Learn how to tell time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com! This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 6 - Is It Time For Lunch Yet in Finland? My name is Brandon. |
| Nico: Hei, minä olen Nico. Hi, I’m Nico. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn the numbers above 10, and how to tell the time. The conversation takes place at the office. |
| Nico: It’s between Hanna and Petri. They're colleagues, so they'll be speaking standard Finnish in the casual register. |
| Brandon: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Hanna: Mitä kello on? |
| Petri: Kaksikymmentäviisi yli kaksitoista. |
| Hanna: Menemme Marin kanssa lounaalle puoli yhdeltä. Tuletko mukaan? |
| Petri: Mielelläni. |
| Hanna: Yleensä syömme jo varttia vaille kaksitoista. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Hanna: Mitä kello on? |
| Petri: Kaksikymmentäviisi yli kaksitoista. |
| Hanna: Menemme Marin kanssa lounaalle puoli yhdeltä. Tuletko mukaan? |
| Petri: Mielelläni. |
| Hanna: Yleensä syömme jo varttia vaille kaksitoista. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Hanna: Mitä kello on? |
| Brandon: What time is it? |
| Petri: Kaksikymmentäviisi yli kaksitoista. |
| Brandon: Twenty-five past twelve. |
| Hanna: Menemme Marin kanssa lounaalle puoli yhdeltä. Tuletko mukaan? |
| Brandon: Mari and I are going for lunch at half past twelve. Would you like to join us? |
| Petri: Mielelläni. |
| Brandon: I’d love to. |
| Hanna: Yleensä syömme jo varttia vaille kaksitoista. |
| Brandon: Usually we have lunch already at a quarter to twelve. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: So, they’re going for lunch. Is that the normal time people have lunch in Finland? |
| Nico: Yes, lunch time is around noon. Lunch restaurants are typically open from 11 to 2, but I think the peak time is very close to noon. |
| Brandon: So there are special lunch restaurants? Don’t all restaurants serve lunch? |
| Nico: There are quite a few restaurants that are only open at lunch time. Most regular restaurants serve lunch as well, and they usually have a special lunch menu. |
| Brandon: Do Finns usually have lunch at a restaurant, or is it common to bring your lunch from home? |
| Nico: Hmm, I’d say it’s more common to have lunch at a restaurant, because it’s so easy. It’s usually also quite good value for money. Many employers subsidize the lunch for their employees. |
| Brandon: That sounds good. 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: kello [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: clock, watch, bell |
| Nico: kello [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: kello [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: kaksikymmentäviisi [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: twenty-five |
| Nico: kaksikymmentäviisi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: kaksikymmentäviisi [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: yli [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: over, past |
| Nico: yli [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: yli [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: kaksitoista [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: twelve |
| Nico: kaksitoista [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: kaksitoista [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: lounas [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: lunch |
| Nico: lounas [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: lounas [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: puoli [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: half |
| Nico: puoli [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: puoli [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: yleensä [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: usually |
| Nico: yleensä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: yleensä [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Nico: vartti [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: quarter |
| Nico: vartti [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: vartti [natural native speed] |
| : And last: |
| Nico: vaille [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to (time); without; except for |
| Nico: vaille [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: vaille [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 first? |
| Nico: The first word is kello. |
| Brandon: That’s “clock”, right? |
| Nico: Yes, it can mean “clock”, or “watch”, or even “bell”. You can see it in many compound words, such as rannekello for “wrist watch”, seinäkello for “clock”, and kirkonkello for “church bell”. There’s even a group of blue flowers that have kello in their name, such as kissankello or “harebell”. |
| Brandon: Oh, and does kissa mean “hare” as in rabbit? |
| Nico: [laughs] No, actually, it’s “cat”. Kissankello is literally “cat’s bell” in English. |
| Brandon: I see. What’s the next word? |
| Nico: The next word is mielelläni, which means “with pleasure” or “I’d love to”. I wanted to bring it up, because we covered the grammar needed to take it apart in the previous lessons. |
| Brandon: Oh? You mean the locative cases and possessive endings. |
| Nico: Yes, The root word of mielelläni is mieli, which means “mind” or “mood”. |
| Brandon You add the adhesive case ending |
| Nico: -llä, |
| Brandon and then the first person possessive ending |
| Nico: : -ni, |
| Brandon which means “my”, and you get |
| Nico: mielelläni. |
| Brandon: So… If you have a possessive ending there, does it change according to who the subject is? |
| Nico: That’s right. If you want to say “you’d love to”, you’d say mielelläsi, and “he’d love to” would be mielellään. Similarly in the plural, you have mielellämme “we’d love to”, mielellänne “you all would love to”, and mielellään “they’d love to”. |
| Brandon: Okay, that’s good to remember. What’s the next word? |
| Nico: The next word is kaksitoista, meaning “twelve”. |
| Brandon: We’re getting close to the lesson topic here. What’s special about this word? |
| Nico: The numbers from 11 to 19 are formed differently from bigger numbers. You take the numbers yksi, kaksi, kolme and so on, and attach -toista to them. Toista actually means “of the second”, so kaksitoista actually means “two of the second ten”, only the word for “ten” is omitted. |
| Brandon: That’s interesting. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn the numbers bigger than 10, which we’ll need for telling the time. |
| Nico: We already learned to say the numbers from 11 to 19. “Ten” is kymmenen. To make multiples of ten add the partitive form of kymmenen, -kymmentä, to the numbers 2-9. For example kaksikymmentä is “twenty”, kolmekymmentä is “thirty”, and neljäkymmentä is “forty”. |
| Brandon: That sounds simple enough. How about “twenty-one”? |
| Nico: Use the pattern above to make 20, kaksikymmentä, and then add whatever single-digit number you need after it. So “twenty-one” is kaksikymmentäyksi. |
| Brandon: And “twenty-two”? |
| Nico: Kaksikymmentäkaksi. |
| Brandon: what about "fifty-six"? |
| Nico: Viisikymmentäkuusi. |
| Brandon: Okay. That’s all we need for now. How do you ask the time? |
| Nico: Mitä kello on? Or, you could also say Paljonko kello on? If you ask someone Mitä kello on? and they answer “It’s steel and glass”, don’t get confused. |
| Brandon: Why would anyone answer that way? |
| Nico: Because Mitä kello on? could also be interpreted as “What’s a clock made of?,” and the other person is trying to be funny. I think you’re most likely to get this answer from kids who have just realized the double meaning. |
| Brandon: [laughs] Oh, I see. But it’s perfectly ok to use this question? |
| Nico: Sure. |
| Brandon: I see. How would you answer seriously then? |
| Nico: If it’s on the hour, you just say Kello on… and then the number of hours. For example, if it’s nine o’clock, you’d say Kello on yhdeksän. |
| Brandon: By the way, do you use the 12- or 24-hour clock in Finland? |
| Nico: Well, in casual speech we usually use 12 hours, so if it’s three in the afternoon, you’d say Kello on kolme. But when we write times down, we always use the 24-hour clock, so it’s 15.00. |
| Brandon: or “15: 00”, How do you say “It’s half past three”? |
| Nico: Kello on puoli neljä. |
| Brandon: Isn’t that half past four? |
| Nico: No. In Finnish, we say the hour that comes next, not the one that’s past. |
| Brandon: Okay. What about other times? Like “twenty to four” or “twenty past four”? |
| Nico: You need the words vaille for “before” and yli for “over”. You first say the number of minutes, then vaille or yli, and then the number of hours. |
| Brandon: What’s “twenty to four” in Finnish? |
| Nico: Kaksikymmentä vaille neljä. |
| Brandon: And “twenty past four”? |
| Nico: Kaksikymmentä yli neljä. |
| Brandon When the number of minutes is bigger than ten, you can have it in either in the nominative or partitive form, |
| Nico: But, with numbers up to ten, you usually use the partitive form, as in Kello on viittä vaille neljä, meaning “It’s five to four”. |
| Brandon: Listeners, here’s one for you to practice with. Please say “It’s twenty-five past three”. |
| Nico: [pause] Kello on kaksikymmentäviisi yli kolme. |
| Brandon: Listeners, be sure to check the lesson notes for more details and examples. |
| MARKETING PIECE |
| Brandon: Listeners, ever have any Finnish language or lesson-related questions? |
| Nico: Or maybe you have some feedback for us... |
| Brandon: Leave us a comment or ask a question on the lessons page! |
| Nico: It's super simple. Go to FinnishPod101.com... |
| Brandon: ...click on comments, |
| Nico: ...enter your comment and name, |
| Brandon: ...and that's it! |
| Nico: Commenting is a a great way to practice writing and reading in Finnish. |
| Brandon: It helps you learn faster. |
| Nico: And it helps us get better through your feedback. |
| Brandon: No excuses. |
| Nico: Go to FinnishPod101.com, and comment now. |
| Brandon: NOW! |
Outro |
| Brandon: And that’s it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time, bye! |
| Nico: Hei hei! See you next time! |
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