Learn how to use the imperative verb form
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hi everyone, Gina here! Welcome to FinnishPod101.com! This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 , Lesson 13 - Give Me a Lesson in Finnish! |
| Paula: Hei! Minä olen Paula. I’m Paula. |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn to order people around. Finally, you can get bossy in Finnish! |
| Paula: Or maybe you can just give someone friendly instructions. |
| Gina: Well, that’s up to you, listeners. We provide the tools, you do what you want with them! |
| Paula: This conversation takes place at home. Emmi and Helen are just about to leave the house, and Jussi is hanging around. They will be speaking in standard Finnish. |
| Gina: Okay. Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Emmi: Tule jo! |
| Helen: Odota vähän, puen vain takin. |
| Emmi: Jussi, anna tuo kirja. |
| Jussi: Ole hyvä. |
| Emmi: Kiitos. |
| Jussi: Älä unohda puhelinta. |
| Gina: Let's hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Emmi: Tule jo! |
| Helen: Odota vähän, puen vain takin. |
| Emmi: Jussi, anna tuo kirja. |
| Jussi: Ole hyvä. |
| Emmi: Kiitos. |
| Jussi: Älä unohda puhelinta. |
| Gina: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Emmi: Tule jo! |
| Gina: Come already! |
| Helen: Odota vähän, puen vain takin. |
| Gina: Wait a little, I'll just put on my jacket. |
| Emmi: Jussi, anna tuo kirja. |
| Gina: Jussi, give me that book. |
| Jussi: Ole hyvä. |
| Gina: Here you are. |
| Emmi: Kiitos. |
| Gina: Thank you. |
| Jussi: Älä unohda puhelinta. |
| Gina: Don't forget your phone. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: Emmi and Helen seem to be in a hurry. Where do you think they’re going? |
| Paula: Oh, I don’t know. They could be going to school, or maybe they’re going to see some of Emmi’s friends. |
| Gina: Do Finns usually turn up at the time they’re supposed to? I mean, the requirement for punctuality varies quite a lot in different cultures. |
| Paula: Well, I’d say that yes, Finns do expect people to be quite punctual. Of course, it also depends on the situation - if you’re late for a business meeting it’s worse than being late for a meeting with a friend. |
| Gina: Of course. If you’re late for a business meeting, would that mean you just lost your client? |
| Paula: No, I don’t think so. But it doesn’t make a good impression, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. |
| Gina: Okay. Let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: The first word we shall see is: |
| Paula: Tulla [natural native speed] |
| Gina: To come |
| Paula: Tulla [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Tulla [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next: |
| Paula: Jo [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Already |
| Paula: Jo [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Jo [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next: |
| Paula: Odottaa [natural native speed] |
| Gina: To wait |
| Paula: Odottaa [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Odottaa [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next: |
| Paula: Vähän [natural native speed] |
| Gina: A bit, a little, a few |
| Paula: Vähän [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Vähän [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next: |
| Paula: Pukea [natural native speed] |
| Gina: To put on (clothes), to dress (someone) |
| Paula: Pukea [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Pukea [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next: |
| Paula: Vain [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Only, just |
| Paula: Vain [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Vain [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next: |
| Paula: Takki [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Jacket, coat |
| Paula: Takki [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Takki [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next: |
| Paula: Antaa [natural native speed] |
| Gina: To give |
| Paula: Antaa [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Antaa [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next: |
| Paula: Unohtaa [natural native speed] |
| Gina: To forget |
| Paula: Unohtaa [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Unohtaa [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next: |
| Paula: Puhelin [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Telephone |
| Paula: Puhelin [slowly - broken down by syllable]. Puhelin [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Paula: The first word is ‘vähän’, which means “a little” or “a few” in Finnish. |
| Gina: So it can be used both with things you can count, and with things you can’t count? I mean, in English “a little” is used with things you can’t count and “a few” is used with things you can count. |
| Paula: That’s right. If you use it with something that can’t be counted, the thing will be in singular, for example ‘vähän teetä ‘“a little tea”, but if you use it with something that can be counted, for example ‘vähän lautasia’ “a few plates”, the things will be in plural. |
| Gina: I see. What’s our next word? |
| Paula: The next word is ‘pukea’. |
| Gina: And that means “to put on clothes?” |
| Paula: Yeah, but you have to be a bit careful. You can’t use it as the translation of “to get dressed”. |
| Gina: Hmm, that seems tricky. So what’s the difference? |
| Paula: The difference is that with ‘pukea’, you have to specify either the piece of clothing that is put on or the person who is being dressed. So you can say ‘Helen pukee takin päälle’ - “Helen puts on the jacket” or ‘äiti pukee lapsen’ - “the mother dresses the child”. But if you want to say “Helen gets dressed” meaning that Helen puts on all the clothes she needs, you’d use a different verb. |
| Gina: I see. And what’s our next word? |
| Paula: Our last word is ‘takki’. It covers both “jackets” and “coats” in English, and some other things as well. Basically, ‘takki’ can be about anything that’s worn on top of other clothes on the upper body, has sleeves, and can be opened from the front. |
| Gina: Well, that sure is quite a wide definition. |
| Paula: ‘Takki’ also appears in a number of compound words, such as ‘villatakki’ meaning “cardigan”, ‘aamutakki’ meaning “dressing gown”, and ‘sadetakki’ meaning “rain coat”. |
| Gina: Keep that in mind, listeners! Now it’s time for the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, you're going to learn how to give orders or instructions in Finnish. |
| Paula: In Finnish, the form of an imperative verb, in other words, giving instructions, will be different depending on who is supposed to do the action. Just like verbs take personal endings in basic statements, they also take personal endings in the imperative. |
| Gina: But in this lesson, we’ll only be looking at the form you use to tell the person you’re talking to, to do something. |
| Paula: And I can tell you that if you’ve been listening to our earlier lessons, and reading the lesson notes, that’s really a piece of cake. |
| Gina: Okay, so how do you do it? |
| Paula: Well, in the lesson notes you always have the stem listed for each verb. So far, you’ve been adding the personal endings to these stems to get the verb forms used in basic statements. But for the second person singular imperative, you only need the stem, nothing else. |
| Gina: That’s it? Just the stem? |
| Paula: That’s it. Let’s take, for example, the verb ‘tulla’, “to come”. The stem is ‘tule-’, so that’s also the second person imperative ‘-tule’. The imperative of the negation verb ‘ei’ is irregular, though. ‘Et\ becomes ‘älä’. |
| Gina: Sounds simple enough. So how do you say, “come tomorrow”? |
| Paula: ‘Tule huomenna.’ The statement “You will come tomorrow” would be ‘Sinä tulet huomenna’, but when you use the imperative, you shouldn’t include a subject in the sentence. In statements, subjects are optional, but in the imperative, they should be left out. |
| Gina: OK. How would you say “give me that apple”? |
| Paula: Anna tuo omena. |
| Gina: Hmm... Didn’t we just learn in lesson 12 that we should have a genitive object here? I do want the entire apple, not just a part of it. |
| Paula: That’s a good point. The statement “You will give that apple” would be ‘Sinä annat tuon omenan,’ but in the imperative, any objects that would normally be in the genitive, are in the nominative instead. If you did want only some of the apple, the apple would be in the partitive case, just like we learned in the previous lesson - Anna tuota omenaa means “Give me some of that apple”. |
| Gina: Let’s have one more example. How would you say “Take the mug”? |
| Paula: The statement “You take the mug” would be ‘Sinä otat mukin’, and the imperative is ‘Ota muki’. |
| Gina: Okay. Listeners, it’s quiz time. I’ll give you a command in English, and your job is to translate it into Finnish. Paula will give you the correct answer in a few seconds. |
| Paula: I think I’ll also give you some hints... I’ll give you the corresponding statement in Finnish, so all you need to do is remove the subject and the personal ending from the verb. |
| Gina: Here’s the first one - “wait for me!” |
| Paula: The corresponding statement “You will wait for me” is ‘Sinä odotat minua’ . |
| --- |
| Paula: Odota minua! |
| Gina: Okay, here’s the next one - “don’t forget!” |
| Paula: The corresponding statement, “You will not forget” is ‘Sinä et unohda.’ |
| --- |
| Paula: Älä unohda! |
| Gina: Well done! Paula, why don’t we run quickly through the imperative verbs we had in this lesson? |
| Paula: Sure. We had ‘tule’ “come”, ‘odota’ “wait”, ‘anna’ “give”, ‘ota’ “take”, ‘ole’ “be”, and ‘älä unohda’ which means “don’t forget”. We have many more examples and a lot more information in the lesson notes, so listeners, be sure to check them out. |
Outro |
|---|
| Gina: That’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and see you next time! |
| Paula: Hei hei! |
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