Finnish for busy people

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
Kuule <kuulla (to hear), singular imperative ‘So listen, hear me out’
kun because
*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.
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.
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
ni *niin (well)
*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’.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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 structureon 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
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
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…
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
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
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
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…
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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”
*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 kaheksankahdeksan” 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
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
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
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
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.
*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’
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 projektirojekti“.

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,
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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, ettäLapset lopettakaa riehuminen”: No niin.
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 imperativeLopettakaa“. 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 caseMinä lopetan riehumisen“.

Ja se tarkottaa, ettäNyt se maito sitte kaatu”: No niin.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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!
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…
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
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.
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.
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.
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 mitäänin this article, which goes over ways to say “nothing”, “nowhere” and “never”.

Siinäkin syytös ja puolustus hoituu samalla sanalla, mahtavaa.
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?”
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.
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…
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
*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
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
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
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.
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.
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
Se it
on <olla (to be), SG3 present tense “is”
niin so
hieno great
ku *kun (when)
*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
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
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
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”.
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.
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.

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Marcin

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.

Inge (admin)

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.

s.k.

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!

Inge (admin)

It SHOULD have been “lähetä” indeed (or “lähdetä” in standard Finnish), for the reason you mention!.

s.k.

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”

Inge (admin)

Corrected, thank you!

Marcin

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.”

Marcin

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)?

Inge (admin)

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!

Marcin

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.

Inge (admin)

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!