a few questions about finnish words..=)

[Jukka Aho]

and do avoinna & suljettu use the same rules?

Depends on what kind of “rules” you have in mind. :)

oh yeah i mean like , i can replace auki by avoinna in any sentence?- ovi on avoinna/auki?:D

Yes, ovi on avoinna and ovi on auki are both possible.

and kiinni by suljettu ,right?
ne menevät suljettu?

That doesn’t work. You could possibly say

Ne menevät suljetuiksi

but that’s a bit awkward, and it’s hard to imagine where you would actually use that. As far as I can see, there’s no good way to use mennä and suljettu together.

Then again, in spoken vernacular you can sometimes hear...

Ne menevät sulki.

...but this is jocular, playful usage in which you’re deliberately bending the words and “weirding” the language for laughs, just like with the aamua greeting. It wouldn’t be accepted in formal writing.

[benjamiinn]

ok

[Jukka Aho]

ne menevät suljettu?

Another thought on this:

The words suljettu and kiinni can both mean “closed”. But suljettu is something that has already been closed.

So that’s why...

ne menevät suljettu

...doesn’t make too much sense. “They will go already-closed”?

The word suljettu is the passive past participle of the verb sulkea.

sulkea → suljettu: suljettu ovi (“a closed door”, “a door that has been closed”)
juosta → juostu: juostu matka (“a run distance”, “a distance that has been run”)
ajaa → ajettu: ajettu matka (“a driven distance”, “a distance that has been driven”)
syödä → syöty: syöty ruoka (“eaten food”, “food that has been eaten”)
pestä → pesty: pesty matto (“a washed carpet”, “a carpet that has been washed”)

The word kiinni, on the other hand, is... some sort of an adposition, I guess. It’s related to the verbs kiinnittää and kiinnittyä, but does not come directly from them. It also can’t be inflected in cases the way suljettu can: suljettua ovea, suljettuun oveen, suljetusta ovesta, etc.

[benjamiinn]

ok I see,
it's maybe like in German

Sie werden ZU machen --- ne menevät kiinni
Sie werden geschlossen machen --- ne menevät suljettu

sth like that , but i can understand thanks =)

[Jukka Aho]

5.kysymys, kysymykset
what is the rule for adding that -set ending for plurals?

It comes from the genitive singular stem. (The genitive of kysymys is kysymyksen.) Search this page for the heading “Nominal Declensions” and read the description of the nominative case and the nominative plural. You might also want to read up on consonant gradation (see here as well.)
 

[Jukka Aho]

6.miten means how? , right?
miten menee? how are things going?
can I say too kuinka menee?

Yes, miten menee and kuinka menee are interchangeable.

7.kiitos means thanks , but can it also mean please?
like when im buying something in a shop and say May I have ____, kiitos

Even though Finnish doesn’t really have a direct equivalent for the word “please”, kiitos is sometimes used that way. You could use it that way when you’re making an order (at a hamburger restaurant, perhaps), or requesting something to be handed to you over the counter (in a store or at a ticket booth, for example.)

At a kiosk:
̇— Kaksi punaista Marlboroa ja Iltalehti, kiitos.

At McD’s:
— Kaksi Big Mac -ateriaa ja yksi McFeast-purilainen, mukaan, kiitos.

At a ticket booth:
̇— Yksi aikuinen ja kaksi lasta, kiitos.

It’s optional, though. You could even argue it’s probably foreign influence and not a too “Finnish” way to express yourself. Tacking it to the end of your over-the-counter requests is extra polite, but leaving it out is not considered rude.

[sammy]

7.kiitos means thanks , but can it also mean please?
like when im buying something in a shop and say May I have ____, kiitos

Yes, see Jukka's answer - btw "thank you" (as "please") is used in Swedish in a similar way - see this example

[benjamiinn]

ok =))
kiitos

-tack-tack-

[Jukka Aho]

8.whats the difference between sitä and se?

Se is the nominative, sitä is the partitive. See this page for complete declension of se. (Click on the “show” link in the blue bar.)

9.kansallisteatteri
kansallinen means national , right?

That’s correct.

so why does it change to kansallIS?

Words ending with -nen are often turned into prefixes (in compound words) by replacing the -nen with an -s. (Not always, though – sometimes the -nen and the preceding i are simply dropped off.)

10.Helsingin matkailutoimisto
I would understand matkatoimisto, so what is that ilu in between good for?

matka = trip, journey, traveled distance
matkailu = the whole business/activity of repeatedly making trips or journeys; tourism

ilma = air
ilmailu = aviation

You could construct an -ilu derivate for practically any noun. It usually means some kind of a recurring, habitual activity related to the main word, but some of these derivatives (such as matkailu and ilmailu) have “established” themselves into the language and have fairly specific meanings.

11.pääpostin ohi --- past the main post office
can I say too : pääpostin yli ?

That would conjure up images of someone – perhaps a giant of some sort – leaping over the Main Post Office building.

or viisi ohi yksi ( talking about time) :D

This doesn’t work either. It needs to be yli. Ohi is used in contexts where something passes by something else without ever hitting it.

Luoti ei osunut, ammuin ohi.
Tie kulkee punaisen talon, ison kiven ja korkean puun ohi.
Käänny kolmannesta risteyksestä vasemmalle. Älä aja ohi!

ohittaa = to bypass, to overtake someone (in traffic)
ohitus = bypass, the act of overtaking someone (in traffic)
ohitustie = bypass road
ohitusleikkaus = bypass operation

12.se näkyy tänne
it [is visible] from here.
but tänne means *to here*? :o

A more literal translation: “It visibles (to) here” (if only the word “visible” could be used as a verb)

[benjamiinn]

kiitos teille!
is it possible that the -ilu ending can be compared to the English ending -ing?

matka= a trip
matkailu= triping / traveling?

ilmailu= "air-ing"/aviation

doesnt always make much sense i guess

[Jukka Aho]

kiitos teille!
is it possible that the -ilu ending can be compared to the English ending -ing?

matka= a trip
matkailu= triping / traveling?

ilmailu= "air-ing"/aviation :D

Yes, that’s one way to grasp the concept.

On the other hand, these kind of words – names or labels for certain kind of activity – also imply there’s a corresponding verb for the same. (Or, come to think of it, perhaps the verb came first?)

ilma → ilmailla → ilmailu
matka → matkailla → matkailu
pyörä → pyöräillä → pyöräily
tuska → tuskailla → tuskailu
kynä → kynäillä → kynäily
sana → sanailla → sanailu
hyppy → hypellä → hyppely

These are all frequentative actions.
 

[AldenG]

12.se näkyy tänne
it [is visible] from here.
but tänne means *to here*?

A more literal translation: “It visibles (to) here” (if only the word “visible” could be used as a verb)

But in normal situations you wouldn't say that, right? You would say "Se näkyy tästä," right? It is visible from this [vantage] point.

The idea behind tänne would be that a fire is SO BIG you can even see it from here, this far away.

You might also say, "Se näkyy tänne asti" -- "up to this point," or in this context "[even] from this far away."

Is all of that correct?

[AldenG]

11.pääpostin ohi --- past the main post office
can I say too : pääpostin yli ?
or viisi ohi yksi ( talking about time)

I believe that if you think of "ohi" as "beyond" (in addition to Jukka's excellent examples of related words and translations) and "yli" as "over," you will usually make the right decisions.

"Postin yli liehuu suomen lippu."

Now that logic would seem to suggest you almost would say "kello on viisi ohi kuusi" [X], except that ohi also suggests movement, not merely position or status (as in time).

For time, "past" in English and "yli" in Finnish are both a little bit exceptional compared to their other usages. "Yli" for clock-time in Finnish has probably (scientific wild-assed guess here) been influenced, like so much other usage, by Swedish, where you would say "klockan är fem över sex" -- "kello on viisi yli kuusi". Many simple expressions tend to get grammatically coordinated between Finnish and Swedish when it's not outright awkward to do so.

Here are a couple of other examples to clarify the distinction or possibly confuse it, I'm not sure.

Pahoinvointikohtaus meni ohi -- the episode of nausea passed.
Esitys meni yli -- the presentation went over [its allotted time].

[Jukka Aho]

12.se näkyy tänne

But in normal situations you wouldn't say that, right? You would say "Se näkyy tästä," right? It is visible from this [vantage] point.

The idea behind tänne would be that a fire is SO BIG you can even see it from here, this far away.

You might also say, "Se näkyy tänne asti" -- "up to this point," or in this context "[even] from this far away."

Is all of that correct?

Correct. When you use the expression Se näkyy tänne, it was an unexpected, surprising result... or at least the speaker assumes his audience wouldn’t necessarily have known or expected that.

[benjamiinn]

ok thanks i see =)