Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Overview of Finnish

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Nouns

Pronouns

Adjectives

Adverbs

Suffixes

Number

Case

Possessive

Particle

Verbs:  Person and Number

Verbs:  Tense and Mood

Prepositions & Postpositions

Conjunctions

Interrogatives

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Overview of
 Overview of Finnish

Tervetuloa!

Welcome and congratulations on your choice to learn Finnish!  This Grammar Basics help file will serve as your introduction to the most basic aspects of Finnish grammar.  This overview will give you some more information about this exciting and different language.

Finnish is part of the Finno-Ugrian group of languages.  This group of languages covers the territory from Norway into Siberia and down to the Carpathian Mountains.  Hungarian and Estonian are also part of the Finno-Ugrian group.  Finnish is spoken by approximately five million people, mostly in Finland but also in Sweden and in the United States.

Finnish is a phonetic language.  Each letter represents one sound.  However there are long and short vowels as well as long and short consonants.

Two things you will not need to learn are gender and articles, Finnish does not have either.

A defining characteristic of the language is inflection, endings and cases are added to words to show their grammatical function.  This is the reason why some Finnish words are so long.

Finnish has many cases.  Cases change the form of nouns and pronouns to show their relation to other words.  Case is discussed in this help file, but briefly.  Case information is not given in the grammatical annotation of the Title.  At this stage, it is more important to focus on vocabulary, speaking and understanding.  After using this Title for a time, you may want to further explore Finnish grammar and the cases alone will give you plenty to study!


Alphabet
Alphabet and Pronunciation

A	a

B	b

C	c

D	d

E	e

F	f

G	g

H	h

I	i

J	j

K	k

L	l

M	m

N	n

O	o

P	p

Q	q

R	r

S	s

T	t

U	u

V	v

X	x

Y	y

Z	z

Å	å

Ä	ä

Ö	ö

Finnish is a phonetic language. Each letter is represented by only one sound and each sound corresponds to only one letter.

VOWELS

All of the vowels can appear in short or long form, e.g. a or aa, u or uu etc.

It is important to distinguish between the long and short forms, both in spelling and pronunciation.

tuli	fire

tuuli	wind

Vowels can also be combined together.  These combinations are called diphthongs. The two vowel sounds are pronounced one after another as a continuous sound.

paikka (place)

pieni (small)

koulu (school)

käydä (work)

löyly (steam)

CONSONANTS

All of the consonants can also appear in short or long form except for d, h, v, and j. In the long form, e.g. kauppa, kortti, lippu, make sure to pronounce both consonants.

It is important to distinguish between the long and the short forms both in spelling and pronunciation.

tuli	fire	kylä	village

tulli	customs	kyllä	yes

Letters b, c, d, f, g, q, x, and z are non-native consonants which appear only in loan-words. Finnish is gaining a lot more loan-words especially from English:

bestselleri, camping-alue, fax, and xerox-kopio

STRESS

The stress is always on the first syllable of a word.

 	kirja (book)

tyttö (girl)

Mikko

Helsinki

In a compound word, which is a word formed from two different words, the stress is on the first syllable of both components.

kirjoituskone (typewriter)

luottokortti (credit card)

matkavakuutus (travel insurance)


Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, action, thing, or idea.

Pekka  (Pekka is a male's name)

Helsinki  (Helsinki is the capital of Finland)

talo (house)

Finnish is a gender free language like English.

Unlike English, where nouns are sometimes preceded by the articles a, an, or the, Finnish does not have articles at all.

Lentolippu	a flight ticket

Juna	a train

However, Finnish nouns are inflected, the form of the noun changes to show grammatical function.  There are four suffixes that can be added to a noun, they will always follow the same order:

number   +   case   +    possessive   +   particle

See Also:

Suffixes


Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that stands for a previously mentioned or understood noun.

Pronouns can be used in various ways: as the subject of a verb or as the object of a verb.  Like nouns, pronouns are inflected to show their grammatical function

Subject Pronouns are in the nominative case:

minä 	I

sinä	you

hän	he/she

me	we

te	you (plural)

he	they

Object Pronouns are in the accusative or partitive case:

accusative	partitive

minut	minua	me

sinut	sinua	you

hänet	hantä	him/her

meidät	meitä	us

teidät	teitä	you (plural)

heidät	heitä	them

Possessive Pronouns are in the genitive case:

minun	mine

sinun	yours

hänen	his/hers

meidän	ours

teidän	yours (plural)

heidän	theirs

The complete list of the other pronouns:

tämä	this

tuo	that

se	it

nämä	these

nuo	those

ne	they (unanimated)

kuka	who

ken	who

kumpi	which one

joka	which

eräs	one

See Also:

Suffixes


Interrogatives

To form a question from a pronoun an interrogative suffix ko/-kö is added to the pronoun.

Minäkö?	Do you mean me?

Tämäkö?	Do you mean this one?

To form a question from an adjective an interrogative suffix ko/-kö is added to the adjective.

Amerikkalainenko?	Is he/she American?

Sininenkö?	Is it the blue one?


Adjectives

An adjective is a word that limits or qualifies a noun or other substantive.

Adjectives agree with nouns in number, and they preceed the noun: iso (big)

Iso talo	a big house

Isot talot	big houses

Talo on iso.	The house is big.

Talot ovat isoja.	The houses are big.

Finnish adjectives are also inflected according to the case of the noun it qualifies.

Isoissa taloissa	in the big houses

Isoihin taloihin	to the big houses

See Also:

Suffixes


Adverbs

An adverb is a word used to modify a verb, adverb, or adjective by expressing time, place, manner, degree, cause etc.

Many adverbs can be formed from adjectives by adding a suffix sti to the adjective, however, the consonants are subject to change, and the vowel changes apply before this ending.

Nopea	fast	hidas	slow

Nopeasti	fast	hitaasti	slowly

See Also:

Adjectives


Suffixes

Suffixes are a feature of the Finnish language that make it unique.  They are the cases and endings that are added to words that exemplify a word's grammatical function.  There are four types of suffixes:  number, case, possessive and particle.

Number

Finnish has two forms,  singular and plural.

The plural nominative ending is t.

auto	(car)	autot	(cars)

talo	(house)	talot	(houses)

lippu	(ticket)	liput 	(tickets)

This form is the equivalent of the English definite plural. The ending t is added to the main body of the word.  If there are any consonants that are subject to the consonant gradation, they change, and the vowel changes apply before this ending.

kirja	a book 	kirjat	the books

 	pankki	a bank	pankit	the banks

kirje	a letter	kirjeet	the letters

nainen	a woman	naiset	the women

The plural for other cases is -i.

Case

There are sixteen cases in Finnish language.

The nominative case is the basic form.  When you look up a word in the dictionary, you will be looking up the nominative form.  Other case endings are added to this form.

talo	house

The genitive case shows possession, as in "Saana's cat" or "the name of the restaurant".  The genitive case ending is usually -n.

talon	of the house

Many of the things which in English are expressed with preposition, in Finnish are expressed with different cases (elative, inessive, illative, adessive, ablative, allative, essive and translative are a few).

junassa	in a train

lapsena	as a child

Possessive

When you need to indicate that something is yours, you can use endings, which are called possessive suffixes. They perform the same function as the words my, your, his, her, our, and their in English. The possessive suffixes are:

-ni	my

-si	your (singular, informal)

-nsa/-nsä 	his/her

-mme	our

-nne	your (plural, formal)

-nsa/-nsä	their

passini	my passport

passisi	your passport

passinsa	his/her passport

passimme	our passport

passinne	your passport

passinsa	their passport

The possessive suffix is added to the very end of the word. If the word has a case ending, the possessive suffix is added after the case ending.

Lipu|ssani	in my ticket	auto|stanne	from your car

The possessive pronouns are used with the possessive suffix in the spoken language.

Minun ystäväni	my friend

Sinun ystäväsi	your friend

Hänen ystävänsä	his/her friend

Meidän ystävämme	our friend

Teidän ystävänne	your friend (plural, formal)

Heidän ystävänsä	their friend

There are some useful expressions using this structure with the verb:

Infinitive verb + kse + possessive suffix

Tietää              +  kse +   ni	tietääkseni

Tietääkseni	as far as I know

Muistaakseni	as far as I can remember

Totta puhuakseni	to tell you the truth

Tietääkseni	as far as I know

Particle

In Finnish grammar adverbs, postpositions (acts as a preposition, but is attached to the end of a word), prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections form a group called particles.

See Also:

Prepositions and Postpositions


Verb Conjugations:  Tense and Mood
Verbs:  Tense and Mood

A verb expresses action, existence, or occurrence.

In the dictionary a verb is listed in its infinitive form. The infinitive form is the basic form of the verb without inflection. The infinitive can be inflected to show mood and tense.

Moods:

Indicative: expresses objective statements and questions

The indicative mood has a variety of tenses.

Present: expresses something happening presently. All verbs form to pronouns and adopt personal endings.

Laula/a (to sing)

Laulan	I sing

Laulat	you sing

Laulaa	he/she sings

Laulamme	we sing

Laulatte	you sing (plural, polite)

Laulavat	they sing

Past (Imperfect): expresses an event that occurred at a particular time in the past. The imperfect tense is marked by I, which is added before the personal ending. Sometimes the vowel i can cause other vowels to change when added.

Ol/la (to be)	tul/la (to come)

Present	past	present 	past

Olen	olin	tulen	tulin

Olet	olit	tulet	tulit

On	oli	tulee	tuli

Olemme	olimme	tulemme	tulimme

Olette	olitte	tulette	tulitte

Ovat	olivat	tulevat	tulivat

To express the negative of the past tense, the past participle is used together with the negative verb ei which agrees with the pronoun.

En ollut	I was not

Et ollut	you were not

Ei ollut	he/she was not

Emme olleet	we were not

Ette olleet	they were not

Eivät olleet	they were not

Perfect: expresses an event that occurred in the past, without a fixed time to it. It expresses both to have done and to have been doing. The auxiliary verb is olla (to be). The past participle ending is nut/-nyt in the singular and neet in the plural.

Olen asunut	I have lived

Olet asunut	you have lived

On asunut	he/she has lived

Olemme asuneet	we have lived

Olette asuneet	you have lived

Ovat asuneet	they have lived

Negative perfect tense for syö/dä (to eat)

En ole syönyt	I have not eaten

Et ole syönyt	you have not eaten

Ei ole syönyt	he-she has not eaten

Emme ole syöneet	we have not eaten

Ette ole syöneet	you have not eaten

Eivät ole syöneet 	they have not eaten

Pluperfect: expresses a past event that preceded another event, also in the past. The pluperfect tense means both I had lived and I had been living. The auxilliary verb olla (to be) is in the past tense. The participle ending nut/-nyt in singular or neet in plural is added to the stem of the infinitive.

Olin asunut	I had lived

Olit asunut	You had lived

Oli asunut	he/she had lived

Olimme asuneet	we had lived

Olitte asuneet	you had lived

Olivat asuneet	they had lived

Negative pluperfect tense for matkusta/a (to travel)

En ollut matkustanut	I had not traveled

Et ollut matkustanut	you had not traveled

Ei ollut matkustanut	he/she had not traveled

Emme olleet matkustaneet	we had not traveled

Ette olleet matkustaneet	you had not traveled

Eivät olleet matkustaneet	they had not traveled

Future: expresses an event that will happen. There is no separate future tense in Finnish. The present tense olen means both I am and I will be. The future is indicated in the context with an expression referring to the future.

ylihuomenna (a day after tomorrow)

tunnin kuluttua (after an hour)

pian (soon)

Conditional: expresses a future event from an orientation in the past. The conditional is formed by adding a suffix isi before the personal ending to the third person singular form of the verb in present tense.

Infinitive	3d person	conditional

Ymmärtää (to understand)	ymmärtää	ymmärtäisi

 Vaihtaa (to exchange)	vaihtaa	vaihtaisi

Ostaa	(to buy)	ostaa	ostaisi

Ostaisin	I would buy

Ostaisit	you would buy

Ostaisi	he/she would buy

Ostaisimme	we would buy

Ostaisitte	you would buy

Ostaisivat	they would buy

Negative conditional form for soitta|a (to call)

En soittaisi	I would not call

Et soittaisi	you would not call

Ei soittaisi	he/she would not call

Emme soittaisi	we would not call

Ette soittaisi	you would not call

Eivät soittaisi	they would not call

Conditional Perfect: expresses something that should have been done, but has not yet. The conditional perfect is formed with the conditional of the auxiliary verb olla (to be) with the past participle of the verb.

Vara|ta (to reserve)

Olisin varannut	I would have reserved

Olisit varannut	you would have reserved

Olisi varannut	he/she would have reserved

Olisimme varanneet	we would have reserved

Olisitte varanneet	you would have reserved

Olisivat varanneet	they would have reserved

Imperative Mood: expresses a command. Imperative form is also used to make a polite request in combination with please ole hyvä (singular), or olkaa hyvä (plural).

The singular form or the familiar form is the same as the stem of the present tense of the verb without a personal ending. The easiest way is to take the first person singular and drop its n ending.

Tule/n	-> tule!	Come!

Kirjoita/n	-> kirjoita!	Write!

To tell someone not to do something, simply add the word dont älä in front:

Älä tule!	Dont come!

Älä kirjoita!	Dont write!

The plural and polite request is formed from the infinitive of the verb by dropping the infinitive ending, and adding the ending -kaa/-kää.

Kirjoitta/a	Kirjoittakaa!	Write!

Etsi/ä	Etsikää	Search!

It is polite to add please ole hyvä (singular) or olkaa hyvä (plural) either before or after the verb.

Ole hyvä ja lue!	Read, please!

Istukaa, olkaa hyvä!	Sit down, please!

The negative imperative is formed by changing the kaa/-kää to ko/-kö and adding älkää in front of the verb.

Älkää istuko!	Dont sit down!

Älkää tupakoiko!	Dont smoke!

See Also:

Verbs: Person and Number


Verb Conjugations:  Person and Number
Verbs:  Person and Number

In Finnish, the personal endings of the verbs always indicate the subject. Therefore, it is not always necessary to add the personal pronouns, although it is common to do so especially in the spoken Finnish. The third person singular pronoun hän (he/she) is used to refer human beings, and the pronoun se (it) to refer to things and inanimate objects.

Infinitive endings:

Saapu/a	to arrive

Saavun	I arrive

Saavut	you arrive

Saapuu	he/she/it arrives

Saavumme	we arrive

Saavutte	you arrive

Saapuvat	they arrive

In Finnish the word ei (no) has endings like a verb.

En ole	I am not

Et ole	you are not

Ei ole	he/she/it is not

Emme ole	we are not

Ette ole	you are not

Eivät ole	they are not

Finnish has no separate verb for to have. The verb to be olla is used together with the adessive case lla/-llä to express to have. The adessive ending is added to the word indicating who has, it is followed by on (the third person of the verb olla).

Minulla on	I have

Sinulla on	you have

Hänellä on	he/she has

Sillä on	it has

Meillä on	we have

Teillä on	you have

Heillä on	they have

Minulla ei ole	I have not

Sinulla ei ole	you have not

Hänellä ei ole	he/she has not

Sillä ei ole	it has not

Meillä ei ole	we have not

Teillä ei ole	you have not

Heillä ei ole	they have not

See Also:

Verbs: Tense and Mood


Postpositions
Prepositions & Postpositions

Finnish uses endings to express many of the things which in English are expressed with prepositions. They are called case endings. Furthermore, there is a group of words that have a meaning of a preposition, however, they come after the word. These words are called postpositions:

vieressä	next to

edessä	in front of

takana	behind

lähellä	close to

ohi	past

kanssa	with

yli	over

välissä	between

luokse	over to

ohella	alongside

A noun or a pronoun is in a genitive case when used with a postposition.

Minun vieressä	next to me

Talon takana	behind the house

There are very few prepositions in Finnish. Among the few are:

Ennen	before

Kohti	toward

A noun or a pronoun is in a partitive case when used with a preposition.

Ennen yhdeksää	before nine

Kohti seinää	toward the wall


Conjunctions

A conjunction is an uninflected word used to connect words, phrases, clauses and sentences.

Most used Finnish conjunctions are:

mutta	but

jotta	in order that

kun	when

koska	because

sillä	for

että	that

jos	if

vaan	but