Breakdown of Se on melkein ammattilainen, mut mä oon parempi.
olla
to be
se
it / he / she (of a person) / that
minä
I
mutta
but
ammattilainen
professional
parempi
better
melkein
almost
Questions & Answers about Se on melkein ammattilainen, mut mä oon parempi.
Why does the sentence use se instead of hän for "he"?
In spoken Finnish (puhekieli), it is completely standard to use the pronoun se (which normally means "it") to refer to people instead of hän ("he/she"). Hän is mostly reserved for standard written language or very formal situations.
I learned that "but" is mutta. Is mut just a spoken abbreviation?
Exactly! In everyday spoken Finnish, many common function words are reduced. As you are learning in this lesson, mutta loses its final syllable and becomes mut. You will hear this shortened form constantly in casual conversations.
Are mä oon and minä olen used differently here?
They mean the exact same thing ("I am"), but mä oon is the everyday spoken form. In casual speech, minä becomes mä and olen drops its middle consonant to become oon. Since this sentence uses other colloquial words like se and mut, using mä oon perfectly matches the casual tone.
I do not recognize the word parempi. What is its base form?
Parempi is the comparative form of hyvä (good), so it translates to "better". Just like in English where "good" turns into "better", this Finnish word changes completely instead of taking a regular comparative ending.
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