Days 221 to 227: lots of things

These days I have a lot to read. I've taken too many courses this term which means less time to study Finnish or update this blog.
Anyway during last 6 or seven days I...

Finnish nursery rhyme

Today I asked a few finns to give me some nursery songs. A friend on facebook suggested this one. It's lovely! And I understand some parts :)

êtes-vous, accro aux nouvelles technologies?

créer des documents

to create

imprime des photos

to print

Jouer à des jeux vidéo

Je lui ai donné le livre. 

I gave the book to him/her.

il est toujours allumé

DAY 221: keskiyöllä

A couple of exercise from kappale 7 of Kuulostaa Hyvältä and a couple of pages from Aamu is all for today :)

Voittko autta minua? päästä

I can't get this verb completely.

päästä

It's defined as to get, to reach and to arrive in dictionary.  But it doesn't help me to understand the following sentences anyway.

In phrases like: "pääseekö sinne metrolla?"

"Sinä pääset kotiin aivan varmasti."

What is happening exactly? It seems like that it's a frequently used verb in written Finnish. I don't know if it is used in spoken language much or not. However if somebody came here and helped me with a few examples and explanations it would be great.

 Update: Soon after posting this Sakari sent me these explanations. Thanks to Sakari! 

"Can you get there by underground?" and "You'll surely get home".

Päästä means "to get somewhere / reach a place / arrive in" (Pääsin kotiin.) or "to get to do something / be able to / be allowed to do something" (Pääsin kuuntelemaan konserttia.) It mostly has a POSITIVE connotation to it whereas "joutua" is negative in tone and can be considered its opposite.

Yritin päästä kotiin mutta käännyin risteyksestä väärään suuntaan ja jouduin rakennustyömaalle.
I tried to get home, but in the intersection, I turned the wrong way and got to (arrived in) a construction site.

Hän ei koskaan pääse hyvään yliopistoon, ellei hän ala opiskella.
He'll never get to a good university if he doesn't start studying.

Sayings:

päästä perille (get to the destination), päästä pälkähästä (escape the consequences), päästä selville jostakin (find out about sth), päästä yksimielisyyteen jostakin (come to an agreement about sth), päästä eroon jostakin (get rid of sth) and many others.

Also metaphorically:

Harmi, etten päässyt lähtemään.
What a pity I wasn't able to leave (didn't get to leave).

Onneksi en joutunut lähtemään.
I'm glad I didn't have to leave.

Joni Mikael added these:

A simple explanation: the English word "to get" has (at least) 2 different meanings.

1. for example "to get a present" (you are given something)
2. to get out, to get there, to get in etc.

If you think about it, those two are totally different things, so Finnish has 2 different verbs for that. The first in Finnish is "saada" and the second is "päästä".

to get out = päästä ulos
to get in = päästä sisään
to get there = päästä perille
to escape = päästä pakoon

 

 

Mon oncle de Bretagne!

I just started learning French. The class is taught in Finnish and French and sometimes also English!. It's a chance to learn some Finnish there as all student are Finns and the exercises are also usually translations from Finnish to French. So I'm putting my French stuff here too :)

The book taught in the class is called Echo A1 - méthode de français - Éditions CLE International.

Mon oncle de Bretagne!
uncle

DAYS: 218-220

 

 

Naisihmisen jalat (jalka, jalat) wikipedia

During the 3 days (24,25,26 Jan) I've read the dialog in Kappale 7 of Kuulostaa Hyvältä. Then read a few pages from Kappale 4 of Suomenn Kielein Alkeisoppikirja. Also some pages from Kieli Käyttöön. I might have read even a couple of pages from Ammu, I can't say exactly...
It's noteworthy that on Jan 25 I started using a wonderful dictionary: Suomen kielen sanakirja maahanmuuttajille. It's a dictionary of Finnish for Foreigners. This the first finnish-finnish dictionary that the most definitions look understandable to me at this point.

What I learned...