Language Oddity #1: Negative Sentences

One of the first things I was taught in Finnish was how to conjugate verbs in the present tense. It seemed easy, but then came the twist!

Is Santa a Finn?

Some say Santa does not exist. Indeed, some people with too much time on their hands have even gone as far as to propose proof of this. They claim in particular that Santa’s reindeers would explode due to the velocity required of them to deliver parcels all across the globe on Christmas night.

Finnish is Perplexing...

A famous quote, often attributed to to American author and humorist Mark Twain, mischieviously claims: “Life’s too short to learn German”. Indeed, Twain penned an essay entitled “The Awful German Language” in which he explained why, in his opinion, “a person who has not studied German can form no idea of what a perplexing language it is”. Clearly he had not had a look at the Finnish language!

Finnish is Easy!

When I complain to Finns that their language is tricky to learn, they often reply that I am mistaken and that Finnish is, in fact, easy. "Two year-old Finnish kids can speak it!", they say.