Conjugating verbs - type A

There are six types of verbs, which are all conjugated slightly differently. Fortunately the difference is slight. We've already conjugated one of the few irregular verbs - to be (olla), and from that you'll notice that the endings are all pretty much the same. It's just the construction of the verb stem that is different.

The first regular type of verb that we'll conjugate consists of the verb ending in a vowel followed by a or ä. Examples are puhua (to speak) and kompastua (to trip, or to stumble). We'll now conjugate to speak in the present tense:

minä puhun - I speak
sinä puhut - you speak
hän/se puhuu - he/she/it speaks
me puhumme - we speak
te puhutte - you (plural or polite) speak
he/ne puhuvat - they (people/objects or animals) speak

From this you can see that the verb stem is made by losing the last -a or -ä, and adding -n, -t, doubling the stem vowel ending, -mme, -tte or -vat/vät.

Similarly for "to trip", for which the verb stem is kompastu-:

kompastun
kompastut
kompastuu
kompastumme
kompastutte
kompastuvat

And that's that.

Vocab list 3

täysinäinen - full
pituus - length
huomata - to notice
kaukainen - remote
varoittaa - to warn
leuka - jaw
siansaksa - gibberish, jargon (literally - pig German)
todellinen - actual
puhua - to speak
säännöllinen - regular

Vocab list 2

thick, fat - paksu
thin - ohut
ruler (measuring device) - viivotin
scissors - sakset
herbs - yrtit
to invite - kutsua
dry - kuiva
end - loppu
choice, variety, selection - valinta
a cough - yksä

So, so, so, so

I had a query the other day about niin, siis, näin and noin - what they mean and when to use them.

The last two are easy:

näin - "like this", as in tee näin - "do it like this"
noin - "like that", as in älä tee noin - "don't do it like that"

This and that in the above sentences refer to location and proximity - the "this" and "that" mean that the thing to do or example to follow are close by and some distance away (typically out of reach) respectively.

siis - so, therefore, accordingly
For example, ajattelen, siis olen. - "I think, so I am". The word siis is used in a sentence with a conclusion.

niin - so
For example, olen niin väsynyt - "I am so tired". In this case "so" means "extremely" or "very. It can also mean an affirmative yes: niin on - "so it is."

Finally, there is an expression that uses niin but has a different meaning:
no niin - well then, all righty, now then, so then, okay

No niin, this post is finished.

Adjectives to adverbs

A fox (kettu) may be quick (nopea), but he runs quick-ly (nopea-sti). In English an adjective is often changed into an adverb by adding -ly. In Finnish the same is done by adding -sti to the end of the adjective in question. Note that vowel and consonant gradation still apply, so you'll find d's turning into t's, a's changing into e's, and so on.

fast, quick - nopea
quickly - nopeasti

hard, strong - kova
strongly - kovasti

easy - helppo
easily - helposti

The last example shows consonant gradation - on adding -sti one of the p's disappears. I never said Finnish would be easily learnt!

Vocab list 1

The key to learning a language is to have a large vocabulary. As a result my resolution for 2009 is to learn ten new words a week. Here is the first list:

abbey - luostari
banknote - seteli
to study - opiskella
soon - pian
lip - huuli
to fix or to mend - korjata
glove - hansikas, although most Finns now use the word hanska
at once - heti
bitter - kitkerä or katkera. The latter is more useful, because it means bitter in taste, or bitter in emotion. The former just refers to taste.
blanket -peitto