Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Michael: Hi everyone, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 19 - Meeting the Family in Finland. Michael here.
Nico: Hei. I'm Nico.
Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the genitive case when introducing people. The conversation takes place in a private home.
Nico: It's between Aino and Jukka.
Michael: The speakers are colleagues, so they'll be using informal Finnish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Aino: Hei Jukka! Mukava kun pääsit tulemaan. Tule, esittelen perheeni sinulle, ennen kuin katsomme työpapereita.
Jukka: Hei Aino, mukava tavata taas.
Aino: Hei kaikki, tässä on Jukka, työtoverini.
Jukka: Hei vaan kaikille!
Aino: Jukka, tässä on mieheni Heikki, ja tässä on Heikin sisar, eli kälyni Linnea. Linnea asuu Yhdysvalloissa ja on juuri lomalla Suomessa.
Jukka: Ai sehän on mukavaa! Hauska tavata teidät kaikki.
Michael: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Aino: Hei Jukka! Mukava kun pääsit tulemaan. Tule, esittelen perheeni sinulle, ennen kuin katsomme työpapereita.
Jukka: Hei Aino, mukava tavata taas.
Aino: Hei kaikki, tässä on Jukka, työtoverini.
Jukka: Hei vaan kaikille!
Aino: Jukka, tässä on mieheni Heikki, ja tässä on Heikin sisar, eli kälyni Linnea. Linnea asuu Yhdysvalloissa ja on juuri lomalla Suomessa.
Jukka: Ai sehän on mukavaa! Hauska tavata teidät kaikki.
Michael: Listen to the conversation with the English translation.
Aino: Hi Jukka! Nice that you could make it. Come, I'll introduce my family to you before we take a look at the work papers.
Jukka: Hello Aino, nice to see you again.
Aino: Hey everyone, this is Jukka, my colleague from work.
Jukka: Hello everyone!
Aino: Jukka, this is my husband Heikki, and here is Heikki's sister, so my sister-in-law, Linnea. Linnea lives in the United States and is visiting Finland for a holiday at the moment.
Jukka: Oh, isn’t that nice! It's nice to meet you all.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Michael: Nico, do Finns often visit each other at home?
Nico: Visiting the homes of friends and relatives is very common for Finns. Small get-togethers and parties are also held at homes quite often, and it's not unusual for Finns to invite their colleagues for a home-cooked dinner sometimes.
Michael: That sounds like a nice custom! Could you give the listeners some tips, in case they are invited to one of these gatherings?
Nico: Well, depending on the kind of event, guests will sometimes bring small gifts, such as wine or flowers, for the hosts.
Michael: Also don’t forget that in Finland, people don't wear shoes indoors - make sure you remember to take off your shoes at the entrance! Is there a useful expression we’d better memorize here?
Nico: illanvietto
Michael: Which means "social evening." Okay, now onto the vocab!
VOCAB LIST
Michael: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is..
Nico: esitellä [natural native speed]
Michael: to introduce
Nico: esitellä[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: esitellä [natural native speed]
Michael: Next we have..
Nico: perhe [natural native speed]
Michael: family
Nico: perhe[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: perhe [natural native speed]
Michael: Next we have..
Nico: työtoveri [natural native speed]
Michael: colleague
Nico: työtoveri[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: työtoveri [natural native speed]
Michael: Next we have..
Nico: mies, aviomies [natural native speed]
Michael: husband
Nico: mies, aviomies[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: mies, aviomies [natural native speed]
Michael: Next we have..
Nico: sisar [natural native speed]
Michael: sister
Nico: sisar[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: sisar [natural native speed]
Michael: Next we have..
Nico: käly [natural native speed]
Michael: sister-in-law
Nico: käly[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: käly [natural native speed]
Michael: Next we have..
Nico: mukava [natural native speed]
Michael: nice
Nico: mukava[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: mukava [natural native speed]
Michael: Next we have..
Nico: tavata [natural native speed]
Michael: to meet
Nico: tavata[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: tavata [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Michael: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is..
Nico: mukava tavata
Michael: meaning "nice to meet you."
Nico: This phrase is made up of the adjective "nice," mukava, and the basic form of the word "to meet," tavata.
Michael: You can use this expression when you’re meeting someone for the first time to politely express that it is nice to meet and get to know them.
Nico: That’s right! You can use mukava tavata when you’re meeting just one person or a group of people.
Michael: Can you give us an example using this word?
Nico: Sure. For example, you can say..Mukava tavata, olen kuullut sinusta paljon!
Michael: ..which means "Nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you!" Okay, what's the next word?
Nico: työtoveri
Michael: meaning "colleague."
Nico: työtoveri is made up of työ,
Michael: ...meaning "work" or "job"
Nico: and toveri,
Michael: meaning "comrade," "companion," "associate," or "mate." So the word literally means a person who is your companion or “mate” from work. Can you give us an example using this word?
Nico: Sure! For example, you can say.. Meillä on uusi työtoveri.
Michael: .. which means "We have a new colleague."
Nico: Right. You can also use the word kollega to mean "colleague." This word is more often used in academic professions and formal contexts.
Michael: Okay, now onto the grammar.

Lesson focus

Michael: In this lesson you'll learn how to introduce family members.
Nico: More specifically, you'll learn to use the possessive suffix also known as genitive case, when you’re introducing people.
Michael: Let's look at how to introduce yourself or someone else in a formal situation.
Nico: You start by saying tässä on, meaning “here is.” This can be followed by just the person’s name, but quite often people are introduced by stating their relation to the speaker.
Michael: So before saying their name, you would add their relation to you by adding a possessive suffix to the word indicating the relation.
Nico: Exactly.
Michael: Let’s remember that the possessive suffix is added to the object of a sentence to identify something as belonging to you.
Nico: This is rarely used in spoken language nowadays, but in formal situations, such as when introducing someone, it's still common.
Michael: How do we form the possessive suffix?
Nico: Let’s start by looking at the endings for each pronoun. In order to learn the right suffix, you need to know which pronoun it's related to.
Michael: Let’s start start with the first singular person, “me, my.”
Nico: The pronouns are minä, minun and the suffix is -NI, so “my sister” in Finnish is siskoni.
Michael: Next is “you, your.”
Nico: The pronouns are sinä and sinun and the suffix is -SI, so “your sister” in Finnish is siskosi.
Michael: What about the third singular person, “him, his” and “her, hers”?
Nico: In Finnish there isn’t a different form for each gender. And in both cases, the pronouns are hän, hänen, and the suffix is -NSA, so “his sister” and "her sister" are both siskonsa.
Michael: Let’s see now all the plural forms. First we have “we, our.”
Nico: The pronouns are me and meidän and the suffix is -MME, so “our sister” in Finnish is siskomme.
Michael: And “you, your” plural.
Nico: te, teidän and the suffix is -NNE, so “your sister” in Finnish is siskonne.
Michael: And “them, their.”
Nico: he, heidän and the suffix is -NSA as the singular, so “their sister” is siskonsa.
Michael: Are there some specific rules to remember when adding suffixes?
Nico: With most words you can simply add the possessive suffix ending to the word. For example, if you want to say “my father”, you simply have to add -ni to the word isä meaning “father,” so that you get isäni
Michael: Listeners, please refer to the lesson notes for the exhaustive list of exceptions here. We'll give some examples of these exceptions, but you'll want to check the full list.
Nico: For example, with old Finnish words that have an -i ending, you need to change the -i into -e, before adding the possessive suffix.
Michael: For example?
Nico: lapsi meaning “child”, becomes [clearly pronounced] lapseni
Michael: which translates as “my child.”
Nico: In words that end in -si, the -si ending needs to be changed into the -te ending before adding the possessive suffix. For example, vuosi meaning “year,” becomes vuoteni,
Michael: meaning “my year.” So when you want to introduce someone…
Nico: It’s simple - first you say Tässä on,
Michael: meaning “Here is,”
Nico: then add the word that indicates the relation to you with the possessive suffix, such as mieheni,
Michael: which means “my husband,”
Nico: ...and the name at the end, for example Heikki.
Michael: To wrap up this lesson, let’s give some more sample sentences.
Nico:Sure, Tässä on veljeni Aaro.
Michael: “Here is my brother Aaro.”
Nico: Here's an example, referring to a different person. Tässä on Heikin sisar, eli kälyni Linnea.
Michael: which means “Here is Heikki’s sister, so my sister-in-law Linnea.”
Nico: You can use the same structure to introduce a pet or an inanimate thing. For example, Tässä on koirani Jeppe.
Michael: “Here is my dog, Jeppe.”

Outro

Michael: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Nico: Hei hei.

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