Talk:Suomen kieli ulkomaalaisille/Sisältö/Genetiivi

Confusion
I find this page confusing. The arguments are unnecessarily difficult to follow, partly because of the examples chosen, partly because of approach, but also because of errors. For instance, I believe that: "Tämä auto on Timon" mean: "THIS car is Timo's", or "THIS is Timo's car", or "THIS is the car of Timo" etc. and not:  "THAT car is Timo's" etc. "Tuo on Timon auto" would be better for "That is etc". Though Here is, There are etc don't transalate well. Simlarly: "Pesin isän auton" I believe means: "I washed dad's car" not "I have washed dad's car".

Could there be more and simpler and more consistent examples given? I would throw in my twopenny worth but my Finnish is very poor.

Secondly, IMHO the attempt to write the page for English speakers learning Finnish and Finnish speakers learning Finnish fails. The irregularity of English is not equivalent to the irregularity of Finnish. Trying to make a one-to-one match between the two fails. So why not be consistent? Keep the text in English (therefore including the title) and don't spend time explaining English grammer. English speakers know the various forms of the Genitive. Simlarly expanding everything with "he is she is" variants interrupts te natural flow of language. We do not speak like this so why write like it? If you have to use "s/he". Finnish doesn't discriminate and that too brings issues. Language is imperfect.

IMHO I also think that concentrating on Finnish grammer is a mistake. The language is highly irregular and a grammer can only ever be so much help. The definitive grammer is the language! If an attempt is made to contain all the grammatical exceptions here the page will become even more unwieldy. More progressive complexity in the explanations would help.

Just for me, what does "-Vn" mean?

LookingGlass 10:36, 2 December 2007 (UTC)