Learn how to talk about agreement, disagreement, and beliefs using consonant gradation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 15 - Giving Your Opinion in Finnish. Eric here. |
| Päivi: Hei! I'm Päivi. |
| Eric: In this lesson you’ll learn how to express agreement, disagreement, and beliefs using consonant gradation in verbs. The conversation takes place in an apartment. |
| Päivi: It's between Aino and Vilja. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they’ll use informal Finnish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Aino: No niin, Vilja, tässä tämä asuntomme nyt on. Aiomme aloittaa remontin viimeistään ensi kuussa. |
| Vilja: Tämähän on todella kiva asunto. Valoisa ja suuri! |
| Aino: Kiitos. Haluaisin kuitenkin kuulla mielipiteesi. Olemme Heikin kanssa eri mieltä joistakin asioista. |
| Vilja: Toki, miten voin auttaa? |
| Aino: No, aiomme poistaa näistä kulkuväylistä toisen. Meidän pitäisi päättää, kumman poistamme. |
| Vilja: Aivan.. |
| Aino: Minä kuljen yleensä tätä kautta, mutta Heikki kulkee usein tuolta. Mielestäni tämä on käytännöllisempi reitti. |
| Aino: Emme myöskään tarvitse kahta kylpyhuonetta, joten teemme toisesta vaatehuoneen. Pitäisi vain päättää näiden kahden välillä.. |
| Vilja: Kumpaa kylpyhuonetta käytätte enemmän? |
| Aino: No, minä käytän yleensä tätä. Heikki taas käyttää enemmän tuota, koska se on lähellä makuuhuonetta. |
| Vilja: No, tällä kertaa olen Heikin puolella.Tuo kylppäri on uskoakseni valoisampi. Mutta voisitte pitää sen kulkuväylän, mitä ehdotit? |
| Aino: Niin, ehkä olet oikeassa. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Aino: Okay, Vilja, so here is our apartment. We are going to start the remodeling by next month at the latest. |
| Vilja: Now this is a really nice apartment. Bright and large! |
| Aino: Thank you. But I would like to hear your opinion, however. I'm having a disagreement with Heikki about some things. |
| Vilja: Sure, how can I help? |
| Aino: Well, we’re going to remove one of these passages.. We just have to decide which one. |
| Vilja: Right.. |
| Aino: I usually go through here, but Heikki often goes through there. I think this is a more practical route. |
| Aino: We also don't need two bathrooms, so we’re going to make the other one into a walk-in wardrobe. We should just decide between the two... |
| Vilja: Which bathroom do you use more? |
| Aino: Well, I usually use this one. But again, Heikki uses the other one more, because it's close to the bedroom. |
| Vilja: Well, this time I am on Heikki's side. That bathroom is brighter, I believe. But you could keep the passage you suggested? |
| Aino: Yeah, maybe you're right. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Päivi, is there a do-it-yourself culture in Finland? |
| Päivi: As a nation of hunter-gatherers, doing things by yourself is kind of a national characteristic for the Finns. Fishing, hunting, and picking mushrooms and berries are still very popular pastimes. Growing your own vegetables and herbs is also relatively common, and lately also a trendy hobby. Building your own shed, house, or summer cottage is an ambition for many men. |
| Eric: So we can say it’s part of the national identity. |
| Päivi: Right, it has its roots in frugality and the shortage of ready-made goods in the olden days, but nowadays is still very much alive. There are even festivals and events focused around self-sufficiency. |
| Eric: That sounds like an interesting idea! |
| Päivi: One of these events is called Wärk:Fest, which offers different kinds of workshops under one roof where people can try and learn new skills. Inventors can also exhibit their new innovations and introduce them to the visitors. TV programs, blogs, and magazines also promote doing things yourself. |
| Eric: So services aren’t very popular? |
| Päivi: Right, Finns aren’t very used to using services, although this is gradually changing. Many prefer to at least try to fix their own machines and tools, wash their own clothes, change their own car tires, and walk their own dogs, for example. |
| Eric: What's the Finnish expression for “do-it-yourself?” |
| Päivi: tee-se-itse |
| Eric: Listeners, you can find more about this topic in the lesson notes. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Päivi: remontti [natural native speed] |
| Eric: remodeling, renovation |
| Päivi: remontti[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: remontti [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: kiva [natural native speed] |
| Eric: nice |
| Päivi: kiva[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kiva [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: mielipide [natural native speed] |
| Eric: opinion |
| Päivi: mielipide[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: mielipide [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: poistaa [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to remove |
| Päivi: poistaa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: poistaa [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: kulkuväylä [natural native speed] |
| Eric: passage |
| Päivi: kulkuväylä[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kulkuväylä [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: päättää [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to decide, to end |
| Päivi: päättää[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: päättää [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: kulkea [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to go, to move, to pass |
| Päivi: kulkea[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kulkea [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: käytännöllinen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: practical |
| Päivi: käytännöllinen[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: käytännöllinen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: kylpyhuone [natural native speed] |
| Eric: bathroom |
| Päivi: kylpyhuone[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kylpyhuone [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Päivi: kylppäri [natural native speed] |
| Eric: bathroom (slang) |
| Päivi: kylppäri[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kylppäri [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Päivi: olla eri mieltä |
| Eric: meaning "to disagree." |
| Päivi: Literally, this phrase means "to have a different mind." |
| Eric: You can use this phrase whenever you need to express that you disagree with someone or something. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Olen aivan eri mieltä professorini kanssa. |
| Eric: ..which means "I completely disagree with my professor." |
| Päivi: If you want to say the opposite, i.e. when you agree with someone or something, you just replace the word eri with the word sama meaning "same." Olen samaa mieltä, |
| Eric: which means "I agree with you." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Päivi: kahden välillä |
| Eric: meaning "between the two." |
| Päivi: This phrase is made with the genitive of the numeral kaksi meaning "two" and the adverb välillä meaning "between." |
| Eric: You can use this phrase when you want to express that someone has to choose or make a decision between two options. Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. En osaa valita näiden kahden välillä. |
| Eric: .. which means "I can't choose between these two." |
| Päivi: You can also replace the numeral “two” with another number, although this would be rare. An example would be Neljän välillä |
| Eric: which means "between the four." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Päivi: kylpyhuone, |
| Eric: meaning "bathroom." |
| Päivi: You can use this word whenever you’re referring to a bathroom. If you are talking about a lavatory, you should say vessa, wc, or käymälä instead of kylpyhuone, as kylpyhuone is generally understood as a room with a bath and/or a shower. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using the word meaning “bathroom”? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Haluan ison kylpyhuoneen, jossa on tilaa myös kylpyammeelle. |
| Eric: .. which means "I want a big bathroom, with space for a bath tub." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn about expressing agreement, disagreement, and beliefs, while mastering the consonant gradation in verbs. |
| Päivi: In the conversation, Aino and Vilja used many expressions to express agreement, disagreement, and beliefs, for example Haluaisin kuitenkin kuulla mielipiteesi. |
| Eric: meaning "I would like to hear your opinion, however." |
| Päivi: or also Niin, ehkä olet oikeassa. |
| Eric: "Yeah, maybe you’re right." So let’s try to give some general phrases. What can you say when you like or dislike something? |
| Päivi: You can use the expressions minusta tämä on… or minun mielestäni tämä on... |
| Eric: which can both be translated as "In my opinion, this is…” |
| Päivi: You can also just use the verbs tykätä |
| Eric: Meaning “to like,” |
| Päivi: or pitää |
| Eric: Also “to like,” and their negations. |
| Päivi: For example, Tykkään tästä väristä. |
| Eric: which means "I like this color.” |
| Päivi: And the negative form would be En tykkää tästä väristä. |
| Eric: "I don’t like this color.” Listeners, you can find a handy list of expressions in the lesson notes. Let’s now focus on “consonant gradation”. First of all, what is it? |
| Päivi: Consonant gradation means that certain word stems change depending on what kind of an ending is attached to them. Some consonants change when a previously open syllable becomes closed by adding the ending. |
| Eric: Let’s give an example. |
| Päivi: Let’s consider tukka, which means "hair." The partitive form has the open syllable, tukkaa, while the genitive has the closed syllable, tukan |
| Eric: The form with the changed consonants is called the weak stem. The form with the "harder" consonants is the strong stem. |
| Päivi: Consonant gradation affects the last consonants of a word if there is one or more k, p, or t. One of the consonants may be dropped or they may change into other consonants, for example t into d, when a single-consonant ending or an ending that begins with two consonants is attached. |
| Eric: Note that this happens with all words that are inflected, including nouns, numbers, and adjectives, as well as verbs. |
| Päivi: Some recent loanwords, such as auto for "car" and muki for "mug,” are not affected though. |
| Eric: The consonant gradation takes place with endings which begin with two consonants or which are made of only one consonant like -t or -n. The gradation happens when the consonants are between the last, and the second to last syllable. |
| Päivi: Therefore, for example, kylppäri, becomes kylppärissä, but remontti becomes remontissa. |
| Eric: The first means “bathroom” and the second means “renovation.” |
| Päivi: When conjugating words to different cases, you must remember whether you should use the strong or the weak stem as the base. |
| Eric: From the locative cases, only the illative case uses the strong stem. All the other locative cases use the weak stem. Let’s make an example using the word meaning “shop.” |
| Päivi: The illative is kauppaan, while the inessive is kaupassa. |
| Eric: The illative has the strong stem with “double p,” and the inessive has the weak stem. |
| Päivi: The strong stem can be the double consonant in the case of k, p or t |
| Eric: In other cases, the consonant changes into other consonants. |
| Päivi: For example, if the strong stem has one k, the weak stem doesn’t have a consonant or changes into v. |
| Eric: Listeners, be sure to check the lesson notes for a complete list. Let’s now have a closer look at consonant gradation with verbs |
| Päivi: When conjugating verbs, you must also remember the consonant gradation. Each verb type has its own rules, and the gradation is different with verbs than with other words. |
| Eric: The consonant gradation has an effect with verb types 1, 3 and 4. Consonants gradate according to the consonant gradation rules, the verb type, and the person. In the lesson notes you can find the consonant gradation for verb types 1, 3, and 4 using the present tense. Let’s see the examples from the dialogue. |
| Päivi: Both examples from the lesson are in verb type 1. As we learned before, the singular third and plural third were using strong stems, while every other form had weak stems and therefore consonant gradation. The first case is Aiomme poistaa näistä kulkuväylistä toisen. |
| Eric: “We’re going to remove one of these passages.” |
| Päivi: What happens here is that the single ‘k’ from the verb aikoa meaning "to intend to," is removed entirely. If we use the singular third, and say “she is going to remove,” we don’t remove the ‘k’ and just say hän aikoo. |
| Eric: What’s the other example? |
| Päivi: Minä käytän yleensä tätä. Heikki taas käyttää enemmän tuota. |
| Eric: “Well, I usually use this one. But again, Heikki uses the other one more.” |
| Päivi: This sentence is using the verb käyttää, meaning "to use." In this example, the ‘tt’ becomes ‘t’ in the first singular, but remains strong in the third singular. |
| Eric: Ok, let’s wrap up this lesson by giving a couple of sample sentences. |
| Päivi: En ole kanssasi samaa mieltä, minusta tämä toinen on parempi. |
| Eric: "I don't agree with you, I think this other one is better." |
| Päivi: Te näytätte aivan upeilta ja minä näytän aivan hiirulaiselta. |
| Eric: "You look totally gorgeous and I look like a mouse." |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Päivi: Hei hei! |
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