No Niin – Suomen Tärkein Sana – Sketch Analysis
In this article, you can read word by word what Ismo Leikola says in one of his comedy shows. This article is all about how NO NIIN is the most important Finnish word you’ll learn. This is a video you’re likely to get recommended by your Finnish teacher, as it is both funny and informative.
You can watch the whole sketch here:
1. Important notes
Ismo Leikola uses spoken language in his comedy shows. I will be linking to related articles that deal with the specific spoken language elements that are present in this comedy piece.
Ismo is also speaking like a normal person: he starts sentences and then doesn’t complete them, and he stutters in places. I have attempted to include these elements in both the literation and the translation. To a Finn, it may seem like Ismo stutters more than a regular person, but I personally think this is a skill he uses for comedic effect. He doesn’t stutter this much in all of his standup comedy. Then again, even people who always stutter have better and worse days.
It can be an important lesson for you to notice that Finnish speakers don’t speak like your textbooks do.
2. Words and translation – No niin – Suomen tärkein sana – Ismo Leikola
Finnish | English |
---|---|
Kuule, kun mä oon kuullu jossain | So hear me out, because I’ve heard somewhere |
semmosen väitteen että suomen kieli | this claim that the Finnish language |
on maailman yks vaikeimmista kielistä oppia. | is one of the world’s hardest languages to learn. |
Tää ois ihan niinkun top viis | This would be, like, among the top five |
maailman vaikeimpien kielien joukossa. | most difficult languages of the world. |
Ni mä en kyllä ihan voi käsittää | Well, I can’t really understand |
koska eihän tää nyt oo niin vaikeet. | because this isn’t all that difficult now, is it. |
Helppoohan tää, jorisee menemään vaan. | This is easy, isn’t it. Just start babbling. |
Pienenä osasin jo ihan hyvin tätä. | As a small kid I already knew this pretty well. |
Siis jos siin on.. Jos siin’ on… | Well, if it has… If it is… |
Jos se on niin-niin jotenkin niin | If it is so-so somehow so |
se niin vaikee, se oppi-oppiminen, niin sit | it’s so hard, the learn-learning, well then |
se on pakko siin opetusmetodissa joku vika | it must be something wrong in the teaching method |
koska eikö suomee lähetä opettaan | because don’t they start teaching Finnish |
aina jostaki, se lähetää jostaki että-että | always from somewhere, they start from somewhere like-like |
allatiivi, ellatiivi, illatiivi, ullatiivi, | allative, ellative, illative, ullative, |
pallitiivi, kullitiivi, pillu… | pallitive, kullitive, pillu… |
josta-joistain tämmösistä ihmeen tiivisteistä jostain | fro-from some of these weird kinds of -tiivi’s somewhere |
puolet tippu-tippuu-tiputtaa heti pois kärryiltä | half fall-fall-falls off the wagon right away |
se eihän tommosta, tuosta, jo kuka | surely it’s not that kind of thing, from that, already who |
tai sitten lähetään jostaki että-että-että… | or then they start from like-like-like… |
Missä on rautatieasema? | Where is the railway station? |
Helvetin pitkä kysymys | Hell of a long question |
ehkä kerran elämässä tarvii tommosta | maybe once in (your) life you need that kind of thing |
Että ei tämmösistä pitäs | like you shouldn’t from this kind of thing |
lähtee kieltä opettaan | start teaching a language |
vaan kieli pitää lähtee opettaan siitä mikä on | rather, a language should start to be taught from what’s |
mikä on suomen kielen tärkein sana | what the Finnish language’s most important word is |
mikä on koko kielen ykkössana | what the whole language’s #1 word is |
jolla pärjää kaikis tilanteis | With which you can get through all situations |
joka on monipuolisin, | which is the most versatile |
monimerkityksisin, | the most multifaceted |
koko kielen oikeestaan pääsana | really the whole language’s primary word |
paras sana | the best word |
jos ette tiiä mikä se on, ni mä voin kertoo, | if you don’t know what it is, well I can tell (you), |
se-se on ylivoimaisesti ylivoimainen siis | it-it’s by far the best, insurmountable, like |
kakkossana, toiseks tärkein sana | the second word, the second most important word |
on kaukana kaukana takana | is far far behind |
T-tää on ylivoimainen suomen para-paras ja paras | Th-this is by far Finnish’s bes-best and best |
ko-koko kielen ydinsana oikeestaan | the who-whole language’s core word |
mä voin kertoa mikä se on… No niin. | I can tell you what it is… No niin. |
Sillä pärjää yheksänkyttä rosenttia keskusteluist’ | With that one can get through 90% of conversations |
Se, se on se, sillä, se on ihan, | It, it is, it, with that, it is really, |
se on hirveen käyttö-kyllä | it’s incredible use-yes |
No niin se tarkottaa esimerkiks, se tarkottaa, että | No niin it means, for example, it means, |
“Minä alan nyt pitämään puhetta”: No niin. | that “I will start giving a speech now”: No niin. |
Se tarkottaa, että “Nyt on sit | It means that “Now it’s then |
jonkun muun vuoro puhua”: No niin. | someone else’s turn to talk”: No niin. |
Ja se tarkottaa, että | And it means that |
“Minun sormeen tuli haava”: No niin. | “I got a cut on my finger”: No niin. |
Ja se tarkottaa, että | And it means that |
“Lapset lopettakaa riehuminen”: No niin. | “Kids, stop fighting”: No niin. |
Ja se tarkottaa, että | And it means that |
“Nyt se maito sitte kaatu”: No niin. | “Now the milk spilled then”: No niin. |
Se tarkottaa, että “Mitäs minä sanoin!”: No niin! | It means that “What did I say!”: No niin! |
Se tarkottaa, et’ “En ois ikinä aavistanu | It means that “I’d never have guessed |
että näinkin voi tapahtua”: No niin! | that this could happen like this”: No niin! |
Se tarkottaa, että “Ruoka on nyt valmista”: No niin! | It means that “The food is ready now”: No niin! |
“Ruoka on nyt syöty”: No niin. | “The food has been eaten now”: No niin! |
“Vieraat tuli”: No niin. | “The visitors came”: Noo niin. |
“Vieraat meni”: No niin. | “The visitors left”: No niin. |
Vieraat ei lähe mutta isäntäväki toivoo | The visitors aren’t leaving but the hosts hope |
että ne vois pikkuhiljaa kohta alkaa lähtee: No niin. | that they would soon, gradually, start to leave: No niin. |
Meet johonki ja sit huomaat | You go somewhere and then you notice |
että siellä on valitettavasti pitkä jono: No niin. | that there is unfortunately a long queue: No niin. |
Sitte seisot siinä jonossa ja yrität ilmasta | Then you stand in that queue and you try to express |
et sen jonon pitäs liikkua | that the queue should move |
vähän nopeemmin: No niin. | a little faster: No niin. |
Ja sitte ku on vihdoinki oma vuoro: No niin! | And then when it’s finally your turn: No niin! |
Se-se on niin mahtava sana. Se on aivan… | It-it’s such an amazing word. It’s totally… |
Joo kyllä… Se on loistava… | Yeah yes… It’s brilliant. |
Siis tämmönen-tämmönenkin tilanne että | Like this-this kind of situation as well where |
mies tulee yöllä kännissä kotiin. | A husband comes home drunk at night. |
Vaimo eteisessä vastassa vihasena että: No niin. | The wife waiting in the hallway angrily like: No niin. |
“Eikö me sovittu että tänään | “Didn’t we agree that today |
sinä et juo mitään?”: No niin. | you won’t drink anything?”: No niin. |
Siinäkin syytös ja puolustus | There as well, the accusation and the defence |
hoituu samalla sanalla, mahtavaa. | are taken care of with the same word, awesome. |
“Miksi sinä joit tänään?” | “Why did you drink today?” |
“Noh, no kun kaverit oli silleen | “Well, well because the guys were like |
että otettais”: No niin. | let’s take”: No niin. |
“Hölkyn kölkynkin” voi olla no niin. Se on… | “Cheers” can also be no niin. It is… |
Mä oon ihan varma et silloinkin, ku | I’m quite sure that also when |
suomalainen ihminen pääsee ekaa kertaa | a Finnish person gets for the first time |
elämässää harrastamaan seksiä | in their life to have sex |
mutta sillon me yritetää, että | but then we try that |
me ei vahingossa sanota sitä ääneen | we don’t accidentally say it out loud |
mutta me ajatellaan kyllä että: No niin. No niin. | but we do think it: No niin. No niin. |
Ja sit tulee ennenaikane siemensyöksy: No niin. | And then comes the premature ejaculation: No niin. |
Se on niin hieno ku-ku mä aluks sanoin | It’s so great whe-when in the beginning I said |
että no niin on suomen tärkein sana niin | that no niin is the most important Finnish word |
osa teistä saatto olla vähä skeptine | part of you were probably a little skeptical |
osa saatto aatella vähä että ei voi kyllä olla | part might have thought that it just can’t be |
ei voi mitenkään | there’s no way |
Mutta nyt loputki on silleen että “No niin onki”. | But now the rest (of you) also are like “Yes it totally is”. |
On kyllä hieno. | It really is great. |
3. Glossary
The following grammar terms have been abbreviated.
- SG1: first person singular (the minä-form)
- SG2: second person singular (the sinä-form)
- SG3: third person singular (the hän-form)
- PL2: second person plural (the me-form)
- PL3: third person plural (the he-form)
I have marked different elements of the analysis using the following symbols.
- in italics: base word
- (in brackets): translation
- ‘in single quotation marks’: literal meaning
- “in double quotation marks”: intended meaning
- [square brackets]: saying, idiom, fixed phrase; rection
- <symbol: basic form
- *symbol: spoken language
Related spoken language articles:
4. No niin – Suomen tärkein sana – Ismo Leikola – Finnish Sketch Analysis
Kuule, kun mä oon kuullu jossain semmosen väitteen | |
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Kuule | <kuulla (to hear), singular imperative ‘So listen, hear me out’ |
kun | because |
mä | *minä (spoken language pronoun), I |
oon | *olen, from olla (to be), SG1 present tense, used as part of the perfect tense |
kuullu | *kuullut, from kuulla (to hear), NUT-participle, used as part of the perfect tense “have heard” |
jossain | somewhere (the missä-form of jokin) |
semmosen | semmonen (a/that kind of), genitive case because connected to väitteen |
väitteen | <väite (claim), genitive case because total object of kuulla |
So hear me out, because I’ve heard somewhere this claim |
The word kuule is fairly commonly used to start a story of some kind. It calls the listeners to attention: “So hear me out”. It can also be used to express exasperation when the other person isn’t hearing your point: “En kuule halua enää keskustella tästä!” would mean something like “Listen to me, I don’t want to talk about this anymore!”.
As you will see all through this sketch, kun is used in spoken language to mean “because”. Ismo sometimes uses kun and sometimes shortens it further to ku. In written language, kun means “when” and koska means “because”. In spoken language, kun can be used to mean “because” and koska can be used to mean “when” in questions (e.g. Koska tuut? “When are you coming?”).
The verb olla is conjugated in spoken language as follows: Mä oon, sä oot, se on, me ollaan, te ootte, ne on. Read more about verb conjugations in spoken language here. Read more about pronouns in spoken language here.
It’s a good idea to just learn jossain as-is to mean “somewhere”, but technically it’s the missä-form of jokin “something”. Jokin can be inflected in all the cases, such as jostain/jostakin (from somewhere), johonkin (to somewhere) and jotakin (“something” in the partitive). I have an article about jokin and joku here.
että suomen kieli on maailman yks vaikeimmista kielistä oppia. | |
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että | that |
suomen | <suomi (Finnish), genitive case, connected to kieli |
kieli | language |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
maailman | <maailma (world), genitive case, “of the world’s” |
yks | *yksi (one) |
vaikeimmista | <vaikea (difficult), superlative plural mistä-form “of the most difficult” |
kielistä | <kieli (language), plural mistä-form “languages” |
oppia | to learn |
that the Finnish language is one of the world’s hardest languages to learn. |
“Yksi vaikeimmista kielistä” means “one of the hardest languages”. It consists of the number yksi, combined with the plural mistä-form of “vaikein kieli“. The word vaikeimmista contains the following parts: vaike-imm-i-sta, ie. [adjective + superlative marker + plural marker + elative marker]. The inflection of the superlative vaikein “most difficult” in the Finnish cases is a topic for advanced learners. You can read more about it here.
Dropping the -i from the end of certain words and forms is a very common spoken language element. Read more about it here.
Tää ois ihan niinkun top viis maailman vaikeimpien kielien joukossa. | |
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tää | *tämä (this, in this context it means the Finnish language) |
ois | *olisi from olla to be, SG3 conditional “would be” |
ihan | right |
niinkun | filler word “like” |
top | top |
viis | *viisi (five) |
maailman | <maailma (world), genitive case, “the world’s” |
vaikeimpien | <vaikea (difficult), superlative plural genitive form, because it’s attached to kielien |
kielien | <kieli (language), plural genitive form because of joukossa |
joukossa | <joukko (group), abstract, used to mean “among”, postposition: [genitive + joukossa] |
This would be right, like, among the world’s top five most difficult languages. |
Many spoken language elements again! In spoken language tämä becomes tää, and tuo becomes toi. Read more about spoken language demonstrative pronouns here. The standard language form olisi can be shortened in spoken language in two common ways: we could say olis or ois. The word niinkun (also niinku or niin kuin) is used in spoken language as a filler word. It’s similar to how English speakers add “like” to sentences.
“Top viisi” is of course an anglicism, but is used pretty regularly, for example, in lists of the 5 most popular songs. It’s very common in spoken Finnish to drop the -i from the end of a word. You can read more about this here.
The word joukossa means “among” or “amongst” and is considered a postposition. Thus, it appears at the end of the phrase [vaikeimpien kielien joukossa] and requires the words vaikein kieli to be inflected in the genitive case. The word vaikeimpien roughly consists of the following parts: vaike+imp+ie+n (ie. adjective + superlative marker + plural marker + genitive marker).
The word kieli can have two possible plural genitive forms: kielten and kielien. You can read more about the genitive plural here.
Ni mä en kyllä ihan voi käsittää | |
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ni | *niin (well) |
mä | *minä (spoken language pronoun) |
en | no, not, singular first person |
kyllä | yes, emphatic stress on the “en voi käsittää“ |
ihan | quite, really |
voi | <voida (to be able to), rection: [voida + basic form], connected to “en“: “I can’t” |
käsittää | to comprehend, understand, basic form because of voida |
Well, I can’t really understand |
During your studies, you will definitely come across sentences where a negative statement contains the word kyllä “yes”. In these situations, it has an emphatic function: it stresses the negativity of a sentence. For example, “En tiedä” means “I don’t know”, while “En kyllä tiedä” could be translated as “I do not know” or “I certainly don’t know”.
The verb käsittää is a synonym for ymmärtää. It appears in its basic form in the sentence because the verb voida will require verbs attached to it in the basic form: e.g. En voi tulla “I can’t come”, Emme voineet jatkaa “We couldn’t continue”.
koska eihän tää nyt oo niin vaikeet’. | |
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koska | because (conjunction) |
eihän | ei (no, not) + -han clitic “isn’t” |
tää | *tämä (this), spoken language demonstrative pronoun |
nyt | now |
oo | *ole, from olla (to be), “isn’t” |
niin | that, to that extent |
vaikeet | <*vaikeeta from vaikea (difficult), partitive case |
because this isn’t all that difficult now, is it. |
Spoken language elements:
– The spoken language partitive form vaikeeta is interesting. In standard language, the partitive of the adjective vaikea would generally be vaikeaa. In spoken language, vaikea becomes vaikee. The partitive rules say that when a word ends in a long vowel, we will use the marker -ta for the partitive. Thus, we get vaikeeta.
– You will find it’s very common in spoken language to replace ole with oo. For example, “En ole” because “En oo” and “Ei ole” becomes “Ei oo“. When pronouncing this, make sure you stretch your -o- sound.
– In spoken language tämä often becomes tää. Read more about spoken language demonstrative pronouns here.
The clitic -han/hän is used in rhetorical questions. The sentence “Eihän tämä ole niin vaikeaa” is a question meant to convey that both the speaker and the listener know the answer already. In English, you might add “is it?” to the end: “This isn’t that difficult, is it?”
Ismo’s speech deals with “no niin“, but the word niin on its own is also interesting – definitely a good contender for a future article. When followed by an adjective in a negative sentence, we can translate it as “that, to that extent”: Se ei ole niin vaikeeta “It isn’t that difficult”, En ole niin väsynyt vielä “I’m not that tired yet”.
Helppoohan tää, jorisee menemään vaan. | |
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helppoohan | *helppoahan, from helppo (easy), partitive case + -han clitic |
tää | *tämä (this), read more about tää and toi here. |
jorisee | <jorista (to babble), in the SG3 present tense |
menemään | <mennä (to go), in the third infinitive’s -maan form |
vaan | just |
This is easy, isn’t it. Just start babbling. |
If you listen carefully, you can hear how Ismo adds a schwa vowel svaavokaali to helppoo, making it heleppoo. This is done in many dialects (e.g. kahavi rather than kahvi, and kolome rather than kolme).
The -han clitic is added here to express that this is an obvious statement, which both the speaker and the listener should have no trouble accepting.
Pienenä osasin jo ihan hyvin tätä. | |
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pienenä | <pieni (small), essive case “when I was small” |
osasin | <osata (to be able to), SG1 imperfect tense “I knew (how to)” |
jo | already (conjunction) |
ihan | pretty |
hyvin | well (adverb) |
tätä | tämä (this), partitive case, because it refers to the language, abstract thing |
As a small kid I already knew this pretty well. |
One of the uses of the essive case is to express during which life period you did or do something: pienenä means “when I was small, as a small child”, nuorena “when I was young, as a youth” and aikuisena “as an adult”.
You can read more about ihan and other adverbs of intensity such as aika, tosi and melko here. Read more about the demonstrative pronouns tämä, tuo and se here.
Siis jos siin’ on.. Jos siin’ on… Jos se on niin-niin jotenkin-niin | |
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siis | so |
jos | if |
siin’ | *siinä, from se, in the missä-form |
on | olla (to be) |
niin | like |
jotenkin | somethow |
niin | so |
Well, if it has… If it is… If it is so-so somehow so |
This section is a good example of how some of the things people say during free speech doesn’t always form proper sentences. This line could just as well be cut out of monologue, the only function it serves is to give Ismo time to gather his thoughts and decide how to express what he wants to say next.
se niin vaikee, se oppi-oppiminen, niin sit | |
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se | it |
niin | so |
vaikee | *vaikea (difficult), vowel assimilation in spoken language |
se | it |
oppiminen | <oppia (to learn), in the fourth infinitive |
niin | well |
sit | *sitten (then) |
it’s so hard, the learn-learning, well then |
Combined with the previous section, we can turn this whole section into one clause: “Jos oppiminen on niin vaikeaa, niin sitten” ie. If the learning is so hard, well then…” (this statement continues in the following section).
Oppiminen “learning” comes from the verb oppia “to learn”. This is the fourth infinitive form, used to turn a verb into a noun. We need to do this when the subject of our sentence is a verb, like in this case: The learning is hard.
The word niin on its own is often used in jos-sentences to connect the condition and the result to one another: “Jos x, niin y” ie. If [insert condition x], then [insert consequence y]. In written Finnish, this will be omitted: “Jos suomen kielen oppiminen on vaikeaa, niin opetusmetodissa on pakko olla joku vika“.
se on pakko siin’ opetusmetodissa joku vika | |
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se | it |
on | olla (to be), SG3 present tense, part of [olla pakko] necessity phrase |
pakko | obligation, in combination with the verb olla, this means “has to” |
siin | *siinä, from se (it) in the missä-form, “in it” |
opetusmetodissa | <opetusmetodi (teaching method), missä-form “in the teaching method” |
joku | some |
vika | fault, flaw, problem |
it must be something wrong in the teaching method |
This sentence is the second part of the sentence above: (If the learning of Finnish is so hard…), …then there must be something wrong with the teaching method. We can rephrase this section as: “(Siinä) opetusmetodissa on pakko olla joku vika” to make it more like standard Finnish.
While Finnish doesn’t have articles such as “a” and “the”, it’s common in everyday language to use the pronoun se “it” as a similar element. In this sentence, se is used in combination with opetusmetodi to form “siinä opetusmetodissa”: “in the teaching method”.
The construction [x:ssä on joku vika] is a common expression. It could also be [x:ssä on jokin vika]. You can read more about joku and jokin here.
The necessity structure “on pakko” means “must be, has to, is obligatory”. If you’re a beginner, you’ve most likely learned “minun täytyy” and “minun pitää“. “Minun on pakko” is similar to täytyy but stronger. In Ismo’s sentence, there’s no genitive at all because he’s not saying someone has to do something. Rather, he’s expressing that there must be a problem in the teaching method (opetusmetodissa).
koska eikö suomee lähetä opettaan | |
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koska | because (conjunction) |
eikö | ei (no) + -ko/kö suffix, making it a question |
suomee | *suomea, from suomi (Finnish), in the partitive case because it’s the object of opettaa |
lähetä | *lähdetä, from lähteä (to leave), passive “(people) start” |
opettaa | *opettamaan, from opettaa “to teach”, rection: [opettaa + partitive] |
because don’t they start teaching Finnish |
Spoken language elements in this section:
1. The diphthong -ea- is replaced with the long vowel -ee- > Learn more about vowel assimilation.
2. The letter -d- is often dropped > Learn more about the letter -d-.
3. The -maan form (third infinitive) is often shortened > Learn more about the third infinitive in spoken language.
The verb lähteä in its most basic use means “to leave a place”. In combination with the third infinitive‘s -maan form (the mihin-form), it means “to start doing something. In this sentence, the passive form lähdetään is used to express that some undefined person or people start teaching Finnish.
The form eikö can be translated to English in several ways, depending on which form of a verb it is connected to. For example, “Eikö hän lähde?” (Isn’t he leaving?), and “Eikö hän lähtenyt?” (Didn’t he leave?). The negative verb can be conjugated in Finnish so, in the first person singular, you’d get “Enkö lukenut tätä jo?” (Didn’t I already read this?), and in the second person plural “Etkö ymmärrä minua?” (Don’t you understand me?).
This section isn’t a complete sentence: Ismo doesn’t in this section say right away from what subject people start teaching Finnish.
aina jostaki, se lähetää jostaki että-että | |
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aina | always |
jostaki | *jostakin, spoken language, “from somewhere” |
se | it |
lähetää | *lähdetään, spoken language passive form of lähteä “start off from” |
jostaki | *jostakin, spoken language, “from somewhere” |
että | that |
että | that |
always from somewhere, they start from somewhere like-like |
Combined with the previous line, we see more repetition. This doesn’t give any new information besides the word jostakin, which is needed in combination with the verb lähteä: the verb lähteä requires a word in the mistä-form to express a departure from somewhere. Here, Ismo is explaining what the departure point is for learning Finnish, which he specifies in the next phrase.
allatiivi ellatiivi illatiivi ullatiivi pallitiivi kullitiivi pillu… | |
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allatiivi | allative (name of the case that ends in -lle) |
ellatiivi | mispronunciation of elatiivi (name of the case that ends in -sta) |
illatiivi | illative (name of the case that answers the question “mihin“) |
ullatiivi | a made up word, Ulla is a woman’s name |
pallitiivi | a made-up word containing the word palli(t) “testicles” |
kullitiivi | a made-up word containing the word kulli “dick” |
pillu… | pillu means “pussy” |
allative, ellative, illative, ullative, pallitive, kullitive, pillu… |
In high school, Finns learn the names of the Finnish cases, usually as a list. Later on in life, it’s very unlikely that a native Finn will remember the names of all the cases. They will remember that they all end in -tiivi.
In order to make fun of these case names, Ismo has included some made-up words which are a little dirty. The last few –tiivi‘s contain the words for testicle (palli), dick (kulli) and pussy (pillu).
josta-joistain tämmösistä ihmeen tiivisteestä jostain | |
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joistain | from somewhere |
tämmösistä | <tämmönen (this kind of), spoken language plural mistä-form “these kinds of” |
ihmeen | <ihme (wonder), in the genitive case, ?? |
tiivisteistä | <tiiviste (seal, gasket), in the plural elative case |
jostain | from somewhere |
fro-from some of these weird kinds of -tiivi’s somewhere |
The word tiiviste is used simply for comedic effect. The word tiiviste means some kind of a seal, usually to keep water out or in. Here, it’s used because it starts with tiivi-, which is the ending that appears in all these case names (illatiivi, partitiivi).
The word tämmönen is the spoken language version of tällainen, and very popular in spoken language. It sounds very much like Ismo says tämmöstä rather than tämmösistä, but he might just be swallowing a few letters. It might be beneficial for you to see how this phrase is constructed in several steps:
> joistain tiivisteistä “from some -tiivi’s”
> joistain tämmösistä tiivisteistä “from some of these kinds of -tiivi’s”
> joistain tämmösistä ihmeen tiivisteistä “from some of these weird kinds of -tiivi’s”
puolet tippu-tippuu-tiputtaa heti pois kärryiltä | |
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puolet | <puoli (half), in the T-plural form “half” |
tippuu | <tippua (to fall off, intransitive verb), SG3 present tense “drops, falls off” |
tiputtaa | <tiputtaa (to drop, transitive verb), SG3 present tense “drops something” |
heti | immediately |
pois | away, off |
kärryiltä | <kärryt (wagon), saying: [pudota kärryiltä] “to fall from the carriage” |
half fall-falls off, is dropped from the carriage |
The word puoli “half” in the T-plural is a shortened form of “puolet ihmisistä“, or maybe “puolet opiskelijoista“. Half of the Finnish learners get confused immediately in the beginning of their Finnish studies.
The meaning of the English phrase “to fall off the wagon” is different from the Finnish meaning! If someone “putoaa kärryiltä“, it means that they lose track of the conversation, ie. no longer understands what is being said. In this context, Ismo is describing that people immediately get confused when Finnish is being taught starting from the case names.
While Ismo ends up using the verb tiputtaa here, in this context, tippua is actually the correct verb. People aren’t dropped “off the wagon” by someone (tiputtaa), rather they fall off themselves (tippua).
se eihän tommosta, tuosta, jo kuka | |
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se | it |
eihän | ei (no, not) + -han clitic, |
tommosta | *tuollaista, spoken language partitive case of tommonen “that kind of thing” |
tuosta | *tuosta, spoken language elative case of tuo “from that” |
jo | already |
kuka | who |
surely it’s not that kind of thing, from that, already who |
This is a very broken sentence, typical for Ismo. It also conveys the helplessness when even considering that someone should start learning a language in this way.
The standard language tuollainen is extremely commonly replaced with tommonen in spoken language. You can read more about tämmönen, tommonen and semmonen here.
The demonstative pronouns tämä, tuo and se also get changed quite a lot in spoken language. You can read more about tää, toi and se in this article.
tai sitten lähetään jostaki että-että-että… | |
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tai | or, conjunction |
sitten | then |
lähetään | *lähdetään, present passive “one starts” |
jostaki | *jostakin, elative case because of lähteä, “from somewhere” |
että | that, like |
or then they start from like-like-like… |
The thought of the previous line doesn’t come to a conclusion. Instead, Ismo switches to a different point he wants to make about how language is taught to beginners.
The verb lähdetään misses the -d- in the middle. This is another very typical feature of spoken language. Likewise, the -n that’s dropped from jostakin is also a typical phonological change in spoken language.
The passive form lähdetään is used here because we’re not specifying who specifically starts teaching Finnish with the phrase “Missä on rautatieasema?” (see the next line). The passive conveys that we’re referring to a person, but it’s not important who is doing the action. The most natural translation to English in this case is probably “they start”, with the “they” being left ambiguous.
The verb lähteä usually means “to leave (a place)”. In our current context, we could imagine the word liikkeelle to be added, which would make the sentence easier to understand for non-natives. The phrase “lähteä liikkeelle jostakin” means “to start moving, to move ahead from somewhere”.
Missä on rautatieasema? | |
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missä | where |
on | olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
rautatieasema | railway station |
Where is the railway station? |
This sentence should be clear 🙂
Helvetin pitkä kysymys | |
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helvetin | helvetti (hell), genitive case, “hell of a” |
pitkä | long |
kysymys | question |
Hell of a long question |
The question “Missä on rautatieasema” isn’t particularly long but compared to the word “no niin” which Ismo is suggesting as a better starting point for beginners, it is indeed long.
In order to make an adjective stronger, we can precede it with a word in the genitive case: helvetin pitkä (hellishly/really long) or hirveän vaikea (terribly/really long). These words are used as adverbs of intensity.
ehkä kerran elämässä tarvii tommosta | |
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ehkä | maybe |
kerran | <kerta (time), genitive case “once” |
elämässä | <elämä (life), inessive case “in life” |
tarvii | *tarvitsee, spoken language SG3 present tense of tarvita, “one needs” |
tommosta | *tuollaista, spoken language partitive case of tommonen “that kind of thing” |
maybe once in life you need that kind of thing |
Finnish students very often say “yksi kerta” when they mean “one time” or “once”. This is something that you should avoid: just drop the “yksi” and use kerran instead. The genitive case expresses that it’s “yksi“. You can say “yhden kerran” (with both words inflected in the genitive case), but this is a little redundant.
The verb tarvita often gets inflected differently in spoken language. The third person form tarvitsee is often replaced with either tarvii or tarttee. The third person singular is used here as a type of passive: “one needs”. In this context, “you need” is more natural of a translation. Read more about generic sentences here.
että ei tämmösistä pitäs lähtee kieltä opettaan | |
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että | that, like |
ei | not, SG3 negative verb, connected to pitäisi |
tämmösistä | *tällaisista, spoken language elative case of tämmönen “from these kinds of things” |
pitäs | *pitäisi, spoken language SG3 conditional form “shouldn’t”, rection: [pitää + basic form] |
lähtee | *lähteä, spoken language, basic form because of pitää, rection: [lähteä + -maan] |
kieltä | <kieli (language), in the partitive case because of opettaa |
opettaan | *opettamaan, spoken language –maan form of opettaa “to teach”, partitive verb |
like you shouldn’t start teaching a language from this kind of thing |
The standard language tällainen is extremely commonly replaced with tämmönen in spoken language. You can read more about tämmönen, tommonen and semmonen here. It’s inflected in the plural mistä-form because of the verb lähteä.
The form pitäs is – from a learner’s perspective – hardly recognisable as the -isi- form of pitää. Two typical spoken language features are the cause of that. Firstly, there is a strong tendency in spoken language to drop the final -i of any word (pitäisi becomes pitäis). Secondly, the -i- of diphthongs such as -ai- (pitäisi) is dropped inside a word.
The verb lähteä has two possible rections when a second verb is added: we can use either the -masta form (e.g. Lähdin juhlimasta “I left the party ‘from partying’)” or the -maan form (e.g. Lähden juhlimaan “I’m off to go partying”). In this line, we’re starting to teach, so the -maan form is used. However, the -maan form is often shortened in spoken language. You can read more about phrases such as “menen nukkuun/nukkumaan” in this article.
vaan kieli pitää lähtee opettaan siitä mikä on | |
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vaan | rather |
kieli | language |
pitää | pitää (to have to), SG3 present tense “must” |
lähtee | *lähteä, spoken language, basic form because of pitää, rection: [lähteä + -maan] |
opettaan | *opettamaan, spoken language –maan form of opettaa “to teach”, partitive verb |
siitä | se (it), in the elative case (mistä) “from the thing” |
mikä | what |
on | is |
rather, the language should start to be taught from what’s |
The previous line has “ei pitäis lähtee opettaan” (shouldn’t be taught), which is followed by the word “rather” and then the new phrase “pitää lähtee opettaan” (must be taught).
Just like tämmösistä in the previous line, siitä is inflected in the elative (the mistä-form) because of the verb lähteä. The word se in is used to “fill in” the lack of a noun to inflect in the mistä-form. This might be a good idea to read over my article about verb rections with että. In this case, we don’t have että. Rather, we have the question word mikä. The question continues in the next line.
Ismo makes the choice here to use the basic form of kieli here rather than the partitive case. The verb opettaa is usually followed by the partitive case (eg. Opetan ranskaa “I teach French”). You can’t teach a whole languageat once, so the partitive helps convey teacher is a process. However, if you exceptionally want to express teaching the whole language, you can use a total object as well. The word kieli in Ismo’s speech appears in the basic form because it’s the object of a necessity sentence: “pitää lähteä opettamaan kieli“.
mikä on suomen kielen tärkein sana |
|
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mikä | what, question word |
on | olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
suomen | <suomi (Finnish), in the genitive case because connected to kieli |
kielen | <kieli (language), in the genitive case “of the language” |
tärkein | <tärkeä (important), in the superlative form “most important” |
sana | word |
what is the Finnish language’s most important word |
We could translate “suomen kielen tärkein sana” both as “the most important word of the Finnish language” or “the Finnish language‘s most important word”. The latter option doesn’t sound as good in English, but it follows the word order of the Finnish phrase more closely.
mikä on koko kielen ykkössana | |
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mikä | what |
on | olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
koko | the whole |
kielen | <kieli (language), in the genitive case “language’s” |
ykkössana | #1 word |
what is the whole language’s #1 word |
The numeral yksi means “one”, but “number one” is ykkönen. When combined with the noun sana “word”, we get ykkös-sana. Nouns ending in -nen always do this is compound words. For example, “hevonen + kilpailut” becomes “hevoskilpailut” (horse races), and “nainen + kuljettaja” becomes “naiskuljettaja” (female driver).
jolla pärjää kaikis tilanteis | |
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jolla | <joka (relative pronoun, often translated as “which”) in the adessive case (-lla) |
pärjää | pärjätä (to make do, to manage), SG3 present tense, generic sentence “one can manage” |
kaikis | *kaikissa, spoken language, plural inessive case (missä-form) of kaikki (all), “in all” |
tilanteis | *tilanteissa, spoken language, plural inessive case (missä-form) of tilanne (situation), “in situations” |
With which you can get through all situations |
Ismo is saying that there’s one word with which (= jolla) you can manage in all situations. Joka is a relative pronoun, a pretty important word once you start creating more complicated sentences.
The verb pärjätä is inflected here in the third person singular, but the sentence doesn’t have a subject. This is a generic sentence: it applies to any person, nobody specific. In this sketch, Ismo uses both this third person form and the passive in order to convey this generic meaning.
It’s common in certain dialects to shorten the -ssa form (the inessive case) to just an -s.
joka on monipuolisin, monimerkityksisin, | |
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joka | which |
on | olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
monipuolisin | <monipuolinen (versatile), in the superlative “the most versatile” |
monimerkityksisin | <monimerkityksinen (equivocal), in the superlative “the most equivocal” |
which is the most versatile, the most multifaceted |
Ismo is talking about “(the word) which (joka) is the most versatile”.
In Finnish, you can add -in to any adjective to make it a superlative form. As you can see in the English translation, this is not always the case for less common adjectives. Adjectives ending in -nen will get the -nen replaced with -sempi in the comparative and -sin in the superlative.
koko kielen oikeestaan pääsana, paras sana | |
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koko | the whole |
kielen | <kieli (language), genitive case “of the language” |
oikeestaan | *oikeastaan, spoken language ea > ee, “actually, in fact” |
pääsana | main word (pää + sana) |
paras | best, superlative form of hyvä (good), “the best” |
sana | word |
really the whole language’s primary word, the best word |
The diphthong –ea– in the word oikeastaan will be assimilated into a long vowel: –ee– (oikeestaan). The word oikeastaan is based on the word oikea, but its meaning has shifted away from that. It’s best to just learn the form oikeastaan as-is rather than analyze it. It means “actually”, “really” or “in fact”.
The word pääsana is another compound word. The base meaning of the word pää you might know already: it means “head”. At the start of a compound word, pää usually means “main” (e.g. pääasia “the main point”, pääkatu “the main street”, pääkirjasto “the main library”).
jos ette tiiä mikä se on, ni mä voin kertoo | |
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jos | if, conjunction |
ette | PL2 form of ei, “(you) don’t” |
tiiä | *tiedä, negative present tense, from the verb tietää (to know) “(don’t) know” |
mikä | what |
se | it |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense, “is” |
ni | *niin, shortened in spoken language, “well, then” |
mä | *minä, “I” |
voin | <voida (to be able to) in the SG1 present tense, rection: [voida + basic form], “I can” |
kertoo | *kertoa, spoken language version of the basic form |
if you don’t know what it is, well I can tell (you) |
In spoken language, the negative form of the verb tietää becomes “en tiiä“, “en mä tiiä” and “emmä tiiä“. The -d- of the standard form “en tiedä” gets removed or replaced very often in spoken language, as is the case in kaheksan “kahdeksan” and oottaa “odottaa”. Read more about the consonant -d- in Finnish here.
The form kertoa very often becomes kertoo in spoken language, because of spoken language assimilation of -oa- to -oo-. Note that in Ismo’s sketch, this is not the third person singular “hän kertoo” but rather the infinitive of the verb kertoa. We use the infinitive because of the verb voida, which always gets followed by the basic form of a verb, eg: “voin mennä” (I can go), “voisimme syödä” (we could eat), “voitko tulla” (can you come).
se-se on ylivoimaisesti ylivoimainen siis | |
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se | it |
on | olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
ylivoimaisesti | by far, overwhelmingly |
ylivoimainen | insurmountable, superior |
siis | like |
it-it’s by far the best, insurmountable, like |
Ismo first says ylivoimaisesti, which is an adverb, followed by ylivoimainen, which is an adjective. What he’s trying to say is that “no niin” is by far (adverb) the most superior (adjective) Finnish word. Both the adjective and the adverb make sense in this sentence.
kakkossana, toiseks tärkein sana on kaukana kaukana takana | |
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kakkossana | second word (ie. second most popular word) |
toiseks | *toiseksi, spoken language, translative case of toinen “the second” |
tärkein | <tärkeä (important) |
sana | word |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
kaukana | far (away) |
kaukana | far (away) |
takana | behind |
the second word, the second most important word is far far behind |
Kakkossana is a compound word, consisting of kakkonen (number 2) and sana (word). When we make a compound word where the first part ends in -nen, you will replace the -nen with -s. This is not a word you will find in the dictionary. Rather, it’s been made up on the spot, which is very common in Finnish. The word ykkössana “number one word” follows the same pattern. Other similar compound words are hevoskilpailu (hevonen + kilpailu, horse race), naiskuljettaja (nainen + kuljettaja, female driver) and venäläismies (venäläinen + mies, Russian man).
When putting things in order of a superlative, we can use the translative case of the ordinal number: toiseksi paras laulaja (the second-best singer), toiseksi kaunein malli (the second most beautiful model), kolmanneksi suurin kaupunki (the third largest city).
Repeating the kaukana here stresses that it’s far, far behind. You do this type of repetition in most languages, I think, to stress what you’re saying.
T-tää on ylivoimainen suomen para-paras ja paras | |
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tää | *tämä “this” |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
ylivoimainen | superior, insurmountable |
suomen | <suomi (Finnish), genitive case “Finnish’s” |
paras | best |
ja | and |
paras | best |
Th-this is by far Finnish’s bes-best and best |
There is no reason for Ismo to repeat “paras ja paras” here. I think this is just a matter of him getting his bearings on what he’s going to say next. Doing a bit of stuttering or repeating words is something Ismo often does right before he’s announcing something important or getting to the point of a joke.
ko-koko kielen ydinsana oikeestaan | |
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koko | whole |
kielen | <kieli (language), in the genitive case “the language’s” |
ydinsana | core word |
oikeestaan | *oikeastaan, spoken language ea > ee “actually, in fact” |
the who-whole language’s core word |
So far, Ismo has used the compound words ykkössana, kakkossana and pääsana. New to the list is ydinsana, consisting of the word ydin (core) and sana (word).
mä voin kertoa mikä se on… No niin. | |
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mä | *minä, spoken language personal pronoun “I” |
voin | <voida, SG1 present tense, rection: [voida + basic form], “I can” |
kertoa | to tell, basic form because of kertoa. |
mikä | what, question word |
se | it |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense, “is” |
No niin | No niin |
I can tell you what it is… No niin. |
The big reveal! The most important word is “no niin“! This is technically two words, but they are used as a unit and are also often written as “noniin“.
Sillä pärjää yheksänkyttä rosenttia keskusteluist’ | |
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sillä | <se (it) in the -lla form (the adessive case), “with it” |
pärjää | <pärjätä (to manage, make do), sg3 present tense, “one (can) manage” |
yheksänkyttä | *yhdeksänkymmentä |
rosettia | *prosenttia |
keskusteluist | *keskusteluista, sta-form (elative case) of keskustelu |
With that one can get through 90% of conversations |
Consonant clusters like pr- are regularly simplified in spoken language. You see this phenomenon, for example, in the words prinsessa “rinsessa” and projekti “rojekti“.
The millä-form (adessive case) can be used to express what you use to do something. For example, “Avaan oven avaimella” means “I open the door with a key” and “Tulen kouluun bussilla” means “I come to school by bus”. In this line, Ismo is expressing that you can succeed in most conversations with the expression “no niin“.
Numbers are often shortened considerably in spoken language. You can read more in my other article that addresses this topic.
Se, se on se, sillä, se on ihan, | |
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Se | it |
se | it |
on | is |
se | it |
sillä | it has |
se | it |
on | is |
ihan | really |
It, it is, it, with that, it is really |
This is another “empty” sentence that doesn’t fulfill a clear function. Ismo is collecting his thoughts, or perhaps giving the audience a chance to properly process what he is claiming.
se on hirveen käyttö-kyllä | |
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se | it |
on | olla (to be) |
hirveen | *hirveän, genitive case of hirveä “terrible”, in this context “incredibly” |
käyttö- | use- (word has been cut off) |
kyllä | yes |
it’s incredible use-yes |
Another feature typical for spoken language is just abandoning words or sentences midway. It’s used when you want to rephrase something or when you’ve used the wrong word. In this case, it’s possible that Ismo was going for käyttökelpoinen (usable) but realized the word wasn’t strong enough. Another word that comes to mind is käytännöllinen, but “practical” is also not the perfect word.
No niin se tarkottaa esimerkiks, se tarkottaa että | |
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No niin | No niin |
se | it |
tarkottaa | *tarkoittaa, -i- dropped, SG3 present tense “means” |
esimerkiks | *esimerkiksi, final -i dropped “for example” |
se | it |
tarkottaa | *tarkoittaa, sg3 present tense “means” |
että | that |
No niin it means, for example, it means that |
Another example of how, in spoken language, repeating chunks of sentences is very common.
The word tarkoittaa appears again and again in this sketch, and it’s always pronounced without the -i- in the second syllable. This is a common spoken language feature, which is also used in the words punainen (“punanen“), hiljainen (“hiljanen“) and kotoisin (“kotosin“).
“Minä alan nyt pitämään puhetta”: No niin. | |
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minä | I |
alan | alkaa (to start), SG1 present tense “start” |
nyt | now |
pitämään | <pitää (to start, keep), third infinitive |
puhetta | <puhe (speech), in the partitive case |
No niin | “Here we go”; “listen up”; “Let’s get started” |
“I will start giving a speech now”: No niin. |
The verb alkaa has two possible rections: we can use it in combination with the basic form of the verb (“Alan pitää puhetta“) and with the third infinitive’s -maan form (“Alan pitämään puhetta“). Originally, only “alan pitää” was considered correct, but due to the popularity in everyday language use, “alan pitämään” also became a correct form.
The phrase “to give a speech” in Finnish is “pitää puhe“. Both the genitive case (Pidän puheen) and the partitive case (Pidän puhetta) are used. The genitive focuses that you will give and finish a whole speech, while the partitive focuses more on actually giving the speech. It’s likely that no one will correct you for using one over the other.
Se tarkottaa, että “Nyt on sit jonkun muun vuoro puhua”: No niin. | |
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se | it |
tarkottaa | *tarkoittaa, spoken language SG3 present tense “means” |
että | that |
nyt | now |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “it is” |
sit | *sitten |
jonkun | <joku (someone), in the genitive case “someone’s” |
muun | <muu (else), in the genitive case “else’s” |
vuoro | turn |
puhua | to speak |
No niin | “That’s it”; “Your turn” |
It means that “Now it’s then someone else’s turn to talk”: No niin. |
Judging Ismo’s intonation, this “no niin” is a factual “this speech is over, let’s move on to the next one”. Note how intonation is very important with “no niin“. Without listening to Ismo’s sketch, it’s hard to interpret the sentiment behind this line. It could, with a different intonation, have been a sign of relief that the speech is over.
Some words like sit (sitten), et (että) and mut (mutta) can lose their second syllable completely in spoken language.
“Jonkun muun vuoro” means “someone else’s turn”. Joku is a fun word that contains double inflection: the genitive’s -n is repeated twice within the word: jon-kun. This also happens in the other cases of this word: e.g. jotakuta (partitive), jollakulla (adessive case). You can read more about joku and the closely related jokin in this article.
Ja se tarkottaa, että “Minun sormeen tuli haava”: No niin. | |
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Ja | and, conjunction |
se | it |
tarkottaa | *tarkoittaa, spoken language SG3 present tense “means” |
että | that |
minun | minä (I), in the genitive case “my” |
sormeen | sormi (finger), in the illative form (mihin-form) because of the verb tulla |
tuli | tulla (to come), SG3 imperfect “came” |
haava | wound, cut |
No niin | “Of course, I should have expected this” |
And it means that “I got a cut on my finger”: No niin. |
This “no niin” is one of resignation, admittance of something that you should have seen coming.
“Sormeen tuli haava” is a sentence without a subject. We’re not saying who cut the finger, though in this case it’s implied that Ismo cut his own finger. This is done regularly in Finnish but can sound a little weird in English: “into my finger came a cut”. We’re using the mihin-form (illative case) of sormi because we’re expressing a cut coming “into” the finger.
Ismo’s low pitch and slight exhalation while saying “no niin” here suggest resignation with the current situation. The cut isn’t a big deal but an annoyance.
Ja se tarkottaa, että “Lapset lopettakaa riehuminen”: No niin. | |
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ja | and |
se | it |
tarkottaa | *tarkoittaa, spoken language SG3 present tense “means” |
että | that |
lapset | <lapsi (child), in the T-plural “children” |
lopettakaa | <lopettaa (to stop, end), in the PL2 imperative form “stop!” |
riehuminen | rampage, fighting |
No niin | “That’s enough”; “Time to stop” |
And it means that “Kids, stop fighting”: No niin. |
This “no niin” is a strict, authoritative one. In addition to the tone of voice, the fact that Ismo looks over to the side helps interpret the meaning.
If we were talking to one child, you’d say “Lopeta” (the singular imperative). When addressing multiple children, you use the plural imperative “Lopettakaa“. The object of the imperative form is riehuminen (rampaging, raging), which is the fourth infinitive from the verb riehua (to rampage, to rage).
Riehuminen appears in the nominative case due to the imperative form: in imperative sentences you will use the basic form instead of the genitive case. If this was a regular sentence, we’d use the genitive case “Minä lopetan riehumisen“.
Ja se tarkottaa, että “Nyt se maito sitte kaatu”: No niin. | |
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Ja | and, conjunction |
se | it |
tarkottaa | *tarkoittaa, spoken language SG3 present tense, “means” |
että | that |
nyt | now |
se | it, here: the |
maito | milk |
sitte | *sitten, spoken language “then” |
kaatu | *kaatui, SG3 imperfect tense of kaatua (to fall over), “fell” |
No niin | “Ugh! Of course, I should have guessed” |
And it means that “Now the milk spilled then”: No niin. |
This no niin expresses resignation or an acknowledgement that something was to be expected. It’s pretty similar to the one where Ismo expresses getting a cut on his finger.
One tricky spoken language feature for learners of Finnish is realizing that we’re dealing with the past tense (the imperfect) when the final -i of the imperfect is dropped from the word. You really should be able to hear the difference between kaatuu and kaatu in spoken language, because the former is the present tense (“it falls”) and the latter is the past tense (“it fell”). This is the case for many verbs, e.g. kattoo (katsoo “he sees”) vs. katto (katsoi “he saw”); istuu (“he sits” vs. istu (istui “he sat”).
Ismo uses se in this section as a definite pronoun. This is generally unnecessary in Finnish, where definite (the English “the”) and indefinite (the English “a”) pronouns are most commonly expressed through word order. In spoken language, however, we do see the pronoun se “it” because used to fulfill that same function.
Se tarkottaa, että “Mitäs minä sanoin!”: No niin! | |
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se | it |
tarkottaa | *tarkoittaa, spoken language SG3 present tense “means” |
että | that |
mitäs | <mitä (what), with the suffix -s |
minä | I |
sanoin | <sanoa (to say), SG1 imperfect tense, I said |
No niin | “What did I say! You see!” |
It means that “What did I say!”: No niin! |
The smile on Ismo’s face and “happy” intonation here help interpret this “no niin” as a pleasant surprise about being right. I can imagine this one to be used, for example, when you predict something, and it actually comes true. Maybe your soccer team finally made that goal when you doubled down on how certain you were that they would succeed during this next opportunity.
The suffix -s is pretty common in Finnish and has many uses. Here, it makes the question less like a real question and more like a rhetorical statement.
Se tarkottaa, et “En ois ikinä aavistanu että näinkin voi tapahtua”: No niin! | |
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se | it |
tarkottaa | *tarkoittaa, spoken language SG3 present tense “means” |
et | *että, spoken language shortened form “that” |
en ois | *en olisi, the verb olla (to be) in the SG1 conditional form, “I wouldn’t” |
ikinä | ever |
aavistanu | *aavistanut, from the verb aavistaa, NUT-participle “have guessed” |
että | that |
näinkin | <näin “like this”, with the particle -kin, “also like this” |
voi | <voida “to be able to” in the SG3 present tense, “can” |
tapahtua | to happen, basic form because of the verb voida |
No niin | “Now this is a nice surprise” |
It means that “I’d never have guessed that this could happen like this”: No niin! |
Another instance where “no niin” expresses a pleasant surprise.
The words “en olisi aavistanut” together form the perfect conditional tense: I wouldn’t have guessed. The verb aavistaa means to foresee something, to anticipate or sense that something will happen.
We can say “never” in several ways in Finnish. “En ikinä” is one option, but we also have “ei koskaan” and “ei milloinkaan“. The negative verb ei will be inflected: en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät.
The verb voida is always followed by the basic form of the verb attached to it (e.g. voin tulla, voidaan mennä, voisitko auttaa). Other common verbs with an infinitive rection are haluta and osata.
Se tarkottaa, että “Ruoka on nyt valmista”: No niin! |
|
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se | it |
tarkottaa | *tarkoittaa, spoken language SG3 present tense “means” |
että | that |
ruoka | food |
on | olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
nyt | now |
valmista | valmis (ready), in the partitive case |
No niin | “Alright! The wait is over! Come and eat!” |
It means that “The food is ready now”: No niin! |
This “no niin” can be used to call people to the dinner table without using any other words. Often, you will hear “No niin, nyt syömään!” as a longer version. The intonation tells us the cook is happy they finished preparing the meal. Likely Ismo is imagining the cook to be a woman here, which explains the slightly higher voice.
The mass noun ruoka in a complement sentence with require the adjective describing it to be inflected in the partitive case. Compare “Ruoka on valmista” to the sentence “Kotitehtävä on valmis“, where ruoka (food) is a mass noun and kotitehtävä (homework) is a concrete noun.
“Ruoka on nyt syöty”: No niin! | |
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Ruoka | the food |
on | olla (to be), SG3, part of the passive perfect tense “has been” |
nyt | now |
syöty | syödä (to eat), part of the passive perfect tense “eaten” |
No niin | “There it went, all gone, that’s that” |
“The food has been eaten now”: No niin! |
Ismo pronounces this “no niin” as “nonniin” and uses a slightly lower and less intense intonation. It conveys a sense of satisfaction with a task completed successfully: the food is gone, and our tummy is full now.
The passive perfect tense consists of the verb olla conjugated in the third person singular present tense “on” combined with the main verb in the TU-participle. It expresses that something has been done (eg. Ruoka on syöty “the food has been eaten, Työt on tehty “the work has been done”, Ikkuna on avattu “The window has been opened”). You can compare this to the active perfect tense (e.g. Lapsi on syönyt “the child has eaten”, Mies on tehnyt työt “the man has done the work”, “Ari on avannut ikkunan “Ari has opened the window”).
“Vieraat tuli”: No niin. “Vieraat meni”: No niin. | |
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Vieraat | vieras (guest, visitor), in the T-plural “the visitors” |
tuli | *tulivat, spoken language -vat form, PL3 imperfect of tulla, “came” |
No niin | “Alright, here they are” |
Vieraat | vieras (guest, visitor), in the T-plural “the visitors” |
meni | *menivät, spoken language -vat form, PL3 imperfect of mennä, “went, left” |
No niin | “Alright, that’s that” |
“The visitors came”: No niin. “The visitors left”: No niin. |
Saying “no niin” when the visitors arrive expresses that we’ve been waiting for something and it is now starting. Saying “no niin” when the visitors are leaving similarly expresses that we’ve been anticipating something, which can include a certain amount of relief that it is over. Both instances of no niin in this sentence show that the speaker was waiting/expecting something and it is now happening. The wait is over, things can move along now (either the beginning of the visit or the end of it).
Ismo’s intonation here isn’t the actual intonation you’d use in this situation. He’s just speeding up his sentences to humoristically convey “no niin” being used in almost any situation with guests.
The third person plural of verbs in spoken language will generally not include the -vat element used in standard language. You can learn more about “Ne tuli” and “ne meni” in this article.
Vieraat ei lähe mutta isäntäväki toivoo |
|
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Vieraat | vieras (guest, visitor), in the T-plural “the visitors” |
ei | *eivät, spoken language -vat form, “aren’t” |
lähe | *lähde, spoken language negative present tense “aren’t leaving” |
mutta | but, conjunction |
isäntäväki | the host and hostess |
toivoo | toivoa (to hope, wish), SG3 present tense |
The visitors aren’t leaving but the hosts hope |
Spoken language elements in this section:
1. The third person plural form (the -vat form) of verbs is replaced by the third person singular form (the hän-form), as seen in “ei > eivät“. > Learn more about the third person plural.
2. The letter -d- is often dropped, as seen in “lähe > lähde” > Learn more about the letter -d-.
The word isäntäväki consists of the nouns isäntä (host) and väki (people). If you’re having guests over, as a man you’re usually called the isäntä “host”, and as a woman you’re the emäntä “hostess”.
että ne vois pikkuhiljaa kohta alkaa lähtee: No niin. | |
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että | that |
ne | *he, spoken language pronoun “they” |
vois | *voisivat, spoken language PL3 conditional form of voida “could” |
pikkuhiljaa | little by little, gradually |
kohta | soon |
alkaa | to start, basic form because of the verb voida |
lähtee | *lähteä, spoken language |
No niin | “Come on now, hurry up already” |
that they would soon, gradually, start to leave: No niin. |
This “no niin” is spoken under your breath: you’re silently and impatiently sighing to yourself that you wish the guests would hurry up and leave already. It’s not directed at the visitors. Ismo conveys this by looking down, lowering his voice, and lengthening the phrase.
Spoken language elements in this section:
1. The pronoun he “they” is very commonly replaced with the pronoun ne in spoken language. Officially, ne is used to refer to things, while he is used for people.
2. The verb form voisivat has lost its -vat ending, as is common in spoken language (read more here), making it voisi. In addition, the final -i has also been lost, which is also extremely common in spoken language.
3. Diphthongs like –ea– are regularly replaced in spoken language with a long vowel sound. This is the case for lähtee in this section: in standard Finnish, we’d see lähteä in this context, because of the rection of alkaa (+ basic form).
Meet johonki ja sit huomaat | |
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Meet | *menet, spoken language SG2 present tense of mennä (to go), “you go” |
johonki | *johonkin “to somewhere” |
ja | and, conjunction |
sit | *sitten, spoken language “then” |
huomaat | huomata (to notice), SG2 present tense “you notice” |
You go somewhere and then you notice |
Spoken language elements in this section:
1. Very common verbs like mennä, olla and tulla get shortened significantly by omitting letters in the middle of words (e.g. sä meet, sä oot, sä tuut) > Learn more about verbs in spoken language.
2. Word are often shortened from the end. Ismo uses both sit and sitte to shorten the word sitten “then”. > Read more about the shorting of words in spoken language.
The singular sinä-form is used in this section, which is an example of the sinä-passive. This is another spoken language tendency which has likely been introduced into the Finnish language through English and other languages. In formal Finnish, people use either the actual passive forms (e.g. mennään, huomataan) or the generic third person form (e.g. menee, huomaa) to express that something is done by an unspecified person. This wouldn’t work in Ismo’s speech at all.
The form johonkin is the mihin-form (illative case) of the pronoun jokin. We’re using mihin because you go to a place. The pronoun jokin inflects in all the cases (e.g. jokin “something”, jossakin “somewhere”, jostakin “from somewhere”). You can read more about jokin and joku on this page.
että siellä on valitettavasti pitkä jono: No niin. |
|
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että | that |
siellä | there |
on | olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
valitettavasti | unfortunately |
pitkä | long |
jono | queue |
No niin | “Sigh. Here we are then. Typical. Should have known. Just my luck.” |
that there is unfortunately a long line: No niin. |
In this situation, Ismo’s intonation and body language express resignation and annoyance.
Sitte seisot siinä jonossa ja yrität ilmasta | |
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sitte | *sitten |
seisot | seisoa (to stand), SG2 present tense “you stand” |
siinä | there, inessive case of se, used because attached to jonossa |
jonossa | jono (line), inessive case (missä-form) “in the queue” |
ja | and, conjunction |
yrität | yrittää (to try), SG2 present tense, rection: [yrittää + basic form], “you try” |
ilmasta | *ilmaista, spoken language basic form, used because of yrittää |
Then you stand in that queue, and you try to express |
In spoken language, the pronoun se can be used much like the demonstrative pronoun “the” in English. Finnish doesn’t technically have demonstrative pronouns, so this is another element that has been loaned from other languages. In this line, “se jono” means “the queue”, and has been inflected in the inessive case (missä-form): “in the queue”.
We could alternatively also consider siinä as a separate element, rather than considering it connected to jonossa. The words siinä “there”, siitä “from there” and siihen “to there” are used to express a relative location. You can read more about these words here.
The singular sinä-form is used in this section, which is an example of the sinä-passive. This is another spoken language tendency which has likely been introduced into the Finnish language through English and other languages. In formal Finnish, people use either the actual passive forms (e.g. seisotaan, yritetään) or the generic third person form (e.g. seisoo, yrittää) to express that something is done by an unspecified person. This wouldn’t work in Ismo’s speech at all.
et sen jonon pitäs liikkua vähän nopeemmin: No niin. | |
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et | *että |
sen | se (it, the), in the genitive case because connected to jono |
jonon | jono (queue), in the genitive case because of pitää, “the queue” |
pitäs | *pitäisi, spoken language SG3 conditional, necessity sentence: [genitive + pitää] “should” |
liikkua | move, basic form because of pitää |
vähän | a little |
nopeemmin | *nopeammin, spoken language “faster” |
No niin | “Come on, speed up a little” |
that the queue should move a little faster: No niin. |
In this section, no niin expresses impatience and has a sort of commanding tone to it.
This is a necessity sentence, where the subject is not a person (Annan pitäisi “Anna should”) but rather an inanimate object (Jonon pitäisi “The queue should”). Of course, the queue consists of people.
The pronoun se in “sen jonon pitäs” (the queue should) is used as a definite article, which in Finnish doesn’t technically exist. However, in spoken language, se has taken on the role of this English “the”. Usually, word order will be used to express whether we’re referring to “the” or “a” in a sentence.
Diphthongs like –ea– are regularly replaced in spoken language with a long vowel sound. This is the case for nopeemmin in this section: in written Finnish, we’d see nopeammin in this context. Ismo could also have said “liikkuu” rather than liikkua, turning the diphthong -ua into the long vowel -uu. This shows that this isn’t a systematic change that happens every single time in spoken language.
The conditional in spoken language can be hard to recognise for non-native speakers because the -isi- element can get shortened so significantly (pitäisi > pitäs). This is often the case for the third person and for the passive conditional. Examples for how this works: hän opiskelisi > se opiskelis, he imuroisivat > ne imurois, mentäisiin > mentäs.
Ja sitte ku on vihdoinki oma vuoro: No niin! | |
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ja | and |
sitte | *sitten (then) |
ku | *kun (when) |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
vihdoinki | *vihdoinkin (finally) |
oma | own |
vuoro | turn |
No niin! | “Alright! The wait is over! Here I come” |
And then when it’s finally your turn: No niin! |
This “no niin” has a happy note, as you can tell from the context as well.
This section has once again multiple examples of how the final -n of words often is dropped in spoken Finnish: sitten > sitte, kun > ku and vihdoinkin > vihdoiki.
Se-se on niin mahtava sana. Se on aivan… Joo kyllä… Se on loistava… | |
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Se | it |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
niin | such, so |
mahtava | awesome |
sana | word |
se | it |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
aivan | absolutely, really |
joo | yeah |
kyllä | yes |
se | it |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
loistava | brilliant |
It-it’s such an amazing word. It’s totally… Yeah yes… It’s brilliant. |
This section has more examples of how in spoken language, sentences contain repetition and are often broken off and restarted mid-sentence.
The word aivan has several meanings, which I should really write an article about someday! In this context, it means “really”.
Siis tämmönen-tämmönenkin tilanne että | |
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siis | like, so |
tämmönen | *tällainen (this kind of) |
tämmönenkin | *tällainenkin (this kind as well), -kin suffix |
tilanne | situation |
että | that, like |
Like this-this kind of situation as well where |
Everyday language uses tämmönen instead of tällainen regularly. You can read more about semmonen and tämmönen in this article. Ismo repeats the word tämmönen so he can add the suffix -kin to it, which means “as well, too”.
mies tulee yöllä kännissä kotiin. | |
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mies | husband |
tulee | <tulla (to come), SG3 present tense “comes” |
yöllä | <yö (night), adessive case, “at night” |
kännissä | drunk |
kotiin | <koti (home), illative case because of tulla, “to home” |
a husband comes home drunk at night. |
Ismo slows his speech down in this section, so it should be easier to understand.
Vaimo eteisessä vastassa vihasena että: No niin. | |
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vaimo | wife |
eteisessä | <eteinen (hallway, corridor), inessive case “in the hallway” |
vastassa | phrase: [olla vastassa] “in reception of, waiting to receive” |
vihasena | *vihaisena, essive case of vihainen (angry), “angrily” |
että | like, that |
No niin. | “There you are. This is it. What did I say.” |
The wife waiting in the hallway angrily like: No niin. |
The wife expresses with “no niin” that she has been waiting for the husband and is ready to carry out what she’s been anticipating: an angry speech about how the husband should have stayed sober.
This sentence lacks a verb: the verb olla has been left out: Vaimo on vastassa eteisessä. The phrase “olla vastassa” can’t really be translated literally. It means that’s you’re waiting to receive someone. The phrase “tulla vastaan” is used similarly. It means you’re going towards someone, coming closer to receive them or welcome them.
The essive case of vihainen is used here to express “the state” the wife is in while she’s waiting for her husband: she’s waiting angrily. It’s important to realize that “angrily” can also be translated as vihaisesti, but doesn’t fit into this context: you can say something angrily (e.g. “vaimo vastasi vihaisesti” means “the wife answered angrily”), but waiting expresses a state rather than an action. As such, we use vihaisena rather than vihaisesti. English and Finnish rarely can be translated directly.
“Eikö me sovittu että tänään sinä et juo mitään?”: No niin. | |
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eikö | no + interrogative suffix -ko/kö, “didn’t?” |
me | we |
sovittu | <sopia (to agree), TU-participle, spoken language passive |
että | that |
tänään | today |
sinä | you |
et juo | <juoda (to drink), negative SG2 present tense “don’t drink” |
mitään | <mikään (nothing), partitive case because object of negative sentence |
No niin | “Right. Here we are. This was to be expected.” |
“Didn’t we agree that today you won’t drink anything?”: No niin. |
The no niin here is the husband’s reply when his wife reminds him that they agreed he would stay sober today. Ismo’s sigh and intonation show perhaps that the husband is resigning himself to what’s to come.
In standard Finnish, we would write “Emmekö me sopineet” (didn’t we agree). The spoken language version has the negative verb in the third person form ei and the main verb in the passive. In an affirmative sentence we would say “me sovittiin” in spoken language, the negative is “me ei sovittu“, which has been turned into a question here: Didn’t we agree? You can find more examples of the negative passive imperfect in this article.
You can read more about “ei mitään” in this article, which goes over ways to say “nothing”, “nowhere” and “never”.
Siinäkin syytös ja puolustus hoituu samalla sanalla, mahtavaa. | |
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siinäkin | se (it), in the missä-form (changing the meaning to “there”) + -kin suffix “as well” |
syytös | accusation |
ja | and |
puolustus | defence |
hoituu | <hoitua (to be taken care of), SG3 present tense “are taken care of” |
samalla | <sama (same), adessive case because it’s connected to sana “the same” |
sanalla | <sana (word), adessive case, “by/with the word” |
mahtavaa | awesome |
There as well, the accusation and the defence are taken care of with the same word, awesome. |
The pronoun se in siinäkin refers to the phrase “no niin“. The basic form se can be used in sekin to mean “the phrase as well”. Inflecting se into the inessive case siinä, causes it to mean “in the phrase as well”. As such, Ismo’s sentence expresses that in the phrase “no niin” the accusation and the defence have been taken care of with the same word.
The verb hoitua might be new to you, but perhaps you know the verb hoitaa. These two verbs form a transitive-intransitive pair. The verb hoitaa is transitive: a person takes care of something. The verb hoitua is intransitive: something is taken care of.
“Miksi sinä joit tänään?” | |
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miksi | why |
sinä | you |
joit | <juoda (to drink), sg2 imperfect tense |
tänään | today |
“Why did you drink today?” |
A straight-forward question without anything special to remark on.
“Noh, no kun kaverit oli silleen että otettais”: No niin. | |
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noh | well |
no | well |
kun | means “because” in spoken language |
kaverit | <kaveri (pal, friend), T-plural “the guys” |
oli | *olivat |
silleen | like |
että | that |
otettais | *otettaisiin |
No niin | “Alright. Here we go. Awesome!” |
“Well, well because the guys were like let’s take”: No niin. |
The “no niin” here expresses a sort of anticipation coming to an end: it’s finally time to enjoy this beer.
The word no (and its version with aspiration at the end noh) can be translated to English as “well” here. It’s just a filler word used to start an explanation.
In standard Finnish, kun means “when”. In spoken language it can also mean “because”.
I’m not sure how to translate silleen to English. This is a spoken language element that can be used in situations where you’re answering the question “millä tavalla“, which makes it something like “sillä tavalla”. However, translating silleen to “in that way” doesn’t make much sense in English. In Ismo’s sentence, I would translate it as “like”.
The word otettais is the shortened spoken language form of otettaisiin (the passive conditional). The passive can be used to replace the active first person plural standard Finnish ottaisimme “we would take”. In addition, we can also use it in suggestions: “otettaisiin” can also mean “let’s take”. In this context, the men are taking/buying/drinking beer.
“Hölkynkölkynkin” voi olla no niin. Se on… | |
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hölkyn kölkynkin | Cheers! Chin chin!, with the suffix -kin |
voi | <voida, SG3 present tense, rection: [voida + infinitive] “can” |
olla | to be, basic form becase of voida “be” |
no niin | “no niin” |
se | it |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
“Cheers” can also be no niin. It is… |
Hölkynkölkyn or hölökyn kölökyn is a phrase used when making a toast. The suffix -kin means “as well”: “Chin chin also can be…” You can also say “no niin” instead of saying “hölkynkölkyn” sometimes.
The “se on” at the end of this section doesn’t mean anything and doesn’t get resolved. It’s hard to say when Ismo was intending to add here.
Mä oon ihan varma et silloinkin ku suomalainen ihminen pääsee | |
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mä | *minä, spoken language pronoun (I) |
oon | *olen, spoken language SG1 present tense of olla (to be) “am” |
ihan | quite |
varma | sure, certain |
et | *että (that) |
silloinkin | <silloin (at the time) + -kin = “also at the time” |
ku | *kun (when) |
suomalainen | Finnish |
ihminen | person |
pääsee | <päästä (to get to), SG3 present tense “gets to” |
I’m quite certain that also when a Finnish person gets |
While I literated this sentence as “mä oon ihan varma“, Ismo shortens it significantly, making it almost “män ihan varma“. With a very focused ear, you can make out the -o- slightly, but it’s very short: “mäon ihan varma“.
You can expect an article about ihan and aivan on my website soonish, because they are very interesting yet slightly tricky words to use correctly.
ekaa kertaa elämässää’ harrastamaan seksiä | |
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ekaa | <eka (first), in the partitive case, “for the first” |
kertaa | <kerta (time), in the partitive case, “for the first time” |
elämässää | *elämässään, from elämä (life), in the -ssa form (the inessive case) + SG3 poss.suff., “in his/her life” |
harrastamaan | <harrastaa (here: to have) in the -maan form (third infinitive), rection: [harrastaa + partitive] |
seksiä | <seksi (sex), in the partitive case because it’s the object of harrastaa |
for the first time in their life to have sex |
The word eka is spoken language for ensimmäinen. You can shorten “ensimmäistä kertaa” to “ekaa kertaa“. The partitive case is common in this phrase.
In order to make things look neater, the main verb of this sentence is actually in the previous section: “Suomalainen ihminen pääsee harrastamaan seksiä“. The rection of the verb päästä requires it to be followed by the third infinitive’s illative form -maan. You can read more about third infinitive rections in this article.
You can express having sex in Finnish using the phrase harrastaa seksiä. Usually, harrastaa expresses that you do something as a hobby.
mutta sillon me yritetää, että | |
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mutta | but |
sillon | *silloin |
me | we |
yritetää | *yritetään, spoken language me-form of yrittää (to try) |
että | that |
but then we try that |
In standard Finnish, we would say “me yritämme” rather than “me yritetään“. This spoken feature is so common that you should make an effort to use the passive in this way whenever speaking Finnish yourself.
me ei vahingossa sanota sitä ääneen | |
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me | we |
ei sanota | *emme sano, spoken language me-form “don’t say” |
vahingossa | <vahinko (accident, damage), in the -ssa form (inessive case), “accidentally” |
sitä | <se “it”, partitive case, object of a negative sentence |
ääneen | <ääni (noise, voice) in the mihin-form (illative case), phrase that means “out loud” |
we don’t accidentally say it out loud |
In spoken language, the first person plural form doesn’t usually get the -mme ending you have in standard Finnish. Instead, the form “Me sanomme” becomes “me sanotaan“, while the negative “me emme sano” becomes “me ei sanota“. You can read more about the passive here.
The word vahingossa is an adverb which means “by accident, accidentally”. Likewise, ääneen is an adverb that means “out loud”.
mutta me ajatellaan kyllä että: No niin. No niin. | |
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mutta | but |
me | we |
ajatellaan | *ajattelemme, spoken language me-form, “we think” |
kyllä | yes, here: do |
että | that |
No niin. | “Alright. Here we go. Awesome.” |
but we do think it: No niin. No niin. |
The “no niin” here expresses anticipation finally coming to an end.
The word kyllä means “yes”, but it can also be used to stress a verb. When we turn “me ajatellaan” (we think) into “me kyllä ajatellaan“, the meaning shifts to “we do think”. Word order isn’t particularly important here.
Ja sit tulee ennenaikane siemensyöksy: No niin. | |
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ja | and |
sit | *sitten (then) |
tulee | <tulla (to come), SG3 present tense “comes” |
ennenaikane | *ennenaikainen (premature) |
siemensyöksy | ejaculation |
No niin | “Of course, I should have expected this” |
And then comes premature ejaculation: No niin. |
This is another occurrence where no niin is used to express resignation: you should have seen it coming that this is how your first time would go.
In the word ennenaikane there are two common spoken language elements present. First, the final letter -n of words is often dropped when speaking. Second, the -i- of diphthongs ending in -i (e.g. -ai-, -ui-, -oi-) disappears in spoken language. This is the same change that happens throughout this whole sketch to the word tarkoittaa (tarkottaa).
Se on niin hieno ku-ku mä aluks sanoin | |
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Se | it |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
niin | so |
hieno | great |
ku | *kun (when) |
mä | *minä |
aluks | *aluksi |
sanoin | <sanoa (to say), SG1 imperfect tense “I said” |
It’s so great whe-when in the beginning I said |
Spoken language elements:
– The -i- often disappears from words ending in -i (e.g. aluksi > aluks, yksi > yks, viisi > viis).
– Pronouns in spoken language: mä, mun, mulla
– The -n at the end of a word disappears regularly (vähän > vähä, skeptinen > skeptine).
että no niin on suomen tärkein sana | |
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että | that |
no niin | no niin |
on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is” |
suomen | <suomi (Finnish), in the genitive case, “Finnish’s, of Finnish” |
tärkein | <tärkeä (important), in the superlative “the most important” |
sana | word |
that no niin is the most important Finnish word |
Ismo could have shortened että to et here, as he does in other sections of this sketch, but he doesn’t here. This is typical for spoken language: some variation does take place within the dialect of a speaker.
I decided to translate this as “no niin is the most important Finnish word”, but literally it’s “no niin is Finnish’s most important word”. Sometimes translating literally gives us unnatural English sentences.
niin osa teistä saatto olla vähä skeptine | |
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niin | well |
osa | part, phrase: [osa + -sta] “part of” |
teistä | <te (you, plural), in the mistä-form (elative case), “of you” |
saatto | *saattoi, SG3 imperfect tense of saattaa (to be likely), rection: [saattaa + basic form], “probably” |
olla | to be, basic form because of the verb saattaa |
vähä | *vähän |
skeptine | *skeptinen |
part of you (plural) may have been a little sceptical |
When you use osa “part” to focus on a subgroup within a larger group, you will use the plural -sta form (the elative case). For example, that’s how you get “osa kekseistä” (part/some of the cookies), “osa tehtävistä” (part/some of the exercises) and “osa kakusta” (a part/section of the cake).
The verb saattaa can be translated as “may”, “might” or as “probably”. It expresses that something is likely but not certain. You can read more about taitaa, saattaa and mahtaa in this article.
The word niin functions as a kind of transfer word here. I definitely need to write an article on the many uses of niin. It’s just as interesting as “no niin“!
Spoken language elements:
– The -i- disappears from diphtongs ending in -i (e.g. ai, oi) when they’re in the second, third or fourth syllable of the word (saattoi > saatto).
– The -n at the end of a word disappears regularly (vähän > vähä, skeptinen > skeptine). Ismo could have done this to niin as well (nii), but this isn’t a spoken language feature that is necessarily used with every single occurrence of a word ending in -n.
osa saatto aatella vähä että ei voi kyllä olla, ei voi mitenkään | |
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osa | part |
saatto | *saattoi, SG3 imperfect tense of saattaa (to be likely), rection: [saattaa + basic form], “might” |
aatella | *ajatella, spoken language form of ajatella “to think”, basic form because of saattaa |
vähä | *vähän “a little” |
että | that |
ei voi | <voida (to be able to, can), SG3 present tense, rection: [voida + basic form], “can’t” |
kyllä | really |
olla | to be, basic form because of voida |
ei voi | <voida (to be able to, can), SG3 present tense, rection: [voida + basic form], “can’t” |
mitenkään | in any way |
part might have thought that it really can’t be, there’s no way |
Spoken language elements:
– The -i- disappears from diphtongs ending in -i (e.g. ai, oi) when they’re in the second, third or fourth syllable of the word (saattoi > saatto).
– The -n at the end of a word disappears regularly (vähän > vähä).
– The -j- inside ajatella gets left out in many Finnish dialects (ajattelen > aattelen, ajatellaan > aatellaan).
The verb saattaa can be translated as “may”, “might” or as “probably”. It expresses that something is likely but not certain. You can read more about taitaa, saattaa and mahtaa in this article.
Inserting kyllä in the middle of a sentence stresses the meaning of it, similar to using “really” in English.
Mutta nyt loputki on silleen että “No niin onki”. | |
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mutta | but |
nyt | now |
loputki | *loputkin, the word loppu (end), in the T-plural, with the suffix -kin “the rest as well” |
on | *ovat, PL3 present tense in spoken language “are” |
silleen | like |
että | that |
No niin onki | “Yes it is.” |
But now the rest (of you) also are like “Yes it totally is”. |
I’m not sure how to translate silleen to English, but in this particular instance, the English word “like” fits very well. It’s a common element in spoken Finnish.
“Niin on” is a phrase on its own. It’s used to express agreement with another speaker. I could say “Onpa ihana ilma” (“What wonderful weather”), which you could reply to saying “niin on” (Yes, it is). The “no” at the beginning of this phrase just serves the function of stressing the “niin on“. If we add “no” to my reply about the weather, I’d translate it to English as “It totally is” rather than just “Yes it is”.
The verb in this sentence is inflected in the third person singular form on, but actually should be ovat. The subject is loputkin “the rest”, which is a plural word (loput is loppu in the T-plural). In spoken language, the third person -vat form is usually replaced with the third person singular form.
On kyllä hieno. | |
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on | <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “it is” |
kyllä | really |
hieno | great |
It really is great |
Inserting kyllä in the middle of a sentence stresses the meaning of it, similar to using “really” in English.
Kiitos tästä, Inge! I came across this sketch last year, I could understand quite a lot even without the subtitles but not everything. Was it difficult to transcribe it? Sometimes he pronounces the words clearly but sometimes it’s really fast and difficult to follow.
If I may offer some corrections, there are two sections with the number 2, and you also refer to the sketch as a song (in one of the section titles and in the main text – “As you will see all through this song”).
Speaking of that, do you have plans to analyze some Finnish songs in the near future, or maybe other sketches like this one? I think articles like that are very useful because they help with understanding the real language that is actually used by people.
Transcribing speech is both fun and frustrating sometimes. There were two things here that I needed to double check, other than that I had no trouble. It just takes TIME, and it’s easy to get fed up with a sketch like this by listening to it over and over again xD
I do want to do more songs, yes! And maybe sketches too, I’m not sure. Music is definitely easier.
Hi, very cool article!
I have a question about the section “koska eikö suomee lähetää opettaan”. As there is a negation (eikö), wouldn’t we get negative passive “lähdetä” (ommitting the d in spoken form then, so “lähetä”, one a in the end), instead of “lähdetään” (–> “lähetää”), since that’s positive passive?
I thought the kirjakieli-sentence would have to be: “Eikö suomea lähdetä opettaamaan”.
If not, I would be very glad if you could explain why positive instead of negative passive ist used here in a negative question sentence, thanks!
It SHOULD have been “lähetä” indeed (or “lähdetä” in standard Finnish), for the reason you mention!.
Also few corrections (probably autocorrect mistakes):
– in the part about jonkun: “the genitive’s -n is repeated twice without the word: jon-kun.” –> “within the word”
– “you’re silently and impatiently sighing to yourself that you wish the guessed would hurry up and leave already.” –> “the guests”
Corrected, thank you!
Some other corrections:
“The form eikö can be translated to English in several, depending on which form of a verb it is connected to.” – I guess “several ways”?
“As you can see in the English translation, this is not always the case for less common adjectives.”
What is the role of the 3rd infinitive in jyrisee menemään vaan? Is it required by jyrisee? I’m not sure if I understand it, to me it would make more sense if jyristä was in the 3rd infinitive instead (just goes to babble). Does he say jorisee or jyrisee, by the way (I see both are used in the article)?
I’m sorry for not replying to this much earlier, Marcin! I hope you still find this comment. I also had never heard of this construction before. I also thought that “menee jorisemaan” would make more sense. The meaning is slightly different because you’re not going anywhere. This construction’s used in some dialects.
I caught someone recently saying “kutoo menemään“. The meaning is something like “knits/babbles onwards”. The verb is indeed jorista, thanks for pointing out the typo!
Thanks, Inge! By the way, I just found the Wiktionary entry about this, it seems that menemään can be used as a synonym of pois. So maybe here it is used similarly.
I’m familiar with menemään in that context, but I initially had some trouble connecting it to this. At least to my brain, “heittää menemään” and “lähteä menemään” make sense because the first verb expresses a movement. Kutoa and jorista don’t have any type of movement in their meaning.
What you bring up does make some sense when thinking of the word pois in sentences such as “usko pois” and “kysy pois“, where the pois doesn’t actually mean a movement, just a “go ahead” type of thing. In my mind, I can tie that back to “jorisee menemään” (maybe “goes ahead and babbles”). So… maybe!