Learn how to use the ma-infinitive
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 21 - Which Finnish Book Would You Like to Read? Eric here. |
| Päivi: Hei! I'm Päivi. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the Ma-infinitive. The conversation takes place at a bookshop, where Vilja is working. |
| Päivi: It's between Vilja and a customer. |
| Eric: The speakers are strangers and they’ll use both formal and informal Finnish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Vilja: Hei! Tervetuloa kauppaamme. Voinko olla avuksi? |
| Mies: Kiitos! Haluaisin itse asiassa katsoa suomenkielisiä romaaneja.. |
| Vilja: Etsitkö jotakin tiettyä? |
| Mies: No, tulen juuri opiskelemasta, ja olemme lukemassa Sofi Oksasen kirjoja. Haluaisin tutustua muihinkin nykykirjailijoihin. |
| Vilja: Sehän on mukavaa. Opiskeletko kirjallisuutta? |
| Mies: Kyllä, tai suomalaista kulttuuria yleensä. Pidän kirjallisuudesta ja elokuvista eniten. |
| Vilja: Opiskelen itsekin kirjallisuutta! Tule, mennään katsomaan mitä meiltä löytyy. |
| Mies: Hienoa, kiitos! |
| Vilja: Olemme myös juuri laittamassa osaa kirjoista alennukseen, voimme katsoa jos löydämme sieltä jotakin. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Vilja: Hello! Welcome to our shop. Can I be of assistance? |
| Man: Thank you! I would actually like to see some Finnish novels. |
| Vilja: Are you looking for something in particular? |
| Man: Well, I’m just coming from studying, and we’re reading books by Sofi Oksanen. I would like to get to know other contemporary writers as well. |
| Vilja: Well that's nice. Are you studying literature? |
| Man: Yes, and Finnish culture in general. I like literature and the cinema the most. |
| Vilja: I am studying literature myself as well! Come, let's go see what we have. |
| Man: Great, thanks! |
| Vilja: We are also just putting some of the books on sale, we can check if we can find something from there. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Päivi, please tell us something about Finnish cinema. I know it’s not that famous, but it’s vivid and interesting anyway. |
| Päivi: I agree! Let’s start by saying that the 1940s and 1950s are considered to be the golden era of Finnish cinema, and one of the most well-known movie production companies is the Suomi-Filmi. |
| Eric: Can you give us some titles? |
| Päivi: If you want to give these old movies a try, please look for Siltalan Pehtoori, “The Inspector of Siltala,” or Suomisen perhe, “The family Suominen,” a film series which was, and still is, very popular. |
| Eric: In the dialogue they were talking about a specific author. |
| Päivi: Right, Sofi Oksanen, a novelist, who wrote the book which is the basis for the dramatic film Puhdistus or “Purge.” |
| Eric: Who are the most popular Finnish directors nowadays? |
| Päivi: Renny Harlin, who made his career in the USA with movies like “Die Hard 2” and “Cliffhanger,” or the brothers Aki and Mika Kaurismäki. |
| Eric: Right, I’ve heard of Aki Kaurismäki. |
| Päivi: He won the Grand Prix at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. The most well known of his films is perhaps Mies vailla menneisyyttä, “The Man Without a Past.” |
| Eric: Listeners, you can find more names and titles in the lesson notes, so check them out. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Päivi: suomenkielinen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Finnish |
| Päivi: suomenkielinen[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: suomenkielinen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: romaani [natural native speed] |
| Eric: novel |
| Päivi: romaani[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: romaani [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: tietty [natural native speed] |
| Eric: particular, certain |
| Päivi: tietty[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: tietty [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: lukea [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to read |
| Päivi: lukea[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: lukea [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: tutustua [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to meet, to get to know |
| Päivi: tutustua[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: tutustua [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: nykykirjailija [natural native speed] |
| Eric: contemporary writer |
| Päivi: nykykirjailija[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: nykykirjailija [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: kulttuuri [natural native speed] |
| Eric: culture |
| Päivi: kulttuuri[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kulttuuri [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: kirjallisuus [natural native speed] |
| Eric: literature |
| Päivi: kirjallisuus[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kirjallisuus [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: elokuva [natural native speed] |
| Eric: movie |
| Päivi: elokuva[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: elokuva [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Päivi: laittaa [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to put, to prepare food |
| Päivi: laittaa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: laittaa [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: suomenkielinen |
| Eric: meaning "Finnish." |
| Päivi: This word comes from the phrase suomen kieli, "Finnish language," which is in the genitive form, and describes someone who has the ability to speak Finnish. |
| Eric: You can use this word when describing something that is in the Finnish language, or when someone's mother tongue is Finnish. |
| Päivi: This word doesn’t refer to the nationality. Therefore, if you want to say something or someone is Finnish, you should use the word suomalainen, “Finnish.” |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using the first word? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Tämä elokuva on suomenkielinen, mutta siinä on tekstitys englanniksi. |
| Eric: ..which means "This movie is Finnish, but it has subtitles in English." |
| Päivi: You can replace the part suomen, "Finland's," with the name of another language to form other versions. For example, englanninkielinen - "English." |
| Eric: Literally it means "in the language of England." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Päivi: tietty |
| Eric: meaning "certain." |
| Päivi: It was originally a shortened version of the word tiedetty meaning “known.” Nowadays it’s also used to refer to a matter that is certain, but nobody knows exactly what it is. It is sometimes used in a similar way to the English “a.” |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Juhlien vuoksi täytyy tehdä tiettyjä järjestelyjä. |
| Eric: .. which means “Because of the party, certain arrangements must be made.” |
| Päivi: Sometimes it is better to use words like eräs meaning “certain,” or “one,” jokin meaning “some” or joku meaning “someone” instead of tietty. |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Päivi: nykykirjailija |
| Eric: meaning "contemporary writer." |
| Päivi: This word is made up of two parts; the prefix nyky- which means "contemporary-" and the noun kirjailija which means "writer." |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Kuka on suosikkisi nykykirjailijoista? |
| Eric: .. which means "Who is your favorite among contemporary writers?" |
| Päivi: If you want to say "contemporary artist" you should say nykytaiteilija instead. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the third infinitive. |
| Päivi:The third infinitive, or the so called ma-infinitiivi, “ma-infinitive,” is similar to the English “-ing” form. It behaves as a noun, as it can be conjugated, although only in certain cases. |
| Eric: When is it used? |
| Päivi: In several cases, which we’ll look at in a few minutes, but you often hear certain exclamations in the ma-infinitive, especially in families with children. Things like Syömään! - “Come to eat!” or Nyt nukkumaan! - “Now to sleep!” |
| Eric: Let’s see how we form it. |
| Päivi: The third infinitive is formed by taking the strong verb stem, which as you should remember, is the third plural stem, and adding the ending -ma or -mä, and then the locative case. |
| Eric: Listeners, please remember that the locative cases can be either illative, inessive, elative, abessive or adessive case. |
| Päivi: Right. For the third infinitive you basically conjugate the verb in the “they” form, change the -vat or -vät to -ma or -mä, and then add the locative case . |
| Eric: Let’s give an example with the verb “to buy.” |
| Päivi: “To buy” in Finnish is ostaa, and the third person plural is ostavat, so remove -vat and add -ma to osta. Then we add the locative case, let’s say the illative, and we get ostamaan |
| Eric: That’s clear. Now can we see how to use this form? |
| Päivi: The ma-infinitive is used on different occasions, but usually when the main verb is related to the questions “where to?,” “where?” and “where from?”, the second verb is in the third infinitive. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example? |
| Päivi: Hei, olin soittamassa sinulle, mutta ehdit ensin. |
| Eric: “I was about to call you, but you beat me to it.” |
| Päivi: Missä sinä olit? - Olin diskossa tanssimassa. |
| Eric: “Where were you?" - "I was at the disco dancing." |
| Päivi: Let’s see now the ma-infinitiivi in each of the locative cases. |
| Eric: First let’s see the inessive case, which could be literally translated as “in the middle of doing something.” |
| Päivi: Right, the inessive can be recognized from the -massa or mässä ending. For example, Olin koko päivän kirjastossa opiskelemassa. |
| Eric: “I was studying at the library for the whole day.” |
| Päivi: Olin juuri kirjoittamassa sinulle sähköpostia. |
| Eric: “I was just writing an e-mail to you.” Next let’s see the elative case, which could be literally translated as “from doing something.” |
| Päivi: The ma-infinitive in the elative case can be recognized from the -masta/mästä ending. For example, Milloin tulet pelaamasta? |
| Eric: Which literally means, “When do you come from playing?” |
| Päivi: Tulen juuri lukemasta. |
| Eric: “I am just coming from reading.” Even though the translation doesn’t sound natural in English, this makes the Finnish grammar clear. Next let’s see the illative case, which could be literally translated as “to go do something” or “to be good or bad at something” |
| Päivi: The ma-infinitive in the illative case can be recognized from the -maan/mään ending. For example, Mennäänkö katsomaan sirkusta? |
| Eric: “Shall we go and see the circus?” |
| Päivi: Kuka on hyvä leipomaan kakkuja? |
| Eric: “Who is good at baking cakes?” Next let’s see the abessive case, which could be literally translated as “without doing something.” |
| Päivi: The ma-infinitive in the abessive case can be recognized from the -matta/mättä ending. For example, Anteeksi, että otin tämän lupaa kysymättä. |
| Eric: “I’m sorry I took this without asking permission.” Finally we’ll see the ma-infinitive in the adessive case, which could be literally translated as “by doing something” |
| Päivi: The ma-infinitive in the inessive case can be recognized from the -malla/mällä ending. For example, Jaksan herätä aamulla menemällä aikaisin nukkumaan. |
| Eric: “I can wake up in the morning by going to bed early.” |
| Päivi: Juoksemalla voimme vielä ehtiä junaan! |
| Eric: “By running we can still catch the train!” |
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! |
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