Shortcuts for Finnish -- Tricks for a Conversation Emergency

Learn and discuss the Finnish language with Finn's and foreigners alike
Post Reply
teabag
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2003 7:55 pm

Shortcuts for Finnish -- Tricks for a Conversation Emergency

Post by teabag » Wed Mar 10, 2004 4:53 pm

Hi Guys,

Are there shortcuts that might help when speaking Finnish in case you forget a grammatical rule, verb conjugation or the way a word inflects?

I would like to be more functional and not worry about being so proper. I feel that I get hung up on the details of the grammar and it keeps me from communicating. There must be shortcuts that help you convey meaning still without worrying about the details.

Some Finns tell me that it's okay to just drop the endings(-ssa,-sta, etc), but that can't possibly work.

Are there any tricks you've learned that help in a pinch?


And by the way, I don't mean the typical differences between written/spoken Finnish. We've discussed those already.


Image

Shortcuts for Finnish -- Tricks for a Conversation Emergency

Sponsor:

Finland Forum Ad-O-Matic
 

Guest

Post by Guest » Wed Mar 10, 2004 5:09 pm

I've been slowly trying to speak some Finnish (I guess I'm as scared to speak Finnish as Fins are to speak English), and I've noticed that basically it IS true that you can just leave the endings. In 99% of the cases you can just use the nominative version of the word and they will understand what you mean.

For your own correction and fast learning you could ask them if what you said was right and if not how it should be.
They'd be happy to help you.
(Don't ask them WHY it should be like that, though, they probably couldn't help you with that) :wink:

Niall Shaky
Posts: 832
Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 3:41 pm

Post by Niall Shaky » Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:14 pm

I think dropping the endings helps in most cases. It would be like leaving prepositions and singular/plural out English sentence.

Most time it work OK. It not pretty but it work.

What you think?

(You might also notice that prepositions are one of the most difficult things for Finns to get right in English...)

User avatar
bohica
Posts: 1264
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2003 7:02 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX

Post by bohica » Wed Mar 10, 2004 9:37 pm

I agree with the preposition analogy. But prepositions are pretty important in English. Take for example:

a contract with him
a contract on him

Might be important to know that one. :lol:

I think that it would be easier to just learn them the first time rather than going back and trying to learn them again.

Guest

Post by Guest » Wed Mar 10, 2004 10:49 pm

Yeah, but that's the same in Finnish.
But usually the situation will explain which one of the two it's most likely to be, so I don't think it be such a problem.

And otherwise you can just crawl behind your protective *sorry, I'm a foreigner*-shield :wink:


Post Reply