Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Brandon: Hello, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, season 1, lesson 2- Asking For Directions in a Finnish City. My name is Brandon.
Nico: Hei, minä olen Nico. Hello, I’m Nico.
Brandon: In this lesson, we’ll review the locative cases, which are the cases you need for saying where something is, or where it’s going.
Nico: This dialogue takes place in the street. Petri is lost and asks for help from a passer-by.
Brandon: They are strangers but about the same age, so they'll be speaking standard Finnish in the casual register. Ok, let’s listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

Petri: Anteeksi, mutta missä on Lönnrotinkatu?
Ohikulkija Käänny seuraavasta risteyksestä oikealle ja sitten suoraan.
Petri: Kuinka pitkälle?
Ohikulkija Kun vasemmalta näkyy puisto, olet Lönnrotinkadulla.
Petri: Kiitos!
English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly.
Petri: Anteeksi, mutta missä on Lönnrotinkatu?
Ohikulkija Käänny seuraavasta risteyksestä oikealle ja sitten suoraan.
Petri: Kuinka pitkälle?
Ohikulkija Kun vasemmalta näkyy puisto, olet Lönnrotinkadulla.
Petri: Kiitos!
English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation.
Petri: Anteeksi, mutta missä on Lönnrotinkatu?
Brandon: Excuse me, but where is Lönnrotinkatu?
Ohikulkija Käänny seuraavasta risteyksestä oikealle ja sitten suoraan.
Brandon: Turn right at the next crossing, and then straight.
Petri: Kuinka pitkälle?
Brandon: How far?
Ohikulkija Kun vasemmalta näkyy puisto, olet Lönnrotinkadulla.
Brandon: When you see a park on the left, you're in Lönnrotinkatu.
Petri: Kiitos!
Brandon: Thank you!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Brandon: If you get lost in Finland, can you ask anyone for help?
Nico: Of course! Most Finns are quite helpful if you ask something. Just don’t try to ask someone who seems to be running for the bus or something.
Brandon: (laughs) I suppose that goes for any country. Now let’s move on to the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
: The first word we shall see is:
Nico: anteeksi [natural native speed]
Brandon: excuse me, I'm sorry
Nico: anteeksi [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: anteeksi [natural native speed]
: Next:
Nico: kääntyä [natural native speed]
Brandon: to turn
Nico: kääntyä [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: kääntyä [natural native speed]
: Next:
Nico: seuraava [natural native speed]
Brandon: next
Nico: seuraava [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: seuraava [natural native speed]
: Next:
Nico: risteys [natural native speed]
Brandon: crossing
Nico: risteys [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: risteys [natural native speed]
: Next:
Nico: oikea [natural native speed]
Brandon: right
Nico: oikea [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: oikea [natural native speed]
: Next:
Nico: suora [natural native speed]
Brandon: straight
Nico: suora [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: suora [natural native speed]
: Next:
Nico: pitkä [natural native speed]
Brandon: long
Nico: pitkä [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: pitkä [natural native speed]
: Next:
Nico: vasen [natural native speed]
Brandon: left
Nico: vasen [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: vasen [natural native speed]
: Next:
Nico: näkyä [natural native speed]
Brandon: to be visible
Nico: näkyä [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: näkyä [natural native speed]
: And Last:
Nico: puisto [natural native speed]
Brandon: park
Nico: puisto [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Nico: puisto [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Nico: The first word is anteeksi.
Brandon: And that’s “excuse me” or “I’m sorry” in English. It’s one of the words everybody should know. You use it when you want to apologise for something, or when you want to get someone’s attention.
Nico: In that case, it’s short for Anteeksi, että häiritsen, meaning “I’m sorry to disturb you”.
Brandon: Can you also use it for expressing sympathy? I mean, in English you say “I’m sorry” if someone tells you about something tragic.
Nico: No, unless you were responsible for that tragic event. You only use it when you have caused some discomfort to the other person.
Brandon: OK, listeners, be careful there. What’s the next word?
Nico: Oikea. Just like “right” in English, it has two meanings. It can be the opposite of “left,” or it can mean “true” or “correct,” as in oikea vastaus, which means “correct answer.”
Brandon: All right. What’s next?
Nico: The last word is the verb näkyä, which means “to be seen” or “to be visible”. In lesson 1, we had the verb aloittaa, meaning “to start”. We learned that aloittaa is a transitive verb, so it always needs an object that is started. Näkyä, however, is an intransitive verb that never takes an object.
Brandon: What does that mean in practice? How do you use it?
Nico: The subject of the sentence is the thing that is seen, not someone who sees it. For example, you might say Torni näkyy pitkälle for "The tower can be seen from far away”. There’s nothing in the sentence about who does the seeing, it’s all about the thing that is seen.
Brandon: I see.
Nico: If you want to say that Petri sees the tower, you’ll have to use the related verb nähdä to make the sentence Petri näkee tornin. "Petri sees the tower”
Brandon: Right. It’s important in Finnish to keep these verbs separate. Okay, now onto the grammar.

Lesson focus

Brandon: In this lesson, we’ll review the locative cases. Here is a very quick summary. There are six locative cases. Three of them are called “inner” locative cases and the other three are “outer” locative cases. The basic use of the inner locatives is to say something is inside something, comes out of something, or goes into something. Like in a box.
Nico: Yes. And the outer locatives are almost the same, except that, the thing is on top of, comes from the top of, or goes onto something. In this lesson, we’ll be using them in expressions of direction, rather than actually going into or onto something.
Brandon: OK, and how do you make the forms?
Nico: The endings of the inner locatives are –ssa, with a double s, -sta -, and a long vowel plus “n”. That is, if we have the word kaappi meaning “cabinet”, it would be kaapissa meaning “in the cabinet,” kaapista meaning “out of the cabinet,” and kaappiin for “into the cabinet.”
Brandon: And the outer locatives?
Nico: The endings of the outer locatives all have an “L” in them, -lla with a double "L", -lta, and –lle with a double “L”.
Let’s take the word pöytä, which means “table.” So we get pöydällä for “on the table”, pöydältä meaning “from the table”, and pöydälle for “to the table”.
Brandon: Great. Now let’s pretend that we’re lost and ask for directions from a passer-by.
Nico: Okay. First you need to ask where something is. You say Anteeksi, mutta missä on (something)? meaning “Excuse me, but where’s (something)?” So if you want to get to the railway station, say Anteeksi, mutta missä on rautatieasema?
Brandon: “Excuse me, but where’s the railway station?” And what are the keywords you need to listen for in the answer?
Nico: Suoraan meaning “straight ahead,” oikealle for “to the right,” and vasemmalle, which means “to the left.”
Brandon: What would the other person say if you had to go straight and then turn right?
Nico: Mene suoraan ja käänny sitten oikealle.
Brandon: Listeners, please repeat.
Nico: Mene suoraan ja käänny sitten oikealle.
--
Nico: Of course, you'll often be told where to turn, so you might hear phrases such as seuraavasta risteyksestä meaning “at the next crossing” or liikennevaloista for “at the traffic light”.
Brandon: Listeners, please say in Finnish “Turn left at the next crossing”. [pause]
Nico: Käänny vasemmalle seuraavasta risteyksestä. Or, if you had a different word order, Käänny seuraavasta risteyksestä vasemmalle, that’s just fine as well. Also, you don’t have to learn the formation of the cases in order to understand and give directions. If you remember the phrases vasemmalle, oikealle, suoraan, seuraavasta risteyksestä, and liikennevaloista, you’ve gone a long way.
Brandon: We have more phrases in the lesson notes, so be sure to check them out.
MARKETING PIECE
Nico: Listeners, can you understand Finnish TV shows, movies or songs?
Brandon: How about friends and loved ones’ conversations in Finnish?
Nico: If you want to know what’s going on, we have a tool to help.
Brandon: Line-by-line audio.
Nico: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural Finnish fast!
Brandon: It’s simple really.
Nico: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation.
Brandon: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural Finnish.
Nico: Rapidly understand natural Finnish with this powerful tool.
Brandon: Find this feature on the lesson page in the Lesson Materials section at FinnishPod101.com.

Outro

Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Nico: Hei hei!

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