"Finlands huvudstad"

Translation: The capital of Finland

[Metlieb]

I wrote "Helsinki" and it was marked wrong.

[NattKullav1]

This is a Swedish course. You should reply "Helsingfors" :D

[ekufi]

Finlands huvudstad är Helsingfors (Helsinki).

[vohveliini]

Every time Finland is mentioned in this course I want to translate to my native Finnish instead of English. Too many languages.

[person222222]

Is there a way to literally say "The capital of finland"? even if it's not commonly used? If i had to guess it would be either "huvudstaden Finland" eller "huvudstaden av Finland", although which one it is definitely feels up for grabs :p

[Arnauti]

It would have to be Huvudstaden i Finland.

[Iawesome2--GD]

Couldn't it also be "Finland's capital?

[Arnauti]

Sure. (It's an accepted answer, too.)

[shimashima2]

But it shows error for me

[Iawesome2--GD]

Tack!!

[shimashima2]

The Finland s capital

[Arnauti]

That's because you can't have the definite article before that: it's either The capital of Finland or Finland's capital.
It's the same in Swedish – an owner in the s-genitive is enough to make something definite, so you can't have the 'owned' thing definite too. So it's pojkens bok and the boy's book, not "pojkens boken" and "the boy's the book".

[DanielLuna729625]

And "Finland captal"? It's wrong?

[JerryMcCarthy99]

"Finland" is not (generally speaking) an adjective; "The Finlandic capital" might be correct, but nobody would ever say it in real life.

[kiteo]

You have to add the possessive - Finland’s

[bakercat24]

Couldn't 'Finnish capital' be ok? It is right in English after all.

[Zmrzlina]

No. We're going for the country here, not the adjective.

[QuicksilverJohny]

Rovaniemi, Oulu, Kajaani, Joensuu, Kuopio, Mikkeli, Seinäjoki, Kokkola, Vaasa, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Pori, Turku, Lappeenranta, Lahti, Hämeenlinna, Kouvola, Mariehamn, and of course Helsinki are all "Finnish capitals".
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_Finland

[ZoranMudronja]

Wouldn't they rather be called "regional capitals"? I don't think anyone would think of them ahead of Helsinki if "Finnish capital" was brought up in a conversation.

[NicolsRocc]

is the second "u" of "huvudstad" pronounced like "e"?

[Zmrzlina]

The word "huvud" is often pronounced as if it were "huve". That is not the case with the automated voice here though.

[Carol353382]

What is the difference between capitol and capital in Swedish?

[devalanteriel]

A capital is a huvudstad, and a capitol is e.g. a parlamentsbyggnad or Kapitolium.

[JanPetrus3]

I always thought that 'capital city' is wrong. it should be just 'capital', no?

[devalanteriel]

"capital" is simply short for "capital city". They're both fine. It's from the Latin caput, which means "head".

[JeffW808922]

"Finland's capital" was not accepted, but "Finnland's capital" with two n's was.

[Alexandru_____]

I like the simplicity of Swedish.
Huvud = Head,
Stad = city/town,
Huvudstad = Headcity/Capital

[devalanteriel]

capit- also means "head", so English isn't that far behind, actually. :)

[ahferroin7]

There are all kinds of other refreshingly straightforwards compounds in Swedish. Some of my favorites so far are raketstol (literally 'rocket chair', used to refer to the chemically propelled ejection seats used in military fighter jets) and sköldpadda (which literally means 'shield toad', which actually kind of makes sense given that turtles aren't native to Scandinavia in general, let alone Sweden).