Learn how to use the past tense to describe an accident
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 8 - Describing an Accident in Finnish. Eric here. |
| Päivi: Hei! I'm Päivi. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the past tense to describe an accident. The conversation takes place in an office. |
| Päivi: It's between Aino and Jukka. |
| Eric: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll use both formal and informal Finnish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Aino: Hei Jukka! Miten viikonloppu meni? |
| Jukka: Huomenta Aino. Oli aika jännittävä viikonloppu! |
| Aino: Kuinka niin? |
| Jukka: Näin, kuinka eräs vanhus kaatui jäisellä tiellä ja loukkasi itsensä. Menin auttamaan häntä. |
| Aino: Hui! Kävikö hänelle pahasti? |
| Jukka: Luita ainakin murtui. Soitin hänelle ambulanssin ja odotin ambulanssia hänen kanssaan. |
| Aino: Viikonloppuna oli niin kylmäkin. Toivottavasti hän toipuu hyvin! |
| Jukka: Kyllä, toivottavasti. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Aino: Hi Jukka! How was your weekend? |
| Jukka: Good morning Aino. It was quite an eventful weekend! |
| Aino: How come? |
| Jukka: I saw an elderly person fall on an icy road and hurt herself. I went to help her. |
| Aino: Oh my! Did she hurt herself badly? |
| Jukka: Her bones were at least fractured. I called her an ambulance and waited for the ambulance with her. |
| Aino: It was also so cold during the weekend. I hope she recovers well! |
| Jukka: Yes, I hope so. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Päivi, we’ve already talked about Finnish students who learn how to give first aid, but what about adults? |
| Päivi: There is a general obligation to help in Finland, and in workplaces this means that at least one person has to be trained in giving first aid, and first aid supplies and instructions for emergencies must always be readily available. |
| Eric: So this obligation to help others is stated in Finnish law? |
| Päivi: It is! For example, in road traffic this means that if someone is injured and in need of immediate transportation to a hospital, any vehicle driver is obligated to transport them. Anyone who comes across any kind of emergency has an obligation to report it to emergency services, and to start rescue work according to their own abilities. Working-age people can also be ordered by the emergency authorities to help with large-scale emergencies. |
| Eric: I see, so that would be for things like helping find a missing person or preventing large scale environmental damage? |
| Päivi: Exactly. |
| Eric: Is there a useful word related to this that we should know? |
| Päivi: ensiaputaidot, |
| Eric: which means "first-aid skills." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Päivi: jännittävä [natural native speed] |
| Eric: exciting |
| Päivi: jännittävä[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: jännittävä [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: kaatua [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to fall |
| Päivi: kaatua[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: kaatua [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: jäinen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: icy |
| Päivi: jäinen[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: jäinen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: loukata [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to hurt |
| Päivi: loukata[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: loukata [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: murtua [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to fracture |
| Päivi: murtua[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: murtua [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Päivi: toipua [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to recover |
| Päivi: toipua[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: toipua [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last... |
| Päivi: toivottavasti [natural native speed] |
| Eric: hopefully |
| Päivi: toivottavasti[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Päivi: toivottavasti [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: jännittävä |
| Eric: meaning "exciting." |
| Päivi: This adjective is related to the verb jännittää meaning "to be nervous" or "to be tense," and to another adjective, jännä, |
| Eric: which also means "exciting." You can use these adjectives to express when something is exciting, thrilling, or intriguing. |
| Päivi: If you want to express that something makes you nervous or scared instead, it’s better to use the adjectives hermostuttava, "unnerving," or pelottava, "scary." |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using the first adjective? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Haluan aloittaa jonkin jännittävän harrastuksen. |
| Eric: ..which means "I want to start an exciting hobby." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Päivi: käydä pahasti |
| Eric: meaning "to go badly." |
| Päivi: Literally the verb käydä means "to go," and the adverb pahasti means "badly." |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this expression? |
| Päivi: Sure. For example, you can say.. Toivottavasti mäkihyppääjälle ei käynyt pahasti. |
| Eric: .. which means "I hope the ski-jumper wasn't hurt badly." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the past tense to describe an accident. The core meaning of the past tense is "remoteness" or "distance." |
| Päivi: It could be remoteness of time, which is the most common way of using it, remoteness of reality, or social remoteness. |
| Eric: The past tense, imperfect, is the most common tense in the Finnish language. When explaining an event, you will most commonly use the past tense. |
| Päivi: Quite often you will need to add a “definition of time,” in Finnish ajanmääre, to your sentence. For example, Kaaduin eilen. |
| Eric: meaning “I fell yesterday.” |
| Päivi: Hän loukkasi kätensä aamulla. |
| Eric: “She hurt her hand in the morning.” What would be some common expressions of time? |
| Päivi: Aside from eilen and tänään, |
| Eric: which mean “yesterday” and “today,” |
| Päivi: we can also use juuri tällä hetkellä or juuri nyt, |
| Eric: which both mean “right now,” |
| Päivi: juuri äsken |
| Eric: “just before, a moment ago,” |
| Päivi: or we can use tänä followed by a specified time, for example, tänä aamuna... |
| Eric: meaning “this morning.” Let’s quickly review the rules for the formation of the past. The conjugation changes according to the verb type. |
| Päivi: Right, the past for verb types 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 is made by the stem followed by i and the personal suffix. For example, minä soitin means “I called.” |
| Eric: Then we have verb type 4. |
| Päivi: In this case, the past is formed by the first singular form of the present minus the two last letters, followed by si and the personal suffix. |
| Eric: Let’s make an example. |
| Päivi: Let’s consider loukata which means "to hurt" or “to injure.” The the first singular is minä loukkaan, we drop -an from loukkaan and add -si- and add the personal suffix. For example, “I injured” is minä loukkasin. |
| Eric: Ok. Let’s also remember that there are often exceptions with type 1 verbs. |
| Päivi: For example, pyytää, "to ask," in the past first person becomes minä pyysin. |
| Eric: Listeners, please check the Lesson Notes for complete conjugations and all the rules. Now let’s go deeper into usage of the past. |
| Päivi: In Finnish, you can express the past by using either imperfekti, perfekti, or pluskvamperfekti. |
| Eric: Meaning the “imperfect,” the “present perfect,” and the “pluperfect,” respectively. |
| Päivi: The present perfect and the pluperfect are the so-called liittotempus, literally “double tenses” |
| Eric: This refers to the "compound tenses," where you need the verb “to be” as an auxiliary verb in addition to the main verb. We have already seen the present perfect, so let’s talk about how it’s different from the the imperfect. |
| Päivi: The basic difference between the imperfect and the present perfect is that in the imperfect, the moment you are referring to has already happened in the past, while in the present perfect the moment is in the past, but can also still happen. |
| Eric: Let’s see an example. |
| Päivi: Here is a sentence with the imperfect. Kävitkö sairaalassa? |
| Eric: “Did you go to the hospital?” |
| Päivi: Here is a sentence with the present perfect. Oletko käynyt sairaalassa? |
| Eric: “Have you been to the hospital?” Finally we have the pluperfect, which differs from the perfect because the auxiliary verb “to be” is conjugated in the past tense and not in the present. |
| Päivi: The pluperfect is expressing an action that has happened in the past. So here is the same example as before, but with the pluperfect. Olitko käynyt sairaalassa? |
| Eric: “Had you been to the hospital?” |
| Päivi: Sometimes the pluperfect is also used for expressing a rumor or belief, or information heard or received from someone else, for example Isoisä oli nähnyt onnettomuuden. |
| Eric: Literally, “Grandpa had seen an accident,” but it actually implies that it is a reported fact. Ok, let’s wrap up this lesson with some sample sentences. |
| Päivi: Hän tippui tikapuilta ja mursi jalkansa. |
| Eric: "He fell from the ladder and fractured his foot." |
| Päivi: Tipuin jäihin, mutta ystäväni pelasti minut. |
| Eric: "I fell through the ice, but my friend rescued me." |
| Päivi: Vene kaatui ja jouduimme veden varaan. |
| Eric: "The boat tipped over and we fell into the water." |
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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