Finnish language

Finnish
suomen kieli
Pronunciation	[ˈsuo̯mi]
Native to	Finland, Estonia, Ingria, Karelia, Norway, Sweden
Native speakers	c. To5 million (2011)
Language family	Uralic Finnic Northern Finnic Finnish
Writing system	Latin (Finnish alphabet) Finnish Braille
Official status
Official language in	Finland European Union recognised as minority language in: Sweden Russian Federation: Karelia
Regulated by	Language Planning Department of the Institute for the Languages of Finland
Language codes
ISO 639-1	fi
ISO 639-2	fin
ISO 639-3	fin
Official language.   Spoken by a minority.

Finnish (Finnish: suomen kieli) is a Uralic language. It is one of the two official languages of Finland. It is also an official minority language in Sweden. Finnish is one of the four national languages of Europe that is not an Indo-European language. The other two are Estonian and Hungarian, which are also Uralic languages, and Basque.

Related languages

The Finnish grammar and most Finnish words are very different from those in other European languages, because Finnish is not an Indo-European language. The two other national languages that are Uralic languages as Finnish are Estonian and Hungarian. Estonians and Finns usually may understand each other, but their languages are very different. Even though Finnish and Hungarian are related languages, they do not look or sound similar. The Finnish and Hungarian languages separated a long time ago, and each language developed its own vocabulary. People who can speak Finnish cannot understand Hungarian without extra study, and Hungarians cannot understand Finnish. However, there are some basic words that are very similar, for example: 'hand' (Finnish 'käsi' vs. Hungarian 'kéz') 'to go' (Finnish 'mennä' vs. Hungarian 'menni'), 'fish' (Finnish 'kala' vs. Hungarian 'hal').

Finnish grammar

Finnish is a synthetic and an agglutinative language. This means that words in Finnish have a stem called "body", and other parts inside them which make up the meaning. Finnish is similar in this respect to the Japanese language and Turkic languages. In Finnish, there are 17 cases/word types (sanatyypit). You can think of a "case" as an ending added to a word that helps describe its purpose in the sentence. Verbs have 5 tempora (present tense, past tense, perfect, pluperfect and future tense). In addition, verbs have two participle (active and passive) cases. Gerunds, which are nouns made from verbs (for example: reading - to read) also exist in Finnish (lukeminen - lukea), are abundant in Finnish.

Finnish is a complex, self-morphing language. It has been ranked as a highly difficult language for native speakers of English by the U.S. Department of State. The difficulty is due not only to the grammatical structure of the language, but also pronunciation and intonation as compared to English.

Finnish spelling and pronunciation

Finnish is pronounced the way it is spelled. The pronunciation of some letters is similar to English. However:

• 'j' is like English 'y' in 'yes'
• 's' is like English 's' in 'sad' (never like 'z')
• 'h' is always pronounced, even at the end of a syllable e.g. 'ahdas' ('narrow')
• double vowels make the sound long
• 'ä' is similar to 'a' in English 'cat'
• 'ö' is almost like English article 'a'. It is pronounced with rounded lips, like 'eu' in French 'peur' or German 'ö'
• the letter 'c' is not used. It is replaced either by 'k' or 's' to avoid confusion and make writing simple.
• the letter 'q' is not used. It is replaced by either 'k' or 'kv' to make writing simple.
• the letter 'y' is pronounced like the 'u' in French language, or 'i' in 'in' but with rounded lips, very close to 'ö'.
• the letter 'z' is pronounced 'ts' as in German language. It is often written as "ts" to make writing simple.
• the letter 'x' is usually written out as 'ks' to make writing simple, for example in the word "taksi" instead of "taxi".

English speakers often exhale when saying letters like "k", "p", and "t". They don't do this in Finnish, and to "swallow the sound", as the old saying goes, takes a lot of practice.

The proper pronunciation for the Finnish diphthongs (öy, yö, äy, eu, etc.) is difficult.

Examples of Finnish words

Yksi	One
Kaksi	Two
Kolme	Three
Kyllä	Yes
Ei	No
Minä	I
Sinä/Te	You
Hän	He/She
Me	We
He	They
Olen/Minä olen	I am
Suomi	Finland
Talo	House
Koti	Home
Tie	Way
Äiti	Mother
Isä	Father
Tyttö	Girl
Poika	Boy
Vauva	Baby
Auto	Car
Juna	Train
Lentokone	Airplane
Ravintola	Restaurant
Nukke	Doll
Sänky	Bed
Tuoli	Chair
Kaupunki	City/Town
Puisto	Park
Polkupyörä	Bicycle
Kukka	Flower
Kevät	Spring
Kesä	Summer
Syksy	Autumn/Fall
Talvi	Winter

Basic Finnish expressions

Terve	Hello
Mitä kuuluu?	How are you? (informal)
Kiitos hyvää	Very well, thank you
Kiitos	Thank you
Kiitos paljon	Thank you very much
Hyvää huomenta	Good morning
Hyvää iltaa	Good evening
Hyvää yötä	Good night
Hyvästi	Goodbye
Nimeni on Anna	My name is Anna
En osaa puhua suomea	I can't speak Finnish
Puhutteko englantia?	Do you speak English?

Other websites

• English-Finnish-English and Swedish-Finnish-Swedish dictionary