http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequentative
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentane
I have been noticing certain patterns while my Finnish vocabulary has been growing....one of these is the occurrence of -ele- and -ahta- in many verbs.... The wikipedia article explains it much better than I... The -ele- marker indicates a single action repeated...and the -ahta- marker indicates a short, sudden action...
For example, sataa..."to rain"...sadella ..."to rain occasionally"...kirjoittaa and kirjoitella
English has this, too, but I, for one, never learned English grammar with reference to such a concept...the wikipedia article says the English frequentative is no longer "productive"...but examples are "daze"/"dazzle"...."drip"/"dribble"...which also displays a form of consonant mutation...a pale reflection of the Finnish consonant gradation regime, I guess...
The Momentane is defined this way..."In Finnish grammar, the momentane is a verb aspect indicating that an occurrence is sudden and short-lived."
An example would be this:
täristä... "to shake (continuously)" → tärähtää... "to shake suddenly once" →tärähdellä... "to shake, such that a single, sudden shaking is repeated"....The first is the basic verb form; the second is the "momentane"; and the third combines both the "momentane" and the" frequentative."
I thought this was interesting... I guess this is the "analytical" way of learning a language, which seems to be the way I like to learn...rather than just relying on memory...As for English, I think most native English-speakers just rely on memory...I know I do, and I suspect, for Finnish, most native Finnish-speakers probably do the same...