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 Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:41 am
Many people here have mentioned that they'd like to learn Finnish. And every time I have seen this mentioned here, I have promised to start a thread for that purpose. Well, folks, here it is! The official Finnish Grammar thread! I will keep this thread locked, so that it'll be easier to both add and find all different 'lessons' I'll be writing here. If you have questions, suggestions, or notice mistakes, please start a new thread for those. That way anyone can answer to you in case I don't have time to visit the guild regularly. I'll be starting from the very very basics, different phrases, numbers, all stuff that is really trivial, but still essential if you one day wish to form own sentences using a foreign language. And most of all, I hope you don't find things too complicated. As English isn't my native language, I may find it hard to explain stuff with their right English terms. And also, since Finnish is my native language, I don't see it as clearly and detailed as other foreign languages I have learned. So... Bare with me. ^^;; Wicked. Lesson Index 1. About Finnish......1.1 About pronounciation ...1.2 What makes Finnish grammar so hard... ......a) Nouns, adjectives and numbers ......b) Verbs 2. Letters, numbers and phrases...2.1 Pronouncing Letters ......a) Vowels ......b) Consonants ...2.2 Numbers ...2.3 Phrases 3. Cases, Vocabulary...3.1 A or Ä?!! ...3.2 Object ...3.3 Random Vocabulary ......a) Foods ......b) Countries And Continents
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 6:29 am
Lesson 1: About Finnish...First of all, this lesson isn't to scare you. This is just to show you what you are dealing with. We're not just fooling around when we're saying that Finnish is a complicated language! 1.1 About PronounciationQuote: Finnish is pronounced as it is written. This means, there really aren't but a few exceptions when you don't say a word the exact way it is written. The accent in all words is always on the first syllable. That's why most people think Finnish people are angry or arrogant. Also, there is no change of intonation in questions. So the Finnish sentences always go down in intonation (which is why we usually whine about not hearing what people say, since they mumble the ends...). The consonants in Finnish are pronounced harder than in English. For example, this usually means that your tongue should work harder and make more pressure in your mouth when forming sounds. Let's concentrate on letter 't' to make things more clearer. To form the Finnish 't', the tip of your tongue should be pressed flat against your palate behind your teeth, not just gently touching it (like often in English). Especially the double consonants (and double vowels) in speech usually tell if someone isn't originally Finnish. Whenever you see two same letters after one another think of three or four letters, and you're much closer to the truth. Also the Finnish 'r' is one peculiar one. (I'm not sure if any other language actually has the same kind of 'r' we do.) The tip of your tongue should be trembling behind your upper teeth against the palate to form the right kind of sound. So it isn't anything like the English 'r', or the Frennch one that you do in the throat. It's our own peculiar hard rattling 'r'. (Think of cat purring, the sound is actually quite similiar when done in whisper.) exclaim More about the way each letter alone is pronounced in the next lesson! Quote: a) Nouns, adjectives and numbersSo, the real difficulty in Finnish is the different word forms. So, in practice this means that in stead of using prepositions, we extend the words and add stuff in the end. (a chair = tuoli, in a chair = tuoli ssa) Here's the 12 most used different forms for these words! tuoli = a chair tuoli n = a chair's tuoli a = at a chair tuoli na = as a chair tuoli ksi = into a chair tuoli ssa = in the chair tuoli sta = from the chair tuoli in = to the chair tuoli lla = on the chair tuoli lta = from the chair tuoli lle = to the chair tuoli tta = without a chair Ok, then we have the same forms in plurals. And most words aren't as easy to form as 'tuoli', since the body of the word may change depending on form and... Yeah, you get the picture. Quote: b) VerbsAlso, we conjugate our verbs according to the persons. So that means you have eight different verb forms to learn! Infinitive, to go = mennä I go = minä mene nyou go (singular) = sinä mene the/she/it goes = hän/hän/se men ee* we go = me mene mmeyou go (plural) = te mene ttethey go = he/ne mene vät** (passive form) menn ään*** Plus the past tense forms of those as well. And then the forms to command, to tell something is possible (should), etc... in all possible tenses. The fun is neverending! xD
**) He/ne (they) have the same difference as hän/se. 'He' means several persons and 'ne' means objects, animals or things.
***) There is no subject in Finnish passive sentences. Though the spoken language uses passive very often with the first plural form ('me mennään' in stead of 'me menemme'), grammatically speaking there should never be a subject in passive sentences in Finnish. ('Mennään!' alone could be translated as 'Let's go!'.)
Don't worry, the next lesson will be learning the language itself!
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:41 am
Lesson 2: Letters, numbers and phrasesOkay, now we get to the fun part where you actually can start learning the language. First we'll go through how things are pronounced in practice. Then we'll go through numbers and finally some much used phrases to get you started! ^_^ 2.1 Pronouncing LettersQuote: a) VowelsThe Finnish vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y, ä and ö.(There is also å, which is called 'the Swedish o', and pronounced as the 'Finnish o'. It's there because we are a bilingual country, so you see it at times, mainly in Swedish names like Åke, Håkan, Åland, Åbo... xP) A like in c ar. E like in l eft. I like in s it. O like in d oor. ( Å is pronounced the same way. In case you don't see the letter, it's 'a' with a small circle on it. Like °) U like in m oon.* Y like in y ou.* Ä like in m an. (In case you don't see the letter, it's 'a' with two dots on it. Like ") Ö like in d irt. (In case you don't see the letter, it's 'o' with two dots on it. Like ")
Quote: b) ConsonantsI'm only going through the ones that can be pronounced wrongly by English terms. So I'm presuming here everyone does letters like 'K', 'M' and 'N' correctly. ^^;; C is not originally found in Finnish words. Pronounced usually S or K. G like in get. J like in yellow. Q is not originally found in Finnish words. Pronounced usually K. R see lesson 1.1 exclaim S like in sea. W is not originally found in Finnish words. (Except very old Finnish) Pronounced always V. X is not originally found in Finnish words. Pronounced as KS. Z is not originally found in Finnish words. Pronounced as TS. NG is not exactly a vowel, nor a consonant, but a special half-open sound in Finnish. You don't pronounce the 'n' and 'g' as two different letters (like in English) but should do a single sound that is a little mix of them both. This means that your soft palate should be closed with the behind of your tongue. So, in stead of making a single 'n' with the tip of your tongue against the hard palate, you do the 'ng' sound with the behind against the soft palate. And there is no hard ending in the sound. SH combination is also pronounced as one letter, like in shade. exclaim Beware not to put a 'H' after such consonants as K, P, T, which is normal in English pronounciation. Remember to check lesson 1.1 for tips how to do the double vowels and double consonants! It's important if you wish to avoid making silly mistakes by accidentally saying something that you really didn't mean it to sound like. (For example, you want to say 'six' = 'kuusi', but if it comes out sounding like 'kusi', you just said 'piss'.) 2.2 NumbersQuote: 1 = yksi2 = kaksi3 = kolme4 = neljä5 = viisi6 = kuusi7 = seitsemän8 = kahdeksan9 = yhdeksän10 = kymmenen11-19: just add -toista after the number. So it's yksitoista, kaksitoista...20, 30, 40...: just add kymmentä after the number. So it's kaksikymmentä, kolmekymmentä...21, 22, 23...: just write the numbers in a row... kaksikymmentäyksi, kaksikymmentäkaksi... exclaim We'll go further later... Quote: Terve! = Hello! Hei! Heippa! = 'Hey!', 'Bye!' Moi! Moikka! = 'Hey!', 'Bye!' Näkemiin! = Goodbye! Hei hei! = Bye bye! Mitä kuuluu? = How are you? Hyvää. = I'm fine. Ihan hyvää. = Mostly fine. Tosi hyvää! = I'm doing great! Ei niin hyvää. = Not so good. Hyvää huomenta! Huomenta! = Good morning! Morning! Hyvää päivää! Päivää! = Good day! Hyvää iltaa! Iltaa! = Good evening! Hyvää yötä! Yötä! Öitä! = Good night! Mikä sinun nimesi on? = What's your name? Kuka sinä olet? = Who are you? Minun nimeni on... = My name is... Minä olen... = I am... Kuinka vanha sinä olet? = How old are you? Minkä ikäinen sinä olet? = What's your age? Olen ... vuotta vanha. = I'm ... years old. So, after reading this you should be able to pronounce Finnish well enough for people to understand you here. ^_^ Also, you know basic greetings, can ask how people are doing, answer that same query yourself, and by combining your nolige on Finnish numbers, you can tell us how old you are if someone wants to know that! Of course, the spoken language is much more fluent than this, but we'll get into that later. It's more important to learn how things are correctly at first. (After all, people chop down the words differently, based mainly on where in Finland they live.)
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Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:07 am
Lesson 3: Cases, VocabularySince the Finnish word cases are a mess, I'll try to outline some basic rules and examples on how some of them are used. Also I'll try to list a collection of random words from different subjects just to help you get a picture of Finnish words in general. 3.1 A or Ä?!!Quote: Different case and verb conjugation endings have often two different options. One with a and one with ä. For example, to say that something is in something, the ending is either -ssa or -ssä depending on the word. Or when they are doing something, the verb conjugation ends either -vat or -vät. So, what's the rule? When I should use a and when ä?! It all has to do with the vowels: Finnish vowels have been groupped by the place they are said in the mouth. A, O, U are back vowels, E, I are middle and Ä, Ö, Y are front vowels. The basic rule in Finnish is that you can't have back and front vowels in the same word.So, if you can't mix the back and front vowels, it means that a word with back and middle vowels in it has always the A-version of the word forms. And a word with middle and front vowels has the Ä-version. (Words consisting of middle vowels only also use Ä.) auto -> auto ssa (a car -> in a car) Erno -> Erno lta (Erno -> from Erno) malli -> malli tta (a model -> without a model) usko a -> usko vat (to believe -> they believe) yö -> yö llä (night -> at night time) isä -> isä nä (a father -> as a father) peli -> peli stä (a game -> from a game) etsi ä -> etsi vät (to search -> they search) Quote: When forming a basic sentence, you usually have the subject, the verb and the object. (Subject doing something to the object.) And in Finnish, the object can have two different forms. So, let's make a simple sentence to get you through this: Poika syö. (A boy eats.) Now, if we want to tell the boy eats an apple, for example, there are two options: #1 Poika syö omena n. (A boy eats an apple.) #2 Poika syö omena a. (A boy is eating an apple.) So, what English states with the verb, we do it with the object's case. Using #1 means always something fully done and concrete, whereas #2 means something more vague, continuos, or partly done. #1 Nainen ostaa kana n. (A woman buys a chicken.) #2 Nainen ostaa kana a. (A woman buys chicken.) The difference is that #1 means an alive chicken or a whole dead chicken. And #2 means that she buys chicken meat to make food. Sometimes you just have to know the difference, if there even is one. For example, the following two just have a slight difference in the tone they are seen. In #1 the person is looking for a toy to keep the baby occupied. But in #2 the person is going through maybe several toys and trying to find which one is the most suitable for the baby. #1 Etsin vauvalle lelu n. (I'll find a toy for the baby.) #2 Etsin vauvalle lelu a. (I'm trying to find a toy for the baby.) exclaim The -n case also means ownership. koiran lelu = a dog's toy (ownership) Syötän koiran. = I'll feed the dog. (object #1) Syötän koiraa. = I'm feeding the dog. (object #2) exclaim If the object is plural, the -n case is replaced with the basic plural form. koira, koira t = a dog, dogs #1 Syötän koira t. (I'll feed the dogs.) #2 Syötän koir ia. (I'm feeding the dogs.) Quote: a) Foodsappelsiini, orange banaani, banana greippi, grapefruit hunaja, honey juusto, cheese kaakao, hot chocolate (also cocoa) kahvi, coffee kala, fish kana, chicken kalkkuna, turkey karkki/karamelli, candy kinkku, ham kurkku, cucumber leipä, bread limsa/limonadi, soda makkara, sausage maito, milk mehu, juice muna, egg olut, beer omena, apple peruna, potato pippuri, pepper riisi, rice salaatti, lettuce (also salad) sokeri, sugar suklaa, chocolate suola, salt tee, tea tomaatti, tomato viini, wine voi, butter haarukka, fork lasi/juomalasi, glass lusikka, spoon veitsi, knife Quote: b) Countries And ContinentsAasia, Asia Alankomaat, Netherlands Amerikka, America Antarktis, Antarctica Afrikka, Africa Australia, Australia Egypti, Egypt Englanti/Iso-Britannia, England/Great Britain Espanja, Spain Eurooppa, Europe Intia, India Irlanti, Ireland Italia, Italy Itävalta, Austria Japani, Japan Kanada, Canada Kiina, China Kreikka, Greece Norja, Norway Puola, Poland Ranska, France Ruotsi, Sweden Saksa, Germany Sveitsi, Switzerland Tanska, Denmark USA/Yhdysvallat, USA/United States Venäjä, Russia
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