Learn how to use the allative case meaning "onto"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hi everyone, I’m Gina! Welcome back to FinnishPod101.com This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 , Lesson 23 - Let’s Make a Finnish Snowman! |
| Paula: Hei! Minä olen Paula. |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn the last of the six locative cases. It corresponds to “onto” in English. |
| Paula: The conversation takes place at home. Helen, our Australian exchange student, is looking out of the window and asking Emmi about something she sees there. Emmi is the daughter of the family where she is staying. They will be speaking in standard Finnish. |
| Gina: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Helen: Mitä tuo on, jota tippuu nurmikolle? |
| Emmi: Se on lunta. |
| Helen: Lunta? Ihan oikeasti? Menen pihalle. |
| Emmi: Ota takki päälle ja pipo päähän. Siellä on kylmä. |
| Helen: Kyllä, äiti. |
| Gina: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Helen: Mitä tuo on, jota tippuu nurmikolle? |
| Emmi: Se on lunta. |
| Helen: Lunta? Ihan oikeasti? Menen pihalle. |
| Emmi: Ota takki päälle ja pipo päähän. Siellä on kylmä. |
| Helen: Kyllä, äiti. |
| Gina: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Helen: Mitä tuo on, jota tippuu nurmikolle? |
| Gina: What’s that falling onto the lawn? |
| Emmi: Se on lunta. |
| Gina: It’s snow. |
| Helen: Lunta? Ihan oikeasti? Menen pihalle. |
| Gina: Snow? Really? I’m going out. |
| Emmi: Ota takki päälle ja pipo päähän. Siellä on kylmä. |
| Gina: Put on your coat and stocking cap. It’s cold out there. |
| Helen: Kyllä, äiti. |
| Gina: Yes, Mom. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: This seems to be the first time Helen has seen snow. |
| Paula: Yeah, she was quite excited. |
| Gina: With the long cold winter, I suppose Finns are quite cold-resistant? |
| Paula: Well, that’s what you’d expect. And that’s what Finns think themselves, too. But actually, it doesn’t seem to be quite so straightforward. Apparently, cold-resistance is an acquired property. |
| Gina: But you do have a cold winter. Isn’t that exposure enough for developing cold resistance? |
| Paula: The thing is, people don’t spend so much time outdoors, and all buildings have good heating in Finland. So you’re actually quite warm and cozy most of the time. |
| Gina: I see. But at least the cold weather doesn’t stop you from doing things. You don’t close schools or workplaces because of the weather. |
| Paula: That’s true. In kindergartens, kids play outdoors even when it’s -15 degrees Celsius. And babies take their naps in prams outside throughout the winter. Well, maybe not on the very coldest days. |
| Gina: Wow! I think you just shocked some people from warmer climates. Let’s have a look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: The first word we shall see is. |
| Paula: Nurmikko [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Lawn. |
| Paula: Nurmikko [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Nurmikko [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next. |
| Paula: Tippua [natural native speed] |
| Gina: To fall, to drip. |
| Paula: Tippua [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Tippua [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next. |
| Paula: Lumi [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Snow. |
| Paula: Lumi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Lumi [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next. |
| Paula: Oikeasti [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Really, truly. |
| Paula: Oikeasti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Oikeasti [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next. |
| Paula: Piha [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Yard. |
| Paula: Piha [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Piha [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next. |
| Paula: Päälle [natural native speed] |
| Gina: On, on top. |
| Paula: Päälle [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Päälle [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next. |
| Paula: Pipo [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Stocking cap. |
| Paula: Pipo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Pipo [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next. |
| Paula: Pää [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Head, end (of a rope etc.). |
| Paula: Pää [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Pää [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next. |
| Paula: Siellä [natural native speed] |
| Gina: There. |
| Paula: Siellä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Siellä [natural native speed] |
| Gina: And last. |
| Paula: Kylmä [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Cold. |
| Paula: Kylmä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Paula: Kylmä [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Paula: The first word is ‘tippua’. It basically means “to drip” or “to fall repetitively”. It’s typically used for liquids, but it can be used for solid things as well, as in ‘Omenat tippuvat puusta’ - “the apples fall from the tree”. |
| Gina: But it does imply a repetitive event? |
| Paula: In principle, yes, but you do sometimes see it used for single events, as well. The next word is ‘piha’ which means “yard”. |
| Gina: And that’s yard in the sense of a plot of land around a house, not a measurement of distance, right? |
| Paula: Right. In the outer locative cases, that is, as ‘pihalla’, ‘pihalta’, ‘pihalle’, it also has the more general meaning of “outdoors” that’s not restricted to a specific plot of land. |
| Gina: Okay. What’s next? |
| Paula: The next word is ‘pää’. It basically means the end of any long object. |
| Gina: Hmm, I’m not sure you can call people long objects. |
| Paula: Okay, it means the end of any long object or the head of a human being or an animal. Note that in the dialogue, the word ‘päälle’ was actually a lexicalized adverb. It doesn’t mean you put the coat literally on top of your head. |
| Gina: Okay. Now let’s move on to the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, we're going to learn the last of the locative cases. Yippee! |
| Paula: Indeed, it’s the last case we’re going to cover in this Absolute Beginner Series. So let’s get down to business. The last case is called the allative, and it means “onto”. The ending is ‘-lle’ - double “l”,”e”. |
| Gina: Oh, it doesn’t even have the two variants with different vowels! This is going to be a piece of cake! |
| Paula: (laughs) I hope so. Here are some words in the allative case - ‘pöytä’ becomes ‘pöydälle’ meaning “onto the table”, ‘tuoli’ becomes ‘tuolille’ meaning “onto the chair”, ‘lautanen’ becomes ‘lautaselle’ meaning “onto the plate”. In the dialogue, we had ‘nurmikko’ which became ‘nurmikolle’ and means “onto the lawn”, ‘piha’ which became ‘pihalle’ and means “out”, and ‘pää’ which became ‘päälle’ and means “on”. Of course, as we already noted, ‘päälle’ was really an adverb in the conversation, but it’s originally the allative form of the word ‘pää’. |
| Gina: Okay. Let’s have some full sentences to see how this case is used in real life. How do you say “Jussi goes out to the yard”? |
| Paula: Jussi menee pihalle. |
| Gina: How about “The boy puts the plate on the table”? |
| Paula: Poika laittaa lautasen pöydälle. |
| Gina: How about, “Emmi puts some food on the plate”? |
| Paula: ‘Emmi laittaa ruokaa lautaselle.’ Do you remember the special use of the ablative case from the previous lesson? |
| Gina: Hmm, the ablative case was the one meaning “from the top of”. Wasn’t it used to mark the giver when someone receives something? |
| Paula: That’s right. “Jussi receives the book from Emmi” would be ‘Jussi saa kirjan Emmiltä.’ So what do you think the allative would be used for? |
| Gina: Hmm, I guess it marks the recipient. |
| Paula: Correct! So “Emmi gives the book to Jussi” would be ‘Emmi antaa kirjan Jussille.’ |
| Gina: Okay. Let’s practice. Listeners, how would you say “Put the book on the couch”? |
| Paula: Here’s a hint. The imperative verb you’ll need is ‘laita’, and “couch” is ‘sohva’. |
| --- |
| Paula: Laita kirja sohvalle. |
| Gina: Here’s another one -“Send Emmi a Christmas card”. |
| Paula: The verb form you’ll need is ‘lähetä’, and “Christmas card” is ‘joulukortti’. |
| --- |
| Paula: ‘Lähetä Emmille joulukortti.’ If you said ‘Lähetä joulukortti Emmille’, that’s fine as well. Don’t worry about the word order, just try to get the word forms right. |
| Gina: Okay. Let’s have one more for good measure. How do you say “Snow is falling onto the lawn”? |
| Paula: Here’s a hint. “Snow is falling” is ‘lunta tippuu’, and “lawn” is ‘nurmikko’. |
| --- |
| Paula: Lunta tippuu nurmikolle. |
| Gina: All right, listeners. That’s it! Now you know all the locative cases. You should be proud of yourselves! |
| Paula: Definitely. The locative cases are used all the time, so you really have an important set of tools in your Finnish toolbox now. And as always, there are more details and examples in the lesson notes, so be sure to check them. |
Outro |
|---|
| Gina: Okay, that’s going to do it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Paula: Hei hei! |
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