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Lesson Transcript

Hei, minun nimeni on Paula. Hi everybody! I’m Paula.
Welcome to FinnishPod101.com’s “Suomea kolmessa minuutissa”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Finnish.
In the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb mennä which means "to go" in Finnish.
In this lesson, we will continue our lesson series dedicated to common Finnish verbs.
The second verb in our series is tehdä, which means "to do."
Here’s how the verb conjugates with pronouns.
Minä teen, “I do”, sinä teet, “you do”, hän tekee, “he or she does”, me teemme, “we do”, te teette, “you do”, he tekevät, “they do”.
So when someone asks you Mitä sinä teet?
it means "What are you doing?".
If you were just preparing a meal, for example, you will say Minä teen ruokaa.
[slowly] Minä teen ruokaa.
This would literally mean “I am doing food”.
Let’s break down this answer.
First we had-
Minä teen which is "I am doing."
Next was ruokaa. Now the basic form of “food” would be ruoka, but when it becomes the object of the doing, it gets the ending -a.
Here’s another example of how to use this grammatical case with the verb tehdä.
Let’s say you are doing a crossword puzzle. The Finnish word for that would be sanaristikko. So how would the sentence turn out?
Minä teen sanaristikkoa.
Here are a few other ways you can use the word tehdä.
I brought up the verb aikoa, “going to”, in the last lesson, when we used it in the form “where are you going to go?”
It is often also used together with tehdä.
Mitä sinä aiot tehdä?
[slowly] Mitä sinä aiot tehdä?
So as you already learned how to ask your friend where they will be going for the weekend, here’s another way to ask about their plans.
Mitä sinä aiot tehdä viikonloppuna?
What are you going to do this weekend?
[slowly] Mitä sinä aiot tehdä viikonloppuna?
Now it’s time for Paula’s Points.
Here’s a useful word derived from tehdä: tekeminen. In English it could be translated roughly as “doings”, and in Finnish it’s often used in the form tekemistä.
You can use it when you want to know if your friend is doing something, or in other words, if she is busy.
Onko sinulla jotain tekemistä? “Are you doing something?”
Or if you are bored, you could say
Minulla ei ole mitään tekemistä! Which would mean “I have nothing to do!”
In this lesson, we learned how to use the verb tehdä in different contexts.
Next time we’ll learn another very useful verb, pitää.
Can you guess what it means?
I’ll be waiting for you in the next Suomea kolmessa minuutissa lesson.
Nähdään pian!

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