Learn how to to use the essive case to express a state
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello, and welcome to FinnishPod101.com! This is Lower Beginner Season 1, lesson 15. Did You Dream Of Living in Finland? I’m Brandon. |
| Nico: Hei, minä olen Nico. Hi, I’m Nico. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to express a state or role. The dialogue takes place at work and during the lunch hours. |
| Nico: The conversation is between Hanna, Mari and Petri. They are colleagues, and they will be speaking standard Finnish in the casual register. |
| Brandon: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Hanna: Katsokaa noita lapsia. Lapsena kaikki on niin helppoa. |
| Mari: Totta. Aikuisena pitää miettiä kaikkea kauhean tarkasti. |
| Petri: Mutta ainakin aikuisena voi itse päättää omista asioistaan. |
| Hanna: Onhan se niinkin. Pienenä ei saanut päättää mistään. |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Hanna: Katsokaa noita lapsia. Lapsena kaikki on niin helppoa. |
| Mari: Totta. Aikuisena pitää miettiä kaikkea kauhean tarkasti. |
| Petri: Mutta ainakin aikuisena voi itse päättää omista asioistaan. |
| Hanna: Onhan se niinkin. Pienenä ei saanut päättää mistään. |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Hanna: Katsokaa noita lapsia. Lapsena kaikki on niin helppoa. |
| : Look at those kids. It’s all so easy when you’re a kid. |
| Mari: Totta. Aikuisena pitää miettiä kaikkea kauhean tarkasti. |
| : That’s true. When you’re an adult, you have to consider everything terribly carefully. |
| Petri: Mutta ainakin aikuisena voi itse päättää omista asioistaan. |
| : But at least as an adult, you can make your own decisions. |
| Hanna: Onhan se niinkin. Pienenä ei saanut päättää mistään. |
| : That’s true as well. When you were small, you weren’t allowed to decide about anything. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: What’s the age of majority in Finland? |
| Nico: 18. That’s when you get most of the rights and responsibilities of a grown-up. Once you get 18, you can vote, get a driver’s license, and get married. |
| Brandon: How about drinking alcohol? |
| Nico: That’s also allowed at the age of 18. You can buy cigarettes, too. |
| Brandon: Okay. What about the responsibilities? I suppose there are no rights without responsibilities. |
| Nico: That’s right. You’re considered fully responsible in front of the law, and your parents no longer have a financial responsibility over you. |
| Brandon: So you may have to start earning your own keep? |
| Nico: Yes. Also, men will have to do their military or civil service. Many are exempted these days, but in principle we still have a general conscription. |
| Brandon: What about women? |
| Nico: They can go to the military if they want to, but it’s not very common. |
| Brandon: Okay. Now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let's take |
| a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| lapsi [natural native speed] |
| child |
| lapsi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| lapsi [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| helppo [natural native speed] |
| easy |
| helppo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| helppo [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| aikuinen [natural native speed] |
| adult |
| aikuinen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| aikuinen [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| miettiä [natural native speed] |
| to consider, to think |
| miettiä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| miettiä [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| tarkasti [natural native speed] |
| carefully, exactly |
| tarkasti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| tarkasti [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| päättää [natural native speed] |
| to decide, to end |
| päättää [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| päättää [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| asia [natural native speed] |
| thing, issue, matter |
| asia [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| asia [natural native speed] |
| And Last: |
| pieni [natural native speed] |
| small |
| pieni [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| pieni [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson.What’s the first word we’ll look at? |
| Nico: Tarkasti. It’s an adverb derived from the adjective tarkka, which means “accurate”, “exact”, or “careful”. |
| Brandon: How do you use it? |
| Nico: You can use it whenever something needs to be done carefully or accurately. For example, you can say Kuuntele tarkasti “Listen carefully” or Leikkaa tarkasti viivaa pitkin “Cut carefully along the line.” |
| Brandon: What’s the next word? |
| Nico: Päättää. Päättää is derived from the word pää, which means “head” or “end”, like the end of a rope. Päättää means “to put an end to something”. |
| Brandon: Could we have an example sentence? |
| Nico: You could say things like Hän päätti puheensa kiitoksiin, “He ended his speech with thanks.” There’s usually an idea of completeness. |
| Brandon: In the dialogue, it was used in the sense of “to decide”. When you decide something, you complete the matter, or put an end to it. |
| Nico: That’s right. So you could say Eero päätti lähteä kotiin, “Eero decided to go home.” |
| Brandon: Okay. What’s the next word? |
| Nico: Asia. Asia is a vague thing that could be almost anything. It’s a “thing”, or “issue”, or “matter”. |
| Brandon: Could you give us some examples for how it’s used? |
| Nico: Sure. You could say Mennään asiaan, which means “Let’s get to the business”, or Veikko puhui asian vierestä “Veikko spoke beside the point.” You can also use it for an errand, as in Minun pitää hoitaa muutama asia, “I have a few errands to run .” |
| Brandon: In the dialogue, it was in the sentence about making your own decisions. |
| Nico: Yes, there was the phrase päättää omista asioistaan, or “to make your own decisions.” Another phrase you may hear is huolehtia omista asioistaan. That means “to mind your own business.” |
| Brandon: Just like in English, this sentence has a rude connotation. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Brandon: In this lesson, we’re going to learn about another case form, which is.. |
| Nico: the essive. It’s used to indicate a status, a role, or something like that. |
| Brandon: How do you form it? |
| Nico: It’s quite simple. There are no consonant changes in the stem, so all you need is the correct stem, to which you add -na or -nä, depending on the vowel harmony. |
| Brandon: And which is the correct stem? |
| Nico: As you may remember, some words, such as pieni, meaning “small,” have two stems – one that ends in a vowel and one that ends in a consonant. For pieni, the vowel stem is piene-, and the consonant stem is pien-. |
| Brandon: And which one do you use in the essive? |
| Nico: The vowel stem. You take the vowel stem piene- and add -nä to get pienenä. |
| Brandon: How about some other words, for example “teacher”? |
| Nico: “A teacher” is opettaja in Finnish, and it only has one stem, so the essive form is opettajana. |
| Brandon: So how would you use that in a sentence? |
| Nico: Well, let’s say Hän on opettajana, which means “He works as a teacher.” |
| Brandon: Why do you need the essive? Couldn’t you just use the nominative? |
| Nico: No, the meaning is a bit different. If you say Hän on opettaja using the nominative form, you’re saying what his profession is. However, if you use the essive, you’re talking about his current employment. |
| Brandon: so, you mean that he could be a teacher but actually be doing something else? |
| Nico: Exactly. For example, Hän on opettaja, mutta on nyt työttömänä means “He’s a teacher, but is currently unemployed.” Here we have the nominative form of opettaja, but the essive form of työtön, or “unemployed”, työttömänä. |
| Brandon: Got it. So the essive expresses a temporary state or position. |
| Nico: Yes. |
| Brandon: All right, let’s practice. I’ll say some words in English, Nico will say them in Finnish in the nominative form, and your job is to say the essive form out loud. Ready? Nico, what’s the Finnish word meaning “Easy”? |
| Nico: The nominative is helppo. |
| Brandon: Listeners. What’s the essive form of this word? |
| [Pause] |
| Brandon: The answer is.. |
| Nico: Helppona. |
| Brandon: Okay, the Finnish word is.. |
| Nico: Asia |
| Brandon: meaning “Issue, matter” What’s the essive form of this word? |
| [Pause] |
| Brandon: The answer is.. |
| Nico: Asiana |
| Brandon: Let’s take one more. The Next word means “Hand.”, and in Finnish, that is.. |
| Nico: käsi, and it also has two stems, käte- and kät-. |
| Brandon: Listeners, do you know the essive form of this word? |
| [Pause] |
| Brandon: The answer is.. |
| Nico: I hope you got the vowel harmony right. The correct essive form is kätenä. |
Outro |
|---|
| Brandon: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Nico: See you next time. Hei hei! |
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