difference between similar words

[garoowood]

What is the difference between words end with "ttaa/ttää" and "lla/llä" with similar meaning, for example "esittää and esitellä", "tavoittaa and tavoitella"?

[Satish]

From my understanding -ttAA ending verbs are causative - they express the causation, bringing about or facilitation of the verb stem's action. The -llA verbs are frequentative and have the sense of repetition. This is a rule of thumb and exceptions abound. Maybe your examples started off with the "traditional" meaning and then adopted something else. You could try this resource (in Finnish):

“Miten Sanoja Johdetaan”
Anna-Liisa Lepäsmaa, Anneli Lieko, Leena Silfverberg
Finn Lectura 1996

Also google "Suomen frekventatiivi ja kontinuatiivi, by Kalevi Wiik" for a discussion in Finnish about the difference between frequentative and continuative verbs (both -llA).

[Rob A.]

What is the difference between words end with "ttaa/ttää" and "lla/llä" with similar meaning, for example "esittää and esitellä", "tavoittaa and tavoitella"?

Ahhh...well.... you are in the realm of the Finnish frequentative verb..... the grammatical marker to focus in on, in your examples, is actually the "-el-"...typically indicating a verb having a repeating or ongoing sense to it.... This, of course, is not an absolute sort of thing....words in use tend to develop situational or specialized meanings, but the general pattern exists.

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

In Finnish this grammatical device is quite useful and quite commonly used to change a verb with a "single action" sense to one with a "repeating" sense....

So.... the verb esittää tends to have the sense of simply "to show", and esitellä, "to show" in an ongoing sense. If you see a verb with the "-el-" marker near the end, you can assume it will likely have a repeating or ongoing sense to it.....

And such verbs can be turned into nouns...esitelmä..."a lecture"...

And English, historically, has made use of this device, but these days the various verbs, unlike in Finnish, tend to have a fixed sense to them....and English grammar is not taught this way either. Examples in English are "to daze" and "to dazzle"; "to wade" and "to waddle"...the link has a long list....

And, while you're at it, you should have a look at the "momentane" verbs...verbs which indicate a repeated, short, sudden action.... The marker for these tends to be, "-ahta-".

[E Maya]

What is the difference between words end with "ttaa/ttää" and "lla/llä" with similar meaning, for example "esittää and esitellä", "tavoittaa and tavoitella"?

Some examples of usage, just for fun

esittää
Hän esittää Hamlettia. - He plays Hamlet
Muotokuva esittää äitiäni. - The portrait is of/represents my mother.
Hän esitti kysymyksen. - He posed a question.

esitellä
Saanko esitellä, ystäväni Maria. -May I introduce, my friend Maria.
Haluaisin esitellä joitakin tuotteitamme. - I would like to demonstrate some of our products.
Hän halusi esitellä tyttöystäväänsä. - He wanted to show off his girlfriend.

tavoittaa
Hän yritti tavoittaa naisen, joka juoksi hänen edessään. -She tried to catch up with the woman running in front of her.
Hän yritti tavoittaa ystävänsä puhelimella. - He tried to reach his friend by phone.

tavoitella
Hän tavoitteli voittoa. - She was reaching for victory.
Hän tavoitteli ystäväänsä puhelimella. - He tried to reach his friend by phone.

[sammy]

...there are also similar-looking word pairs like

tappaa / tapella
rakastaa / rakastella

where the meaning changes quite a bit

[orbik]

...there are also similar-looking word pairs like

tappaa / tapella
rakastaa / rakastella

Oh, you mean like...
menettää / menetellä
käsittää / käsitellä
evätä / epäillä
panettaa / panetella