Learn how to talk about the days of the week
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com! This is Lower Beginner Season 1, lesson 16 - Losing Track of the Days in Finland. I’m Brandon. |
| Nico: Hei, minä olen Nico. Hi, I’m Nico. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the days of the week. The conversation takes place at work. |
| Nico: It’s between Petri and Hanna. They’re colleagues, and they’ll be speaking standard Finnish in the casual register. |
| Brandon: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Petri: Etkö tule palaveriin? |
| Hanna: Miten niin? Sehän on torstaina. |
| Petri: Tänään on torstai. |
| Hanna: Kas, niinpä onkin. Minusta tuntui ihan keskiviikolta. Onneksi huomenna on jo perjantai ja viikonloppu. |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Petri: Etkö tule palaveriin? |
| Hanna: Miten niin? Sehän on torstaina. |
| Petri: Tänään on torstai. |
| Hanna: Kas, niinpä onkin. Minusta tuntui ihan keskiviikolta. Onneksi huomenna on jo perjantai ja viikonloppu. |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Petri: Etkö tule palaveriin? |
| : Aren’t you coming to the meeting? |
| Hanna: Miten niin? Sehän on torstaina. |
| : Why? It’s on Thursday, isn’t it? |
| Petri: Tänään on torstai. |
| : It's Thursday today. |
| Hanna: Kas, niinpä onkin. Minusta tuntui ihan keskiviikolta. Onneksi huomenna on jo perjantai ja viikonloppu. |
| : Oh, that’s right. I felt like it's just Wednesday. Fortunately, tomorrow is already Friday and the weekend. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Most people don’t work on Saturday and Sunday in Finland, right? |
| Nico: right, For normal office workers. Stores are open on Saturdays and Sundays, so there always have to be some people working there. Some people don’t really like that, because they think Sunday should be a day for resting, and there’s no need to be able to go shopping every day. |
| Brandon: I see. |
| Nico: It’s been a few years since the law changed to allow it, but it still pops up in discussions every now and then. |
| Brandon: What about religious holidays in Finland? |
| Nico: Well, you know, employers think that religious holidays shouldn’t stop their employees from doing productive work. They wouldn’t dare touch Christmas and Easter, but they’re currently trying to change the law about Ascension Day and Epiphany to Saturdays so that they don’t disrupt work. |
| Brandon: Oh. I’m guessing employees aren’t going to be too happy about that. Hopefully they can reach some sort of understanding. 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: |
| palaveri [natural native speed] |
| meeting (at work) |
| palaveri [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| palaveri [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| miten [natural native speed] |
| how, what a |
| miten [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| miten [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| torstai [natural native speed] |
| Thursday |
| torstai [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| torstai [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| tuntua [natural native speed] |
| to feel like |
| tuntua [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| tuntua [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| keskiviikko [natural native speed] |
| Wednesday |
| keskiviikko [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| keskiviikko [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| onneksi [natural native speed] |
| fortunately |
| onneksi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| onneksi [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| perjantai [natural native speed] |
| Friday |
| perjantai [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| perjantai [natural native speed] |
| And Last: |
| viikonloppu [natural native speed] |
| weekend |
| viikonloppu [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| viikonloppu [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What are we looking at first? |
| Nico: Our first word is palaveri, which means “meeting”. It’s mainly used at work. |
| Brandon: It’s the kind of meeting you call when you need to plan, discuss, or decide something. In other words, it’s not a social meeting. |
| Nico: That’s right, it’s always to discuss a specific topic. It’s kind of business term, but it’s a bit on the casual side, so you probably wouldn’t see it in formal written text. |
| Brandon: What would you use in a formal context, then? |
| Nico: Kokous. Kokous can also be used of more social meetings, such as sukukokous, which means “family gathering”. |
| Brandon: Okay. What’s next? |
| Nico: Miten. This is a question adverb, like “how” in English. The answer should be an expression of manner, way, or means. |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example sentence? |
| Nico: Sure. Miten Jussi kävelee? |
| Brandon: That’s “How does Jussi walk?” in English. |
| Nico: And the answer could be, for example, Hitaasti, “Slowly.” |
| Brandon: We had this word in the dialog, but it was translated as “Why?”. |
| Nico: oh yea, the phrase in the dialogue was Miten niin? It’s a set phrase that means “Why?” or “What do you mean?”. |
| Brandon: I see. What’s the next word? |
| Nico: Keskiviikko meaning “Wednesday”. |
| Brandon: This is the only weekday name that has a clear meaning in Finnish. It means “mid-week”. |
| Nico: All weekday names are old loans from Germanic languages, but keskiviikko was translated literally while the other ones were just loaned, not translated. |
| Brandon: That makes sense. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the days of the week. |
| Nico: Brandon will give you the English, and then I will say the Finnish at normal speed, then a slow version, and then once more at normal speed. |
| Brandon: What’s Monday? |
| Nico: Maanantai. x3 |
| Brandon: Tuesday? |
| Nico: Tiistai.x3 |
| Brandon: Wednesday? |
| Nico: Keskiviikko.x3 |
| Brandon: Thursday? |
| Nico: Torstai.x3 |
| Brandon: Friday? |
| Nico: Perjantai.x3 |
| Brandon: Saturday? |
| Nico: Lauantai.x3 |
| Brandon: Sunday? |
| Nico: Sunnuntai. x3 |
| Brandon: The first thing to note about weekdays in Finnish is that they don’t have initial capitals like in English. but, what about month names? Are they capitalized? |
| Nico: No, they’re written in lowercase as well, and so are holidays like joulu meaning “Christmas”. |
| Brandon: Okay. How do you use weekdays? Do you attach case endings to them? |
| Nico: You do, yes. When you want to say something happens on a specific day, you use the weekday name in the essive form we learned in lesson 15. It’s very simple, just add -na at the end of the weekday name. |
| Brandon: So how would you say “on Monday”? |
| Nico: Maanantaina. For example, Meillä on matematiikan koe maanantaina. which means “We have a math exam on Monday.” |
| Brandon: That sounds simple enough. Let’s take another sentence. How would you say “I will take the car for maintenance on Wednesday”? |
| Nico: Vien auton huoltoon keskiviikkona. |
| Brandon: Listeners, now it’s your turn. I’ll give you a short sentence in English, and your job is to say it aloud in Finnish. But before we start, Nico, why don’t you run through all the weekdays once again? |
| Nico: Sure. Maanantai,[pause] tiistai, [pause] keskiviikko, [pause] torstai, [pause] perjantai, [pause] lauantai, [pause] sunnuntai. |
| Brandon: So, here’s the first sentence. “It will rain on Tuesday.” |
| Nico: Here’s a hint for you. “To rain” is sataa vettä. |
| [Pause] |
| Brandon: Okay, the answer is.. |
| Nico: Tiistaina sataa vettä. |
| Brandon: Great, here’s the next one. “Do you go to the sauna on Saturday?” |
| Nico: Here’s a hint. “Do you go to the sauna” is Käytkö sinä saunassa |
| [Pause] |
| Brandon: Here’s the answer |
| Nico: Käytkö sinä saunassa lauantaina If you are talking to one person. If you’re talking to many people, you would change it to Käyttekö te saunassa lauantaina |
| Brandon: Listeners, for more information and examples, make sure to check the lesson notes. |
Outro |
|---|
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for joining us, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Nico: Hei hei! |
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