Pamela argues Finnish grammar

Pamela runs to the shed, telling Pilvi that she isn’t exactly sure what she’s going to get, but that she’s going to get “something”.

Pamela returns with a large roll of bubble wrap, which she tapes onto the table to form a ramp onto the ground, spreading more like a carpet across the drive.

After using just over half of her time setting up bubble wrap on and around her table, Pamela finally blows her egg, cradling the bubble wrap so the egg doesn’t just roll off and break.

When the egg stops rolling, Pilvi asks Pamela if she has finished her attempt. Pamela initially nods, pleased with her result, but then changes her mind, and drops to her knees to continue blowing the egg further down the bubble wrap carpet. However, the egg refuses to move much further, so Pamela voluntarily stops trying in the final minute of her time.

In the studio, after Eero’s, Pirjo’s, and Joonas’ attempts are shown – during which they all banked on the physical distance of the table from the egg – Pamela argues that they had all done the task incorrectly. Her argument holds much more weight in Finnish (which uses different adjective cases and contexts that are not used in English), and is based around the fact that the task specifically dictates ‘pöydältä’ and not the similar – but grammatically very different – ‘pöydästä’ (the closest English equivalents would be ‘off of the table’ and ‘from the table’, respectively).

Joonas attempts to counter her argument by saying that, at least in his case, the egg had been blown onto the ground, “and then the table just moved”. Jaakko acknowledges that grammatically, there is a difference, but that it does not matter in terms of the objective of the task.

Pamela’s egg travels 1.72 metres (which, Pilvi excitedly points out, is Tom Cruise’s height), and she earns fourth place.

(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by Karl Craven)