DW English Life Jun 05 Original

Ebola leviää Kongossa valheiden takia.

Ebola spreads in Congo because of lies.

Finnish · A1 level

Simple Finnish

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1.

Kongossa on 397 Ebola-tapausta.

There are 397 Ebola cases in Congo.
2.

Kuolemia on 63.

There are 63 deaths.
3.

Ihmiset eivät usko tautiin.

People do not believe in the disease.
4.

Tauti on Ebola.

The disease is Ebola.
5.

Viranomaiset kertovat totuuden.

Authorities tell the truth.
6.

Ihmiset polttivat sairaalan teltan.

People burned a hospital tent.
7.

Potilaita karkasi sairaalasta.

Patients escaped from the hospital.
8.

Ebola leviää helposti.

Ebola spreads easily.

Key Words

Word	English	Form
levitä leviää	to spread spreads	3rd person singular present tense (intransitive verb)
uskoa usko	to believe believe (in)	illative case (tauti + -in → tautiin)
teltta teltan	tent tent (object)	genitive/accusative case (singular)
karata karkasi	to escape escaped	3rd person singular past tense
viranomainen viranomaiset	authority authorities	nominative plural
kuolema kuolemia	death deaths	partitive plural

0. Ebola leviää Kongossa valheiden takia.

The sentence uses the inessive case ('Kongossa') to indicate location. In Finnish, the inessive case (ending -ssa/-ssä) is used to show where something happens. Here, it tells us that the spreading of Ebola is happening *in* Congo. For example, 'Helsingissä' means 'in Helsinki.' Learners can use this case to describe actions taking place in a city, country, or enclosed space.

3. Ihmiset eivät usko tautiin.

This sentence uses the illative case ('tautiin') to indicate the object of belief. The illative case (ending -Vn, where V is a vowel) is used after verbs like 'uskoa' (to believe) to show *what* is being believed in. For example, 'Hän uskoo rakkauteen' means 'He/she believes in love.' Learners can use this structure with verbs expressing mental states or emotions.

6. Ihmiset polttivat sairaalan teltan.

The accusative case is used here for the object ('teltan'). In Finnish, the accusative case often looks like the genitive case (ending -n) for singular nouns. It marks the direct object of a transitive verb, showing *what* is being acted upon. For example, 'Hän söi omenan' means 'He/she ate an apple.' Learners should use this case for objects in sentences with clear actions.