Learn how to ask "What?"
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| Hei, minun nimeni on Paula. Hi everybody! I’m Paula. |
| Welcome to FinnishPod101.com’s “Suomea kolmessa minuutissa”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Finnish. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to use the verb tulla. |
| Now we will start our lessons dedicated to question words in Finnish. The first one we will be taking a look at is probably the most common question, "What" In Finnish there are two equivalents for this word. Mitä and mikä. |
| The first thing to remember about question words is that they always begin the sentence. |
| So how would you ask your friend what he is doing? Do you still remember the verb “to do” from the earlier lesson? |
| The question would be Mitä sinä teet? |
| [slowly] Mitä sinä teet? |
| Let’s break it down. |
| Mitä is "What" in Finnish. |
| Sinä, as I’m sure you already remember, means “you”. |
| And as we learned from lesson 18, teet is the conjugated form of the verb tehdä, “to do”. |
| So, all together it is Mitä sinä teet? |
| “What are you doing?” |
| Now you can make other questions like that, using the word Mitä. |
| Like if you want to ask, “what are you watching?” In Finnish that would be |
| Mitä sinä katsot? |
| Mitä is also used in this very common question: “What time is it?” |
| In Finnish you would ask Mitä kello on? |
| If you translate it literally, it would be “what is the clock?” |
| But then how do you use the other word for “what”, mikä? |
| Let’s see a few examples. |
| So your friend is watching the TV, and you want to know what he is watching. Earlier we had the example sentence |
| Mitä sinä katsot? |
| That would translate simply as “What are you watching?”. |
| But if you want to ask more specifically, “What programme is that?”, you would use mikä. |
| Mikä ohjelma tuo on? |
| Also when you see a specific object you are not familiar with, and you want to ask “What is this?” you would say |
| Mikä tämä on? instead of Mitä tämä on? |
| Mikä is also used in one of the key questions when meeting a new person. |
| Mikä sinun nimesi on? |
| “What is your name?” |
| Do you still remember how to answer this question? We learned all about it in lesson 1! |
| Now it’s time for Paula’s Points. |
| Do you already know how to ask someone how they are doing in Finnish? You will have to use the question word we just learned. |
| Mitä kuuluu? |
| This literally means “What can be heard?, although it's used to ask how you are feeling - like "What's going on?" in English! So instead of getting confused and starting to describe what you hear, just answer Hyvää, kiitos! “Good, thank you!” |
| Now you know how to ask questions with the word for “what”. Don’t worry if you get mixed up when to use mikä or mitä, you will be understood for sure, and eventually you will have no problems with it. |
| In the next lesson, we will talk about how to make "Where" questions. |
| Do you know it already? I can promise it’s just as easy as "what"! |
| I’ll be waiting for you in the next Suomea kolmessa minuutissa lesson. |
| Nähdään pian! |
Comments
HideHi listeners! So, what's your favorite food?
Hienoa! Kiitos kommentistasi, Sveta! ?
Parhain terveisin, Best Wishes,
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
Minun lempiruoka on makarooni.
Moi Päivi!
Haha, okay, good. :smile: That's one less thing to worry about. :laughing:
Yes Corinna, you can say both 'kiitos, hyvää' or 'hyvää,kiitos'. :smile: :thumbsup:
Best Wishes,
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
Moi, Päivi!
Haha. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
But most of the time switching "Kiitos" and "hyvää" for that question is okay?
Haha, aivan Corinna!
You can switch the order of words in Finnish, but the sentence will still be correct.
The tone of the sentence may change a little when you change the order, but this just means you can also play around with the words. :smile:
"Mielestäni" is 'in my opinion'.
Or you can say '"minusta"; "minusta tämä on parempi, 'I think this is better'.
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
In one of the other lessons the answer to "Mitä kuuluu" was "Kiitos hyvää", but is seems like switching the words ( "Hyvää, kiitos". ) works too. Hyvää tietää, koska "Hyvää, kiitos" kuulostaa parempi minulle :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: (How would you say something like "To my English brain" or "to my mind"?)
Hei Hung Nguyen!
Hienoa! Kiitos vastauksesta! :smile:
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
Minä pidän kanasta
Hei Alexander!
Paula is lovely isn't she! :smile:
If you want to say you like her, you should use the 'elative' case, which has the -sta or -stä ending.
"Me pidämme Paulasta". Minäkin pidän Paulasta! ("I like Paula too!"
You can use this same ending when you want to express you like something.
"Minä pidän koirista." - "I like dogs."
Pidätkö sinä koirista?
Päivi
Team FinnishPod101.com
Hei Marvin!
Thank you for your question :smile:
"What are you looking for?" can be translated in Finnish as "mitä etsit?, or if you want to be polite, you can use the second plural and say: "mitä etsitte?"
If you are working in a customer service situation though, like for example in a shop, it might be better to use other expressions to basically inquire the same thing, as 'mitä etsit?' can seem a bit intrusive:
"Etsittekö jotakin?" - "Are you looking for something?"
"Mitä saisi olla?" - "What can I get for you?"
I hope this helps! :wink:
Päivi
TeamFinnishPod101.com
Me pidämme Paulaa
Hi Jerry,
Hello Marvin,
Thank you for posting!
Let us know if you have questions.
Cheers!
Laura
Team FinnishPod101.com
Minä pidän kalasta.
Anteeksi, kuinka tämä sanotaan "What are you looking for?" suomeksi?
mitä sinä teet? what are you doing?
mitä sinä katsot? what are you watching ?
mitä kello on? what time is it ?
mikä ohjelma tuo on? what program is that?
mikä tämä on? what is that?
mikä sinun nemesi on? what is your name?
mitä kuuluu? how are you? or what is going on? hyvää, kiitos.