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. kosia > kosiskella
  13. kysyä > kysellä
  14. laulaa > laulella
  15. matkustaa > matkustella
  16. muistaa > muistella
  17. oksentaa > oksennella
  18. oppia > opiskella 
  19. palaa > palella
  20. sairastaa > sairastella
  21. soittaa > soitella
  22. sanoa > sanella
  23. rakastaa > rakastella
  24. tappaa > tapella
  25. 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. kosia > kosiskella - to propose (to ask to marry) > to woo
  13. kysyä > kysellä - to ask > to ask around
  14. laulaa > laulella - to sing > to sing in a light-hearted manner
  15. matkustaa > matkustella - to travel, to go travelling
  16. muistaa > muistella - to remember > to reminisce, to look back
  17. oksentaa > oksennella - to vomit > to throw up a little bit, but multiple times
  18. palaa > palella - to burn > to feel / be cold 
  19. oppia > opiskella - to learn > to study 
  20. sairastaa > sairastella - to be sick > to be sick repeatedly
  21. soittaa > soitella - to call/to play an instrument  > to call each other / to play an instrument in a light-hearted manner
  22. sanoa > sanella - to say > to dictate
  23. rakastaa > rakastella - to love > to make love
  24. tappaa > tapella - to kill > to fight, to argue
  25. 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!