Are these translations correct?

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Busan
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Are these translations correct?

Post by Busan » Mon May 26, 2014 5:00 pm

Hi, I would appreciate if someone could tell me if these are correct.
Google Translate doesn't seem to be too accurate.

I am drinking coffee = Minä olen juon kahvia
Am I drinking coffee? = Juonko minä kahvia?

Sinä syöt = you are eating
Oletko sinä syöt = are you eating?

If it is correct I wonder:
1. is there any time you don't add "n" to what I am doing (juo)?
2. is there any time you don't add "nko" ot a question of what I am doing(juo)?
3. is there any time you don't do the same as question 1 and 2 but replacing n with t?

I read that it's more difficult with hän, me, te, he, and that there's minulla/minulle etc but if I start with minä/sinä, is this how these two are used?

kiitos :)



Are these translations correct?

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Pursuivant
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Re: Are these translations correct?

Post by Pursuivant » Mon May 26, 2014 10:16 pm

No. But yes. Half...

Minä juon kahvia. I drink/am drinking coffee. Famous quote from a prime minister "minä en nyt kommentoi, kun minä juon nyt kahvia"

"Minä olen" is what god says to moses from the burning bush.

Are you eating?
Syötkö sinä?
As in "shall you eat", like an invitation, you show up and an extra plate appears...
Are you esting right now at this momen would be
Oletko (sinä) syömässä?

"Oletko sinä syönyt", would be "have you eaten?"
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."

Busan
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Re: Are these translations correct?

Post by Busan » Tue May 27, 2014 12:21 pm

Pursuivant wrote:No. But yes. Half...

Minä juon kahvia. I drink/am drinking coffee. Famous quote from a prime minister "minä en nyt kommentoi, kun minä juon nyt kahvia"

"Minä olen" is what god says to moses from the burning bush.

Are you eating?
Syötkö sinä?
As in "shall you eat", like an invitation, you show up and an extra plate appears...
Are you esting right now at this momen would be
Oletko (sinä) syömässä?

"Oletko sinä syönyt", would be "have you eaten?"
Thank you, I got a bit more understanding now.
Olet = are, ko makes it a question, syömässa = the mässa makes it "eating"?

If "Haluatko sinä kahvia?" means "Do you some coffee?", can you say kuinkatko something? to ask how something? or does it not work to add the tko then?

007
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Re: Are these translations correct?

Post by 007 » Tue May 27, 2014 3:40 pm

Busan wrote: If "Haluatko sinä kahvia?" means "Do you some coffee?", can you say kuinkatko something? to ask how something? or does it not work to add the tko then?
:D you make finnish language look sexy

kuinka (miten) = how. It works as a question on its own, no need to add 'ko' in the end e.g. kuinka voin auttaa = how can i help? And, 't' = you, so you can use 'tko' only at the end of a verb when you are talking to a second person e.g. Halua+t+ko? whereas you can use 'ko' in any word to make it a question.

Olet = are, ko makes it a question, syömässa = the mässa makes it "eating"?
Yes. syö + mä + ssä = eating. More on that -> http://www.uusikielemme.fi/infinitives.html
“Go where you are celebrated – not tolerated."
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Busan
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Re: Are these translations correct?

Post by Busan » Tue May 27, 2014 4:22 pm

007 wrote:
Busan wrote: If "Haluatko sinä kahvia?" means "Do you some coffee?", can you say kuinkatko something? to ask how something? or does it not work to add the tko then?
:D you make finnish language look sexy

kuinka (miten) = how. It works as a question on its own, no need to add 'ko' in the end e.g. kuinka voin auttaa = how can i help? And, 't' = you, so you can use 'tko' only at the end of a verb when you are talking to a second person e.g. Halua+t+ko? whereas you can use 'ko' in any word to make it a question.

Olet = are, ko makes it a question, syömässa = the mässa makes it "eating"?
Yes. syö + mä + ssä = eating. More on that -> http://www.uusikielemme.fi/infinitives.html
Thank you very much, this is very helpful!

Upphew
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Re: Are these translations correct?

Post by Upphew » Tue May 27, 2014 5:53 pm

Olet = you are, olen = I am, on = s/he is
Oletko = are you, olenko = am I, onko = s/he is
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Rob A.
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Re: Are these translations correct?

Post by Rob A. » Wed Jun 11, 2014 12:03 am

Busan wrote:Hi, I would appreciate if someone could tell me if these are correct.
Google Translate doesn't seem to be too accurate.

I am drinking coffee = Minä olen juon kahvia
......
The English tense you are using is the present continuous.... It is a form that is not typically used in other languages. In other languages, including Finnish, the form would be simply, "I drink....".... Other Germanic languages don't, in a formal way, use the present continuous tense. Though interestingly Celtic languages do.... This is one of the problems of thinking in terms of word for word translations.... You have to gradually learn to try to think in terms of how the other language does things, not assume that it will follow an English language type of pattern. Early on while learning Finnish I read that Finnish does not have the verb "to have"...which is a totally useless way to look at it.... Finnish has a different grammatical construction which gets that idea across.

Current linguistic scholarship is now leaning towards the view that Celtic languages...Welsh and Gaelic...particularly Welsh...have had a much greater influence on English that had previously been thought. Which probably should not come as a surprise, particularly since Welsh...Old Welsh...was the language spoken throughout Britain from the Channel to southern Scotland, between the end of the Roman occupation and the influx of the Anglo-Saxons, a period of some three hundred years... [The name, Edinburgh, a kind of Germanic-Celtic fusion, comes ultimately from an Old Welsh origin...Din Eidyn.] And the 'historical revisionists"... ;) ....are now of the view that most of the modern genetic material in the British Isles is Celtic...or maybe more accurately... Norse-Celtic... not so much Anglo-Saxon as was previously thought.....

[Aside; My current language learning interests have drifted to Welsh...and Gaelic languages, in general....and Welsh, although no way comparable to Finnish, has some features that remind me of Finnish....there is a lot of shape-shifting in Welsh words...really quite baffling at first glance.....a much more complicated system than Finnish consonant gradation ... For example, these are some of the forms of Cymru, the Welsh word for Wales: Cymru/Nghymru/Chymru; and the word for "dog"...ci/gi/nghi/chi...and this is just as start...then there are plural forms..... And that quintessential Welsh symbol...made famous by the Queen... the '"corgi" ....the "gi" part relates to ci the Welsh word for "dog" and the "cor" means...well, what else, "dwarf"....

Also like Finnish every letter is pronounced...except you have to know that sometimes two letters together is actually the orthographic convention for a particular sound.... The Welsh double "l".."ll" is a single, unique sound..."dd" and "ff" also fall into that category....and on it goes....

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Pursuivant
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Re: Are these translations correct?

Post by Pursuivant » Wed Jun 11, 2014 1:07 am

I used to learn Irish and rewrite the pronunciation on top in "real letters" as it was "all so wrong" on so many levels. Those monks should have used Greek letters (either with Finnish or the Celts) :twisted:

I mean seriously, how can you get
tioghfaidh ar la
into
chigi arla
Unless theres a French Spy in your midst (probably a monkey)
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."


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