Learn how to ride a long-distance bus
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| Jessi: Hello, and welcome to Finnish Survival Phrases, brought to you by FinnishPod101.com. This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Finland. You'll be surprised at how far a little Finnish will go. Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by FinnishPod101.com and there you'll find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment! |
| Finnish Survival Phrases lesson 23 - Riding the Finnish Bus: Long-Distance Trips |
| Reeta: In the previous lesson, we covered how to get bus tickets in cities. You also might want to move between cities, and Finland's convenient and relatively punctual coach service is perfect for that. So let's see how you do that now. The sentence you use will be: Yksi lippu ...-lle. |
| We've covered all these words in previous lessons already, except for the little suffix that you have to attach to a place name to get something like: "all the way to (place)." |
| So for example, saying Tampereelle means "all the way to Tampere." You can notice that there is an extra -e sound before the suffix -lle. This suffix has some irregularities. |
| Let's imagine now that you are in Helsinki and you have to go to Turku, the second biggest city in Finland. What would you ask the bus driver? |
| Kuinka paljon maksaa lippu Turkuun? |
| "How much is a ticket to Turku?" |
| Here you can see that instead of the -lle suffix, there is a double vowel sound and an -n at the end. |
| Imagine that you are visiting Finland for the first time, you have no idea of the distances between your favorite destinations, and you need to ask the bus driver how long the bus takes. |
| Kuinka monta tuntia matka Helsinkiin kestää? |
| Kuinka monta tuntia is "how many hours," matka means "journey/trip," Helsinkiin means "to Helsinki" and as you can notice it has a double vowel and an -n letter to express the direction. Kestää means "lasts or takes" (as in duration of time). |
| Kuinka monta tuntia matka Helsinkiin kestää? Let’s break it down, Kuinka monta tuntia matka Helsinkiin kestää. Once more, Kuinka monta tuntia matka Helsinkiin kestää. |
| Another way to ask how long the trip takes is Kuinka kauan matka kestää? |
| Kuinka kauan means "how long." The rest of the phrase is the same as the previous one. In this phrase the destination can be added after the word matka like before. For example, Kuinka kauan matka Helsinkiin kestää? |
| You might hear the answer Neljä tuntia. It means "four hours," but I'm sure that by now you're all familiar with numbers in Finnish.Neljä tuntia. |
| Ok, to close out today's lessons, we’d like you to practice what you have just learned. I’ll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you’re responsible for shouting it out loud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so Onnea! which means “Good luck!” in Finnish. |
| “One ticket to Tampere, please.” - Yksi lippu Tampereelle, kiitos. |
| “How many hours does the journey to Helsinki take?” - Kuinka monta tuntia matka Helsinkiin kestää? |
| “How long does the journey take?” - Kuinka kauan matka kestää? |
| “Four hours.” - Neljä tuntia. |
| Jessi: Alright! That's going to do it for today. Remember to stop by FinnishPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment! |
Comments
HideWhere have you visited in Finland?
Hei Luca,
Kiitos kysymyksestäsi,
Voimmeko sanoi ¨kuinka pitka¨ sijasta ¨kuinka kauan¨?
Ei, emme voi sanoa niin. "Kuinka pitkä" means how long or how tall, "kuinka kauan" means only; how long time.
I hope this helps a bit.
Let us know if you have any question.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Minä oli Helsingistä Jyvaskylään polkupöyrella :-)
Voimmeko sanoi ¨kuinka pitka¨ sijasta ¨kuinka kauan¨?
Kiitos kommentistasi Sveta!
Just a small tip: We usually say "Joensuussa". ?
With locations/place names the locative case sometimes varies, depending on tradition etc.
Parhain terveisin, Best Wishes,
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
Olen ollut vain Helsingissa ja Joensuulla.
Moi Gus!
Thank you, kiitos for the nice comment! :smile:
And yes, you said 'oppikurssia' just right! >> "Rakastan tätä oppikurssia"! :thumbsup:
Really good that you also noticed the difference with the suffixes. Yes, “-lle” ,“-iin” and “-uun” all mean, in this context, that you are going to somewhere.
The "-iin" and "-uun" are locative case called the illative case, and it expresses movement which goes inside a closed space. The illative suffix is -seen or -lengthened vowel+n in singular, and -hin and -siin in plural.
The "-lle" then again is a locative case called the allative case, and it expresses the movement to an open space (e.g. 'kadulle', "to the street").
Sometimes it is a mystery to Finnish people ourselves, why some place names use one form and the others another one! It is also a topic for debates! The reason for the variation lies in old habits and customs. People have just started to say it one way, hundreds of years ago, and the habit has stayed!
Parhain terveisin, Best Wishes,
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
Minun nimeni on Gus. Rakastan tämä oppikurssia! (Not sure if I said that right, I tried to put "oppikurssi" in the partitive because it is the object of the verb "rakastaa"...)
Hi,
so, the suffix "-lle" means "all the way to". And then with "Tampere", it becomes "Tampereelle" (to Tampere).
But then, with Helsinki or Turku, it becomes Helsinkiin and Turkuun.
Are "-lle" and "-iin" and "-uun" all the same suffix? Do they all mean "to/all the way to" but just take different forms depending on the word they are attached to?
Also, about consonant gradation in Helsinki, wouldn't it be "Helsingiin"? Like, in "Helsingissa"?
So, clarification about the suffixes "-lle", "-iin" and "uun" would be greatly appreciated!
Paljon kiitoksia!
-Gus
Hello Els,
Thank you for your comment.
That's right, we recommend you to use an app for that.
For example you can search here:
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Finnish%20keyboard&c=apps
Let us know if you have any further questions.
Cheers.
Lena
Team FinnishPod101.com
How do I enter letters with accents (such as ä) on my pad? I can copy and paste letters on my home computer,
but don't know how to do this on my pad. Is there a way set up a keyboard with foreign language accents on the pad?
Thank you-
ELS
Hei taas Päivi!
Ah, okay. I wasn't sure if it was just a question word or not :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: So if it was a statement like "That's how I feel" it would be a different word.
Hei Corinna! :smile:
Well, 'miten' can be used, when you are asking how someone is feeling.
'Miten voit?', "How are you?" / "How are you doing/feeling?"
It's a question word, so it can be only used when asking how something is, or how something is happening or how something is done.
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei Päivi :smile:
Ah, ok, ajetellan ymmärrän :grin: Can "miten" also be used to express emotion? (Like how we say "How are you feeling?" or "How I feel" in English)
Hei Corinna!
Thank you again for a brilliant question! :smile:
'Kuinka' means "how". For example, 'Kuinka vanha olet?', "How old are you?", or 'Kuinka usein käyt täällä?', "How often do you come here?".
'Millaista' is the partitive form of 'millainen', "what kind", therefore asking "what kind of (something)". For example, 'Millaista kahvia juot?', "What kind of coffee do you drink?", or 'Millaista koulussa oli tänään?', "How was it at school today?"
'Miten' is asking how something is done or happening. For example, 'Miten menet töihin huomenna?', "How do you go to work tomorrow?" (i.e. by which transport). 'Miten juot kahvisi?', "How do you drink your coffee?" (i.e. do you drink your coffee black, with sugar, with milk, etc.)
Miten päiväsi on sujunut? How has your day been? :wink:
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
My question this time (although the answer is probably obvious) is: What's the difference between "kuinka", "millaista" and "miten"? Is it like "mikä" and "mitä", as in "kuinka" used for "countable" things and miten is the partitive?
hei
I visited Helsinki,Fiskars,Turku,Tammissari and Lohja
Hi Constance,
Thanks for your comment!
Great to have you here!
Please stay tuned since every week we have new lessons for you! And if you have any questions, feel free to ask us.
And don't forget to let us know where you go this summer in Finland! :wink:
Have a nice day!
Gergő
Team Finnishpod101.com
My father went as far north as Inari to go fishing with my cousin (his nephew) on Lake Inari back in 1966. I was in Finland in the winter, to spend Easter with my relatives around Tornio, so Napapiiri was as far as I was interested in going. I even have a certificate saying I'd been across the Arctic Circle. But Eleanor Roosevelt was there before me. Next time I go it will be summer time. And next time I will speak far better Finnish, I hope.
Hei, Constance!
I see you have traveled to many places in Northern Finland! I hope you enjoyed your visits. I have unfortunately never had the chance to go up North, although I would love to, as some of my family is originally from there. So if you have any tips or suggestions, myself and the other users would surely love to hear! ;)
The spelling of Haparanda indeed is a bit confusing! The Swedish call it "Haparanda" and the Finnish say "Haaparanta"... No wonder if the a's get a bit mixed up!
Thank you for leaving a comment!
Paula
Team FinnishPod101.com
Olen pahoillani. Rouvaniemi should have been spelled Rovaniemi. And, I guess I have too many "a's" in Haaparanda, too, which should be Haparanda.
Helsinki; Tornio; Rouvaniemi; Kemi; Napapiiri; Haaparanda and Kalix, Sweden visiting family.