Ahoy-hoy!

Kenni · Post by **Kenni** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 8:40 am

Hei.

Alright.... that's kinda all that I can really say in an introduction.... oh, wait, is: "Minä olen Kenni." correct?

I'm new, and obviously a beginner in Finnish. I live in Pennsylvania (usa). I've always been very interested in learning languages (starting in kindergarten with some spanish). I'm currently studying German in school, and decided to use this summer to learn some basics in a few other languages. I became interested in Finnish because of a <finnish> guy I talk to online. There's no real need for me to speak it I suppose, considering that he's constantly correcting my spelling and grammar in English.

But I'd like to learn Finnish. So I'm trying to learn the basics from some websites, and I stumbled across this message board. I hope that I'm successful at least so far that I can say basic sentences in Finnish. I'd like to become fluent, but that will be years off if ever.

...And I guess that's about it.

(and sorry if i put this in the wrong board)

**Sponsor:**

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:49 pm

Hi Crap !

Check out The Germanic Forum ( started and hosted by an American guy who studies German ) at :

http://forums.delphiforums.com/germanistisch/start

Check out also The Finnish Language Forum at :

http://forums.delphiforums.com/suomikieli

Finnish can be a very frustrating language to learn. Do not try to learn too much too soon, otherwise you will choke on it. It is much more important to learn German than Finnish ! We Finns do not expect foreigners to speak Finnish.

Kenni · Post by **Kenni** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 8:46 pm

Hey Kalmisto

Thanks for the welcome and the links.

Well, I think I'm going to go for complete fluency in German. As in finishing the classes in high school, and then continuing on into college; maybe getting a tutor if I need it. Although, I don't know what I'll do with my knowlege of German

.

I think I'll be frustrated sometime soon. I've already been frustrated with German. And I've also been frustrated with trying to learn some random Ukrainian (which I don't think will be happening ever). But I'm going to keep working on learning Finnish until I get bored or something. Afterall, I have about two months with nothing to do, so, why not start learning something that intrests me...

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:31 pm

Here is a short Finnish lesson for you :

Finland = Suomi

Finnish = suomi

England = Englanti

English = englanti

Germany = Saksa

German = saksa

Saksa on kaunis maa = Germany is a beautiful country.

Saksa on vaikea kieli = German is a difficult language

"kieli" has two meanings, "language" and "tongue".

How many years have you studied German at school ?

Kenni · Post by **Kenni** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:17 pm

I like the lesson

Hmm.... I've been studying German for about 3 1/2 years I think.... although, I don't think I know nearly what I should.... because I only have classes for about a third of the year, and the other two-thirds of the year, I forget a lot of stuff

, mostly cos I don't use it.... so that's why I hope to use this summer to introduce myself to Finnish, and to improve my German skills....

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 1:34 pm

Finnish lesson number 2 :

Vaimoni on hyvin kaunis nainen ja minä olen hyvin ruma mies =

My wife is a very beautiful woman and I am a very ugly man.

vaimo = wife

"-ni" is a possessive suffix meaning "my", thus "vaimo" + "ni" = my wife

minä olen = I am

Here is an excellent newspaper and magazine site for you :

http://www.esperanto.se/kiosk/enplena.html ( lots of German newspapers )

Do you find the pronunciation of German difficult ? I assume that your teacher was not a native speaker of German. Am I right ?

Kenni · Post by **Kenni** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 6:19 pm

I do believe that some of the Finnish sentences I've encountered are easier to 'break down' and understand than I'd expected.

From what I know so far, I'm alright with memorizing words... and I'll get the pronounciation eventually, but I think that the suffixes and grammar will give me the most trouble. Cos I'm a grammar-idiot. I've read over some of the charts of the Finnish cases, and I don't really remember much of that. (but i'm really really glad that i don't have to memorize any articles and genders that change because of cases...)

At first the German pronounciation was somewhat hard. I think it was mostly because I wasn't used to making some of the sounds. But now I'm much better at it, and still improving. And thanks for the newspaper site. Can use that as an aid this summer too

.

My German teacher was born in America to two German immigrants. She was raised bi-lingually, and she says that her German has a slight American accent from having been born here and lived here her entire life.

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:50 pm

You are right, some Finnish sentences are very easy to "break down" but some are almost impossible.

Here is a Finnish morphological analyzer for you :

http://www.xrce.xerox.com/competencies/ ... sh.en.html

The Analyzer is multilingual. I tried some of the other languages but something was wrong. You should be able to use this analyzer to analyze German alo. You just change the language. Hope that you have more luck than I.

Here is a multilingual speech synthesizer : ( German is one of the languages here )

http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.html

Finnish lesson number 3 :

Minulla on kaunis vaimo = I have a beautiful wife

Sinulla on suuri suu = You have a big mouth

The word "to have" does not exist in Finnish.

I = minä

you = sinä

I /you have = minulla/sinulla on

Minulla on kiire = I am in a hurry.

"kiire" means "shortage of time", I would say.

Kenni · Post by **Kenni** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:01 am

Yeah, some are near impossible.... although I still am a beginner, so the 'impossible' to me may just be because I still haven't learned the word or the verb or the case and whatnot....

Ah, yes, I read that Finnish doesn't have the verb 'to have' and I was wondering how they'd say the equivalent.... so how can you say: "it has"/"they have"/"we have"?

Wow, more cool links

My goal is to be able to be able to form some few simple sentences by the end of the summer... (wow, i'm the anti-goal person, yet when there's something i actually want to learn, i make one of my own free will

)

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:19 am

lla/llä + on

So Finns possess hunger or possess thirst... kinda

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 2:32 pm

>> Ah, yes, I read that Finnish doesn't have the verb 'to have' and I was wondering how they'd say the equivalent.... so how can you say: "it has"/"they have"/"we have"? <<

Hank is right, of course : lla/llä + on

minulla on = I have ( minä = I )

sinulla on = you have ( sinä = you )

hänellä on = he/she has ( hän = he/she )

meillä on = we have ( me = we )

teillä on = you have ( te = you )

heillä on = they have ( he = they )

sillä on = it has ( se = it, in spoken Finnish "se" can also mean "he" or "she", thus "sillä on" can also mean "he/she has" in spoken Finnish.

hunger and thirst ( nälkä ja jano ) :

minulla on nälkä = I am hungry

minulla on jano = I am thirsty

We also say "Minulla on kylmä" ( kylmä = cold ) meaning "I am cold".

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 2:45 pm

Minulla on hauskaa. = I am having fun.

but

Minulla on pää kipeänä. ~ I am in the possession of a head which is being sore. = I have a headache.

- both that come useful in describing the phases of learning Finnish

Kenni · Post by **Kenni** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 7:31 am

Ah, I see.... thanks for the explanations.... and I also kinda get the "minulla on nälkä = I am hungry" thing because in German class we say, "Ich habe Hunger." when we want to be dismissed for lunch.... I'll just have to keep that in mind....

Is there any way to tell when you use "-lla" as opposed to "-llä"? Or is it purely a memorizational thing?

Minulla on hauskaa. = I am having fun.
but
Minulla on pää kipeänä. ~ I am in the possession of a head which is being sore. = I have a headache.
- both that come useful in describing the phases of learning Finnish

Oh I forsee some grand triumphs and migraines in the coming months/years....

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:15 am

The inner and outer vowels are always in harmony.

jää, jäässä, jäällä

puu, puussa puulla

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 6:20 pm

>Is there any way to tell when you use "-lla" as opposed to "-llä"? <<

Yes, you can find iformation on Finnish vowel harmony here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_harmony

Lesson number 5 :

Ehkä minä voin auttaa sinua = Maybe I can help you.

Ehkä sinä voit auttaa minua = Maybe you can help me

Ehkä hän voi auttaa minua = Maybe he/she can help me.

Ehkä me voimme auttaa teitä = Maybe we can help you.

Ehkä te voitte auttaa meitä/heitä = Maybe you can help us/them.

Ehkä he voivat auttaa meitä/teitä = maybe they can help us/them.

Hauskaa viikonloppua ! Have a nice weekend !

hauska : http://www.tracetech.net:8081/?word=hauska

viikonloppu = weekend

viikko = week, viikon = "week´s"

loppu = end

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