Monday, November 6, 2017

Frequentative verbs in Finnish

Here's a post about verbs that express actions that happen kind of repeatedly or in a light-hearted manner. First we have verb type 3 verbs that are all derived from verb type 1 verbs by changing the end of the verb into -ella or -ellä. As you will notice, sometimes the meaning of a word can change surprisingly much!

Test yourself and see how many of these you understand:

  1. aivastaa > aivastella
  2. ajaa > ajella 
  3. haistaa > haistella
  4. heittää > heitellä
  5. hiihtää > hiihdellä
  6. hyppiä > hypellä
  7. järjestää > järjestellä
  8. kastaa > kastella
  9. katsoa > katsella
  10. kiertää > kierrellä
  11. kirjoittaa > kirjoitella
  12. kysyä > kysellä
  13. laulaa > laulella
  14. matkustaa > matkustella
  15. muistaa > muistella
  16. oksentaa > oksennella
  17. oppia > opiskella 
  18. palaa > palella
  19. sairastaa > sairastella
  20. soittaa > soitella
  21. sanoa > sanella
  22. rakastaa > rakastella
  23. tappaa > tapella
  24. vaihtua > vaihdella





Here are the translations:

  1. aivastaa > aivastella - to sneeze > to sneeze repeatedly
  2. ajaa > ajella - to drive, to drive around without any particular reason
  3. haistaa > haistella - to smell > to sniff
  4. heittää > heitellä - to throw > to throw back and forth
  5. hiihtää > hiihdellä - to ski > to ski around, to ski in a light-hearted manner
  6. hyppiä > hypellä - to jump > to jump around
  7. järjestää > järjestellä - to organize > to arrange, to sort
  8. kastaa > kastella - to dip  > to wet something
  9. katsoa > katsella - to watch > to watch, but not so seriously
  10. kiertää > kierrellä - to go round once, to twist > to walk or drive around
  11. kirjoittaa > kirjoitella - to write > to write back and forth
  12. kysyä > kysellä - to ask > to ask around
  13. laulaa > laulella - to sing > to sing in a light-hearted manner
  14. matkustaa > matkustella - to travel, to go travelling
  15. muistaa > muistella - to remember > to reminisce, to look back
  16. oksentaa > oksennella - to vomit > to throw up a little bit, but multiple times
  17. palaa > palella - to burn > to feel / be cold 
  18. oppia > opiskella - to learn > to study 
  19. sairastaa > sairastella - to be sick > to be sick repeatedly
  20. soittaa > soitella - to call/to play an instrument  > to call each other / to play an instrument in a light-hearted manner
  21. sanoa > sanella - to say > to dictate
  22. rakastaa > rakastella - to love > to make love
  23. tappaa > tapella - to kill > to fight, to argue
  24. vaihtua > vaihdella - to change > to vary, to alternate

Another way to make frequentative verbs is to add -eske- inside of  a verb type 3 verb. You can also add -eskella to some verb type 1 verbs. Verb type 4 verbs can get a suffix -illa.

How many do you already know?

  1. nuolla > nuoleskella
  2. olla > oleskella
  3. pierrä > piereskellä 
  4. panna > paneskella
  5. juosta > juoksennella (Juosta has an irregular conjugation anyway.)
  6. lukea > lueskella
  7. nauraa > naureskella
  8. halata > halailla
  9. kirota > kiroilla

Translations:

  1. nuolla > nuoleskella - to lick > to lick multiple times, to suck up, to flatter
  2. olla > oleskella - to be > to dwell, to linger
  3. pierrä > piereskellä - to pass gas in general > to fart constantly
  4. panna > paneskella  - to have sex > to have sex with one or several people many times or in a light-hearted manner
  5. juosta > juoksennella - to run > to run around
  6. lukea > lueskella - to read > to read in a light-hearted manner
  7. nauraa > naureskella - to laught > to laugh in a sarcastic manner
  8. halata > halailla - to hug > to hug multiple times in a friendly and light-hearted way
  9. kirota > kiroilla - to curse someone > to swear

You can be very creative when making new verbs. Feel free to try anything, but don't be offended if people don't understand you.

Here's a Memrise course about frequentative verbs: https://www.memrise.com/course/5707749/finnish-frequentative-verbs/
Kiitos kurssista, Alex! :)






About the author of Random Finnish Lesson: 


My name is Hanna Männikkölahti. I am a professional Finnish teacher who gives private online lessons and simplifies books into easy Finnish. Please read more in www.linktr.ee/hannamannikkolahti and follow this blog, if you want to be the first one to know when I post something new. 

3 comments:

Tommy Quist said...

'dat kantele tho'

Random Finnish Lesson / Hanna Männikkölahti said...

Aa, onko meemissä vääränlainen kantele? Mä en edes katsonut sitä.:)

jose peirano said...

Hi Hanna! Could you describe in a future post how is the structure in Finnish for "getting something done by someone" or "making someone do something for you" (something like in english is called "Causative case" for have and get):

"I got my car fixed" or "I will have my hair cut"

I know that in Finnish there are some verbs that mean that by themselves, like "laulattaa" (to make someone sing) or in the sentence:

"maalautin talun taiteilijalla" (maalauttaa) - I got my paint painted by an artist

What about other verbs that does not explicitly mean making someone do something?

if you already wrote something about that, please excuse me. I could not find it usnig the search box (or maybe I don´t know how to exactly look for it)
Thanks for everything!