Learn how to express your feelings
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Matt: Hello, everyone! Welcome back to FinnishPod101.com! This is Lower Beginner Season 1, lesson 24. Can You Describe Your Feelings in Finnish? I’m Matt. |
| Nico: Hei, minä olen Nico. Hi, I’m Nico. |
| Matt: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to express feelings. The conversation takes place at work. |
| Nico: Petri comes to work in the morning and talks to Hanna and Mari. They're colleagues, so they’ll be speaking standard Finnish in the casual register. |
| Matt: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Hanna: Kylläpä sinä olet hyvällä tuulella. |
| Petri: Kuuntelin matkalla hyvää musiikkia. |
| Hanna: Mari vaikuttaa vähän masentuneelta. Mikähän hänellä on? |
| Petri: Kysytään. Huomenta, Mari! Onko jokin huonosti? |
| Mari: Ei tässä mitään. Minua vaan harmittaa, kun rikoin aamulla lautasen. |
| Petri: Ei yhtä lautasta kannata surra! Katso, miten kaunis päivä siellä on. |
| Matt: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Hanna: Kylläpä sinä olet hyvällä tuulella. |
| Petri: Kuuntelin matkalla hyvää musiikkia. |
| Hanna: Mari vaikuttaa vähän masentuneelta. Mikähän hänellä on? |
| Petri: Kysytään. Huomenta, Mari! Onko jokin huonosti? |
| Mari: Ei tässä mitään. Minua vaan harmittaa, kun rikoin aamulla lautasen. |
| Petri: Ei yhtä lautasta kannata surra! Katso, miten kaunis päivä siellä on. |
| Matt: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Hanna: Kylläpä sinä olet hyvällä tuulella. |
| : Oh, you’re in a good mood. |
| Petri: Kuuntelin matkalla hyvää musiikkia. |
| : I listened to some good music on the way. |
| Hanna: Mari vaikuttaa vähän masentuneelta. Mikähän hänellä on? |
| : Mari seems a bit down. I wonder what’s wrong with her? |
| Petri: Kysytään. Huomenta, Mari! Onko jokin huonosti? |
| : Let’s ask. Morning, Mari! Is something wrong? |
| Mari: Ei tässä mitään. Minua vaan harmittaa, kun rikoin aamulla lautasen. |
| : It’s nothing. I’m just vexed that I broke a plate this morning. |
| Petri: Ei yhtä lautasta kannata surra! Katso, miten kaunis päivä siellä on. |
| : There’s no point in mourning over a plate. See what a beautiful day it is! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Matt: Nico, do you think Finns have a mentality that’s different from other nations? |
| Nico: Well, Finns themselves often complain that we have a negative attitude, and that everybody is just jealous of other peoples’ success. |
| Matt: Do you agree with that? |
| Nico: Well.. there are people who envy what other people have, but I don’t know if it’s stronger than any other countries. |
| Matt: There is a rumor that Finland has a fairly high suicide rate. |
| Nico: They are pretty high but the rates have been falling. Some say Finns commit suicides because of the long dark winter, but others say it’s actually because most of the people are happy. |
| Matt: What do you mean? |
| Nico: The reasoning is that when most of the people are happy, the unhappy ones feel even worse in comparison. |
| Matt: Oh, I see. 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: |
| : olla hyvällä tuulella [natural native speed] |
| : to be in a good mood |
| : olla hyvällä tuulella [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : olla hyvällä tuulella [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : kuunnella [natural native speed] |
| : listen |
| : kuunnella [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : kuunnella [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : matka [natural native speed] |
| : trip, way |
| : matka [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : matka [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : musiikki [natural native speed] |
| : music |
| : musiikki [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : musiikki [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : masentunut [natural native speed] |
| : depressed |
| : masentunut [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : masentunut [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : huomenta [natural native speed] |
| : good morning |
| : huomenta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : huomenta [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : huonosti [natural native speed] |
| : badly |
| : huonosti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : huonosti [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : harmittaa [natural native speed] |
| : to be vexed |
| : harmittaa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : harmittaa [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| : rikkoa [natural native speed] |
| : to break |
| : rikkoa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : rikkoa [natural native speed] |
| : And Last: |
| : surra [natural native speed] |
| : to mourn, to be sorry, to worry |
| : surra [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| : surra [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Matt: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s first? |
| Nico: It’s a phrase, Olla hyvällä tuulella. |
| Matt: This means “to be in a good mood”. |
| Nico: Tuuli means “wind”, so if you translate it into English, it would be “to be on a good wind”. |
| Matt: And what’s the opposite of that? |
| Nico: It’s Olla huonolla tuulella or olla pahalla tuulella. They mean pretty much the same, “to be in a bad mood”. |
| Matt: Is there any difference at all? |
| Nico: Well, olla pahalla tuulella sounds perhaps a bit worse, because paha means “bad” or “evil”, while huono is just “bad” or “inferior.” |
| Matt: Okay. What’s next? |
| Nico: Kuunnella, “to listen”. |
| Matt: It only means “to listen”, not “to hear”. It means you’re actively listening. So what would you say if you just happened to hear something? |
| Nico: Kuulla. For example, if you just happened to go past a door and heard what the people on the other side were saying, you’d use kuulla, but if you were eavesdropping on purpose, you’d use kuunnella. |
| Matt: I see. What’s our next word? |
| Nico: Huomenta. It’s a short version of Hyvää huomenta, which means “Good morning”. |
| Matt: Does it come from the word “morning”? |
| Nico: Yes, it’s the partitive singular form of huomen. Huomen is an archaic word for “morning”. |
| Matt: What’s the word you normally use for “morning”? |
| Nico: Aamu. Huomen has actually come to mean “tomorrow”, so we have the adverb huomenna “tomorrow” and the noun huominen “the day of tomorrow”. We also have Huomiseen, which means “See you tomorrow.” |
| Matt: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Matt: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about feelings in Finnish. |
| Nico: In the dialogue, Hanna first said Kylläpä sinä olet hyvällä tuulella meaning “I say, you’re in a good mood.” Then she said, Mari vaikuttaa vähän masentuneelta meaning “Mari seems a bit down.” |
| Matt: And Mari explained her bad mood by saying... |
| Nico: Minua vaan harmittaa, kun rikoin aamulla lautasen. “I’m just vexed that I broke a plate in the morning. Finally, Petri said Ei yhtä lautasta kannata surra - “There’s no point in mourning over a plate.” |
| Matt: So, what are we going to make of all these sentences? |
| Nico: Well, our time is limited, so we’ll just concentrate on the first two sentences. We’ve got more information in the lesson notes, so please check them out. |
| Matt: Okay. What do we start with? |
| Nico: The simplest way to talk about feelings is to use the structure Minä olen… meaning “I am…” and then add an adjective or a phrase, as in the case of hyvällä tuulella which means “in a good mood.” |
| Matt: Can you give us an example? |
| Nico: Sure. For example, Minä olen iloinen is “I’m happy”, and Emma on surullinen is “Emma is sad.” |
| Matt: That’s easy enough. We’ll just need a few adjectives to use. You gave us “happy” and “sad”, and we had “depressed” in the dialogue. What’s “nervous” in Finnish? |
| Nico: That’s Hermostunut. By the way, iloinen is “happy” in a cheerful kind of way that shows to the outside. Onnellinen would be happy in a way that doesn’t necessarily show outside, it’s more about how you feel. |
| Matt: I see. What other adjectives could we use? How about “content”? |
| Nico: That would be tyytyväinen. |
| Matt: So, how would we say “I'm content”? |
| Nico: Minä olen tyytyväinen. |
| Matt: How about “They're nervous”? |
| Nico: He ovat hermostuneita. |
| Matt: Note that in the plural, you have to use the partitive plural form, even though you use the nominative in the singular. Now, what would you say if someone else seems to be happy? Like in the dialogue, when Hanna said Mari seemed down. |
| Nico: You could use the verbs näyttää meaning “to look like” or vaikuttaa meaning “to seem”. After these verbs, the adjective will be in the ablative case. |
| Matt: Okay, so how would you say “Hanna looks happy”? |
| Nico: The ablative form of onnellinen is onnelliselta, so it will be Hanna näyttää onnelliselta. |
| Matt: Listeners, it’s your turn. Please say “Petri looks content” in Finnish. |
| Nico: Remember that “content” is tyytyväinen, and the stem is tyytyväise-. |
| Matt: So.. the answer is.. |
| Nico: Petri näyttää tyytyväiseltä. |
Outro |
| Matt: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for joining us, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Nico: Hei hei! |
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