Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Finnish

### Consonant Gradation (Qualitative)

In the previous lesson, we saw how adding the inessive ending (**-ssa** or **-ssä**) causes double consonants to weaken into single ones.

When a word's stem has a single **k**, **p**, or **t**, the changes are qualitative. Instead of just dropping a letter, the consonant changes into a different letter (or disappears completely) to form the weak grade.

#### **t** → **d** 

A single **t** in the strong grade weakens to a **d**.

- *pata* (pot) → *padassa* (in the pot)
- *paita* (shirt) → *paidassa* (in the shirt)

{{item:896631}}

{{item:896636}}

{{item:896645}}

#### **p** → **v** 

A single **p** in the strong grade weakens to a **v**.

- *tupa* (cabin) → *tuvassa* (in the cabin)
- *leipä* (bread) → *leivässä* (in the bread)

{{item:896649}}

{{item:896655}}

#### **k** → ∅ (disappears) 

A single **k** in the strong grade is often so weak that it completely drops out of the word.

- *lika* (dirt) → *liassa* (in the dirt)
- *reikä* (hole) → *reiässä* (in the hole)

{{item:896659}}

{{item:896657}}

Notice how *ruoka* (food) behaves. When the **k** drops, you are left with three vowels in a row: *ruoassa*.

{{item:896661}}

Consonant gradation (-ssa/-ssä)

adjective

adposition

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

postposition

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Demonstrative pronouns (tämä, tuo, se)

Singular personal pronouns (minä, sinä, hän)

Plural personal pronouns (me, te, he)

Plural demonstratives (nämä, nuo, ne)

Coordinating conjunctions (ja, mutta, tai)

Yes/no questions (-ko / -kö)

Basic question words (kuka, mikä, missä)

Negation of to be (en ole, ei ole)

The inessive case (-ssa / -ssä)

Double consonant gradation (kk, pp, tt)

Verb Type 1 (puhun, puhut, puhuu)

Verb Type 1 with consonant gradation

Negative verbs (en puhu, et lue)

External location (-lla/-llä)

There is / there are (kaupungissa on)

Possession (minulla on)

Numbers 1 to 10 (yksi, kaksi, kolme)

The partitive singular (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Quantities with numbers (kaksi autoa)

Negative possession (ei ole)

Numbers 11 to 100 and 1000

Partitive verbs

Partitive personal pronouns (minua, sinua)

Verb Type 2 (-da/-dä)

Partitive for mass nouns (-a/-ä, -ta/-tä)

Partitive for negative objects

Adjective agreement

Verb Type 3

The elative case (-sta/-stä)

Negative possession (minulla ei ole…)

The illative case (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Numbers 21 to 99

Static vs. movement verbs

Verb Type 4 (-Vta / -Vtä)

Verb Type 5 (-ita / -itä)

Genitive singular for possession (-n)

Total object (-n)

Accusative personal pronouns (-t)

Obligation (täytyy)

Into places (-Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Postpositions with the genitive

My and your (-ni, -si)

Onto and to someone (-lle)

From someone or somewhere (-lta, -ltä)

Telling time (kello on...)

Months of the year (-ssa, -ssä)

Days of the week (-na, -nä)

When and why (milloin, miksi)

The illative case (mihin, -Vn, -hVn, -seen)

Past tense of to be (olin, olit, oli)

The seasons (kevät, kesä, syksy, talvi)

The imperative mood (lue!, syö!, mene!)

The past tense of to be (olin, oli)

The illative case (-hVn, -seen)

Greetings and goodbyes (hei, näkemiin)

Thank you and sorry (kiitos, anteeksi)

Liking things (pitää / tykätä + -sta/-stä)

Temporary states and roles (-na/-nä)

Change of state (-ksi)

Ongoing actions (-massa/-mässä)

Going to do an action (-maan/-mään)

Returning from an action (-masta/-mästä)

Third-person possessives (-nsa/-nsä or -Vn)

Plural possessives (-mme, -nne)

Indefinite pronouns (joku, jokin, kaikki)

Negative indefinite pronouns (ei kukaan, ei mikään)

Commands for verb types 4 and 5

Adverb formation (-sti)

Past tense for verb type 1 (-i-)

Past tense vowel changes for verb type 1 (-o- / -i-)

Past tense for verb type 2 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 3 (-i-)

Past tense for verb type 4 (-si-)

Past tense for verb type 5 (-itsi-)

Past tense consonant gradation

Past participles for verb types 1 and 2 (-nut / -nyt)

Past participle singular for verb types 3-5 (-nnut, -llut)

Active past participle plural (-neet)

Past tense negative (en mennyt, emme olleet)

The perfect tense (olen ollut)

The perfect tense negative (en ole nähnyt)

Total plural objects (-t)

Partitive plural (-ia / -iä)

Partitive plural (-ja / -jä)

Partitive plural (-ita / -itä)

Question	Answer
pot	pata
The food is still in the pot.	Ruoka on vielä padassa.
dirt	lika
The dirt is in the pot.	Lika on padassa.
shirt	paita
hole	reikä
There is a small hole in the shirt.	Paidassa on pieni reikä.
Is the hole in the shirt?	Onko reikä paidassa?
screen	ruutu
The word is on the screen.	Sana on ruudussa.
Those words are on the screen.	Nuo sanat ovat ruudussa.
war	sota
The young man is in the war.	Nuori mies on sodassa.
We are not in a war.	Me emme ole sodassa.
distress	hätä
The friend is in distress.	Ystävä on hädässä.
Are you in distress?	Oletteko te hädässä?
The boy sits at the table.	Poika istuu pöydässä.
cabin	tupa
The cat is in the car and the dog is in the cabin.	Kissa on autossa ja koira on tuvassa.
Is the cat in the cabin or outside?	Onko kissa tuvassa vai ulkona?
bath	kylpy
The girl is in the bath now.	Tyttö on nyt kylvyssä.
I am not in the bath.	Minä en ole kylvyssä.
bread	leipä
The dirt is not in the bread.	Lika ei ole leivässä.
Is that hole in the bread?	Onko tuo reikä leivässä?
The cat sits in the hole.	Kissa istuu reiässä.
This dirt is in the hole.	Tämä lika on reiässä.
The small boy sits in the dirt.	Pieni poika istuu liassa.
Is the dog in the dirt?	Onko koira liassa?
There is a small flower in the food.	Ruoassa on pieni kukka.
Is this in the food?	Onko tämä ruoassa?