160 replies to this topic

[A. J. Raffles]

*sigh* As I expected. But you'll have to admit that it was a bit difficult. It was a bit like taking stabs in the dark in nine different directions...

[Aristharus]

A. J. Raffles, on Apr 24 2006, 04:38 PM, said:

*sigh* As I expected. But you'll have to admit that it was a bit difficult. It was a bit like taking stabs in the dark in nine different directions...

"A bit"..?

It was very difficult, and you did well. Don't sigh, there were lots of correct forms, even a little difficult ones.. and as you can see (for example from the forms of the olla verb that I edited there), Finnish really isn't a very easy language.

[A. J. Raffles]

Ah, no! I could have sworn it was 115. Now that's a mistake I could have avoided. Oh well. Still a pretty high price for a dogleash, though.
What would have been the correct form of 'kantaa', by the way (assuming it had been the right verb to use)?

[Aristharus]

I guessed you just read the number wrong.

"kannat" would be the right form. The whole sentence would be something like "Miten kallis tuo kaulakoru on, jota(/mitä) sinä kannat?". As I said, the word order doesn't matter. "Miten kallis on tuo kaulakoru ..." would be just as correct, most Finns just would say the "on" after "kaulakoru", as I did there. The latter one sounds a bit poetic.

Of course there are many ways to say it, but that's one.

[Juni Ori]

Impudently difficult actually... And you did far better than anyone could had expected. Don't even consider yourself pathetic. It looks like Ari has already explained it quite well, thanks to him.

Only "ollai", "kantaamat" & "maksai"... Only those three small errors actually. (I let that 115 go, it's obviously not up to your linguistic abilities!)

And now the correct answer in direct form:
"Kuinka kallis tuo kaulakoru oli, jota sinä kannat?" "Satakolmetoista euroa."
Or, how it would be actually said:
"Miten kallis tuo kaulakoru olikaan, joka sinulla on kaulallasi?" "Satakolmetoista euroa."

But the final judgement... Considering the remarkable difficulty - forgive me for that - I can't help but giving you 4.5/5 points. The reason why you miss half point is that I believe you should had been able to figure out correct forms of words "ollai" and "maksai". But that is excellent score!

Next two are easier. A lot. Actually I believe the worst is behind. Until Exercise 7... But exercise 7 is bonus question, where you can regain lost points!

Edit: Small error fixed...

Edited by Juni Ori, 24 April 2006 - 06:45 PM.

[A. J. Raffles]

What is the difference between 'miten' and 'kuinka', then?
Anyway, #4 is "How many brothers and sisters [or 'siblings', if you wish] do you have?"

[Juni Ori]

Not much, if any, actually. You could - and actually more likely would - use word "miten" instead when speaking. My bad actually, I meant to write "miten"... *goes fixing*

About #4: That's still only half of the exercise...

[A. J. Raffles]

Hmm, that would be 'nolla' then, I suppose.

#5: Slightly weird way of putting it, but the most literal translation that still makes sense in English appears to be: "Which country are you a native of?" In which case the answer would be: "Minä olen Saksa kotoisin." Although the word order's probably wrong.

#6: That one seems to be a specifically Finnish construction to me. My guess would be "What do you think of the Finnish language?", but I'm not entirely sure about the meaning of the verb, so I don't quite know how to read the elative. Supposing that's what it says, my answer would be: "Se on parempi kuin ranskalainen kieli." Otherwise I'd first need to get the question right, obviously.

#2: "Miten kookas [probably managed to pick the wrong one out of the two options the dictionary gave me there] Juni on?" - No idea about the reply there, unless you want a literal translation, which almost certainly isn't how you'd actually say it: "Juni on yksi yhdeksänkymmentäjokin." - OK, even I know that's wrong, but how on earth can you expect me to know the Finnish way of saying 'ninetysomething'?

#3: Gah! How am I supposed to know fixed phrases like that? So here goes another pathetic stab in the dark: "Millainen aika se on?" - "Se on viisitoista yksitoistan jälkeen."

Edited by A. J. Raffles, 24 April 2006 - 10:40 PM.

[Stebbi]

perkele?

EDIT:spam?

[Juni Ori]

A. J. Raffles, on Apr 24 2006, 09:07 PM, said:

Hmm, that would be 'nolla' then, I suppose.

#5: Slightly weird way of putting it, but the most literal translation that still makes sense in English appears to be: "Which country are you a native of?" In which case the answer would be: "Minä olen Saksa kotoisin." Although the word order's probably wrong.

#6: That one seems to be a specifically Finnish construction to me. My guess would be "What do you think of the Finnish language?", but I'm not entirely sure about the meaning of the verb, so I don't quite know how to read the elative. Supposing that's what it says, my answer would be: "Se on parempi kuin ranskalainen kieli." Otherwise I'd first need to get the question right, obviously.

#2: "Miten kookas [probably managed to pick the wrong one out of the two options the dictionary gave me there] Juni on?" - No idea about the reply there, unless you want a literal translation, which almost certainly isn't how you'd actually say it: "Juni on yksi yhdeksänkymmentäjokin." - OK, even I know that's wrong, but how on earth can you expect me to know the Finnish way of saying 'ninetysomething'?

#3: Gah! How am I supposed to know fixed phrases like that? So here goes another pathetic stab in the dark: "Millainen aika se on?" - "Se on viisitoista yksitoistan jälkeen."

WHOAH! Girl, you definitely have potential!

Few corrections:
#5
"Mistä maasta olet kotoisin?" would be better.
And "Olen Saksasta." would be enough, but your way putting it isn't actually wrong (except lack of "-sta")!
I definitely give you 5-/5 for this one!

#6
Sooooo correct, I don't even like to correct one little thing:
"Se on parempi kuin ranskan kieli."
Definitely 5-/5 for this too! Though you almost deserve full 5!

#2
"Miten pitkä Juni on?" "Juni on yksi yhdeksänkymmentä jotakin."
Though Finn would more likely say "Juni on satayhdeksänkymmentä jotakin." But that doesn't make your translation wrong, only part "jokin" isn't quite correct!
Again: 5-/5! Awesome work, girl!

#3
"Mitä kello on?" "Kello on viisitoista yli yksitoista." Or "... yli yhdentoista."
I guessed this might be pretty tough to you and I'm positively surprised how you made it!
4/5! Though I may be bit cruel here...

Overall, this far, I give you 4.5/5! Seriously awesome work! And sorry for putting quite difficult ones there, but this wasn't supposed to be any final exam, but to put you figure out things, which you made far better than anyone (well, me and Ari) ever expected! Again: Awesome work, girl!

[Aristharus]

Making good excercises like that is very hard, too. It's hard to realize how difficult a simple sounding thing like asking what time is it and especially answering that question may be as the way of asking it is always different in different languages. And those kind of fixed phrases are everywhere. I'd even say that Finnish has even more weird ways of saying stuff than some other languages.

[Juni Ori]

That all is true and I have to say that I've only now realized how difficult some "easy" stuff may be. And still - can't be underlining enough - A.J. did marvelous job! I still don't quite believe it... Well, weren't there couple more left to do? Let's see how she handles the rest, though now my expectations may have grown a little too much!

[Aristharus]

I second that! All of that actually, I thought the questions were difficult before, but now realized how difficult they really are. They're a lot harder than I thought, yet still AJ did very well! I'm very surprised too..

[A. J. Raffles]

Wow, thanks. That's a lot better than I expected. I definitely need to get a proper dictionary, though, because that rubbishy online thingy is driving me mad. Maybe the language centre has one that I might borrow...

I don't think there's any questions left, though, except #7, which I shunned because it looked like an essay question to me, and I don't really think I'm ready for that yet...

[Aristharus]

After I get home, I can check if I can find a certain Finnish-English-Finnish dictionary on my computer that I used to use. It was very good and rather small, I can send it to you if I find it. It's been a while after I've used it, though.