Learn how to describe symptoms of an illness
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com! This is Lower Beginner Season 1, lesson 17 - This Finnish Grammar Won’t Make Your Head Hurt. I’m Brandon. |
| Nico: Hei, minä olen Nico. Hi, I’m Nico. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn phrases you can use when you’re sick. We hope you won’t need it anytime soon, but it’s better to be prepared. |
| Nico: The conversation takes place at work, and it’s between Petri and Mari. They’re colleagues, and they’ll be speaking standard Finnish in the casual register. |
| Brandon: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (Nico, please record Petri’s lines here and skip Mari’s lines.) |
| Petri: Minun pitäisi ehkä lähteä kotiin. |
| Mari: Kuinka niin? Oletko sairas? |
| Petri: Luulen, että minulla on kuumetta. Kurkku on kipeä ja nenä vuotaa. |
| Mari: Sitten on kyllä paras levätä. |
| Petri: Joo. Hei hei. |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Petri: Minun pitäisi ehkä lähteä kotiin. |
| Mari: Kuinka niin? Oletko sairas? |
| Petri: Luulen, että minulla on kuumetta. Kurkku on kipeä ja nenä vuotaa. |
| Mari: Sitten on kyllä paras levätä. |
| Petri: Joo. Hei hei. |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Petri: Minun pitäisi ehkä lähteä kotiin. |
| : I think maybe I should go home. |
| Mari: Kuinka niin? Oletko sairas? |
| : Why? Are you sick? |
| Petri: Luulen, että minulla on kuumetta. Kurkku on kipeä ja nenä vuotaa. |
| : I think I have a fever. I have a sore throat and my nose is running. |
| Mari: Sitten on kyllä paras levätä. |
| : Then you had better rest. |
| Petri: Joo. Hei hei. |
| : Yeah. Bye. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Do Finns take a lot of sick leave from work? |
| Nico: Well, I think it’s on the same level as other Western countries. There are some people who take advantage of the system, but there are also a lot of people who go to work when they should actually be at home resting. |
| Brandon: Is it easy to get sick leave in Finland? |
| Nico: Mostly, yes. It depends on the sector you work in, and also on the employer. |
| Brandon: And in many places, you can take a couple of days off by just informing your boss, but some employers require proof from a doctor when you return to work. 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: |
| kuinka [natural native speed] |
| how |
| kuinka [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| kuinka [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| sairas [natural native speed] |
| sick, ill |
| sairas [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| sairas [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| luulla [natural native speed] |
| to believe, to think |
| luulla [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| luulla [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| kuume [natural native speed] |
| fever |
| kuume [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| kuume [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| kurkku [natural native speed] |
| throat |
| kurkku [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| kurkku [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| kipeä [natural native speed] |
| sore, sick, ill |
| kipeä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| kipeä [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| nenä [natural native speed] |
| nose |
| nenä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| nenä [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| vuotaa [natural native speed] |
| to leak, to run (of nose) |
| vuotaa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| vuotaa [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| paras [natural native speed] |
| best |
| paras [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| paras [natural native speed] |
| And Last: |
| levätä [natural native speed] |
| rest |
| levätä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| levätä [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’s our first word? |
| Nico: First we have Sairas. |
| Brandon: This means “sick” or “ill” in English. |
| Nico: Being sairas means that you have some kind of an illness. |
| Brandon: It could be almost anything except an injury. So, if you have a broken leg, you wouldn’t say this word. |
| Nico: No, then you’d say you’re loukkaantunut. Sairas can also be used for mental states, as in sairas huolesta, which would be “sick with worry” in English. |
| Brandon: Okay. Anything else? |
| Nico: It might be useful to know that you can use it either in the nominative, as in Olen sairas, or in the essive form which is Olen sairaana. |
| Brandon: There's a difference in meaning between these. As you may remember from lesson 15, the essive implies a temporary state. So if you use the essive, it means it’s a temporary illness. |
| Nico: Exactly. If you say Olen sairaana, it means you’re going to be well again. |
| Brandon: So you can’t use it for life long afflictions, such as diabetes. Does the nominative form imply a lifelong affliction then? |
| Nico: Well, not necessarily. It can be used in both situations, but if you use the nominative, there is a sense of vagueness as to whether the condition is permanent or not. |
| Brandon: Okay. What’s the next word? |
| Nico: Kipeä, meaning “sore”. In casual speech, it’s actually also used as a synonym of sairas, so if your friend doesn’t look too well, you can ask either Oletko sairas? or Oletko kipeä? But in more formal contexts it’s more likely you’ll see just sairas in this meaning. |
| Brandon: And then kipeä means just “sore”? |
| Nico: That’s right. |
| Brandon: Okay. What’s our last word? |
| Nico: It’s vuotaa. |
| Brandon: It means “to leak”, and it can be used about any liquid or gas that’s trickling out of its container. It can also be used when someone leaks classified information. Can you give us an example sentence. |
| Nico: sure, in the dialogue we had, Kurkku on kipeä ja nenä vuotaa |
| Brandon: Which means “I have a sore throat and runny nose.” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn phrases you can use when you’re sick. We have two structures we’ll be talking about - one for saying you have something, like a cold, and the second to say some part of you hurts. |
| Nico: The first structure is actually just the basic Minulla on…, or “I have…” pattern we’ve seen before. For example, Minulla on koira is “I have a dog.” |
| Brandon: But instead of “a dog”, you say the name of an illness or symptom. |
| Nico: Exactly. The only thing you need to pay attention to is the form of the word you insert in this structure. |
| Brandon: The possible forms are the nominative and partitive. The basic rule of thumb is that if it’s a disease, use the nominative, but if it’s a symptom, use the partitive. It’s not clear-cut, but works most of the time. Let’s hear some examples. |
| Nico: Sure. Let’s say you have a cold flunssa in Finnish. You’d say Minulla on flunssa for “I have a cold”. Flunssa is in the nominative. |
| Brandon: Okay, and how about something in the partitive? |
| Nico: Fever is typically in the partitive. Minulla on kuumetta is “I have a fever.” |
| Brandon: A Fever is usually just a symptom of some other disease, and your fever could be more or less severe, so you use the partitive. Now, our other structure was for saying something hurts. |
| Nico: Yes, and the pattern is … on kipeä. |
| Brandon: To use this you add a body part in front of on kipeä, right? |
| Nico: That’s right. You can use just the body part, like Petri did in the dialogue – Kurkku on kipeä, “I have a sore throat.” Then the listener will assume you’re talking about your own throat. |
| Brandon: If you need to talk about someone else, you add the person’s name or a pronoun in front of the body part, or add a possessive ending to it. Please check the lesson notes for more details. But let’s stick with talking about yourself for now. How would you say “My stomach hurts”? |
| Nico: “Stomach” is vatsa, so that would be Vatsa on kipeä or Vatsani on kipeä. |
| Brandon: The first one uses an implied subject, the second is specifically stating “My stomach.” How would we say “My feet hurt”? |
| Nico: “Foot” is jalka, and the plural is Jalat ovat kipeät. Note that kipeä also takes the plural form kipeät. |
| Brandon: Okay. Let’s do a quick quiz. Listeners, how would you say “I have a cough”? |
| Nico: Here’s a hint. “Cough” is yskä in Finnish. |
| [Pause] |
| Brandon: Okay, the answer is.. |
| Nico: Minulla on yskä or Minulla on yskää. Both cases are okay this time. |
| Brandon: How would you say “My back hurts”? |
| Nico: “Back” is selkä in Finnish, so the answer is.. Selkä on kipeä or Selkäni on kipeä. |
Outro |
|---|
| Brandon: Well, that’s all the time we have for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| Nico: Hei hei! |
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