B1 Collocation ニュートラル

pitää puheenaihetta yllä

to keep the topic going

意味

To continue a conversation.

🌍

文化的背景

Finns are famous for their 'comfortable silence.' However, in modern business, 'pitää puheenaihetta yllä' is seen as a necessary skill for internationalization. In the US, 'keeping the conversation going' is a high social priority. A Finn might find this 'ylläpitäminen' exhausting or fake. Silence is also valued in Japan, but 'reading the air' (kuuki wo yomu) is the equivalent skill to knowing when to maintain a topic. In cultures like Italy or Spain, the conversation often maintains itself through overlapping speech, making the Finnish 'effort' to keep it up seem strange.

🎯

Ask Open Questions

The best way to 'pitää puheenaihetta yllä' is to ask questions starting with 'Miksi' (Why) or 'Miten' (How) instead of yes/no questions.

⚠️

Don't Overdo It

In Finland, if you try too hard to 'pitää puheenaihetta yllä', people might think you are nervous or 'liian puhelias' (too talkative).

意味

To continue a conversation.

🎯

Ask Open Questions

The best way to 'pitää puheenaihetta yllä' is to ask questions starting with 'Miksi' (Why) or 'Miten' (How) instead of yes/no questions.

⚠️

Don't Overdo It

In Finland, if you try too hard to 'pitää puheenaihetta yllä', people might think you are nervous or 'liian puhelias' (too talkative).

💬

Silence is OK

Remember that in Finland, a 5-10 second silence isn't necessarily a failure to 'pitää puheenaihetta yllä'. It's often just a pause for thought.

自分をテスト

Fill in the missing word in the correct case.

Minun täytyy pitää ______ yllä, koska hän on niin ujo. (puheenaihe)

✓ 正解! ✗ おしい! 正解: puheenaihetta

The partitive case 'puheenaihetta' is required for ongoing maintenance.

Which adverb completes the idiom?

Hän on mestari pitämään keskustelua ______.

✓ 正解! ✗ おしい! 正解: yllä

'Pitää yllä' is the fixed phrasal verb for maintaining something abstract.

Complete the dialogue with the most natural phrase.

A: Miten treffit menivät? B: Ihan hyvin, mutta oli vähän vaikeaa...

✓ 正解! ✗ おしい! 正解: pitää puheenaihetta yllä.

This is the standard way to describe the difficulty of maintaining conversation flow.

Match the situation to the sentence.

Situation: You are praising a host for a great party.

✓ 正解! ✗ おしい! 正解: Pidit puheenaihetta yllä hienosti koko illan!

This correctly uses the past tense and the partitive object to give a compliment.

🎉 スコア: /4

ビジュアル学習ツール

練習問題バンク

4 問題
Fill in the missing word in the correct case. Fill Blank B1

Minun täytyy pitää ______ yllä, koska hän on niin ujo. (puheenaihe)

✓ 正解! ✗ おしい! 正解: puheenaihetta

The partitive case 'puheenaihetta' is required for ongoing maintenance.

Which adverb completes the idiom? Choose A2

Hän on mestari pitämään keskustelua ______.

✓ 正解! ✗ おしい! 正解: yllä

'Pitää yllä' is the fixed phrasal verb for maintaining something abstract.

Complete the dialogue with the most natural phrase. dialogue_completion B1

A: Miten treffit menivät? B: Ihan hyvin, mutta oli vähän vaikeaa...

✓ 正解! ✗ おしい! 正解: pitää puheenaihetta yllä.

This is the standard way to describe the difficulty of maintaining conversation flow.

Match the situation to the sentence. situation_matching B1

Situation: You are praising a host for a great party.

✓ 正解! ✗ おしい! 正解: Pidit puheenaihetta yllä hienosti koko illan!

This correctly uses the past tense and the partitive object to give a compliment.

🎉 スコア: /4

よくある質問

10 問

It is neutral. You can use it with friends, but it's also perfectly fine in a business meeting.

Yes! 'Keskustelua' (conversation) is a very common synonym for 'puheenaihetta' in this phrase.

Because the action of 'maintaining' is ongoing. In Finnish, ongoing actions take the partitive case.

There isn't one direct idiom, but you could say 'antaa keskustelun tyrehtyä' (to let the conversation dry up).

Yes, e.g., 'Oli vaikee pitää juttua yllä WhatsAppissa.'

No, in this idiom, 'yllä' is an adverb and does not take possessive suffixes.

Yes, it applies to any form of interactive communication.

It can be. Saying 'Hän ei osaa pitää puheenaihetta yllä' implies they are socially awkward.

Minä pidin, sinä pidit, hän piti, me pidimme, te piditte, he pitivät.

'Yllä' is idiomatic for maintenance; 'päällä' usually refers to physical location or a machine being on.

関連フレーズ

🔄

ylläpitää keskustelua

synonym

To maintain a conversation

🔗

jauhaa paskaa

contrast

To talk nonsense / shoot the breeze

🔗

rikkoa jää

builds on

To break the ice

🔗

puhua pälpättää

similar

To chatter on

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