Vocab list - trees

The last post was a bit frivolous - I don't expect anyone to learn those words, but I did think they were funny. Here is a list of seven words actually worth learning, as there are a lot of trees in Finland:

koivu - birch
mänty - pine
kuusi - fir
leppä - alder
tammi - oak
saarni - ash
jalava - elm

Moominwords

If you're at all interested in Finland you will know something about Moomins. The television cartoon series starts with a special Moomin song, the lyrics to which can be found here. It's called "Käy Muumilaaksoon" (come to Moomin valley), and contains a couple of words that you'll not find in the dictionary. However, every Finn knows what they mean:

tuijottelutuokio - staring moment
taikapilvikarkelo - magic cloud party

Important vocabulary, I think you'll agree.

Fruits and berries

It's autumn (syksy), which means there are lots of fruits and berries about in the forest (metsä). So today here is a short vocabulary list of common Finnish fruits and berries.

hedelmä - fruit
marja - berry

For some reason the Finns don't think that berries are fruit. They are berries, and that's that.

puolukka - lingonberry (actually a foxberry, but Finns are convinced it's a lingonberry). A red, rather sour and bitter berry that the Finns make into jam, which they then serve with stir-fried reindeer or spinach pancakes.
vadelma - raspberry
mustikka - blueberry (actually a bilberry, but Finns are convinced it's a blueberry)
mansikka - strawberry
karpalo - cranberry
muurain, lakka - cloudberry

omena - apple
päärynä - pear

Singular and plural

The Finnish approach to singular and plural objects of sentences is a bit complicated. In English if I said something along the lines of "would you like the fish", "would you like some fish?" or "would you like a fish?" or "would you like fish?" you would know what I mean without having to think. Of course it's the same for native Finnish speakers offering each other fish, but they don't have the definite and indefinite article, for starters and ... well, lets dive in and learn by example.

Would you like is haluatko in Finnish, and fish is kala.

First case: would you like some (part of this one) fish
haluatko kalaa

There is an extra a on the end of kala because it's in the singular partitive. You're offering part of one fish. In English we would just say "some fish."

Second case: would you like a (single non-specific) fish
haluatko kalaa

Again, the extra a because it's the singular partive. You're offering one of many non-specific fish. In English we'd say "a fish" or perhaps "fish."

Third case: would you like the fish (a specific fish)
haluatko kalan

Suddenly kala is in the genetive case by adding an n - which means "of the fish". So you're asking "would you like of the fish." Yep, doesn't make much sense in English, but it's how you offer someone a specific single fish.

Fourth case: would you like the fish (a specific number, each fish identified)
haluatko kalat

Fish is put in the nominative plural. This is a rather contrived situation so it's rare. You'd have to be in a situation where someone had selected, say, three specific Japanese fighting fish and you were holding them for him. Then when he came round to visit you'd be asking him if he would like the fish (a specific number, each fish known).

Fifth case: would you like some (of many) fish
haluatko kaloja

In this example fish is in the partitive plural. Initially this didn't make much sense to me, and in speech a Finn is probably actually going to use the partitive singular. So this is the case where they're serving whitebait, for example, and your as the host ask a guest if she would like some fish.

But cheer up. A Finn asking you if you would like some of many fish is probably going to say: "would you like some fishes?"

And then you get to correct them.

The Essive Case

In the last post we learnt the days of the week. This gives us an excellent opportunity to learn about Finnish cases. Cases are a tricky thing for you to get your head around as an English native speaker, because we only have two commonly used cases - one for when it's the subject (for example, "I"), and one for when it's the object ("I" becomes "me"). In Finnish instead of having modifiers like "on", "in", "from", "to", "as" and so on, you actually change the ending of the word.

Make any sense? Probably not. So lets plough on and learn about the essive case. This is described as indicating "a temporary state of being." In Finnish you put a word in the essive case by adding -na/nä (depending on vowel harmony). So, Finnish for child is lapsi, and if you wanted to say "as a child" you would say lapsena (argh, as an added complication the i at the end of lapsi becomes an e to "make it sound better").

So, back to our original point.The essive is also used to say that something happened or is going to happen on a specific day. So if you want to say "on Monday" you say maanantaina:

On Monday - maanantaina
On Tuesday - tiistaina
On Wednesday - keskiviikkona
On Thursday - torstaina
On Friday - perjantaina
On Saturday - lauantaina
On Sunday - sunnuntaina

Days of the week

If you're going to find your way around Finland you need to know which day it is, mainly because the opening times of the supermarkets vary bizarrely from day to day.

maanantai - Monday
tiistai - Tuesday
keskiviikko - Wednesday
torstai - Thursday
perjantai - Friday
lauantai - Saturday
sunnuntai - Sunday

Finnish for "day" is päivä. Note that the days aren't capitalised, unlike in English. Some of the days have familiar looking names, and some don't.

Possession

Finnish has a special way of modifying an object to show that it is owned or held by someone. There are the equivalents of the possessive subjects, or you can change the object:

mine - minun or object+ni
your - sinun or object+si
his/her - hänen or object+nsa
our - meidän or object+mme
your (pl.) - teidän or object+nne
their - heidän or object+nsa

However it is much cooler to change the object under possesion. For example:
Ei, olen isäsi - No, I am your father
Voimasi ovat heikot, ukko - Your powers are weak, old man