset vastauksien /vastausten vastauksia vastauksina vastauksitta vastauksiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: vastauksessa vastauksesta vastaukseen vastauksella vastaukselta vastaukselle Pl: vastauksissa vastauksista vastauksiin vastauksilla vastauksilta vastauksille 19. KORKEUS 'height, altitude, pitch' (noun, Type 65) 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: korkeus korkeuden korkeutta korkeutena korkeudetta korkeudeksi Pl: korkeudet korkeuksien korkeuksia korkeuksina korkeuksitta korkeuksiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: korkeudessa korkeudesta korkeuteen korkeudella korkeudelta korkeudelle Pl* korkeuksissa korkeuksista korkeuksiin korkeuksilla korkeuksilta korkeuksille 220
NOUNS / Table 1, Page 6/6 20. NUMERALS: 1 one, 2 two / 3 three, 4 four / 5 five, 6 six/7seven, 8 eight, 9 nine, 10 ten, 100 hundred / 1000 thousand 1. Nominatiivi 2. Genetiivi 3. Partitiivi 4. Essiivi 5. Abessiivi 6. Translatiivi Sg: 1 yksi, 2 kaksi yhden, kahden yhtä, kahta yhtenä, kahtena yhdettä, kahdetta yhdeksi, kahdeksi Pl: yhdet, kahdet yksien, kaksien yksiä, kaksia yksinä, kaksina yksittä, kaksitta yksiksi, kaksiksi Sg: 3 kolme, 4 neljä kolmen, neljän kolmea, neljää kolmena, neljänä kolmetta, neljättä kolmeksi, neljäksi Pl: kolmet, neljät kolmien, neljien kolmia, neljiä kolmina, neljinä kolmitta, neljittä kolmiksi, neljiksi Sg: 5 viisi, 6 kuusi viiden, kuuden viittä, kuutta viitenä, kuutena viidettä, kuudetta viideksi, kuudeksi Pl: viidet, kuudet viisien, kuusien viisiä, kuusia viisinä, kuusina viisittä, kuusitta viisiksi, kuusiksi Sg: 7 seitsemän seitsemän seitsemää seitsemänä (ilman seitsemää) seitsemäksi Sg: 8 kahdeksan kahdeksan kahdeksaa kahdeksana (ilman kahdeksaa) kahdeksaksi Sg. 9 yhdeksän yhdeksän yhdeksää yhdeksänä (ilman yhdeksää) yhdeksäksi Sg: 10 kymmenen kymmenen kymmentä kymmenenä (ilman kymmentä) kymmeneksi Sg: 100 sata, 1000 tuhat sadan, tuhannen sataa, tuhatta satana, tuhanten (ilman sataa, tuhatta) sadaksi, tuhanneksi Pl: sadat, tuhannet satojen, tuhansien satoja, tuhansia satoina, tuhansina sadoitta, tuhansitta sadoiksi, tuhansiksi 7. Inessiivi 8. Elatiivi 9. Illatiivi 10. Adessiivi 11. Ablatiivi 12. Allatiivi Sg: yhdessä, kahdessa yhdestä, kahdesta yhteen, kahteen yhdellä, kahdella yhdeltä, kahdelta yhdelle, kahdelle Pl: yksissä, kaksissa yksistä, kaksista, yksiin, kaksiin yksillä, kaksilla yksiltä, kaksilta yksille, kaksille Sg: kolmessa, neljässä kolmesta, neljästä kolmeen, neljään kolmella, neljällä kolmelta, neljältä kolmelle, neljälle Pl: kolmissa, neljissä kolmista, neljistä kolmiin, neljiin kolmilla, neljillä kolmilta, neljiltä kolmille, neljille Sg: viidessä, kuudessa viidestä, kuudesta viiteen, kuuteen viidellä, kuudella viideltä, kuudelta viidelle, kuudelle Pl: viisissä, kuusissa viisistä, kuusista viisiin, kuusiin viisillä, kuusilla viisiltä, kuusilta viisille, kuusille Sg: seitsemässä seitsemästä seitsemään seitsemällä seitsemältä seitsemälle Sg. kahdeksassa kahdeksasta kahdeksaan kahdeksalla kahdeksalta kahdeksalle Sg- yhdeksässä yhdeksästä yhdeksään yhdeksällä yhdeksältä yhdeksälle Sg: kymmenessä kymmenestä kymmeneen kymmenellä kymmeneltä kymmenelle Sg: sadassa, tuhannessa sadasta, tuhannesta sataan, tuhanteen sadalla, tuhannella sadalta, tuhannelta sadalle, tuhannelle Pl: sadoissa, tuhansissa sadoista, tuhansista satoihin, tuhansiin sadoilla, tuhansilla sadoilta, tuhansilta sadoille, tuhansille 221
M3 VERBS / Table 2, Page 1 /4 Person: 1st p.sg. (T) 2nd p.sg. ('you') 3rd p.sg. ('he/she/it') Is'p.pl. ('we') 2nd p.pl. ('you') 3rd p.pl. ('they') Pronoun: MINÄ SINÄ HÄN / SE ME TE HE / NE Active Finite Forms of Verbs POSITIVELY 1. OLLA. OLEN. OLI. OLLUT 'to be, exist' — positively OLEN, OLET 'lam, you are', etc. 1) INDIKATIIVI, the indicative mood (for stating facts, Tense 1 also referring to the future) Tense 1: olen 'I am' olet 'you are' on 'he/she/it is' olemme 'we are' olette 'you are' ovat 'they are' Tense 2: olin 'I was' olit 'you were' oli 'he/she/it was' olimme 'we were' olitte 'you were olivat 'they were' Tense 3: olen ollut olet ollut on ollut olemme olleet olette olleet olivat olleet Tense 4: olin ollut olit ollut oli ollut olimme olleet olitte olleet olivat olleet 2) KONDITIONAALI, the conditional mood "-isi-" 'if (for conditions, wishes, doubts) Tense 1: olisin olisit olisi olisimme olisitte olisivat Tense 3: olisin ollut olisit ollut olisi ollut olisimme olleet olisitte olleet olisivat olleet 2. ASUA. ASUN. ASUI. ASUNUT 'to live somewhere, inhabit something. 1) INDIKATIIVI Tense 1: asun asut asuu asumme asutte asuvat Tense 2: asuin asuit asui asuimme asuitte asuivat Tense 3: olen asunut olet asunut on asunut olemme asuneet olette asuneet ovat asuneet Tense 4: olin asunut olit asunut oli asunut olimme asuneet olitte asuneet olivat asuneet 2) KONDITIONAALI Tense 1: asuisin asuisit asuisi asuisimme asuisitte asuisivat Tense 3: olisin asunut olisit asunut olisi asunut olisimme asuneet olisitte asuneet olisivat asuneet '(if) I had lived' '(if) you had lived' '(if) he had lived' '(if) we had lived' '(if) you had lived' '(if) they had lived' 222
VERBS / Table 2, Page 2 / 4 Pronoun: MINÄ SINÄ HÄN / SE ME TE HE/NE Active Finite Forms of Verbs POSITIVELY 3. TULLA, TULEN, TULI, TULLUT 'to come, to arrive, to become' 1. tulen tulet tulee tulemme tulette tulevat 2. tulin tulit tuli tulimme tulitte tulivat 3. olen tullut olet tullut on tullut olemme tulleet olette tulleet ovat tulleet 4. olin tullut olit tullut oli tullut olimme tulleet olitte tulleet olivat tulleet 1. tulisin tulisit tulisi tulisimme tulisitte tulisivat 3. olisin tullut olisit tullut olisi tullut olisimme tulleet olisitte tulleet olisivat tulleet 4. SYÖDÄ, SYÖN, SÖI, SYÖNYT 'to eat, to take' 1. syön syöt syö syömme syötte syövät 2. söin söit söi söimme söitte söivät 3. olen syönyt olet syönyt on syönyt olemme syöneet olette syöneet ovat syöneet 4. olin syönyt olit syönyt oli syönyt olimme syöneet olitte syöneet olivat syöneet 1. söisin söisit söisi söisimme söisitte söisivät 3. olisin syönyt olisit syönyt olisi syönyt olisimme syöneet olisitte syöneet olisivat syöneet 5. KÄYDÄ, KÄYN, KÄVI, KÄYNYT 'to go, to walk, to visit’ 1. käyn käyt käy käymme käytte käyvät 2. kävin kävit kävi kävimme kävitte kävivät 3. olen käynyt olet käynyt on käynyt olemme käyneet olette käyneet ovat käyneet 4. olin käynyt olit käynyt oli käynyt olimme käyneet olitte käyneet olivat käyneet 1. kävisin kävisit kävisi kävisimme kävisitte kävisivät 3. olisin käynyt olisit käynyt olisi käynyt olisimme käyneet olisitte käyneet olisivat käyneet 223
M3 ?* VERBS / Table 2, Page 3/4 Pronoun: MINÄ SINÄ HÄN / SE ME TE HE /NE Active Finite Forms of Verbs POSITIVELY 6. NÄHDÄ, NÄIN, NÄKI, NÄHNYT 'to see' 1. näen näet näkee näemme näette näkevät 2. näin näit näki näimme näitte näkivät 3. olen nähnyt olet nähnyt on nähnyt olemme nähneet olette nähneet ovat nähneet 4. olin nähnyt olit nähnyt oli nähnyt olimme nähneet olitte nähneet olivat nähneet 1. näkisin näkisit näkisi näkisimme näkisitte näkisivät 7. HALUTA, HALUAN, HALUSI, HALUNNUT 'to want, to wish' 1. haluan haluat haluaa haluamme haluatte haluavat 2. halusin halusit halusi halusimme halusitte halusivat 3. olen halunnut olet halunnut on halunnut olemme halunneet olette halunneet ovat halunneet 4. olin halunnut olit halunnut oli halunnut olimme halunneet olitte halunneet olivat halunneet 1. haluaisin haluaisit haluaisi haluaisimme haluaisitte haluaisivat 8. PELÄTÄ, PELKÄÄN, PELKÄSI, PELÄNNYT 'to be afraid' 1. pelkään pelkäät pelkää pelkäämme pelkäätte pelkäävät 2 pelkäsin pelkäsit pelkäsi pelkäsimme pelkäsitte pelkäsivät 3. olen pelännyt olet pelännyt on pelännyt olemme pelänneet olette pelänneet ovat pelänneet 4. olin pelännyt olit pelännyt oli pelännyt olimme pelänneet olitte pelänneet olivat pelänneet 1. pelkäisin pelkäisit pelkäisi pelkäisimme pelkäisitte pelkäisivät 9. ALKAA, ALAN, ALKOI, ALKANUT 'to begin, to start' 1; alan alat alkaa alamme alatte alkavat 2: aloin aloit alkoi aloimme aloitte alkoivat 3: olen alkanut olet alkanut on alkanut olemme alkaneet olette alkaneet ovat alkaneet 4: olin alkanut olit alkanut oli alkanut olimme alkaneet olitte alkaneet olivat alkaneet 1: alkaisin alkaisit alkaisi alkaisimme alkaisitte alkaisivat 224
4 VERBS / Table 2, Page 4 / 4 Pronoun: MINÄ SINÄ HÄN / SE ME TE HE/NE Active Finite Forms of Verbs POSITIVELY 10. MUUTTAA, MUUTAN, MUUTTI, MUUTTANUT ’to move, to change, to alter’ 1: muutan muutat muuttaa muutamme muutatte muuttavat 2: muutin muutit muutti muutimme muutitte muuttivat 3: olen muuttanut olet muuttanut on muuttanut olemme muuttaneet olette muuttaneet ovat muuttaneet 4: olin muuttanut olit muuttanut oli muuttanut olimme muuttaneet olitte muuttaneet olivat muuttaneet 1: muuttaisin muuttaisit muuttaisi muuttaisimme muuttaisitte muuttaisivat 11. HARKITA, HARKITSEN, HARKITSI, HARKINNUT ’to consider’ 1. harkitsen harkitset harkitsee harkitsemme harkitsette harkitsevat 2. harkitsin harkitsit harkitsi harkitsimme harkitsitte harkitsivat 3. olen harkinnut olet harkinnut on harkinnut olemme harkinneet olette harkinneet ovat harkinneet 4. olin harkinnut olit harkinnut oli harkinnut olimme harkinneet olitte harkinneet olivat harkinneet 1. harkitsisin harkitsisit harkitsisi harkitsisimme harkitsisitte harkitsisivat 12. LÄHTEÄ, LÄHDEN, LÄHTI, LÄHTENYT ’to leave, to go’ 1: lähden lähdet lähtee lähdemme lähdette lähtevät 2: lähdin lähdit lähti lähdimme lähditte lähtivät 3. olen lähtenyt olet lähtenyt on lähtenyt olemme lähteneet olette lähteneet ovat lähteneet 4: olin lähtenyt olit lähtenyt oli lähtenyt olimme lähteneet olitte lähteneet olivat lähteneet 1: lähtisin lähtisit lähtisi lähtisimme lähtisitte lähtisivät 13. TOTTUA, TOTUN, TOTTUI, TOTTUNUT ’to accustom oneself to’ 1. totun totut tottuu totumme totutte tottuvat 2. totuin totuit tottui totuimme totuitte tottuivat 3. olen tottunut olet tottunut on tottunut olemme tottuneet olette tottuneet ovat tottuneet 4. olin tottunut olit tottunut oli tottunut olimme tottuneet olitte tottuneet olivat tottuneet 1. tottuisin tottuisit tottuisi tottuisimme tottuisitte tottuisivat 225
1 VERBS / Table 3, Page 1 /2 Negation: MINÄ EN 'I not’ SINÄ ET 'you not' HÄN / SE EI ME EMME 'we not' TE ETTE 'you not' HE / NE EIVÄT Active Finite Forms of Verbs NEGATIVELY 1. OLLA. OLEN. OLI. OLLUT 'to be, exist' en ole, et ole 'I am not, you are not', etc. 1) INDIKATIIVI, the indicative mood (for stating facts, Tense 1 also referring to the future) Tense 1: en ole et ole ei ole emme ole ette ole eivät ole Tense 2: en ollut et ollut ei ollut emme olleet ette olleet eivät olleet Tense 3: en ole ollut et ole ollut ei ole ollut emme ole olleet ette ole olleet eivät ole olleet Tense 4: en ollut ollut et ollut ollut ei ollut ollut emme olleet olleet ette olleet olleet eivät olleet olleet 'I had not been' 'you had not been' 'he had not been' 'we had not been' 'you had not been' 'they had not been' 2) KONDITIONAALI, the conditional mood "-isi" 'if (for conditions, wishes, doubts) Tense 1: en olisi et olisi ei olisi emme olisi ette olisi eivät olisi Tense 3: en olisi ollut et olisi ollut ei olisi ollut emme olisi olleet ette olisi olleet eivät olisi olleet 2. ASUA. ASUN. ASUI. ASUNUT 'to live somewhere, inhabit something' en asu, et asu 'I don't live, you don't live', etc. 1) INDIKATIIVI, the indicative mood (for stating facts, Tense 1 also referring to the future) Tense 1: en asu et asu ei asu emme asu ette asu eivät asu Tense 2: en asunut et asunut ei asunut emme asuneet ette asuneet eivät asuneet Tense 3: en ole asunut et ole asunut ei ole asunut emme ole asuneet ette ole asuneet eivät ole asuneet Tense 4: en ollut asunut et ollut asunut ei ollut asunut emme olleet asuneet ette olleet asuneet eivät olleet asuneet 2) KONDITIONAALI, the conditional mood "-isi" 'if (for conditions, wishes, doubts) Tense 1: en asuisi et asuisi ei asuisi emme asuisi ette asuisi eivät asuisi Tense 3: en olisi asunut et olisi asunut ei olisi asunut emme olisi asuneet ette olisi asuneet eivät olisi asuneet 226
VERBS / Table 3, Page 2 / 2 Negation: MINÄ EN 'I not' SINÄ ET 'you not' HÄN / SE EI ME EMME 'we not' TE ETTE 'you not' HE / NE EIVÄT Active Finite Forms of Verbs TEHDÄ,TEEN, TEKI, TEHNYT ’to make, to do’ en tee, et tee 'I don't, you dont do', etc. NEGATIVELY Tense 1: entee ettee ei tee emme tee ette tee eivät tee Tense 2: en tehnyt et tehnyt ei tehnyt emme tehneet ette tehneet eivät tehneet Tense 3: en ole tehnyt et ole tehnyt ei ole tehnyt emme ole tehneet ette ole tehneet eivät ole tehneet Tense 4: en ollut tehnyt et ollut tehnyt ei ollut tehnyt emme olleet tehneet ette olleet tehneet eivät olleet tehneet Tense 1: en tekisi et tekisi ei tekisi emme tekisi ette tekisi eivät tekisi Tense 3: en olisi tehnyt et olisi tehnyt ei olisi tehnyt emme olisi tehneet ette olisi tehneet eivät olisi tehneet 4. PELÄTÄ, PELKÄÄN, PELKÄSI, PELÄNNYT ’to be afraid’ Tense 1: en pelkää et pelkää ei pelkää emme pelkää ette pelkää eivät pelkää Tense 2: en pelännyt et pelännyt ei pelännyt emme pelänneet ette pelänneet eivät pelänneet Tense 3: en ole pelännyt et ole pelännyt ei ole pelännyt emme ole pelänneet ette ole pelänneet eivät ole pelänneet Tense 4: en ollut pelännyt et ollut pelännyt ei ollut pelännyt emme olleet pelänneet ette olleet pelänneet eivät olleet pelänneet Tense 1: en pelkäisi et pelkäisi ei pelkäisi emme pelkäisi ette pelkäisi eivät pelkäisi Tense 3: en olisi pelännyt et olisi pelännyt ei olisi pelännyt emme olisi pelänneet ette olisi pelänneet eivät olisi pelänneet 5. KÄYDÄ, KÄYN, KÄVI, KÄYNYT 'to go, to walk, to visit' Tense 1. en käy et käy ei käy emme käy ette käy eivät käy Tense 2. en käynyt et käynyt ei käynyt emme käyneet ette käyneet eivät käyneet Tense 3. en ole käynyt et ole käynyt ei ole käynyt olemme ole käyneet olette ole käyneet eivät ole käyneet Tense 1. en kävisi et kävisi ei kävisi emme kävisi ette kävisi eivät kävisi Tense 3. en olisi käynyt et olisi käynyt ei olisi käynyt emme olisi käyneet ette olisi käyneet eivät olisi käyneet 6. NÄHDÄ, NÄIN, NÄKI, NÄHNYT 'to see' Tense 1. en näe et näe ei näe emme näe ette näe eivät näe Tense 2. en nähnyt et nähnyt ei nähnyt emme nähneet ette nähneet eivät nähneet Tense 1. en näkisi et näkisi ei näkisi emme näkisi ette näkisi eivät näkisi Tense 3. en olisi nähnyt et olisi nähnyt ei olisi nähnyt emme olisi nähneet ette olisi nähneet eivät olisi nähneet 227
VERBS / Table 4, Page 1/3 OLLA, ASUA, TULLA, SYÖDÄ, KÄYDÄ, TEHDÄ, HALUTA, PELÄTÄ, Passive Finite Forms of Verbs ALKAA, MUUTTAA, HARKITA, LÄHTEÄ, TOTTUA, MENNÄ, OTTAA, JUOSTA 1) INDIKATIIVI, the indicative mood in passive and its tenses: POS ITIVELY 1. Preesens: -(t/d^AAn ollaan, asutaan, tullaan, syödään, käydään, tehdään, halutaan, pelätään, aletaan, muutetaan, harkitaan, lähdetään, totutaan, mennään, otetaan, juostaan 2. Imperfekti: -(t)tiin oltiin, asuttiin, tultiin, syötiin, käytiin, tehtiin, haluttiin, pelättiin, alettiin, muutettiin, harkittiin, lähdettiin, totuttiin, mentiin, otettiin, juostiin 3. Perfekti: on + -(f)tU on oltu, on asuttu, on tultu, on syöty, on käyty, on tehty, on haluttu, on pelätty, alettu, muutettu, harkittu, lähdetty, totuttu, menty, otettu, juostu 4. Pluskvamperf.: oli + -(fltU oli oltu, oli asuttu, oli tultu, oli syöty, oli käyty, oli tehty, oli haluttu, oli pelätty alettu, muutettu, harkittu, lähdetty, totuttu, menty, otettu, juostu 2) KONDITIONAALI, the conditional mood in passive and its tenses: POS ITIVELY 1. Preesens: -(t)tAisiin oltaisiin, asuttaisiin, tultaisiin, syötäisiin, käytäisiin, tehtäisiin, haluttaisiin, pelättäisiin, alettaisiin, muutettaisiin, harkittaisiin, lähdettäisiin, totuttaisiin, mentäisiin, otettaisiin, juostaisiin 3. Perfekti: olisi + -(fltU olisi oltu, olisi asuttu, olisi tultu, olisi syöty, olisi käyty, olisi tehty, olisi haluttu, olisi pelätty, alettu, muutettu, harkittu, lähdetty, totuttu, menty, otettu, juostu 228
VERBS / Table 4, Page 2 / 3 OLLA, ASUA, TULLA, SYÖDÄ, KÄYDÄ, TEHDÄ, HALUTA, PELÄTÄ, Passive Finite Forms of Verbs ALKAA, MUUTTAA, HARKITA, LÄHTEÄ, TOTTUA, MENNÄ, OTTAA, JUOSTA 1) INDIKATIIVI, the inciative mood in passive and its tenses: NEGATIVELY Preesens: ei + -(t/d)A ei olla, ei asuta, tulla, syödä, ei käydä, tehdä, haluta, pelätä, aleta, muuteta, harkita, lähdetä, totuta, mennä, oteta, juosta Imperfekti: ei + -(t)tU ei oltu, ei asuttu, tultu, syöty, käyty, tehty, haluttu, pelätty, alettu, muutettu, harkittu, lähdetty, totuttu, menty, otettu, juostu Perfekti: ei ole + -(t)tU ei ole oltu, ei ole asuttu, tultu, syöty, tehty, haluttu, pelätty, alettu, muutettu, harkittu, lähdetty, totuttu, menty, otettu, juostu Pluskvamperf.: ei ollut + -(t)tU ei ollut oltu, ei ollut asuttu, tultu, syöty, käyty, tehty, haluttu, pelätty alettu, muutettu, harkittu, lähdetty, totuttu, menty 2) KONDITIONAALI, the conditional mood in passive and its tenses: Preesens: ei + -(f)tA + -isi ei oltaisi, ei asuttaisi, ei tultaisi, ei syötäisi,ei käytäisi, ei tehtäisi, ei haluttaisi, ei pelättäisi, ei alettaisi, ei muutettaisi, ei harkittaisi, ei lähdettäisi, ei totuttaisi, ei mentäisi, ei otettaisi, ei juostaisi Perfekti: ei olisi + -(tttU ei olisi oltu, ei olisi asuttu, ei olisi tultu, ei olisi syöty, ei olisi käyty, ei olisi tehty, ei olisi haluttu, ei olisi pelätty, ei olisi alettu, muutettu, harkittu, lähdetty, totuttu, menty, otettu, juostu 229
VERBS / Table 4, Page 3/3 POTENTIAALI, the potential mood in active, in passive and its two tenses The Potential Mood of Verbs The potential mood of a verb is marked by "-ne-" 'may be, perhaps’. Seldon used. Instead of it, some verbs like saattaa + + "tehdä jotakin" ('to do something') can be used. Please note the use of a specialverb "lie-" in Tense 3 and the negative forms. Conjugated forms in active, positively: 1. Preesens: asunen (< asua) asunet asunee asunemme asunette asunevat 3. Perfekti: lienen asunut lienet asunut lienee asunut lienemme asuneet lienette asuneet lienevät asuneet 1. Preesens: alkanen (< alkaa) alkanet alkanee alkanemme alkanette alkanevat 3. Perfekti: lienen alkanut lienet alkanut lienee alkanut lienemme alkaneet lienette alkaneet lienevät alkaneet 1. Preesens: mennen (< mennä) mennet mennee mennemme mennette mennevät 3. Perfekti: lienen mennyt lienet mennyt lienee mennyt lienemme menneet lienette menneet lienevät menneet 1. Preesens: tehnen (< tehdä) tehnet tehnee tehnemme tehnette tehnevät 1. Preesens: tullen (< tulla) tullet tullee tullemme tullette tullevat 1. Preesens: pelännen (< pelätä) pelännet pelännee pelannemme pelannette pelännevät Conjugated forms in active, negatively: 1. Preesens: en liene (< olla) et liene ei liene emme liene ette liene eivät liene 3. Perfekti: en liene ollut et liene ollut ei liene ollut emme liene olleet ette liene olleet eivät liene olleet' 1. Preesens: en asune (< asua) et asune ei asune emme asune ette asune eivät asune 3. Perfekti: en liene asunut et liene asunut ei liene asunut emme liene asuneet ette liene asuneet eivät liene asuneet Conjugated forms in passive, positively: 1. Preesens: oltaneen, asuttaneen, tultaneen, syötäneen, käytäneen, tehtäneen, haluttaneen, pelättäneen, alettaneen, otettaneen, mentäneen 3. Perfekti: lienee oltu, lienee asuttu, tultu, syöty, käyty, tehty, haluttu, pelätty, alettu, muutettu, lähdetty, menty, otettu, juostu, menty Conjugated forms in passive, negatively: 1. Preesens: ei oltane, ei asuttane, tultane, syötäne, käytäne, tehtäne, haluttane, pelättäne, harkittane, lähdettäne, mentäne, otettane, juostane 2. Perfekti: ei liene oltu, ei liene asuttu, tultu, syöty, käyty, tehty, haluttu, pelätty, muutettu, harkittu, lähdetty, menty, otettu, juostu 230
NOUNS / Table 5, Page 1 /3 REPETING THE FINNISH CASES - SUOMEN SIJOJEN KERTAUSTA a) The first three cases nos. 1, 2. 3 (ensimmäiset kolme sijaa): b) The next three cases nos. 4, 5. 6 (toiset kolme sijaaV taloa, taloja (TALO ’house' in the partitive case) talotta, taloitta (= ilman taloa, taloja) toista, toisia (TOINEN 'other’ in the partitive case) toisetta, toisitta (= ilman toista, toisia) korkeaa, korkeita (KORKEA 'high' in the partitive case) korkeatta, korkeitta (= ilman korkeaa, korkeita) lasia, laseja (LASI 'glass' in the partitive case) lasitta, laseitta (= ilman lasia, laseja) vettä, vesiä (VESI 'water' in the partitive case) vedettä, vesittä (= ilman vettä, vesiä) annosta, annoksia (ANNOS ’portion’ in the partitive case) annoksetta, annoksitta (= ilman annosta, annoksia) venettä, veneitä (VENE 'boat' in the partititive case) veneettä, veneittä (= ilman venettä, veneitä) vikaa, vikoja (VIKA 'fault' in the partitive case) viatta, vioitta (= ilman vikaa, vikoja) A“ Ä™ 1. Nominatiivi (pl. -t) 2. Genetiivi (-n) 4. Essiivi (-na, -nä) 6. Translatiivi (-ksi) TALO talo, talot talon, talojen talona, taloina taloksi, taloiksi TOINEN toinen, toiset toisen, toisien / toisten toisena, toisina toiseksi, toisiksi KORKEA korkea, korkeat korkean, korkeiden / korkeitten korkeana, korkeina korkeaksi, korkeiksi LASI lasi, lasit lasin, lasien lasina, laseina lasiksi, laseiksi ANNOS annos, annokset annoksen, annoksien / annosten annoksena, annoksina annokseksi, annoksiksi VESI vesi, vedet veden, vesien / vetten vetenä, vesinä vedeksi, vesiksi VENE vene, veneet veneen, veneiden / veneitten veneenä, veneinä veneeksi, veneiksi VIKA vika, viat vian, vikojen vikana, vikoina viaksi, vioiksi 231
1 NOUNS / Table 5, Page 2 / 3 c) The inner local cases nos. 7. 8, 9 (sisäpaikallissijat): d) The outer local cases nos. 10.11.12 (ulkopaikallissijat): talosta, taloista (TALO in the elative case) talolta, taloilta toisesta, toisista (TOINEN in the elative case) toiselta, toisilta korkeasta, korkeista (KORKEA in the elative case) korkealta, korkeilta lasista, laseista (LASI in the elative case) lasilta, laseilta vedestä, vesistä (VESI in the elative case) vedeltä, vesiltä annoksesta, annoksista (ANNOS in the elative case) annokselta, annoksilta veneestä, veneistä (VENE in the elative case) veneeltä, veneiltä viasta, vioista (VIKA in the elative case) vialta, vioilta ^^^^^^Elatiivi (-sta, -stä) Ablatiivi (-lta, -Itä) 7. Inessiivi (-ssä, -ssä) 9. Illatiivi (VV+n / -h-n) 10. Adessiivi (-llä, -llä) 12. Allatiivi (-lie) talossa, taloissa taloon, taloihin talolla, taloilla talolle, taloille toisessa, toisissa toiseen, toisiin toisella, toisilla toiselle, toisille korkeassa, korkeissa korkeaan, korkeisiin korkealla, korkeilla korkealle, korkeille lasissa, laseissa lasiin, laseihin lasilla, laseilla lasille, laseille annoksessa, annoksissa annokseen, annoksiin annoksella, annoksilla annokselle, annoksille vedessä, vesissä veteen, vesiin vedellä, vesillä vedelle, vesille veneessä, veneissä veneeseen, veneisiin veneellä, veneillä veneelle, veneille viassa, vioissa vikaan, vikoihin vialla, vioilla vialle, vioille 232
Mi NOUNS / Table 5, Page 3/3 Do you know how to inflect any Finnish noun word in these 12 cases? Osaatko taivuttaa minkä tahansa sijamuodoissa taipuvan sanan näissä 12 sijassa? Partitiivi (-a, -ä, -ta, -tä) Abessiivi (-tta, -ttä) 1. Nominatiivi (pl. -t) 2. Genetiivi (-n) 4. Essiivi (-na,-nä) 6. Translatiivi (-ksi) ^^^^^^latiivi (-sta, -stä) AblatHvi ('lta’ 'ltä) 7. Inessiivi (-ssä,-ssä) 9. Illatiivi (VV+n /-h-n) 10. Adessiivi (-llä,-llä) 12. Allatiivi (-lie) 233
It is pity that many foreigners and immigrants in Finland give up their trials to learn Finnish as soon as they notice that all Finns speak English to them. In addition, they may have experienced that Finns were not eager to teach Finnish. On the contrary they use the opportunity to practice their own skills of speaking English with a foreigner. We are so selfish! Or could the reason be such that we would feel that we could not manage it? Do we suppose that it would be a hard task? We had to learn a lot of grammatical terms about our native language in school, and most adults don't remember them. However, some knowledge of the grammatical principles are needed as a basis if the pupil should learn much more than just some words and sayings. The author of this book wanted to do something for our common good in the situation. She started composing a description of the Finnish language as if she were writing a letter to her English speaking friend to encourage her to study Finnish. That is why this grammar book is written using the first-person pronouns. In 2003 she got her work translated into Finnish and into Russian for the first time. This book in your hands, is a translation of the latest Finnish version, 4th edition, Nov. 2012. This book suits persons who can study alone. However, it is preferable to do it together with a Finn who is willing to teach Finnish to him or her and to try to do it with the help of this book. Actually, the content of this book is not much more than a refreshing repetition of what we should have learned about our native language in school. Please note that you need a good bilingual dictionary. Lessons on Finnish Grammar in English 6th impr. edition 2013 (hard covered) ISBN 978-952-67875-1-0