5. Pets and animals

It and this

The word for "it" is se and the word for "this" is tämä. As in English, the latter can be used both independently and before a noun.

Se on pupu. It is a bunny.

Tämä on söpö. This (one) is cute.

Tämä pupu on söpö. This bunny is cute.

To have

Finnish does not have a verb for "to have". Instead the verb olla, "to be", is combined with a subject in the adessive. You can recognise the adessive from the ending lla/llä.

Sentences with olla follow the most-complete-noun-first rule, which is why an object ending this type of sentence is almost always translated with an indefinite article. Whenever the object follows the verb, the verb always takes the same form: the 3rd person singular, on.

Minulla on koira. I have a dog.

Sinulla on pupu. You have a bunny.

Hänellä on kissa. S/he has a cat.

What kind of

In questions that begin with millainen, "what kind of"/"what...like", the verb is placed after the nouns and pronouns.

Millainen poni se on? What kind of pony is it/What is the pony like?

Millainen koira sinulla on? What kind of dog do you have/What is your dog like?

Incorrect!

The word väärin, meaning "wrong" or "incorrect", is an adverb, which is why it always appears independently and never attaches itself to a noun.

Väärin, se on undulaatti. Wrong, it is a parakeet.

Good dog!

Grownup people are always (fingers crossed) hyvä, "good". However, Finns use the word kiltti, more literally "kind" or "well-behaved", instead of hyvä when talking about children and animals. While some people may use both when talking to their pets, children are almost always kiltti.

Joni on hyvä mies. Joni is a good man.

Kuka on kiltti koira? Who is a good dog?

Colour my world

In this skill, you will be introduced to the first colour words in this course: blue, white, and some of the rest (which are not found in the most beautiful flag in the world).

Animal names

You can find these common Finnish names for pets and domestic animals in this course:

Words are wind

Whenever the letter h appears in some other place than the beginning of the word, it should be pronounced more violently, or the listener may interpret it as a long vowel, or not notice it at all. They may think that you are lamenting how quickly the past few weeks, viikot, have gone, when you actually need new notebooks, vihkot. Or that you are going to visit your friend Pia instead of going to your yard, piha. To find the right sounds, imitate the wind howling on a snowy plain and observe how the movement of air changes the sound.