No. 272 in Finnish
alkavat
"Alkavat" means "they begin" or "they start" in English.
In a sentence
Opiskelut alkavat syksyllä.
Studies begin in the fall.
Here, 'alkavat' is the third-person plural form of the verb 'alkaa', indicating the starting of something.
Kukat alkavat kukoistaa keväällä.
Flowers begin to bloom in the spring.
In this sentence, 'alkavat' shows the initiation of blooming activity in flowers.
Kun urheilu alkavat, stadion täyttyy ihmisistä.
When sports events begin, the stadium fills with people.
Here, 'alkavat' is used to denote the starting time of sports activities.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “alkavat” in actual Finnish podcasts.
Find “alkavat” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Finnish podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into suomi, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Finnish books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).