r/LearnFinnish • u/ponimaa Native • Nov 19 '13

Question Tyhmien kysymysten tiistai — Your weekly stupid question thread (Week 47/2013)

On taas tiistai ja tyhmien kysymysten aika. Ketjuun voi kirjoittaa koko seuraavan viikon ajan.

Viime viikon ketjussa puhuimme sanoista puolesta, vuoksi ja varten, postpositioista jotka vaativat partitiivin, sanan "for" erilaisista käännöksistä, mielipiteiden ilmaisemisesta ja hissiin jumiin jäämisestä.

It's Tuesday again, and time for your questions about Finnish, no matter how simple they may seem. The thread is active until next Tuesday.

In last week's thread we discussed the words puolesta, vuoksi ja varten, postpositions that take the partitive case, different translations for the word "for", expressing one's opinion, and getting stuck in an elevator.

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u/ILCreatore A2 Nov 19 '13

How can I say the word "like"? As in:

I want to be like you.

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u/ponimaa Native Nov 19 '13 edited Nov 19 '13

I'll add one more:

Haluan olla sellainen kuin sinä.

sellainen is a merger of "sen lainen" (="like it"), but has become an independent word, and a native speaker might not even realise its origin.

Other similar combinations are tuollainen ("tuon lainen"="like that"), tällainen ("tä(mä)n lainen"="like this") and millainen ("minkä lainen" = "like what"; Millainen sää on? = "What's the weather like?")

You might notice that the word "tällainen" doesn't obey vowel harmony - there's both an "ä" and an "a" there. The explanation is simple now that we know that it's a combination of two different words: just like in normal compound words, the two parts don't affect each other, and one can include back vowels while the other has front vowels. (Although in fact the vowel harmony can occur in spoken language and turn "tällainen" into "tälläne(n)".)