Learn how to use the comparative forms of adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com! This is Lower Beginner Season 1, lesson 20. Is Bigger Better In Finland? I’m Brandon. |
| Nico: Hei, minä olen Nico. Hi, I’m Nico. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to compare things in Finnish. |
| Nico: The dialogue takes place at a store. Satu is trying on some clothes and is talking about them to Petri. |
| Brandon: They're a couple, so they’ll be speaking standard Finnish in the casual register. Okay, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Satu: Mitä pidät tästä mekosta? |
| Petri: Se lyhyempi mekko oli parempi kuin tuo. |
| Satu: Se oli liian kapea. Tämä on mukavampi, koska tämä on vähän leveämpi. |
| Petri: Ehkä siitä lyhyemmästä löytyy isompi koko. |
| Satu: Voinhan minä kysyä. Anteeksi, löytyykö tätä mekkoa yhtä kokoa isompana? |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Satu: Mitä pidät tästä mekosta? |
| Petri: Se lyhyempi mekko oli parempi kuin tuo. |
| Satu: Se oli liian kapea. Tämä on mukavampi, koska tämä on vähän leveämpi. |
| Petri: Ehkä siitä lyhyemmästä löytyy isompi koko. |
| Satu: Voinhan minä kysyä. Anteeksi, löytyykö tätä mekkoa yhtä kokoa isompana? |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Satu: Mitä pidät tästä mekosta? |
| : How do you like this dress? |
| Petri: Se lyhyempi mekko oli parempi kuin tuo. |
| : The shorter dress was better than that. |
| Satu: Se oli liian kapea. Tämä on mukavampi, koska tämä on vähän leveämpi. |
| : It was too narrow. This one is more comfortable, because this is a bit wider. |
| Petri: Ehkä siitä lyhyemmästä löytyy isompi koko. |
| : Maybe they have a bigger size of the shorter one. |
| Satu: Voinhan minä kysyä. Anteeksi, löytyykö tätä mekkoa yhtä kokoa isompana? |
| : Well, I can ask. Excuse me, do you have this dress in one size bigger? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: How do women dress in Finland? |
| Nico: A lot of women wear trousers, because they're comfortable and warmer in the winter than a skirt. But there are also many who wear skirts and dresses regularly. |
| Brandon: So I guess it’s similar to a lot of other Western countries then. In the previous lesson, we talked about how to dress for work. What would you say the dress code is for women? |
| Nico: Just like for men, suits—in this case either skirt or pant suits—are mainly expected in banks and other workplaces like that. Elsewhere, you have more choice. |
| Brandon: I suppose it’s better not to look like you’re just about to head to the beach! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| : mekko [natural native speed] |
| : dress |
| : mekko [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : mekko [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : lyhyt [natural native speed] |
| : short |
| : lyhyt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : lyhyt [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : kuin [natural native speed] |
| : than, as (in comparisons), like |
| : kuin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : kuin [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : kapea [natural native speed] |
| : narrow |
| : kapea [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : kapea [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : vähän [natural native speed] |
| : a bit, a little, a few |
| : vähän [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : vähän [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : leveä [natural native speed] |
| : wide |
| : leveä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : leveä [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : löytyä [natural native speed] |
| : to be found |
| : löytyä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : löytyä [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : koko [natural native speed] |
| : size |
| : koko [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : koko [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : kysyä [natural native speed] |
| : ask |
| : kysyä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : kysyä [natural native speed] |
| : And Last: |
| : iso [natural native speed] |
| : big |
| : iso [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : iso [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: Mekko. |
| Brandon: This means “dress”. Can you use it to refer to any kind of dress? |
| Nico: Pretty much, yes. As long as it’s a one-piece garment and the bottom part is a skirt instead of trousers, you can use mekko. Hmm… at least almost. |
| Brandon: Are there exceptions? |
| Nico: Yes, there are some very specific kinds of formal dress that I wouldn’t call mekko, such as iltapuku - “evening dress” and hääpuku - “wedding dress”. In principle, you could call them mekko, but some might feel it’s a bit of an understatement. |
| Brandon: I see. Okay, what’s next? |
| Nico: Löytyä, which means “to be found”. |
| Brandon: The thing to note with this verb is it’s the person or thing that’s found that is the subject of the sentence. So you can’t use that verb to translate, “I found the book”. |
| Nico: No, you’d use a different verb, löytää. They are related, of course, and very similar in form, but they are still two distinct verbs. |
| Brandon: All right. What’s the next word? |
| Nico: Vähän. In the dialogue, it was translated as “a bit”, but it can also mean “some” or “a few”. In the dialoge we had Vähän leveämpi to mean “a bit wider”. |
| Brandon: So you don’t need to make the distinction between countable and uncountable things? |
| Nico: That’s right. You can say both vähän maitoa meaning “a little milk” and vähän ihmisiä meaning “few people”. |
| Brandon: So how come it changes from “a little” to “few”? Shouldn’t it be “a few”? |
| Nico: Well, actually, you’d need more context to pin down the exact meaning, because vähän can be used to mean both “few” and “a few” or “little” and “a little”. |
| Brandon: I see. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to compare things. |
| Nico: To compare two things in Finnish, you need the comparative form of the adjective and the word kuin, which is like “than” in English. |
| Brandon: And how do you make the comparative form of the adjective? |
| Nico: You take the vowel-ending stem and attach -mpi. |
| Brandon: Let’s go through the adjectives we had in the dialogue. I’ll say them in English, and Nico will give the non-compared nominative form, the vowel stem, and the comparative. First we have “Short”. |
| Nico: The non-compared nominative is lyhyt, the vowel stem is lyhye- and the comparative is lyhyempi. |
| Brandon: Next is “Narrow” |
| Nico: The nominative is kapea, the vowel stem is also kapea-, and the comparative is kapeampi. |
| Brandon: Next is “Wide” |
| Nico: The nominative is leveä, the stem leveä-, and the comparative leveämpi. |
| Brandon: “Comfortable” |
| Nico: Mukava, mukava-, mukavampi. |
| Brandon: “Big” |
| Nico: Iso, iso-, isompi. |
| Brandon: “Good” |
| Nico: That’s an irregular one, so you’ll just have to learn it by heart. The non-compared form is hyvä, but the comparative is parempi. |
| Brandon: Are there any other irregular adjectives? |
| Nico: Well, I don’t know if these qualify as irregular, but if the adjective only has two syllables and it ends in -a or -ä, the -a or -ä turns into -e in the comparative. |
| Brandon: Do you have an example of that? |
| Nico: Sure. For example, the word for “black” is musta, but the comparative is mustempi. In the same way, kiva meaning “nice” becomes kivempi, and kylmä meaning “cold” becomes kylmempi. |
| Brandon: All right. Let’s make a full sentence, for example “Ville is bigger than Markku”. |
| Nico: That would be Ville on isompi kuin Markku. Ville on is followed by the comparative, then the word kuin, and then the person Ville is being compared with. |
| Brandon: I think we had some adjectives in the dialogue that were inflected. |
| Nico: Yes, that’s right. The comparative forms are inflected in the various cases just like with any other adjectives. In the dialogue, we had lyhyemmästä, which is the elative, and isompana, which is the essive. |
| Brandon: The consonant changed in the stem again. |
| Nico: Correct. The -mpi turns into -mma- or -mmä-, so lyhyempi becomes lyhyemmästä. |
| Brandon: Okay. Listeners, time to practice. How would you say “Hanna is shorter than Mari”? |
| [Pause] |
| Brandon: The answer is.. |
| Nico: Hanna on lyhyempi kuin Mari. |
| Brandon: How about “Mari is older than Hanna”? |
| Nico: Here’s a hint. “Old” is vanha. Note that it’s a two-syllable word. |
| [Pause] |
| Brandon: The answer is.. |
| Nico: Mari on vanhempi kuin Hanna. |
| Brandon: Listeners, be sure to check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson. |
Outro |
|---|
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for joining us, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Nico: See you next time! Hei hei! |
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