Learn how to use the elative case, which expresses movement out of somewhere
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hi everyone, Gina here! Welcome back to FinnishPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 , Lesson 15 - Greetings from Finland! |
| Paula: Hei! Minä olen Paula. I’m Paula. |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn to say that something comes out of somewhere. |
| Paula: You may remember that in the previous lesson, Liisa asked Helen to help out in the kitchen. Now it seems that the dinner is almost ready. Liisa and Helen will be speaking in standard Finnish. |
| Gina: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: So, they’re about to start eating. Liisa asked Helen to get the milk from the fridge. Is it common for people to drink milk with dinner in Finland? |
| Paula: Oh yes, it’s very common. Even adults drink milk a lot. |
| Gina: Hmm, that’s interesting. But not everybody can tolerate lactose, so they have to drink something else, right? |
| Paula: Not necessarily. We have lots of different kinds of milk, even low-lactose and entirely lactose-free. But of course, not everybody drinks milk. |
| Gina: So what do they drink? |
| Paula: Well, probably water – and that’s usually tap water, not bottled. |
| Gina: Oh? Why don’t they drink bottled water? |
| Paula: Because tap water is usually better. |
| Gina: Really? Well, I’ll take your word for that. How about wine? |
| Paula: People mostly drink wine when they go and eat at a restaurant, but not so much at home. Maybe they’ll have it sometimes on the weekend, if they’ve put more effort into the cooking, or if there’s a special occasion. |
| Gina: Okay. Let’s have a look at the vocabulary. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Paula: The first word is the verb ‘kaataa’, “to pour” or “to turn over”. |
| Gina: So the basic meaning of this verb is “to turn over”? |
| Paula: That’s right. In many cases, you could also translate it as “to knock over”. You can use it for pretty much anything from bowling pins, to flower vases, to trees. When referring to liquids, you’d translate is as “to pour”. |
| Gina: Okay. What’s our next word? |
| Paula: The next word is ‘yläkerta’, or “upstairs”. It consists of two words, ‘ylä’- and ‘kerta’. In this context, ‘kerta’ means “floor”, though it’s not the word that is used when referring to the stories of a building in other contexts. But what’s more interesting in this compound word is the first part ‘-ylä-’. |
| Gina: What’s special about it? |
| Paula: You can’t use it by itself, but it’s used in many compound words. For example, there’s ‘yläkaappi’ “wall cabinet”, ‘ylähylly’ “top shelf”, and ‘yläpuoli’ “top half”. |
| Gina: Oh, yes. And it has a pair that means “bottom”, right? |
| Paula: That’s right. The opposite word is ‘ala-’, and it’s also only used in compound words. So you have ‘alakerta’ “downstairs”, ‘alakaappi’ “base cabinet”, ‘alahylly’ “bottom shelf” and ‘alapuoli’ “bottom half”. |
| Gina: Okay, listeners, keep your eyes open for words that begin with one of these. Now let’s see some grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, we're going to learn to say that something comes out of somewhere. |
| Paula: In lesson 8 we learned to say something is somewhere, and in lesson 15 we learned to say something goes somewhere. Now we’ll learn the last member of this trio. It’s called the elative case. |
| Gina: Okay, so how do you go about forming the elative? |
| Paula: The elative case ending is ‘-sta/stä’, so it’s very much like the inessive ‘-ssa/-ssä’ that means “in”. So you also need to use the same form of the stem that you used for the inessive. |
| Gina: And that was the stem with the consonant changes for some words? |
| Paula: Exactly. For example, if we take the word ‘kaappi’ “cabinet”, the inessive we learned earlier is ‘kaapissa’, so to get the elative you just need to change the ending to get ‘kaapista’. |
| Gina: Okay. What words did we have in the dialogue that were in this case? |
| Paula: We had ‘uuni’, “oven”, which becomes ‘uunista’, “out of the oven”, ‘kattila’ meaning “stockpot”, which becomes ‘kattilasta’, “from the stockpot”, ‘jääkaappi’ meaning “fridge”, which becomes ‘jääkaapista’ “from the fridge”, and ‘yläkerta’ meaning “upstairs”, which becomes yläkerrasta “from upstairs”. |
| Gina: How would you say “Liisa takes a glass from the cabinet”? |
| Paula: Liisa ottaa kaapista lasin. |
| Gina: And how about “I’m from Australia”? |
| Paula: That would be ‘Minä olen Australiasta’. And you can just use the name of your own country to replace “Australia”. |
| Gina: Listeners, it’s time to practice. I’ll say a word in English, and your job is to say it in Finnish in the elative case. As usual, Paula will give the correct answer after a few seconds. The first word is “glass”. |
| Paula: Here’s a hint. The nominative form is ‘lasi’. |
| --- |
| Paula: The elative form is ‘lasista’. |
| Gina: Now how about “bowl”? |
| Paula: Here’s a hint - “bowl” is ‘kulho’ in Finnish. |
| --- |
| Paula: The elative form is ‘kulhosta’. |
| Gina: Okay, here’s the last one - “school”. |
| Paula: In case you don’t remember, “school” is ‘koulu’. |
| --- |
| Paula: The elative form is ‘koulusta’. |
| Gina: How did you do? I hope you’re getting used to forming the different case forms by now. |
| Paula: I’ve got one more phrase I’d like to teach our listeners. It’s a phrase they can use in postcards if they ever visit Finland. |
| Gina: What’s that? |
| Paula: Terveisiä Suomesta! |
| Gina: Oh, “Greetings from Finland!” That’s a great phrase to know. |
Outro |
|---|
| Gina: That’s it for this lesson. Listeners, don’t forget to check out the lesson notes to learn more. Thanks for listening, and see you next time! |
| Paula: Hei hei! |
37 Comments
HideHi listeners! What's your favorite drink? Can you tell us in Finnish?
Hei Emma,
Kiitos kommentistasi! Kuuma suklaa on myös minun suosikkini. ( Thank you for your comment! Hot chocolate is also my favorite.) 😄
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei, suosikkini juoma on kuuma suklaa.
Hi Ilsa Lottes,
Thank you for your question. It is in genitive form as Liisa takes one whole object from the cabinet. The partitive form is used to express something not so measurable or countable. Hope this helps.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
In the example, Liisa takes a glass from the cabinet, why is glass (lasin) not in the partitive? Why is an n added to lasi? I will go back and read about partitive again and try to understand the difference in objects of verbs.
Hei Anna,
Kiitos lauseistasi! Ne ovat aivan oikein! Hyvä! 👍
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Juon joka aamu mustaa kahvia. Myöhemmin juon yleensä vettä, mutta tee on myös hyvää.
Hello Vien,
Thank you for your question
In the Finnish language, it is very much possible to say "Liisa ottaa kaapista lasin or Liisa ottaa lasin kaapista". It is possible because we use suffixes to give words the right meaning. Therefore it is up to you which word you want to emphasize as a true object and put it last in the sentence. Naturally, verbs come first, almost always. Hope this helps. 😄
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei,
I'm confusing about the order.
For example:
1) Liisa ottaa kaapista lasin. (take the glass from the cabinet)
2) Emmi ottaa omenapiirakan uunista. (take the apple pie out of the oven)
why in the first sentence, "lasin" comes after "kaapista", but in the second, "omenapiirakan" comes before "uunista". I think "lasin" and "omenapiirakan" have the same role - take object out the somewhere. They both play the role "object". Why is the difference in order?
Kiitos!
Moi Juan,
Thank you for your posting and kind words. I am happy to confirm all your sentences correct. 😄 Also 'kala on valmista' is a correct sentence. Well done, Juan! 👍
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Moi!
First of all, thank you for the lessons, which I find very useful with interesting hints in the grammar but without making the lessons tedious.
I would appreciate if you could let me know if the following examples are correct:
1- Ota avaimet pois laukusta
2- Lauri ottaa passin lompakosta
3- Kaada olut pois lasista
4- Hän kaataa kahvin kupista
5- Haen romaanin kirjastosta
6- Hakee takin makuuhuonesta
One final question: would 'kala on valmista' be correct? I have seen 'ruoka on valmista' written in a different source.
Kiitos paljon!