A FIRST LOOK AT FINNISH
Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. Most languages of Europe are Indo-European, so Finnish grammar and everyday words will look unfamiliar to many learners at first.
Its closest large relative is Estonian, and Hungarian is a very distant cousin. For everyone else, the best approach is to set your own language aside for a while and meet Finnish on its own terms – it is logical, regular and a lot of fun.
Tervetuloa – let’s begin!
NO WORDS FOR ‘A’ OR ‘THE’
Finnish gets along without any articles (nothing like English a, the).
juna a train, the train
omena an apple, the apple
NO GRAMMATICAL GENDER
Nouns have no masculine, feminine or neuter class (no need to choose between forms like Italian il, lo, la).
The same goes for people: the single pronoun hän means both ‘he’ and ‘she’.
ENDINGS DO THE WORK OF PREPOSITIONS AND OTHER SMALL WORDS
This is the heart of Finnish grammar and its biggest contrast with most European languages: where English uses a separate little word, Finnish usually attaches an ending to the word itself.
auto+ssa in a/the car
auto+lla by car
laula+t you sing
laula+t+ko? do you sing?
Finnish does have some words that behave like English prepositions, but most of them come after the noun instead of before it. Grammar books call them postpositions: the noun in front of them must take a certain case ending.
Ainon vieressä next to Aino
katua pitkin along the street
PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING
Finnish spelling is phonetic: a letter always stands for the same sound, and a sound is always written with the same letter. Once you know the letters, you can read any word aloud.
(English is full of surprises here: compare though, through, tough, cough – the same four letters, four different pronunciations.)
Finnish also separates short and long sounds, and the difference is always written: a long vowel or consonant is simply doubled. Mixing the two can turn one word into a completely different one, so practise length both when you speak and when you write.
Hear how the length of a sound changes the meaning:
kasa a pile
kaasa a bridesmaid
kassa a checkout
vapaa free
vapa a fishing rod
Listen and repeat:
kisa – kissa contest – cat
laki – lakki law – cap
tili – tiili – tilli bank account – brick – dill
suu – sukka – suukko mouth – sock – kiss
STRESS AND INTONATION
In every Finnish word the main stress falls on the first syllable, however long the word is.
Listen and repeat each word:
yliopisto university
appelsiini orange
ravintola restaurant
elokuva film
perjantai Friday
kalenteri calendar
The melody of a Finnish sentence goes down towards the end, and questions are no exception: the voice does not go up. You recognise a question by its question word or by the ending -ko/-kö, not by the tone.
Listen and repeat:
Juotko kahvia?
Do you drink coffee?
Missä sinä asut?
Where do you live?
THE FINNISH ALPHABET
Listen and repeat the letters:
| A a [aa] – ankka | K k [koo] – kala | U u [uu] – uni |
| B b [bee] – blogi | L l [äl] – lumi | V v [vee] – vene |
| C c [see] – cappuccino | M m [äm] – maito | W w [kaksoisvee] – watti |
| D d [dee] – draama | N n [än] – nenä | X x [äks] – Alex |
| E e [ee] – etana | O o [oo] – ovi | Y y [yy] – ystävä |
| F f [äf] – farkut | P p [pee] – puu | Z z [tset] – Zürich |
| G g [gee] – galleria | Q q [kuu] – Qatar | Å å [ruotsalainen oo] – Åsa |
| H h [hoo] – hiiri | R r [är] – ruoka | Ä ä [ää] – äiti |
| I i [ii] – ilta | S s [äs] – silta | Ö ö [öö] – öljy |
| J j [jii] – joki | T t [tee] – talvi |
Å is called ruotsalainen oo, ‘the Swedish o’, and it sounds like a Finnish o. You only need it for Swedish names, for example the town name Åbo (Turku in Finnish) or the surname Åström.
SPELLING PRACTICE:
Each name below is spelt out letter by letter in Finnish. Write it down and start it with a capital letter.
Listen and write each name:
1) aa – ii – än – oo
2) äm – ii – koo – koo – oo
3) äs – oo – äf – ii – aa
4) äl – uu – see – aa – äs
5) är – ii – ii – koo – koo – aa
Now try spelling your own name aloud the Finnish way.
VOWELS AND VOWEL PAIRS
Finnish has eight vowels, and every one of them has a short and a long version.
Listen and repeat:
a aa vanha saari an old island
o oo kova moottori a powerful engine
u uu kuuma kuppi a hot cup
e ee keksi ja tee a biscuit and tea
i ii kiva piirakka a nice pie
ä ää vähän jäätä a little ice
ö öö pöllö Kööpenhaminassa an owl in Copenhagen
y yy yksi tyyny one pillow
Finnish also has plenty of vowel sequences and diphthongs. Every vowel in them is pronounced clearly – none is swallowed or turned into another sound. Listen to these examples and imitate the Finnish pronunciation:
Listen and repeat:
kaupunki city, town
leipä bread
koira dog
euro euro
piano piano
tie road
suo swamp
yö night
VOWEL HARMONY: BACK AND FRONT VOWELS
Vowels combine freely in many ways, with one firm exception: the back vowels a, u, o are never found in the same simple word as the front vowels ä, ö, y.
(The neutral vowels e as well as i can live side by side with vowels from either group.)
ä ↔ a
e
ö ↔ o
i
y ↔ u
This rule is called vowel harmony. It is the reason why most endings exist in two forms with the same meaning, one with back vowels and one with front vowels, for example:
koulu+ssa in a school
kylä+ssä in a village
osaat+ko? can you?
syöt+kö? do you eat?
THE CONSONANTS
Listen and repeat the words:
| Sound | Finnish examples | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| k / kk | reki, rekka | sledge, lorry |
| p / pp | sipuli, kaappi | onion, cupboard |
| t / tt | katu, katto | street, roof |
| l / ll | pala, pallo | piece, ball |
| m / mm | kamera, hammas | camera, tooth |
| n / nn | kana, kannu | hen, jug |
| r / rr | tori, porras | market square, step |
| s / ss | rasia, kassi | box, bag |
| h | huone, vihko | room, notebook |
| j | jooga, raja | yoga, border |
| v | vuori, kivi | mountain, stone |
| d | pöydällä | on the table |
| nk | kenkä, lanka | shoe, yarn |
| ng | kengät | shoes |
Pay special attention to these sounds:
p, t, k have no puff of air after them (no aspiration)
r is rolled, like the r in perro (Spanish)
h is always breathed, like in house
j sounds like the English y in young
v like in very
nk like in bank
ng like in singer
A few consonants only turn up in loanwords and foreign names.
Most of these words will be easy to guess!
Listen to the words:
b baletti, bingo
c curry; Chicago
f fakta, foorumi
g golf, gorilla
z zombi, pizzeria
x Luxemburg
LISTENING EXERCISES
1. Listen and write down the words you hear:
2. You will hear the Finnish names of some European countries and cities. Write them down:
The answers are further down the page.
Correct answers:
1: kuppi, kaappi, jää, yö, vihko, sänky
2:Tukholma, Lontoo, Rooma, Ranska, Saksa, Viro, Norja
WORDS AND WORD-BUILDING
Finnish has borrowed quite a few words from Indo-European languages, above all from Swedish, German and English. They are spelt and pronounced the Finnish way, yet many are easy to spot, e.g.
hotelli
salaatti
presidentti
kioski
tennis
jogurtti
konsertti
What do you think these mean? Try to guess:
taksi, pasta, limonadi, suklaa, kaktus, dinosaurus, tiikeri, sirkus, ananas
Most of the vocabulary, however, either goes back to old Finno-Ugric roots or was borrowed so long ago that it no longer resembles anything familiar.
That is why it pays to learn new words carefully from the very first lesson.
sairaala hospital
lentokenttä airport
järvi lake
ikkuna window
New words are often made from existing ones with derivational suffixes. Some examples:
ravinto nourishment ravintola restaurant
laiva a ship laivasto a fleet, navy
laulaa to sing laulaja singer
avata to open avain key
ystävä friend ystävällinen friendly
Suomi Finland suomalainen Finnish, a Finn
Compound words are everywhere in Finnish: two, three or even more words are joined together into one new word.
lumi + ukko = lumiukko snowman (“snow old-man”)
rauta + tie + asema = rautatieasema railway station (“iron road station”)
jää + kaappi = jääkaappi fridge (“ice cupboard”)
sanoma + lehti = sanomalehti newspaper (“message leaf”)
kesä + mökki = kesämökki summer cottage
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LEARNING FINNISH TODAY!