Learn how to use finite and infinitive verb forms in a sentence
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 11 - Shopping for Apartments in Finland. Eric here. |
| Päivi: Hei! I'm Päivi. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the finite and infinitive forms of verbs in a sentence. The conversation takes place in a home that is for rent. |
| Päivi: It's between Heikki and estate agent . |
| Eric: The speakers are strangers, so they’ll use both formal and informal Finnish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Asunto-esittelijä: Tervetuloa asuntonäyttöön! Sinä olet varmaankin Heikki? |
| Heikki: Kyllä vain, ja kiitos. |
| Asunto-esittelijä: Tämä asuntohan on tällä hetkellä kolmio, mutta jos haluatte purkaa tuon väliseinän ja tehdä tästä kaksion, niin se on ihan ok. |
| Heikki: Ahaa, se on hyvä tietää. Voisimme kyllä hieman remontoida täällä. |
| Asunto-esittelijä: Se sopii. Taloyhtiö on kuitenkin teettämässä putkiremontin kahden vuoden päästä, ottakaa se huomioon. |
| Heikki: Selvä. Milloin tämä talo on rakennettu? |
| Asunto-esittelijä: Vuonna 1932. Putkiremontti on tehty viimeksi vuonna 1977, jolloin rakennettiin myös hissi. |
| Heikki: Voimmeko harrastaa täällä musiikkia? |
| Asunto-esittelijä: No, kohtuudella voi. Oletteko muusikko? |
| Heikki: En toki, mutta vaimoni haluaa laulaa silloin tällöin. Minä säestän häntä pianolla. |
| Asunto-esittelijä: Sehän on hienoa! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Estate Agent: Welcome to the housing display! You must be Heikki? |
| Heikki: Oh yes, and thank you. |
| Estate Agent: So this apartment is currently a three-room apartment, but if you want to tear down that partition wall and make this into a two-room apartment, that is quite all right. |
| Heikki: Okay, that's good to know. We could renovate here a little bit. |
| Estate Agent: That's ok. However, the housing association will have the plumbing re-done in two years, so please take that into consideration. |
| Heikki: Right. When was this house built? |
| Estate Agent: In 1932. The last time the plumbing was re-done was in 1977, when they also built the elevator. |
| Heikki: Can we practice music here? |
| Estate Agent: Well, in moderation you can. Are you a musician? |
| Heikki: Oh no, but my wife wants to sing occasionally. I accompany her on piano. |
| Estate Agent: Oh that's great! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Päivi, could you tell us something about the typical Finnish house? |
| Päivi: In Finland, the most common way to live is in town houses, apartment buildings, or row houses. |
| Eric: Do people usually rent a place or buy it? |
| Päivi: Most Finns see it as an asset to own their own place and more than 50% do. Many also dream of owning their own town house, and quite a few take out a loan and build the house of their dreams. |
| Eric: Is it true that many houses, even apartments, have their own sauna? |
| Päivi: Yes, aside from toilet facilities, washing facilities and basic equipment for cooking, many places also have a sauna, though sometimes it’s a shared one in apartment buildings. |
| Eric: What are the Finnish words for the most common buildings? |
| Päivi: omakotitalo |
| Eric: "town house," |
| Päivi: rivitalo, |
| Eric: "row house," |
| Päivi: asunto |
| Eric: “apartment” |
| Päivi: If it’s a “owner-occupied flat” it’s omistusasunto, and if it’s rented it’s called vuokra-asunto. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Päivi: kolmio [natural native speed] |
| Eric: three-room apartment |
| Päivi: kolmio[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kolmio [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: purkaa [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to tear down, to dismantle |
| Päivi: purkaa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: purkaa [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: väliseinä [natural native speed] |
| Eric: partition wall |
| Päivi: väliseinä[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: väliseinä [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: kaksio [natural native speed] |
| Eric: two-room apartment |
| Päivi: kaksio[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kaksio [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: remontoida [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to renovate, to decorate |
| Päivi: remontoida[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: remontoida [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: taloyhtiö [natural native speed] |
| Eric: housing association |
| Päivi: taloyhtiö[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: taloyhtiö [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: teettää [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to have done |
| Päivi: teettää[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: teettää [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: putkiremontti [natural native speed] |
| Eric: re-do plumbing, plumbing renovation |
| Päivi: putkiremontti[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: putkiremontti [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: hissi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: elevator |
| Päivi: hissi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: hissi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Päivi: säestää [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to accompany |
| Päivi: säestää[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: säestää [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Päivi: kolmio |
| Eric: meaning "three-room apartment." |
| Päivi: You can use this word either when you’re talking about a three-room apartment, or when talking about a triangular geometric shape. |
| Eric: The meaning will be easily understood from the situation or context. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Kolmiossa on tilaa myös lemmikeille. |
| Eric: ..which means "A three-room-apartment also has space for pets." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Päivi: taloyhtiö |
| Eric: meaning "housing association." |
| Päivi: The noun talo means "house," and yhtiö means either "association," "company," or "corporation." |
| Eric: You can use this word when you’re talking about a housing association, which is a company established to own and govern one or more buildings. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Tämä taloyhtiö on tunnetusti hiukan tiukka. |
| Eric: .. which means "This housing association is known to be a little rigorous." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Päivi: putkiremontti |
| Eric: meaning "plumbing renovation." |
| Päivi: The noun putki means "tube," "pipe," or "funnel," and remontti means "renovation" or "decoration." |
| Eric: You can use this word to describe a process in which the plumbing of a house, apartment, or a building is being renewed and restored. |
| Päivi: Every apartment building in Finland has to renew their plumbing, water fittings, water insulation and tiling every 40 to 50 years. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Putkiremontti on vihdoin ohi. |
| Eric: .. which means "The plumbing renovation is finally over." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson you'll learn how to use the finite and infinitive forms of verbs in a sentence. |
| Päivi: When there are two verbs in a sentence, the basic rule is that one verb is conjugated according to the person, and the other verb is in its infinite, basic, form. For example Haluan katsoa elokuvan, |
| Eric: meaning “I want to watch a movie.” |
| Päivi: Here’s another. Voimme kävellä kotiin saakka. |
| Eric: “We can walk until we get home.” There were also some examples in the dialogue, right? |
| Päivi: Yes, like Voisimme kyllä hieman remontoida täällä. |
| Eric: “We could renovate here a little bit.” Ok, now let’s expand on the topic. Let’s talk about the third infinitive or the MA-infinitive. |
| Päivi: Sometimes when there are two verbs in a sentence, the other verb can behave like a noun. One of these verb forms is the third infinitive, which in Finnish is also known as ma-infinitiivi. |
| Eric: This infinitive corresponds with the English -ing form, or the verb noun. It can answer the questions “where?”, “where from?”, and “where to?”. |
| Päivi: Right, in fact the third infinitive can have inessive, elative and illative cases. |
| Eric: How is it formed? |
| Päivi: The third infinitive is formed from the present tense 3rd person plural stem, adding the -ma or -mä suffix, and the correct case ending. |
| Eric: Let’s look at the verb that means “to write.” |
| Päivi: Starting from kirjoitta-vat, which is the 3rd person plural, we just have to add the right suffix to the stem kirjoitta-, kirjoittamassa |
| Eric: meaning “in writing,” |
| Päivi: kirjoittamasta |
| Eric: meaning “from writing,” |
| Päivi: kirjoittamaan |
| Eric: meaning “to writing.” Päivi, please give us three different examples using the different cases. |
| Päivi: For the inessive case, Olin juuri kirjoittamassa. |
| Eric: “I was just writing.” |
| Päivi: For the elative case, Tuletko kirjoittamasta? |
| Eric: “Are you coming from writing?” |
| Päivi: For the illative case, Mennään kirjoittamaan. |
| Eric: “Let’s go write.” Now, let’s see the fourth infinitive, which refers to verbs as nouns. |
| Päivi: The characteristic for this infinitive is the -minen ending. The -minen ending is added to the 3rd plural stem of the verb. |
| Eric: In English an equivalent to this infinitive would be the "-ing" form of a verb. |
| Päivi: The fourth infinitive is conjugated normally in all cases. For example, when the -minen form is first in a sentence which also has the olla verb, meaning “to be,” the possible adjective has to be in partitive. You’ll see this in Lukeminen on mielenkiintoista. |
| Eric: “Reading is interesting.” |
| Päivi: When there is an object related to the verb in front of the -minen form, the object is in the genitive case. For example, Taulun maalaaminen on hauskaa. |
| Eric: Literally “Painting the painting is fun.” |
| Päivi: Right, it can also be said as On hauskaa maalata taulu. |
| Eric: This structure is more similar to the English ”It is fun to paint the painting.” |
| Päivi: Another example for the fourth infinitive is Auton korjaaminen on rankkaa. |
| Eric: “Fixing the car is tough.” Ok, to wrap up this lesson, let’s give a quick list of vocabulary related to housing that might be useful when asking questions about accommodation. What’s the Finnish for “to sublease” or “to sublet”? |
| Päivi: alivuokrata |
| Eric: “home insurance”? |
| Päivi: kotivakuutus |
| Eric: “tenant” and “lessor”? |
| Päivi: vuokralainen and vuokranantaja |
| Eric: Listeners, you will find more information about this in the lesson notes, so don’t forget to check them out! |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Päivi: Hei hei! |
Comments
HideWhich the average size of an apartment in your country? Try to answer in Finnish!
Hello Marco,
Thank you for your question. Yes, it can be said so as you suggest but -han suffix is a clitic and it gives an extra nuance to the meaning of the sentence. It’s how you can make a sentence a little extra meaning and importance to the word than what the word itself in basic mode says. Hope this helps.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hi, great lessons! I'm wondering about the 'han' behind asunto, in this sentence: Tämä asuntohan on tällä hetkellä kolmio. Can it be simply Tämä asunto on ...? What is the purpose of that han?
Hello Ben,
Thank you for your kind comment and thanks also for behalf of Päivi! We are glad to have you here with us! ❤️️
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Anteeksi, I meant to thank Paivi as well. (Haven’t uploaded umlauts yet.)
Thank you Aarni for the helpful answers. After a while the right case just becomes intuitive, perhaps from repetition, but it’s useful to know the general rule.
Hello Shanti,
Thank you for your question! Yes! There is a difference! "Takuu" means (often product) warranty also. "Takaus" means more like Payment guarantees (often loan).
Let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Aarni
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hi,
'Takuu' and 'takaus' are both translated as 'guarantee', is there any difference in the meaning?
Hei Elsie!
Kiitos, thank you, for a really good question! :thumbsup:
It can be confusing right! 'Mitä', 'mikä' and 'mitkä' are all often translated as "what" but as you stated, you use them in different situations. Here is a short explanation:
Mikä: This refers to something that is defined and concrete, and something you can count. You can use it when you are asking 'what' something is, and most often it is used together with the verb 'olla', "to be".
For example:
'Mikä tämä on?' = "What is this?" - 'Se on sanakirja.' = "It is a dictionary."
'Mikä tuo on?' " "What is that?" - 'Se on laukku.' = "It is a bag".
Mitkä: This is the plural of 'mikä', and can be translated as "which" or "which ones".
'Mitkä maat kuuluvat Euroopan Unioniin?' - "Which countries belong to the European Union?"
'Mitkä näistä kekseistä sinä syöt?' - "Which ones of these cookies are you going to eat?"
Mitä: This actually the partitive form of "mikä". With 'mitä' you are referring to something abstract and undefined.
If 'mitä' appears with the verb 'olla', "to be", it is quite often to actually ask what something is made out of, i.e. the material of something.
'Mitä kello on?' - "What time is it?" // 'Se on kuusi' - "It's six o´clock."
'Mitä kuuluu?' - "How are you?" // 'Hyvää, kiitos.' - "I'm fine, thank you."
'Mitä tämä on?' - "What is this (made out of)?" // 'Se on pellavaa.' - "It is (made out of) linen.)"
'Mitä tuo on?' - "What is that?" // 'Se on lohikeittoa'. - "It is salmon soup."
I hope this clarifies the issue a little bit!
Terveisin,
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei Päivi-
I'm not sure what the difference in mitä, mikä, and mitkä is.
They all mean "what"- but when would you know when to use each?
Could you please use them in sentances and explain why one is used, and not the other?
Kiitos paljon!
Elsie