Suomi-koulu
End-of-semester review sheet
January 2001
Part A. Fill in the correct form of the verb olla 'to be' or puhua 'to speak'  Before you start, here is some useful information:
Remember: minä = I,  sinä = you,  hän = he/she,  se = it
olla 'to be'                                          puhua 'to speak' 
verb stem: OLE                                 verb stem: PUHU
minä olen          I am                             minä puhun       I speak
sinä olet            you are                         sinä puhut         you speak
hän on              he/she is                       hän puhuu         he/she speaks
se on                it is                               se puhuu           it speaks
Summary: In the present tense, the first person singular (minä = I) has an 'n' added to the verb stem (puhu-n, ole-n).  The second person singular (sinä = you) has a 't' added to the stem (puhu-t, ole-t).  The third person singular (hän = he/she and se = it) is irregular (puhuu, on).
Step 1: In the following sentences, fill in the correct form of the verb.  The basic infinitival form (olla 'to be' or puhua 'to speak') is given in brackets.  An example is given below.
Step 2: Next, translate the sentences into English.  (Try to see what you can remember without looking at your books or notes, but if you’re stuck, feel free to check in the book or your notes).
Step 3: When you are done, you can check your work by clicking on the Answers link at the bottom of this exercise.
Example:
Minä ___________ (olla) Elsi.   = Minä olen Elsi.  I am Elsi.
Pekka ___________ (puhua) englantia. = Pekka puhuu englantia.  Pekka speaks English.
(1) Sinä ___________ (olla) mies.
(2) Anna ___________ (olla) nainen.
(3) Pekka ___________ (puhua) suomea.
(4) John ___________ (puhua) englantia.
(5) Se ___________ (olla) auto.
(6) Minä ___________ (olla) suomalainen.
(7) Hän ___________ (olla) amerikkalainen.
(8) Mary ___________ (olla) englantilainen.
(9) Matti ___________ (puhua) suomea.
(10) Sinä ___________ (puhua) vähän englantia.
(11) Hän ___________ (puhua) hyvin suomea.
(12) Antti ___________ (olla) mies.
(13) Tanja ___________ (olla) vanha.
(14) Auto ___________ (olla) pieni.
(15) Huone ___________ (olla) iso.
Click on this Answers link to check your work.
Part B. Saying 'no'
Look carefully at the following examples:
(1) Minä olen suomalainen.  
I am Finnish.
For sentence (1), the verb 'olen' is the STEM 'ole' plus the ending 't' for the first person (minä = I), just like we talked about earlier.  Now let's look at the negative form of sentence (1), as shown in (2):
(2) Minä en ole suomalainen.
I am not Finnish.
In sentence (2), we have the negative word 'en' and then the verb stem 'ole'.  When we want to make a negative sentence in Finnish, we use the basic verb stem and then a form of the negative word.  Look at example (3):
(3) Sinä et ole suomalainen.
You are not Finnish.
Here, we have the stem 'ole' again, and the negative word is 'et'.  So basically, the endings ('n' for minä, 't' for sinä etc) that we were adding to the stem (ole, puhu) in part A is now added to the negative word.  This is shown below:
(4a) Minä en + verb stem    e.g. Minä en ole suomalainen. = I am not Finnish.
(4b) Sinä et + verb stem    e.g. Sinä et ole amerikkalainen. = You are not American.
(4c) Hän ei + verb stem    e.g. Hän ei ole suomalainen. = He/she is not Finnish.
(4d) Se ei + verb stem    e.g. Se ei ole auto. = It is not a car.
The same pattern holds for the verb puhua 'to speak.'  The stem is 'puhu'.
Minä en puhu englantia. = I do not speak English.
Sinä et puhu suomea. = You do not speak Finnish.
Hän ei puhu italiaa. = he/she does not speak Italian.
NOTE:  English adds an extra word ‘do’ in negative sentences (I speak, I DO not speak), but Finnish does not do this.  In Finnish you just use the right form of the negative word and the verb stem.
Part B. Now, for this next exercise, make the sentences from part A into negative sentences.  Once again, you can check you work by clicking on the answers link at the bottom.
Example:
Minä ___________ (olla) Elsi.   = Minä en ole Elsi.  I am not Elsi.
Pekka ___________ (puhua) englantia. = Pekka ei puhu englantia.  Pekka does not speak English.
(1) Sinä ___________ (olla) mies.
(2) Anna ___________ (olla) nainen.
(3) Pekka ___________ (puhua) suomea.
(4) John ___________ (puhua) englantia.
(5) Se ___________ (olla) auto.
(6) Minä ___________ (olla) suomalainen.
(7) Hän ___________ (olla) amerikkalainen.
(8) Mary ___________ (olla) englantilainen.
(9) Matti ___________ (puhua) suomea.
(10) Sinä ___________ (puhua) englantia.
(11) Hän ___________ (puhua) hyvin suomea.
(12) Antti ___________ (olla) mies.
(13) Tanja ___________ (olla) vanha.
(14) Auto ___________ (olla) pieni.
(15) Huone ___________ (olla) iso.
Click on this Answers link to check your work.
Part C.  Vocabulary review.
Here are some important words you should know.  If you don't know a certain word, please look it up in your textbook and write the English translation next to the Finnish word.  All these words are from chapters 1-4 that we worked on in the fall. At the end there is a link that takes you to a list of all the words translated into English.  But please try them on your own first!
radio
televisio
auto
bussi
talo
huone
katu
kauppa
mies
nainen
poika
tyttö
tämä
tuo
se
kuka
mikä
iso
pieni
vanha
uusi
huono
hyvä
suomalainen
amerikkalainen
ulkomaalainen
Mitä kuuluu?
Kiitos, hyvää.
Hyvää päivää.
te
minä
sinä
hän
Click on this Answers link to see these words translated into English.