Finnish grammar 1: verbs
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- Some who have learned Finnish words from Sulkasiipi seem to be serious about learning Finnish and would want to learn grammar as well. I wish to contribute to their studies a little bit. Finnish has a complicated grammar, but you got to start somewhere - e.g. here.
The good news is that the endings presented in this video apply to all verbs, only 3.person singular is slightly irregular. The root changes, however, are numerous; this is just a small fraction of the variety.
![Why Finnish Is One of The EASIEST Language [7 Reasons]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jTKBfy8OHzw/mqdefault.jpg)
One key thing about learning languages is to become aware that not all things are specificly expressed in all languages. All languages have strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, learning several languages increases one's ability to think, experience and express.
The apostrope is used when two identical vowels in different syllables collide, to distinguish them from long vowels. This applies even if no k is dissapearing. Otherwise a dissapearing k is not indicated by an apostrophe, e.g. ruoka (food) > ruoan (food's), or jalka (foot) > jalat (feet)
part 2 : If the stem ends with consonant, the -n assimilates with the previous consonant: /olla -> ollut (to be, been) / kävellä -> kävellyt (to walk, walked)
opiskella ->opiskellut (to study, studied) / surra -> surrut ( to mourn,mourned)
Knowing nut-participle is important, because it helps you to understand perfect tense. Va-participles are also used like adjectives, they modify the head of the phrase. /koira juoksee -> juokseva koira = a dog runs -> a running dog
Examples:
Minä ajan auton talliin - I drive/am driving the car into the carage
Minä ajan autoa talliin - I am driving a/the car into the carage
Minä ajan autoa ensimmäistä kertaa - I am driving a/the car for the first time
Minä ajan autoa maanantaisin - I drive a/the car on Mondays
We do have a construction with the verb olla (to be) which is a bit like present continuous:
Olen ajamassa autoa talliin - I am (in the process of) driving a/the car into the carage.
@ValentinaBojic Because the ending in 3 person singular is not -aa or -a but rather a "prolonging" of the end vowel in the "root" of the word. Therefore aja+a, liuku+u etc.
*** The nut- and va-participle*** Participles are verb forms, which behave like adjectives. In English, you get participle by adding -en or -ed after the verb, in Finnish you add -nut or -va. Nut-participle is formed by adding the ending, nut, after the stem. / juopunut mies (a drunken man) / hyvin säilynyt nainen (well-preserved lady) ---In plural, -nut is -neet: /juopuneet miehet (drunken men) ( continues....)
In Finnish, there is only one present tense, in fact, it can also refer to future action.
Difference between continuous and punctual action is not indicated by the verb, but can sometimes be seen from object's case.
@ValentinaBojic
There are six kinds of verbs in finnish depending on the suffix try to look at it, depending on that the conjugation is different . Cheers.
@Moldilocks
Actually, writing "Te" with capital initial is considered foreign influence in Finnish, and is neither used consistently nor recommended. In stead, one could say that "te" has two meanings: (1) you (plural, formal or informal) and (2) you (formal singular).
"Te" means "you all", but is also used in formal speech. However, unlike French "vous" and German "Sie", it is usually not used in informal small talk with strangers.
Plural and formal singular are different when participes are used:
Te olette ollut = you have been (formal sing.)
Te olette olleet = you (all) have been (formal or informal plural)
Note, that a participe form connected to "te" is singular if the word is used in singular.
Example: "Have you slept well?" =
- Oletko [sinä] nukkunut hyvin? (one person, informal)
- Oletteko [te] nukkunut hyvin? (one person, formal)
- Oletteko [te] nukkuneet hyvin? (two or more persons, formal or informal)
That's correct, TE is plural and means you [all]. But it is also used in singular in formal speech, more or less like SIE in German, NI in Swedish, DE in Dorwegian or VOUS in French.
In finnish " sinä " means you ( " sä" in vernacular language ), te means you ( plural ) AND Te means you when addressing someone formally.
For example the elderly are always addressed Te ( singular ).
examples :
" Nukuitteko hyvin ? " = Did You sleep well ? / to the elderly or people somehow "above" you ( bosses at working places
are rarely addressed formally though :-)
and to your friend etc. = Nukuitko hyvin ? ( Did you sleep well ? )
"Minä ajan" can mean "I am driving" or "I drive". In Finnish, the difference between ongoing and punctual present tense is in stead visible the form of the object, if there is one. e. g.:
Minä ajan autoa talliin = I am driving a car into the garage (direct object in partitive case, action is ongoing)
Minä ajan auton talliin = I drive the car into the garage (direct object in accusative case, action is punctual)
I'll make a video about objects some time in the future.
@jesusfreak1487 The word ends with the letter "ä", for example the word " Kerätä" (Collect) would also go = he kerää[VÄT] (They are collecting)
Thanks a lot for the comments! I'll be adding new episodes later, right now my home desktop is broken and I don't have the video editing program in my working computer, so you'll have to wait a bit more.
great video. the pictures really help. i was a little confused on the two different "you" conjugations until i watched this.
@jesusfreak1487 in finnish there is a thing called vowel harmony, which means that words can only contain either front or back vowels, so words that contain an a, o or u, cannot contain ä, ö or y. This rule applies for word endings as well. Since syödä contains an ö, y and ä, its ending must contain the corresponding form of a, hence syövät. Olla contains o and a, so its endings must only contain a, o or u, hence ovat, not ovät. E and i are neutral vowels and can appear in all words.
Both. "Sinä ajat" is singular, talking to one person. "Te ajatte" is plural, talking to two ore more persons (or sometimes one person in formal speech).
You see, in English this difference has vanished during the centuries. The old English singular is sometimes used in archaich texts like King James Bible: "Thou driveth" whould be "sinä ajat".
@jesusfreak1487 - It is called vocal harmony. You should not mix back vowels (A,O.U) with front vowels (Ä,Ö,Y) in a word. The vowels i and e (middle vowels) can go with any vowel. Try observing a text written in Finnish and you'll notice that the back and front vowels are not mixed. Exceptions are words which are not of Finnish origin (olympia, Libya..). So, syödä - syövät. But juoda - juovat etc
@norskjente I'm not sure in Finnish, but I know that in Spanish there are two ways of saying things such as "you are driving" because there is a formal and informal you. So you would use the informal you went speaking with someone you know, but use the formal you with someone you do not know or someone who is older than you. BUT like i said that is the case with Spanish I don't know if Finnish is the same way.
This is excellent, thank you. I have a book on Finnish grammar but it's better to hear it out loud.
I haven't found these kind of videos helpful for much but review. Plus I learned Grammar first and phrases and vocab after that. If you're looking to make the stem changes make sense to an english speaker, what helped me was started with words that applied to the basic rule of -n -t -(DV) -mme -tte -vat, then going on to learn the other verb forms and words like syoda that have those mysterious disappearing letters.
"seimikätkyessään" means "in his manger cradle" - seimi=manger, kätkyt=cradle, kätkyessä = in (a/the) cradle, -än is a possessive suffix. Kätkyt is an arcaic word that many finns don't know either, they just sing this song thinking it has something to do with "kätkeä" = to hide.
I've had a lot to do, coming back with more videos soon...
why are you all wondering why the K went missing.. just accept it o: every language has it's rules and not everything is explainable..
thanks for your videos (: very great stuff (:
kiitos
@jesusfreak1487 If the word has letters such as 'ä' or 'ö' or 'y', the ending changes from 'vat' to 'vät'.
I am really loving this language, very fun to study!
@VFB1210 That's how it's written. When you say it out loud, there's sort of a... gap between the u's. Sorry, I can't explain this further. :p
Yeah the language is guite hard, but you got to learn many accents because we have many dialects in Finland. (Eastern finland, western finland, southern finland has three, oulu's province has one and lappi has one)
These are all i know! There is much more if you have enough power to search them!
You can get ä by pressing ¨ first and then a.
And yes, that is right.
Wow, thanks so much for this! I'm learning Finnish on my own and it's a big help to have this video. The grammar is hard, but I am kind of getting it. Kiitos!
Great video!
And I love the drawings!
Many thanks.
@Iddhi5 yes, it's very easy, since we've got quite the same system in Hungarian :D
This really helped me on my understanding for Finnish! This also made me love the language even more!!!
hello sir. your finnish teaching videos are very nice you should make more videos
Thanks for nice feedback! I try to take time for this more often, but I tend to prioritize some other projects, like my hiking channel Askel Askeleelta
awesome...!
kiitos....
this is very noteworthy..
Hmm...I don't know why but the verb forms remind me of Croatian grammar ^.^ Thank you so much for your vids!
A while back, I heard about something in FInnish called the nut-participle, but I haven't noticed anything on it since. The website where I found it originally isn't up anymore. Am I just making something up or is it a part of FInnish grammar?
Also, thank you so much for the awesome videos!
beetles track at the beginning, made the unconscious link. kiitos
oh dear... it's a bit more difficult than I had thought... I will train hard!
I am trying to learn and will hopefully be going to Finland next summer but seeing all the damn changes for drive is not very encouraging. Jeez, if u see the English side of the list the only thing that changes is the noun. "Driving" stays the same. On the Finnish side everything changes. I'm getting scared.LOL
Fun! Lots of things to remember, but fun! Kiitos paljon!
Oh God, thank you.
Man, this seems slightly less hard than (the hell that is) Latin!
It's kinda quick paced... Luckily there is a pause button haha
Does anybody know of a good online finnish dictionary?
PS- Thank you for posting this series!
Does anybody know how I can say in finnish: Can I give you...?
Can he give me...?
Can you give me...?
I'm confused,and I travel to Finland in 4 days!!! Please help
thanks
Kiitos ..
Kiitos paljon🥰
Just a question, in the verbs that have the disappearing k, you replaced the k with an apostrophe, as in Liu'un, is that actually how the word is written, or did you do that to emphasize the disappearance of the k?
This video is really really funny with all of that pics xDDD
however I learnt how to write Finnish verbs with the help of some friends and I am originally Italian, and to be honest I think Italian grammar is even harder, well I am not a Finnish expert yet but be sure Latin languages are terrible too!
Kiitos!
huh I don't understand. You've put "you are driving" meaning too seperate sentences.
sinä ajat and te ajatte which one means you are driving?
area?
@norskjente
sinä ajat is singular
te ajatte is plural
is it possible to get a languag back? i havent spoken finnish since i was 10 (im 20 now) do you think i will ever become fluent :(
It's too hard xD (sorry, I can understand FInnish but my grammar is so bad that I wouldn't dare to write a thing in Finnish)
Mennä:
Minä menen
Sinä menet
Hän menee
Me menemme
Te menette
He menevät
oh, i see, well, german i heard has something like this, but finnish isn't as hard.
Missä passiivi? :b
Of course, just try your best :)
Finnish is a hard language to learn
Cool)))))
Beatles!!!
Finnish is so awesome, I'd love to know how to speak it. XD anyways, THE BEATLES FOREVER! (beatlemania is aliiiive! XD)
@ProLimukka
Norwegian, that is, not Dor--- :-)
i dont like when man talking in french, its sounds strange for me, to many strange, soft vowels i prefer when man talks in german or finnish, its sounds i dont know how say it, maybe hard? just more virile than french ;)
And we say that Estonian sounds like drunken Finnish. :P
@jesusfreak1487
aha ! minulle olut....lol
Suomee on helppo puhua! :D tottakai kun oon suomalainen... :P
It's easy to speak finnish! :D Well of course becouse I am finnish.. :P
hahhah toi antaa, sori...! :D
haha funny drawings