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LESSON NOTES

Absolute Beginner S1 #3 What is That Finnish Thing?

CONTENTS
2 2 2 3 4 4 5 Finnish English Vocabulary Sample Sentences Vocabulary Phrase Usage Grammar Cultural Insight

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FINNISH
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Helen: Liisa: Helen: Liisa: Helen: Liisa:

Mik tm on? Se on lautanen. Mik tuo on? Se on lasi. Kuka tuo on? Se on presidentti Niinist.

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ENGLISH
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Helen: Liisa: Helen: Liisa: Helen: Liisa:

What's this? It's a plate. What's that? It's a glass. Who's that? It's President Niinist.

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VOCABULARY
Finnish lasi English glass C lass noun

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING?

kuka presidentti mik tm se lautanen tuo

who president which, what this it plate that

adverb noun adverb pronoun pronoun noun pronoun

SAMPLE SENTENCES
Tm lasi on painava. Kuka siell?

"This glass is heavy."


Tarja Halonen on entinen presidentti.

"Whos there?"
Mik on tmn paikan nimi?

"Tarja Halonen is a former President."


Tm viini on hyv.

"What is this place's name?"

"This wine is good."

Tm on kaunein paikka Suomessa.

"This is the most beautiful place in Finland."


Haluan tmn kirjan, kiitos.

Voi, tm ei ole hyv.

"Oh, this is not good."


Se on huhtikuun 15. (viidestoista) piv.

"I want this book, please."


Kyll, se on aika hyv.

"It's April 15th."


Voisitko sanoa sen uudestaan?

"Yes, it's quite good."

Tuo juustopala ei ole sinun.

"Could you say it once again?"

That piece of cheese is not yours.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING?

Haluan tuon paidan, kiitos.

"I want that shirt, please."

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE


Tm, tuo, se ("this," "that," "it") These three pronouns are used to refer to single objects in accordance to whether they are close to the speaker or not. Tm refers to anything that is close to the speaker. Tuo refers to anything that is not close to the speaker, but can be seen. It may or may not be close to the listener. Se refers to anything that is not close to the speaker, and it does not need to be visible. Tm and tuo are usually used when pointing at something, whereas se can be used for anything that has been spoken about before, so it is typically used in answers. They can all appear either alone, as in Tm on punainen ("This is red") or together with a noun as in Tm pallo on punainen ("This ball is red."). When used alone, they never need a filler word such as "one" in English: Tuo on liian suuri ("That one is too big."). In casual spoken Finnish, se is also used of people instead of hn . It does not imply any negative meaning. Presidentti ("president") The word presidentti has a narrower meaning than the English "president." In Finnish, it means almost exclusively the head of a state. The presidents of companies or other organizations have other words in Finnish.

GRAMMAR
The Focus of this Lesson is on Asking About What Something Is Mik tm on? "What is this?"

Being able to ask what something is is crucial, and a great way to increase your vocabulary. Formation

These questions are very simple to form in Finnish. Let us first take a very basic sentence such as Tm on lautanen , "This is a plate." Now if we replace tm and lautanen with placeholders, we get a general pattern A on B. A is the thing we are

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING?

talking about, and B is what we say about it. All we need to do in order to change this basic pattern into a question is add a question word to the beginning and remove B from the end, and we get:
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Mik A on? "What is A?" Kuka A on? "Who is A?"

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Note that unlike in English, the word order in the rest of the sentence does not change. You just add the question word at the beginning. Kuka and mik are pronouns used in questions. Kuka is used when you want to know the identity of a person. The answer would be something like John, my boss, the company president, etc. Mik is used in all other situations. Sample Sentences

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Kuka sin olet? (Min olen Liisa.) "Who are you?" ("I'm Liisa.") Kuka min olen? (Sin olet Helen.) "Who am I?" ("You are Helen.") Kuka hn on? (Hn on Emmi.) "Who is she?" ("She is Emmi.") Mik se on? (Se on salaisuus.) "What is it?" ("It's a secret.")

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Examples from this Dialogue

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Mik tm on? "What's this?" Mik tuo on? "What's that?" Kuka tuo on? "Who's that?"

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CULTURAL INSIGHT
FINNISHPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING?

Finland's Presidents

Finland is a republic and has a President as the head of state. The President is elected by a direct popular vote every six years. A former President may only be re-elected once. The President's powers are quite limited. Finland has only had five presidents since 1956. Urho Kekkonen, who was elected in 1956, held the office for 25 years, until his health deteriorated so much that he had to retire. In Kekkonen's time, the President's position was quite strong, and in practice he ruled Finland as an autocrat, even dissolving the Parliament if its composition didn't suit him. He considered himself the only person capable of maintaining good relations with the Soviet Union while securing Finland's independence, and many shared his view. At the height of his career, he was unrivalled, and there are many anecdotes about the "Kekkonen era." His successor, Mauno Koivisto, did not interfere with parliamentary democracy. He was the first Social Democrat to be elected President, and started a 30-year era of Social Democrat Presidents (although, once elected, the President conventionally refrains from party politics and acts for the entire people). The next President, Martti Ahtisaari, had served a long career as a diplomat outside of Finland, and entered the presidential election as a dark horse at a time when the other candidates had lost public support because of the ongoing recession of the early 1990s. He has always been an active proponent of peace, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008. He was succeeded by Tarja Halonen, the first woman to be elected President of Finland. Since the President is also the Commander-in-Chief of the military forces, her being unmarried at the time she took office caused an unexpected dilemma in the military: should the troops salute her as neiti presidentti ("Miss President") or rouva presidentti ("Mrs President")? It was eventually decided that rouva could be used as a respectful salutation of a woman of her age, even though technically inaccurate. At the end of her second term when the new candidates were being nominated, a young girl reportedly asked her parents, surprised, if it was possible for a man to become President. The current President is Sauli Niinist, who took office in March 2012. He was the favorite from the start of the campaign, and took a clear victory over the Green League candidate Pekka Haavisto, who executed a great campaign and made it to the second round much to the surprise of everyone, including himself. Sauli Niinist is the 12th President of Finland.

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ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #3 - WHAT IS THAT FINNISH THING?

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