BBC World World 6d ago Original

PSG voitti ottelun. Joukkue meni finaaliin.

PSG won the match. The team went to the final.

Finnish · A1 level

Simple Finnish

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1.

Ihmiset juhlivat kaduilla. Jotkut tekivät ilkivaltaa.

People celebrated on the streets. Some committed vandalism.
2.

Poliisi pidätti 127 ihmistä.

The police arrested 127 people.
3.

Yksi henkilö loukkaantui pahasti.

One person was seriously injured.
4.

Poliisilla oli pieniä vammoja.

The police had minor injuries.
5.

Poliisi käytti kyynelkaasua.

The police used tear gas.
6.

Pormestari juhli PSG:n kanssa.

The mayor celebrated with PSG.
7.

Poliisi sanoi: 'Häiriöitä ei hyväksytä.'

The police said: 'Disturbances will not be accepted.'
8.

Finaali on pian Budapestissa.

The final is soon in Budapest.

Key Words

Word	English	Form
voittaa voitti	to win won	past tense (imperfect)
mennä meni	to go went	past tense (imperfect)
pidättää pidätti	to arrest arrested	past tense (imperfect)
ihminen ihmistä	person/human people (partitive plural)	partitive case (plural)
poliisi poliisilla	police the police had (lit. 'at the police')	adessive case (plural)
käyttää käytti	to use used	past tense (imperfect)

0. PSG voitti ottelun. Joukkue meni finaaliin.

This sentence uses the past tense (imperfect) of verbs, which is formed by adding specific endings to the verb stem. Here, 'voittaa' becomes 'voitti' and 'mennä' becomes 'meni'. The past tense is used to describe completed actions in the past. To form the past tense, learners can take the verb stem (e.g., 'voita-' from 'voittaa') and add the appropriate ending, such as '-i' for third-person singular.

2. Poliisi pidätti 127 ihmistä.

The partitive case ('ihmistä') is used here to indicate an unspecified quantity of people. In Finnish, the partitive case is often used with numbers to show that the exact total is not emphasized. For example, 'kolme ihmistä' (three people) uses the partitive form. Learners should remember that after numbers, the noun is usually in the partitive singular form.

4. Poliisilla oli pieniä vammoja.

The adessive case ('poliisilla') is used here to indicate possession, similar to 'have' in English. In Finnish, 'olla' (to be) with the adessive case expresses possession. For example, 'Minulla on kirja' means 'I have a book.' Learners can use this structure to describe what someone has by using the adessive case of the possessor and the nominative or partitive case of the object.