Learn to express ownership of something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello, I’m Brandon. Welcome back to FinnishPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, season 1, lesson 4, Where in Finland Did I Put My Phone? I’m joined in the studio by Nico. |
| Nico: Hei, minä olen Nico. Hi, I’m Nico. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say things like “my phone” and “your desk.” |
| Nico: The conversation takes place at the office. Petri is starting at a new workplace, and he’s just been taken to his desk. |
| Brandon: : That’s right. The conversation will be between Mari, Petri, and Hanna. They haven't met before, but they're colleagues, so they'll be speaking casual Finnish. OK, let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Mari: Tässä on Hanna. Hanna on lähin työtoverisi. |
| Hanna: Hei! |
| Petri: Terve! |
| Mari: Tässä on sinun työpöytäsi. Kas, onko joku unohtanut puhelimensa tähän? |
| Hanna: Eikös se ole sinun puhelimesi? |
| Mari: Minun puhelimeni? No niinpä onkin. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Mari: Tässä on Hanna. Hanna on lähin työtoverisi. |
| Hanna: Hei! |
| Petri: Terve! |
| Mari: Tässä on sinun työpöytäsi. Kas, onko joku unohtanut puhelimensa tähän? |
| Hanna: Eikös se ole sinun puhelimesi? |
| Mari: Minun puhelimeni? No niinpä onkin. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Mari: Tässä on Hanna. Hanna on lähin työtoverisi. |
| Brandon: This is Hanna. Hanna will be your closest colleague. |
| Hanna: Hei! |
| Brandon: Hi! |
| Petri: Terve! |
| Brandon: Hello! |
| Mari: Tässä on sinun työpöytäsi. Kas, onko joku unohtanut puhelimensa tähän? |
| Brandon: Here's your desk. Oh, has someone forgotten their phone here? |
| Hanna: Eikös se ole sinun puhelimesi? |
| Brandon: Isn't that your phone? |
| Mari: Minun puhelimeni? No niinpä onkin. |
| Brandon: My phone? Oh, that's right, so it is. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Do you think Mari is another colleague, or would she be Petri’s new boss? |
| Nico: I’d guess she’s his boss. |
| Brandon: But they’re still talking casually? I mean, you can’t tell she’s his boss by the way they speak. |
| Nico: That’s right. Finnish workplaces are usually quite casual, and the hierarchy is not reflected in the way people talk and interact. So you could talk to your superior just the same way as you talk to your subordinate. |
| Brandon: I see. So you don’t need to be extra polite towards your boss? |
| Nico: (laughs) Well, I think you should be polite towards everybody, but you don’t need to be extra polite. There may be different workplaces and different people, of course, but in general I think the hierarchy is more about decision-making than about the social status of the employees. |
| Brandon: It sounds like a good system! Ok, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Nico: lähin [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: the closest |
| Nico: lähin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: lähin [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: työtoveri [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: colleague |
| Nico: työtoveri [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: työtoveri [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: työpöytä [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: desk |
| Nico: työpöytä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: työpöytä [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: kas [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: oh |
| Nico: kas [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: kas [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: joku [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: someone |
| Nico: joku [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: joku [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: unohtaa [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to forget |
| Nico: unohtaa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: unohtaa [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: puhelin [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: phone |
| Nico: puhelin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: puhelin [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: niin [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: so, as |
| Nico: niin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: niin [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: -pa/-pä [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: emphasis marker |
| Nico: -pa/-pä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: -pa/-pä [natural native speed] |
| : And last: |
| Nico: -kin [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: also |
| Nico: -kin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: -kin [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. |
| Nico: The first word we’ll look at is joku. It means “somebody,” that is, an unspecified or unknown person. |
| Brandon: : The conjugation of this word is a bit special. Usually, all case endings come at the end of the word, but this word actually takes two case endings. Can you explain what we mean by two case endings, Nico? |
| Nico: It’s quite weird, but it’s as if jo and ku were two separate words, and they both get a case ending. So the partitive form of joku is jotakuta, the genitive is jonkun, the inessive is jossakussa, and so on. |
| Brandon ok..., that doesn’t sound like the easiest word for beginning Finnish learners! |
| Nico: (laughs) I suppose it isn’t. It’s not actually difficult, it’s just different, so you have to remember to add case endings in both places. |
| Brandon: Ok, what’s the next word? |
| Nico: Next, we have two enclitic particles. |
| Brandon: Enclitic particles are small bits you attach to the end of a word, and they add a specific meaning to the word. |
| Nico: For example, we have the enclitic particle -pa, which indicates emphasis. It also has a variant -pas with an -s, and you have to remember the vowel harmony if the word only has front vowels. You can add -pa to almost any word, so you could say Käveletpä nopeasti, meaning "I say, you walk briskly,” or Minullapa on jäätelöä for “I’ve got ice cream,” with the implication that the other person doesn’t. |
| Brandon: I see. What’s the other particle? |
| Nico: It’s -kin. It basically means “also.” For example, if someone said to you Minullapa on jäätelöä, and actually you did have ice cream as well, you could say Minullakin on jäätelöä, for “I’ve got ice cream, too.” Or someone might have said that you look fit, and then they add Käveletkin nopeasti, meaning “You walk briskly, too.” |
| Brandon: Great. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to express ownership, as in “my phone” and “your desk”. |
| Nico: Let’s first go through the genitive forms of the personal pronouns. |
| Brandon: So, what’s “my”? |
| Nico: Minun |
| Brandon: "Your"? |
| Nico: Sinun |
| Brandon: "His" or "her"? |
| Nico: Hänen |
| Brandon: "Our"? |
| Nico: Meidän |
| Brandon: "Your" in the plural? |
| Nico: Teidän |
| Brandon: "Their"? |
| Nico: Heidän. |
| Brandon: : In addition to these, Finnish has endings that are attached to the thing that is owned. The endings agree with the owner, so we have six endings—or actually five, since the third person ending is the same in singular and plural. Can you give us examples using the word "house"? |
| Nico: Sure. “House” is talo, so with the possessive endings, it will be taloni |
| Brandon: “my house” |
| Nico: talosi |
| Brandon: “your house” |
| Nico: talonsa |
| Brandon: “his or her house” |
| Nico: talomme |
| Brandon: “our house” |
| Nico: talonne |
| Brandon: “your house” and... |
| Nico: talonsa |
| Brandon: “their house”. What happens if the word already has a case ending? Is the case ending dropped, or does the possessive ending come before or after the case ending? |
| Nico: The case ending is always first, then the possessive ending, and any enclitic particle comes last. Usually you just add them one after the other, so you could say talossanikin for “in my house, too”, but if the case ending is a consonant, that is, -n in the genitive and -t in the nominative plural, you drop the consonant before the possessive ending. So instead of talonni or talotni, you say taloni also in the genitive singular and nominative plural. |
| Brandon: I see, so you have to guess the meaning from the context? |
| Nico: That’s right. |
| Brandon: Okay. Let’s make some sentences. How would you say “My car is red”? |
| Nico: Minun autoni on punainen. |
| Brandon: How about “His car is green?” |
| Nico: Hänen autonsa on vihreä. |
| Brandon: Listeners, it’s your turn now. Please say “Your phone is new”.[pause] |
| Nico: Sinun puhelimesi on uusi. |
| Brandon: How about “Our house is on the right”? |
| Nico: Meidän talomme on oikealla. You could also say Talomme on oikealla. In the first and second persons, you can drop the pronoun, unless there’s emphasis on it. For example, Autoni on punainen is fine without the pronoun, but if you want to say “My car is red, but his car is green”, you need to include the pronoun and say Minun autoni on punainen, mutta hänen autonsa on vihreä. |
| Brandon: Okay. But when the owner is a third person, Do you always need to include the pronoun? |
| Nico: When the thing owned is the subject of the sentence, yes. It’s a bit more complicated when the thing owned is in some other position in the sentence, but we don’t have time to talk about it in this lesson. Please see the lesson notes for more information. |
| Brandon: And listeners, please go to the lesson page at FinnishPod101.com and leave us a comment. Tell us something, in Finnish, about your car, or house, or whatever you like! |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Brandon: Attention perfectionists! You’re about to learn how to perfect your pronunciation. |
| Nico: Lesson Review Audio Tracks. |
| Brandon: Increase fluency and vocabulary fast with these short, effective audio tracks. |
| Nico: Super simple to use. Listen to the Finnish word or phrase... |
| Brandon: then repeat it out loud in a loud clear voice. |
| Nico: You’ll speak with confidence knowing that you’re speaking Finnish like the locals. |
| Brandon: Go to FinnishPod101.com, and download the Review Audio Tracks right on the lessons page today! |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, I think that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| Nico: See you next time! Hei hei! |
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