Pronunciation

Pronouncing Finnish will certainly not be the hardest part of learning the
language. There are some very simple rules that will facilitate the understanding of
the phonological system of this language. First, stress in Finnish is completely
predictable: you stress the first syllable in every word, regardless of its status either as
a native Finnish word or as a foreign borrowing. Second, there exist certain
phonotactic constraints in Finnish: there can never be more than one word-initial or
word-final consonant. The word Franska, then, would have to undergo a change
because the cluster Fr- is not allowed. Consequently, the language spoken in France
is referred to as ranska in Finnish. Word-medially, though, as many as three
consonants are allowed, provided that the first one is a sonorant, i.e. a consonant that
can only be voiced, such as /l/ or /r/ or /m/ or /n/. Finally, remember to pronounce
everything you see, including double consonants or vowels. Doubling is phonemic in
Finnish, unlike English. This means that where we see two p's in English approach,
only one is pronounced. In Finnish, if there are two of any letters, they must be
pronounced double, or the speaker runs the risk of not being understood. For
example, Finnish kuusi ("six") has a radically different meaning from Finnish kusi
("urine"); Finnish tapan ("I kill") similarly has a different meaning from
Finnish tapaan ("I meet").

Finnish Vowel Orthography English (or Other) Equivalent
a "uh" as in the name "Dullah"
aa "ah" as in "father"
similar to "a" as in "hat" (consider German )
similar to "bad" but without the glide
e "eh" as in "met"
ee longer "eh", no real English equivalent
i "ih" as in "sit"
ii long "ee" as in "read"
o "aw" (but without the drawl) as in "cot"
oo like British "sort"
like British "erm" (consider German )
like British "further"
u halfway between the sound in "foot" and "boot"
uu like "shoot" but further back in the mouth
y similar to French u or German
yy longer version of y, somewhat like Scottish "stew"

ai "eye" as in English "line"
i "eh-y" as in Australian "say"
ei "eh-ee" as in "day" but with both vowels full
oi "oy" as in "toy" but with both vowels full
i like Bronx "heard"
ui like "ooh-ee" but far back in the mouth
yi consider Chinese /i/
au "ow" as in "sour"
ou "oh" as in "owe"
eu "eh-oo" but without glides
iu "ee-oo" but without glides, similar to Portuguese
y no English equivalent (+y)
y similar to British "oh"
ie similar to Spanish "sierra"
uo "oo-oh" but without glides
y no English equivalent (+y)

Finnish consonants are very similar to their English counterparts. (Notable in Finnish
is the lack of certain consonants, such as c, q, f, w, x and z.) Exceptions are as
follows:

Finnish Consonant Orthography English Equivalent
j "y" as in "yes"
h always pronounced, even before consonants
r trilled, as in Spanish or Italian
nk /k/ as in "bank" (not as in "non-king")
s always hard, as in "sod" (not as in "rose");
however, it is palatalized more than in English
(primarily due to the lack of /z/ and /s/ and
/z/). So
technically it's halfway between "sod" and
"shod".

Vowel Harmony
Finnish has vowel harmony, which means that roots that contain front vowels will
couple with endings that too have front vowels. Finnish has eight pure vowels: three
front (, and y), three back (a, o and u) and two "neutral": e and i. This means that if
a word such as loma- can only take one of -ll or -lla as an ending, it must take -
lla (back vowel harmony). This yields lomalla ("on leave"). Within a root, only the
neutral vowels can coexist with both front and back vowels. Exceptions to this are
compound words such as nihuulet ("vocal cords").

Consonant Gradation
Plosives (stops) in Finnish undergo a process called gradation. Whereas some forms
will naturally exist in "strong" grade, double consonants will appear, such
as pp or kk. Some forms within the inflection, however, will require a "weaker" grade,
in which case the doubling is removed, or a sonorant is inserted. Consider the
following:

Strong Grade Weak Grade
pp p as in tappaa > tapan
kk k as in kakku > kakun
tt t as in tytt > tytn
k - or j as in arka > aran
p v (in the absence of b) as in saapua > saavun
t d as in katu > kadun
nk ng as in Helsinki > Helsingin
mp mm as in vanhempi > vanhemman
nt nn as in antaa > annan
lt ll as in kulta > kullan
rt rr as in ymmrt > ymmrrn

Some Basic Phrases

English Finnish
Hi! Hei! (Hei hei!)
Good morning. Hyv huomenta.
Good day. Hyv piv.
Good evening. Hyv iltaa.
Good night. Hyv yt.
How are you? Mit kuuluu?
-Fine, thanks. -Kiitos hyv.
Thanks a lot. Paljon kiitoksia.
Pleased to meet you. Hauska tavata.
I'm sorry. Valitan.
How's your family? Mit perheellesi kuuluu? (informal)
Mit perheellenne kuuluu? (formal)
Merry Christmas! Hauskaa joulua!
Happy New Year! Iloista uutta vuotta!
I love you. Min rakastan sinua.
Goodbye (when said in person). Nkemiin.
Goodbye (when said on the phone). Kuulemiin.
I don't speak Finnish well. Min en osaa suomea hyvin.
Do you speak English? Puhutteko Te englantia?
I don't understand. Min en ymmrr.
See ya! Moi! (Moi moi!)

Numbers
1 yksi
2 kaksi
3 kolme
4 nelj
5 viisi
6 kuusi
7 seitsemn
8 kahdeksan
9 yhdeksn
10 kymmenen
11 yksitoista
12 kaksitoista
13 kolmetoista
14 neljtoista
15 viisitoista
16 kuusitoista
17 seitsemntoista
18 kahdeksantoista
19 yhdeksntoista
20 kaksikymment
21 kaksikymmentyksi
22 kaksikymmentkaksi
30 kolmekymment
100 sata
200 kaksisataa
500 viisisataa
1000 tuhat

Finnish Basics: An Introduction
Finnish is a language that has no grammatical gender. Therefore, there is no need to
worry about whether nouns are masculine or feminine or neuter; they are all
neuter. Even the personal subject pronouns hn ("he"/"she") and he ("they"
masculine & feminine) are without gender, despite the existence of se ("it", colloquial
"he" and "she") and ne ("they" neuter). This means that when students learn that
there are fifteen cases in Finnish, they don't have to be as worried as they might
think. (In Hungarian, there are 22!) The endings are placed on singular and plural
stems, so there are no fused endings; the Finnish taloissa ("in the houses") is
comprised of talo ("house") + i (plural marker) + ssa (inessive ending, meaning
"in"). The singular would be simply talossa ("in the house").

The above examples should also illustrate that there is no definite or indefinite article
in Finnish. The notions of count and mass are grammaticalized in other ways, as will
be seen in due time.

The challenge, then, is to master the principal parts of the twenty-two different
nominal types (we'll use the word "nominal" to mean nouns and adjectives) and those
of the eleven different verbal types. Once those are committed to memory, then it
becomes easier to predict how nominals found in the dictionary will be inflected. This
will hold true for verbs as well.

What exactly is inflection? It simply means that where English uses a complex array
of modal and verbal operators, prepositions and adverbials to show the relationships
between the grammatical constituents in a sentence, Finnish can express the same
relationships with suffixes, as seen in the example above. Finnish is
an agglutinating language, like its closest relatives, Hungarian and
Estonian. However, because of the relatively small number of its speakers around the
world, Finnish has not developed the myriads of exceptions and irregularities
commonly found in more widely-spoken languages. So in the end, the student of
Finnish won't necessarily be overwhelmed by the different endings (there really are
only fifteen or so, as opposed to the over sixty that are found in Russian thanks to the
various consonantal-palatalized and non-palatalized-and vocalic endings, in six cases
and three genders).

Verbs inflect according to person and number, much like prototypical Indo-European
languages. Endings will come later. The personal pronouns are as follows:

min, often pronounced m in spoken Finnish ("I")
sin, often pronounced s in spoken Finnish ("you" singular informal)
hn ("he"/"she")
se ("it", colloquial "he"/"she")

me ("we")
te ("you" plural; capitalized, "you" singular formal, somewhat similar to French)
he ("they" masculine and feminine)
ne ("they" formally neuter only, colloquially for all sexes)

Cases: an Introduction
The cases will be expanded on later in the tutorial. It is important to introduce them,
however, before going into the forms of the principal parts mostly because the
principal parts are made up of some of the cases. The word "case" is the word we
use to signify a specific ending and its form/use. Unlike Russian, where cases are
few but each carries a large number of grammatical functions, Finnish cases are quite
light; they each carry no more than two or three functions, often no more than one.

The cases are divided into the four syntactic cases, which make up the principal
parts of nominals, and elevensemantic cases, three of which have become quite
obsolete and are no longer productively used. The four syntactic cases are
the nominative, accusative, genitive and partitive. The nominative case is the
dictionary case: when you look up words in the dictionary, you will find these. This is
the "default" case, but the stem is not predictable from the nominative form. The stem
is taken from the genitive form. The genitive case is used mostly for possession and it
always ends in -n; like English but unlike Latin, the possessive form comes before the
possessed noun in Finnish. (I bring up Latin because it too has a genitive, which also
yields stems onto which case endings are placed in the oblique cases.) The partitive
is the case that is used almost as commonly as the nominative in Finnish; it carries
the meaning ofpartial, or mass, whereas the nominative carries the meaning of
the entirety. In English, we grammaticalize this with the use of definite and indefinite
articles. The accusative is almost a non-case in Finnish, as it carries the same form
as either the nominative or the genitive, depending on the sentence type. When we
need to determine the declensions of nominals, we look to the nominative singular to
give us the dictionary form, the genitive singular to give us the singular stem, the
partitive singular (which will always end in -a/- or -ta/-t, but is otherwise
unpredictable), and the partitive plural, which yields the plural stem. The plural stem,
incidentally, will always carry an -i- or a -j-.

The semantic cases are grouped into different subsections: the internal locative
cases, which show location in, into and from within, and the external locative cases,
which show location on, onto and from on top of. There is also a translative case and
an essive case, which are called role cases. The three obsolete cases are the
abessive, instructive and comitative. The functions of these will come later.

Nominals: Principal Parts
The following are notes on each of the nominal types in Finnish. Remember that the
principal parts are as follows: nominative singular, genitive singular, partitive singular,
partitive plural.

Type 1 (N1): kirkko, kirkon, kirkkoa, kirkkoja ("church")

This basic nominal type is characterized by the low vowel endings: back -o, and -u,
front - and -y. Note the weak gradation in the genitive. This means that if case
endings are added to the stem kirko- (genitive form minus the -n) there will always be
weak grade. There is an exception: the illative case always has strong grade. This is
why we seekirkosta ("from within the church"), but kirkkoon ("into the church"). Again,
specific endings will be discussed later. Strong gradation is reinserted for the partitive
singular and plural, but wherever there is weak grade for the singular (as inkirkosta),
weak grade will be reinserted in the plural: kirkoista ("from within the churches");
strong grade will be reinserted, again, in the illative plural: kirkkoihin ("into the
churches"). Notice how the -j- from the partitive plural form becomes -i- before a
consonantal ending: -j- between vowels will always become -i- before a consonant.

Type 2 (N2): lapsi, lapsen, lasta, lapsia ("child")

This nominal type exemplifies native Finnish roots with an ending in -i, which changes
to -e- in the genitive. This particular word undergoes some other changes too,
though. They are perfectly predictable and logical. The loss of p in the partitive form
is simply a result of the partitive ending -ta being added to a consonantal stem. The
form should belapsta, but remember, Finnish phonotactic constraints dictate that there
shall not be three consonants in a cluster unless the first one is a sonorant (i.e. voiced
consonantal non-obstruent n, l, r or m). The sound /p/ is not a sonorant. It is an
obstruent (a plosive, more specifically). It is subsequently dropped, but reinserted in
the plural. There are a few such curious N2s in Finnish, such as the
adjective uusi ("new"), whose principal parts are uusi, uuden, uutta, uusia. Historically,
the s was a t, and so the principal parts were originally uuti, uuden (regular weak
grade), uutta (regular strong grade with the -ta ending added to a consonantal
stem), uutia. The t > s is simply a result of palatalization, which is the same process
which yields the "sh" pronunciation in station in English. The high front /i/ triggers
palatalization in many languages.

Type 3 (N3): lkri, lkrin, lkri, lkreit ("doctor")

Words that enter Finnish from abroad (such as taksi, posti, etc) are instantly entered
into this very productive nominal type. (The easiest way to make a non-Finnish word
ending in a consonant into a Finnish word is to simply add -i to the end of it.) Some
partitive plurals do not use the consonantal -ta/-t ending; instead, the vocalic -a/-
will be used, as insiisti, siistin, siisti, siistej ("tidy", "neat").

Type 4 (N4): hyv, hyvn, hyv, hyvi ("good")

This type is very similar to N5 in that they both end in -a/-. N4 nominals end in the
front vowel () variant, whereas N5 nominals end in the back (a) variant. Note, as
always, the partitive ending - added to a vocalic stem.

Type 5a (N5a): tupa, tuvan, tupaa, tupia ("cabin")
Type 5b (N5b): kala, kalan, kalaa, kaloja ("fish")

N5a shows us something called the "Dog and Cabin" rule. It simply states that two-
syllable words such as tupa ("cabin") or koira ("dog") with the low vowels o or u in their
stems do not add the o in the partitive plural. The Dog and Cabin rule also governs
N4 (front vowel) nominals.

Type 6 (N6): voi, voin, voita, voita ("butter")

This type features nominals that end in two vowels or a diphthong (other than the
combinations -ie, -y or -uo). Where the vowels are the same, as
in maa, maan, maata, maita ("land") the plural stem comes after only a single vowel,
otherwise we'd violate a phonotactic contraint: three vowels cannot coexist in
Finnish. The partitive plural *maaita is not correct. This rule also explains why the
consonantal partitive -ta/-t is added to a vocalic stem.

Type 7 (N7): ty, tyn, tyt, tit ("job")

N7 is made up of nominals that end exclusively in diphthongs. Historically, these
nominals were of type 6, and ended in -oo, - and -ee, which have since been
replaced by -uo, -y and -ie respectively. The first vowel drops in the partitive plural to
allow for the maximum 2-vowel rule in Finnish.

Nominal types N1 N7 reflect the STRONG + WEAK + STRONG + STRONG
pattern of gradation within the principal parts. N8 N17 will reflect a different
scheme: WEAK + STRONG + WEAK + STRONG. (Again, some cases, such as the
illative and the essive, as we'll soon see, always require strong grade, so it is
reinserted.)

Type 8 (N8): tarve, tarpeen, tarvetta, tarpeita ("need")

This nominal type is easier to see in its historical context, when there was a
consonant at the end of the nominative singular. In the genitive, -en was added to
that consonant stem, and in the partitive, -ta was added to that stem, yielding a
double tt. Since the
consonant t disappeared, tarvet became tarve; tarpeten became tarpeen; tarvetta rem
ained, as did tarpeita.

Type 9 (N9): rikas, rikkaan, rikasta, rikkaita ("rich")
Type 10 (N10): allas, altaan, allaita, altaita ("pool")

These two types are almost identical. The only difference is in the partitive singular,
where N10 merges with N9 in the plural stem. In both, historically there was an -h-
separating the two vowels in the genitive; in fact, some dialects still refer to the
genitive of rikas as rikkahan.

Type 11 (N11): mahdollisuus, mahdollisuuden, mahdollisuutta, mahdollisuuksia
("possibilit
y")

This complex nominal type is characterized by the endings -us or -ys (which come
after a vowel), where the s was historically a t (hence the change to d in the
genitive). Historical gradation is also prevalent here; the vestige of N2 can be seen in
this example (remember uusi, uuden, uutta, uusia from N2?) N11s tend to denote
adjectives that in English would never become plural, such as vanhuus ("old
age"), pimeys ("darkness") and leveys ("width"); as a result, the plural stem is taken
mostly from the N12 stem.

Type 12 (N12): vastaus, vastauksen, vastausta, vastauksia ("answer")

This nominal type looks curiously similar to N11, but historically the nominative
singular ending was not simply -s, but rather -ks. Given that Finnish no longer allows
consonant clusters word-initially or -finally, the k drops from the nominative singular;
from the partitive singular, which would otherwise be vastauksta, which is not
allowable (can't have three consonants in a row) the k is also removed.

Type 13 (N13): sydn, sydmen, sydnt, sydami ("heart")
Type 14 (N14): hapan, happaman, hapanta, happamia ("sour")

These two types are similar with the only exception is that the vowel stem in the
genitive includes a/ in N14 instead of ein N13. Historically, the word-final -n was -
m. Epenthetic -e- is inserted between m (which still survives word-medially) and the
genitive -n in N13. In the plural, both types behave similarly.

Type 15 (N15): ahven, ahvenen, ahventa, ahvenia ("key")

There is no historical change in N15; the -n ending has always been -n, unlike N13
and N14.

Type 16 (N16): lyhyt, lyhyen, lyhytt, lyhyit ("short")

Historically, in the weaker grade in the genitive, which should yield lyhyden, the d has
dropped, yielding the presentlyhyen. The -e- in the genitive is the same epenthetic
vowel used in N13.

Type 17 (N17): mahdollinen, mahdollisen, mahdollista, mahdollisia ("possible")

This is probably Finland's most famous ending: -nen. It is a very productive nominal
type; all nationalities are found in N17, such
as kanadalainen, amerikkalainen, egyptilinen, etc. Both nouns and adjectives are
found in N17.

N1 N17 all include both nouns and adjectives, hence the name nominals. The
final five nominal types are all specially derived adjectives: comparatives,
superlatives, ordinals, caritives and past participles.

Type 18 (N18): lmpimmpi, lmpimmmn, lmpimmp, lmpimmpi ("warmer")

N18 is the comparative form. Note the
Finnish lmmin, lmpimn, lmmint, lmpimi (N14) ("warm"). The ending -mpi is
just added to the oblique stem, taken from the genitive: lmpim- + -
mpi lmpimmpi (N18).

Type 19 (N19): lmpimin, lmpimimmn, lmpimint, lmpimimpi ("warmest")

N19 is the superlative form. Note the same Finnish N14 nominal that is being used in
both N18 and N19. The ending -incharacterizes the superlative, whereas other
vowels signify the comparative. Compare: lmpimimmss talossa ("in the warmest
house") and lmpimmmss talossa ("in the warmer house"). Note than all word-
final vowels in adjectives such as vanha ("old"), kyh ("poor") completely disappear
in N19: they become vanhin ("oldest") andkyhin ("poorest"). N2 adjectives such
as pieni, pienen, pient, pieni ("small") become pienin because the -e- vowel in the
genitive singular stem drops, as it does in -a- and -- in N4 and N5 adjectives. N3
adjectives (those with the vowel -i- stem) face the following changes: kiltti, kiltin, kiltti,
kilttej ("nice") where kilti- + -in kiltein ("nicest"). N10 adjectives also behave this
way: kaunis, kauniin, kaunista, kauniita ("beautiful") has the genitive singular
stem kaunii- + -in kaunein ("most beautiful").

Type 20 (N20): kolmas, kolmannen, kolmatta, kolmansia ("third")

Again, historical reasons account for the awkward distribution of t vis--
vis d and s. As Finns tend to write out numbers in full before twenty and inflect all
numbers (which all fall into the categories of the nominal types) and number
segments, it's reassuring to know that beyond 20, the ordinal numeral is written
instead of the word. This means that instead of writing "twelve thousand five
hundredth" as kahdestoistatuhannes viidessadas, it is written simply as 12.500. Not
even the -th that is included in English is written in Finnish.

Type 21 (N21): asumaton, asumattoman, asumatonta, asumattomia ("uninhabited")

These adjectives are specially formed with the -ton/tn ending, which means
"lacking".

Type 22 (N22): kiinnostunut, kiinnostuneen, kiinnostunutta,
kiinnostuneita ("interested")

This nominal type is reserved exclusively for past participles. These will make up the
fourth principal part of all verbs, as will be seen in the verbal section. The participial
ending is any consonant plus -ut or -yt. Quite often, these can act as nouns referring
to a class or group of people. For example, ajatellut, ajatelleen, ajatellutta,
ajatelleita means "someone who's thought"; juossut, juosseen, juossutta,
juosseita means "someone who's run"; etc.

Nominal Declensions
As mentioned earlier, there are fifteen cases in Finnish. Some of the forms of the
declensions are not predictable, but rather are the product of knowing the principal
parts for each of the nominal forms.

The nominative case, as mentioned before, is used as the subject of a personal
sentence. Because it is a principal part, the singular form is unmarked and
unpredictable in form. The nominative plural, however, is formed from the genitive
singular stem. The -n is removed and replaced with -t. The nominative
singular tytt (N1 "girl") has as its pluraltytt ("girls"). Note that a weak grade in the
genitive has yielded a weak grade in the nominative plural as well. The plural
of vastaus ("answer") is vastaukset ("answers"), and so on.

The accusative case has no separate form; in the singular, it looks like the
nominative or the genitive, depending on the sentence type. (In impersonal
sentences, it looks like the nominative. Generally, otherwise it looks like the
genitive.) In the plural, it always looks like the nominative plural, i.e. with the -
t ending. This case is one of two used for direct objects. The other is the partitive. If
the accusative is used, it usually means the entirety of the object was acted upon and
the action of the verb was complete. If the partitive is used as direct object, it means
that the action was either incomplete, or that there was a lot of effort required on the
part of the doer. (Please keep in mind that these are generalizations intended to give
the first-time visitor to Finnish syntax a general idea. More information on this is
included in the section on sentence types.)

The genitive case is used to show possession. It is also the case used in a few
prepositions and postpositions in Finnish; again, the partitive also takes certain
prepositions and postpositions. (They are becoming more and more common in
Finnish.) The form of the singular is not necessarily predictable, other than the fact
that we know it ends in -n, without fail. The plural is not as easily formed. To form the
genitive plural in Finnish, you must look at the partitive plural ending (i.e. the plural
stem). If it ends in the vocalic -a/-, then simply add -en. The noun poika, pojan,
poikaa, poikia(N5 "boy") has as its genitive plural poikien ("of the boys"). If the
consonantal -ta/-t is present, then the ending -den is used. The noun perhe,
perheen, perhett, perheit (N8 "family") carries the genitive plural perheiden ("of the
families"). Some people still use a similar genitive plural ending in this situation: -tten,
yielding perheitten ("of the families"). Some genitive plurals are formed from the
consonantal partitive singular ending -ta/-t. This is especially common with N2
nominals, such as suuri, suuren, suurta, suuria ("great"), and N17 nominals, such
as nainen, naisen, naista, naisia("woman"). The genitive plural can be formed as
above, i.e. suurien and naisien, or by removing the -ta/-t ending and replacing it
with -ten, giving suurten ("of the great.") and naisten ("of the women"). It is ultimately
more common with N2s and N17s than adding the -ien ending.

The partitive forms for singular and plural are both part of the principal parts, so they
should be memorized along with the nominative singular and the genitive
singular. The purpose of the partitive is to be a predicative complement (either a
predicate noun/adjective) or an object complement. The sentence types will further
illustrate.

There are three external locative cases in Finnish:
the adessive, ablative and allative. (The Latin root LAT- is found in many of the
locative cases; the root is from the Latin past participle of the verb "ferre," which
means to bring, so the cases echo this idea of being brought onto something, or away
from something, or into something, etc. This is just a little aside, but if you study many
inflected or agglutinating languages, you'll see this terminology a lot.) The Latin ad- +
-lat- would therefore mean "towards -lat-" The prefix ab- means "away from". The
Latin root ESS- has the meaning of "being", as found in the Latin infinitive esse ("to
be"). The d in ad- has been assimilated to al- for English language reasons in our
terminology. The uses of these cases, therefore, should be clear. The adessive case
answers the question miss? ("where?") and is formed by adding -lla/-ll. Se on
kolmannella kadulla means "It's on the third street." Note how the ending is added to
the second principal part, the genitive, after removing the -n from it. The ablative
answers the question mist? ("from where?" or archaic "whence?") and is formed by
adding the ending -lta/-ltto the genitive stem. Se on kolmannelta kadulta means
"It's from the third street." The allative answers the questionminne? ("where to?" or
archaic "whither?") and is formed by adding -lle. This case is as close to other
languages' dative case as you'll find. "(On)to the third street" would then be
expressed as kolmannelle kadulle.

The internal locative cases are the inessive, elative (formed from ex-lative)
and illative formed when in- assimilated toil-). The endings for these cases go as
follows: -ssa/-ss for the inessive (giving us lmpimimmss kirkossa "in the warmest
church," again answering the question miss? "where?"), -sta/-st for the elative
(giving us lmpimimmstkirkosta "from inside the warmest church," again
answering the question mist? "from where?"), and a variety of formations for the
illative, which will again answer the question minne? "to where?" or mihin? "into
where?" If there is only one vowel in the genitive, before the -n ending, it is doubled
before the -n is reinserted. Strong grade is then reinserted, for the illative always
has strong grade. Our example would then
become lmpimimpn kirkkoon("into the warmest church"). Monosyllabic N6
nominals such as p ("head") or maa ("land") cannot prolong a vowel that is already
double, so to form the illative, they add an -h-, then repeat the vowel, then add -
n. This yields suureen maahan ("into the great land") or isoon phn ("into the big
head"). If the genitive stem ends in two vowels and the word has more than one
syllable, then the endings -seen for the singular and -siin for the plural are
added. This yieldskauniiseen perheeseen ("into the beautiful family").

Plurals for the first five locative cases should not prove difficult (it's simply a matter of
adding the same endings to the partitive plural stem):

Adessive: kolmannella kadulla > kolmansilla kaduilla (weak grade
reinserted)
Ablative: kolmannelta kadulta > kolmansilta kaduilta (again)
Allative: kolmannelle kadulle > kolmansille kaduille (and yet again)

Inessive: lmpimimmss kirkossa > lmpimimmiss kirkoissa (here too)
Elative: lmpimimmst kirkosta > lmpimimmist kirkoista (and here too)

The plural of the illative presents a small difficulty: the plural stem usually ends in two
vowels, at which point the -hVnending is prevalent: nominative talo ("house") >
genitive talon > illative singular taloon > illative plural taloihin ("into the houses"). If
the illative singular was marked by -seen, then the plural shall automatically be
marked by -siin: nominativerikas ("rich") > genitive rikkaan > illative
singular rikkaaseen > illative plural rikkaisiin.

Finnish has two "role" cases: the essive case (which, like the illative, always has
strong grade) and the translativecase. The essive takes on a -na/-n ending, such
as tyttn ("as a girl"), plural tyttin ("as girls"), and poikana ("as a boy"),
plural poikina ("as boys"). Whereas the essive denotes a state, the translative
denotes change, such as when we need to say that one thing turned into
another. The ending is -ksi-, but it's not always an ending. In fact, it's rarely an
ending, as Finnish usually makes use of possessive suffixes, such as -ni ("my") and -
si ("your"). The i in the suffix then changes to e: "into a man" is rendered
as mieheksi; "into my man (i.e. husband)" would be miehekseni. (The word for
"man" is N2: mies, miehen, miest, miehi.)

And finally, the three remaining cases: the obsolete abessive, instructive,
and comitative. These are used in frozen expressions because prepositions and
postpositions are entering the language more and more frequently now. The abessive
once showed the absence of something; it carries the ending -tta/-tt it's used in
expressions such aspitemmitt puheitta ("without further ado", lit. "without longer
speeches") and in what we'll call the third infinitive (Finnish has four
infinitives). Where in English we use the preposition without + a gerund, Finnish uses
simply the third infinitive, which has the endings -ma/-m and then behaves like N4
and N5 nominals, in the abessive: puhuma("speaking")
> puhumatta ("without speaking"). The instructive case is much like the instrumental
cases in the Slavic languages, denoting the meaning of "by means of." The ending
is -n, which makes it look similar (at least in the singular) to the genitive. It's most
often used in the plural, though, in set expressions such as omin ksin ("with one's
own hands"). The nominative form is oma (N5) ksi (N2). The comitative case also
has the meaning of "with" but rather with accompaniment, not manner. The ending for
the comitative is -ne-, which must always be added to the plural stem, and which, like
the translative, often uses a personal possessive suffix. The term "small
family," pieni (N2) perhe (N8), takes the comitative pienine perheineni ("with my small
family"). Remember, -ni added to any form of any nominal means "my."

Let's see what a complete inflection looks like, then.

Singular
Nominative: iso maa ("great land") rikas tytt ("rich girl")
Accusative: ison maan / iso maa rikkaan tytn / rikas tytt
Genitive: ison maan rikkaan tytn
Partitive: isoa maata rikasta tytt
Adessive: isolla maalla rikkaalla tytll
Ablative: isolta maalta rikkaalta tytlt
Allative: isolle maalle rikkaalle tytlle
Inessive: isossa maassa rikkaassa tytss
Elative: isosta maasta rikkaasta tytst
Illative: isoon maahan rikkaaseen tyttn
Essive: isona maana rikkaana tyttn
Translative: isoksi maaksi rikkaaksi tytksi
Abessive: isotta maatta rikkaatta tyttt
Instructive: ison maan rikkaan tytn
Comitative: isoine maine- rikkaine tyttine-

Plural
Nominative: isot maat ("great lands") rikkaat tytt ("rich girls")
Accusative: isot maat rikkaat tytt
Genitive: isojen maiden/maitten rikkaiden/rikkaitten tyttjen
Partitive: isoja maita rikkaita tyttj
Adessive: isoilla mailla rikkailla tytill
Ablative: isoilta mailta rikkailta tytilt
Allative: isoille maille rikkaille tytille
Inessive: isoissa maissa rikkaissa tytiss
Elative: isoista maista rikkaista tytist
Illative: isoihin maihin rikkaisiin tyttihin
Essive: isoina maina rikkaina tyttin
Translative: isoiksi maiksi rikkaiksi tytiksi
Abessive: isoitta maitta rikkaitta tytitt
Instructive: isoin main rikkain tytin
Comitative: isoine maine- rikkaine tyttine-

Personal Possessive Suffixes
Possession in Finnish is expressed using either the genitive pronoun before the noun
or the possessive suffix at the end of the noun, or both. They are as follows:

minun ___-ni meidn ___-mme
sinun ___-si teidn ___-nne
hnen __V-Vn* heidn __V-Vn (where V = any vowel)

In each use, the suffix is added to the form of the noun, in whichever case it happens
to be, unless there is an -n or -tending, of which there happen to be a lot in Finnish. In
such cases, the -n or -t drops before the suffix is added. When adding to a
nominative or genitive (or accusative that looks like a genitive), strong grade is
present or re-inserted. If in the third person, there are already two vowels, then a
different ending is added: -nsa/-ns. "Come to our house!" would then be
expressed Tule taloomme! where nominative talo > genitive talon > illative taloon + -
mme > taloomme. One could also say Tule meidn taloomme! *Vowel prolongation
is never used in the nominative singular. Use the -nsa/-ns ending, to avoid making
the nominative sound like the illative.

Prepositions & Postpositions in Finnish
Certain common prepositions include ilman ("without"), ennen ("before"), keskell ("in
the middle of"), lhell ("near"),pitkin ("alongside") and vasten ("against"). These all
require the partitive case: ilman rakkautta ("without love"), etc. Prepositions that take
the genitive case include alle ("under"), kautta ("throughout"), lpi ("though"), etc.

There are many postpositions that require the partitive case, including kohtaan ("up
towards"), kohti ("over towards"),pitkin ("alongside"), vastaan ("against"), varten ("for
the benefit of"), vastapt ("across from"), etc. Postpositions, however, are far more
common with the genitive case: aikana ("during"), alla/alta/alle ("under" in the tri-
partite location scheme), ansiosta ("thanks to"), jlkeen ("after"), kanssa ("together
with"), luona ("near"), mukaan ("according to"),edess ("in front
of"), takana ("behind"), vieress ("next to"), vuoksi/takia/thden ("because
of"), yli ("over"), etc. The sentence "After dinner, let's go for a walk" would be
translated as Pivllisen jlkeen mennn kavelylle. "Come with us!"
is Tulkaa meidn kanssa!

Verbals: Principal Parts
Just as the nominals had four principal parts, so too will the verbals have four principal
parts for the student to master. These are made up of first the basic infinitive (which
will always end in -a/- or any assimilated form of -da/-d and -ta/t), then the first
person singular present, then the third person singular past (what we in English call a
"simple past"), and finally the past participle, which is a N22 nominal. There are only
eleven verbal types, and they too carry gradation with voiceless plosives.

Type 1 (V1): nukkua, nukun, nukkui, nukkunut ("sleep")

V1s are the most common type of verbal in Finnish. Like N1s, they feature the back
and front versions of mid to low vowels: o, , u and y.

Type 2 (V2): tuntea, tunnen, tunsi, tuntenut ("know")

This, like N2, seems to make more sense when considering that t > s before i. N2
nominals also had this kind of palatalization.

Type 3 (V3): pyrki, pyrin, pyrki, pyrkinyt ("strive")

The only difference between V2 and V3 is the same as the difference between N2 and
N3: V3 has as its thematic vowel an i instead of an e.

Type 4 (V4): esitt, esitn, esitti, esittnyt ("present")

V4 does not take -a, but rather - as its infinitive marker. This is a similar difference in
N4 and N5. V5 will feature infinitives in -a.

Type 5 (V5): kirjoittaa, kirjoitan, kirjoitti, kirjoittanut ("write")

The Dog & Cabin rules takes effect here. Just as disyllabic stems in N5 had a
partitive plural in -ia if the stem vowel waso or u, and the partitive plural had the -
oja ending otherwise, so too will V5s carry a third principal part in -oi if the infinitive
does not have an o or a u in it. "To give" is antaa, annan, antoi, antanut, but "to take"
is ottaa, otan, otti, ottanut. There is no -o- in this form because there is an o in the
stem.

Now, we start to see some of the -da/-d verbs. Up until now, we've seen the basic
STRONG + WEAK + STRONG + STRONG gradation pattern. From V6 V11, we'll
see a WEAK + STRONG + STRONG + WEAK pattern.

Type 6 (V6): saada, saan, sai, saanut ("get")

There is a double vowel before the infinitival ending -da/-d in V6. In the third
principal part, the appearance of -i will force the vowel to shorten.

Type 7 (V7): kuulla, kuulen, kuuli, kuullut ("hear")

There are two l's in the infinitive simply because one of them used to be a d. The
second d is removed before the personal endings are affixed. Historically, the
infinitive would have looked like kuulda. Verbs of this type aren't restricted to endings
of -lla/-ll; there are also -nna/-nn and -rra/-rr infinitives, each of which carries a
historical d that has been assimilated for ease of pronunciation.

Type 8 (V8): nousta, nousen, nousi, noussut ("rise")

In this type, the infinitive marker -da/-d has become -ta/-t as a result of assimilation
of voicing (voiceless /s/ triggering the /t/ sound). This verbal type always has
an s before the infinitive.

Type 9 (V9): tavata, tapaan, tapasi, tavannut ("meet")

The -t- has disappeared in the second principal part, hence the double aa. Once
again, due to palatalization, the third principal part will use s instead of t. In the past
participle, the t has assimilated to n. Historically, the forms were tavata, tapatan,
tapati, tavatnut.

Type 10 (V10): merkit, merkitsen, merkitsi, merkinnyt ("mark as")

This verbal type is characterized by the appearance of -i- in the infinitive and -itse- in
the second principal part (the present stem). As in V9, the t in the past participle has
assimilated to n.

Type 11 (V11): vanheta, vanhenen, vanheni, vanhennut ("become old")

V11 is reserved for those verbs that carry the meaning of "becoming" something,
like vanheta ("to become old"),nuoreta ("to become young"), etc. It too has a special
characteristic in the second and third principal parts: an epenthetic -ene-.

Verb Conjugations
Finnish has what you might call four indicative
tenses: present, past, perfect and pluperfect. Their formations are quite
straightforward. The second principal part without the -n is called the present base
form. The endings are added to the present base form: -n, -t, V-V (vowel elongation,
if a single vowel exists, otherwise this form is unmarked) in the singular; -mme, -tte, -
vat/-vt in the plural.

The formation of the perfect is almost the same. The third principal part is the past
base form; the same endings as above are added to this stem. In the third person
singular, however, there is no ending added-this form is unmarked.

tappaa ("to kill") tavata ("to
meet")
present past present past

min: tapan tapoin tapaan tapasin
sin: tapat tapoit tapaat tapasit
hn, se: tappaa tappoi tapaa tapasi

me: tapamme tapoimme tapaamme tapasimme
te, Te: tapatte tapoitte tapaatte tapasitte
he,
ne: tappavat tappoivat tapaavat tapasivat

Note how strong grade is always inserted in the third person singular and plural in the
present tense in V1, V2, V3, V4 and V5. In the other forms, weak grade is
reintroduced.

In the negative, the negative particle ei ("no") is inflected, and in the present, it
accompanies the present base form. In the past, the negative particle is inflected, and
it appears with the past participle of the verb, which is already a N22 type
nominal. The ending -nut/-nyt is used for singular, and -neet for plural.

tappaa ("to kill") tavata ("to
meet")
present past present past

min: en tapa en tappanut en tapaa en tavannut
sin: et tapa et tappanut et tapaa et tavannut
hn, se: ei tapa ei tappanut ei tapaa ei
tavannut
me: emme tapa emme tappaneet emme tapaa emme
tavanneet
te, Te: ette tapa ette tappaneet ette tapaa ette tavanneet
he, ne: eivt tapa eivt tappaneet eivt tapaa eivt
tavanneet

It should be noted that a special passive form is used in conversational Finnish. It
carries the ending -taan/-tn, which is added to the present base form (second
principal part), always with weak grade. The verb pyrki, pyrin (V3 "strive") takes as
its passive form pyritn. The verb antaa, annan (V5 "give") would take the passive
form annetaan because any a or changes to e before this ending can be
attached. The negative version is formed by removing -Vn and putting the
negative ei before it. The negatives of the above two examples would then be ei
pyrit and ei anneta. These passive forms replace the first person plural form, both
indicative and imperative, and can therefore be translated as "we strive/don't strive"
and let's strive/not strive!" as well as "we give/don't give" and "let's give/not give!"

If the infinitive ends in only one vowel, however, then the passive is formed by adding
the endings -an/-n to the infinitive (first principal part): the verb olla ("to be") would
then take ollaan as its positive passive and ei olla as its negative. Tulla, tulen ("to
come") has tullaan as its positive passive and ei tulla as its negative.

The past passive ending is -tiin. The formation is the same, but strong grade is
inserted into each form. The forms we just saw would in the past become:

positive negative

present > past present >
past
pyritn > pyrittiin ei pyrit > ei pyritty
annetaan > annettiin ei anneta > ei annettu
ollaan > oltiin ei olla > ei oltu
tullaan > tultiin ei tulla > ei tultu

In bona fide passive sentences, the passive form is used, but the structure of the
sentence is not the same as in many Indo-European languages, where active [subject
+ verb + object] becomes passive [patient + passive verb, usually including the verb
"to be" with a past participle + agent]. The direct object in Finnish remains a direct
object, but it takes the form of the nominative: Kirja kirjoitettiin viime vuonna. "The
book was written last year").

The only irregular verb in Finnish is olla, olen, oli, ollut, the verb "to be". Its inflections
are as follows:

present negative past negative

min: olen en ole olin en ollut
sin: olet et ole olit et ollut
hn, se: on ei ole oli ei ollut
me: olemme emme ole olimme emme
olleet
te, Te: olette ette ole olitte ette
olleet
he, ne: ovat eivt ole olivat eivt
olleet

This is important for the formation of the perfect and the pluperfect, which require the
auxiliary verb olla. The present tense of olla plus the past participle gives us the
perfect tense in Finnish: min olen tavannut ("I have met"), sin olet tavannut, hn on
tavannut, me olemme tavanneet, te olette tavanneet, he ovat tavanneet. In the
negative, the same occurs: min en ole tavannut ("I haven't met"), sin et ole
tavannut, hn ei ole tavannut, etc. The pluperfect is formed by simply putting olla into
the past and keeping the past participle inflected for number, just like in the
perfect: min olin vanhennut ("I had grown old"), sin olit vanhennut, hn oli
vanhennut, me olimme vanhenneet, te olitte vanhenneet, he olivat vanhenneet. In the
negative, this would yield min en ollut vanhennut ("I hadn't grown old"), sin et ollut
vanhennut, etc.

Other moods are used in Finnish. The imperative is formed with sin by simply taking
the present base form, from the second principal part. The plural imperative,
with te or Te, is formed by adding -kaa/-k to the infinitive stem (the infinitive without
the endings -a/- or -ta/-t). Tule sisn! ("Come in!") has a plural tulkaa sisn! The
negative is ltule sisn! ("don't come in!"), whose plural is lk tulko sisn! The
first person plural command form has already been discussed: the passive form of the
verb in -taan/-tn. It should be noted here that the accusative in imperative
sentences takes the form of the nominative: Anna tuo kirja ystvlleni! ("Give that
book to my friend!")

The conditional is also common in Finnish. And, it's easy! It's just a matter of adding
the infix -isi- between the present base form (second principal part) and the personal
ending. The indicative min puhun englantia ("I speak English") would become in the
conditional min puhuisin englantia ("I would speak English"). The third person
singular form is unmarked, i.e. no vowel elongation occurs: hn puhuisi
venj ("he/she would speak Russian"). In the perfect, the -isi-is inserted into the
present of olla. A common expression in Finnish is Kukas olisi uskonnut!! ("Who
would have thought!!") There are only two conditionals with -isi-: present and perfect.

There is also a potential mood with the infix -ne-, but it has fallen quite out of use.

Yes/No questions are formed in Finnish by adding the particle -ko/-k to the verb or
negative particle (in whatever form) and inverting subject and verb/negative
particle: Asutko sin Amerikassa? ("Do you live in America?") Etk sin asu
Washingtonissa? ("Don't you live in Washington?") are two examples.

Finnish Infinitives
The infinitives listed above are all part of what we call the first infinitive. There is a
special construction, however, in which a translative -kse- is added right onto the first
infinitive to show purpose. It must also be accompanied with a personal possessive
suffix. With the verb kaivaa (V5 "to dig") and the noun kuoppa (N5 "hole"), I can say
"My father went to the cape to dig a hole" as Minun is meni niemeen
kaivaakseen kuopan. This construction is also possible with what we call the third
infinitive. The third infinitive is formed by taking the strong-grade third person plural
form without the ending -vat/-vt and adding instead -ma/-m. This newly-formed
third infinitive becomes a N4/N5 and can now be inflected in the inessive, elative,
illative, adessive and abessive cases. The example above could easily be rendered
as follows: Minun is meni niemeen kaivamaan kuopan, where the third infinitive is in
the illative case. However, this form does not emphasize the purpose as the
translative + possessive suffix form does. The third infinitive is mostly used to allow for
case markings on verbs.

The second infinitive is also used to allow for case inflection, but for more specific
purposes. It's formed by removing the infinitive marker -a/-, -da/-d or -ta/-t and
replacing it with -e-, onto which will then be added either the instructive case or the
inessive case + in some situations, a possessive suffix. This construction is used
where in English we would instead use adverb clauses of time. An example with the
inessive case is: Professorin puhuessa kirjoitimme vihkoihimme "While the professor
spoke, we wrote in our notebooks" lit. "With the professor's speaking, we wrote in our
notebooks"). Another example with the inessive case is: Olimme juuri symss
teidn tullessanne ("We were just about to eat when you came" lit. "We were just in
eating in your coming"). Note tullessanne = tulla ("to come") > tulle- >tullessa + -
nne possessive suffix. When using this construction with the instructional case,
suffixes are not used. These are used to answer the question miten? ("how?"):

A: Miten vastaan kysymykseen? ("How do I answer the question?")
B: Vastaa kytten infinitiiv! ("Answer using an infinitive!")

The fourth infinitive isn't really an infinitive. It's simply a way of making a verb into a
noun, ending in -minen and becoming a N17. From the noun kala ("fish") we
get kalastaa ("to fish") and from that we can form a new
noun,kalastaminen ("fishing").

Example with 1
st
INF: Min haluan kalastaa. ("I want to fish.")
Example with 2
nd
INF: Min on varovainen kalastaessani. ("I'm careful when
fishing.")
Example with 3
rd
INF: Tule kalastamaan! ("Come and fish!")
Example with 4
th
INF: Min pidn kalastamisesta. ("I like fishing.")
(Note: The verb pit (V4 "to like") takes the elative case, hence the -sta ending.

Participles
Finnish has past participles, which are the fourth principal part of every verb type, and
also declinable as N22 nominals. There also exists a present participle: it is formed by
removing the -t from the third person plural form in the present tense. From the
verb laulaa ("to sing") we get he laulavat ("they sing") and finally laulava ("singing"),
which can now be inflected as a N4/N5 nominal, as in laulava nainen ("the singing
woman").

Finnish Sentence Types
Finnish has a variety of sentence types that help speakers to determine in which form
the subject, predicative adjective/noun and object take. The vast majority of times,
the subject in Finnish will be in the nominative case. These are the sentence types
that require a nominative subject:

Intransitive sentences: in these sentences, there is only a subject and a
verb. Example: Min nukun ("I am sleeping.")

Transitive sentences: in these sentences, the sentence requires a direct object
complement. The subject is in the nominative and the object is in either the
accusative or the partitive. Example: Min juon teet ("I drink tea"). Notice the object
is in the partitive because juoda ("to drink") is what we call a "blood, sweat and tears"
verb, which means the doer of the action expends quite a bit of energy, either
because the action is strenuous or because it's long-lasting. Some verbs can take
both an accusative or a partitive object: compare Hn luki kirjaa ("He read a book")
with Hn luki kirjan("He read the book"). The accusative is translated with the definite
object in English, whereas the partitive is translated with the indefinite.

Copulative sentences: in these sentences, there is what looks like an equation:
subject + a form of olla ("to be") + predicative adjective or noun. Min olen
kanadalainen ("I am a Canadian") is an example. Both subject and predicative noun
are in the nominative. The plural will usually feature partitive plural: He ovat
kanadalaisia ("They are Canadians") because we're not saying that those are all the
Canadians of the world over there. There is no natural set, so we do not use partitive
plural. Partitive singular is also used, when saying, for example, that "the food was
good":ruoka oli hyv.

There exist three types of existential sentences in Finnish: locative, possessive and
part-whole.

Locative existential sentences: This is a sentence type that keeps the subject in the
nominative even though it falls at the end of the sentence. The sentence begins with
a location, followed by a verb and then the subject. Example:Sairaalassa oli vanha
tohtori ("In the hospital was the/an old doctor"). The subject can be in the partitive in
limited situations, such as in Kaloja ui vedess ("There are fish swimming in the
water").

Possessive existential sentences: Like Russian, Finnish does not have a verb "to
have." Instead, the possessor is placed at the beginning of the sentence in the
adessive case, and the verb olla ("to be") is used, followed by the subject, in the
nominative. Example: Minulla on raha ("I have the money" lit. "On/at me is money")-
notice how the subject in the nominative is translated with the definite object. The
sentence Minulla on rahaa ("I have some money") has the subject in the
partitive. The verb is always singular.

Part-whole existential sentences: These are similar to possessive existential
sentences, with the difference being that the adverbial is rendered into the Inessive
case to show the location of the whole. Example: Pohjois-Kanadassa on lyhyet
kest ("Northern Canada has short summers"). Notice that the verb again is always
singular.

There are three types of impersonal sentences in Finnish: necessive, state and
experiencer.

Necessive impersonal sentences: There are a few impersonal third person singular
verbs in the present that require a genitive to come before them, such
as tytyy and on pakko. Examples: Minun on pakko menn pois ("I have to go
away"). In such sentences, the accusative will always look like the
nominative: Minun tytyy ostaa tuo kirja ("I have to buy that book").

State impersonal sentences: These are usually used in weather, and come with no
subject, although nominative or partitive "subjects" (i.e. logical, semantic subjects) are
possible: Sataa ensilunta ("The first snow is falling"). Sometimes one word is
enough: Tuulee ("It's windy," lit. "blows").

Experiencer impersonal sentences: Some verbs require the "subject" to appear in the
partitive. Example: Hnt vsytti("He/She felt tired" lit. "Of him/her it tired/fatigued").

Notes on Spoken Finnish
The examples and tables shown in this tutorial exemplify written Finnish. However,
the spoken language is quite different. For example, the personal pronouns are not
spoken in full, and quite often the most common verbs are somewhat truncated. Third
person plural is often ignored in favor of the singular. The first person plural is ignored
in favor of the passive. Examples are as follows:

olla negative tulla ("to come") menn ("to
go")
m: oon en oo tulen >tuun menen > meen
s: oot et oo tulet > tuut menet > meet
se: on ei oo tulee menee

me: ollaan ei olla tulemme > tullaan menemme > mennn
te: ootte ette oo tulette menette > meette
ne: on ei oo tulevat > tulee menevt >
menee

In Conclusion
If you decide to study Finnish, be sure to give it the time it will need. It's an easy
language to pick apart and study, but it's quite hard to piece together all the
components of the morphology in the short time used in everyday conversations. Still,
it's a beautiful language, one worthy of deep study. After a few years, you'll be able to
tackle the Finnish national epic:Kalevala. Good luck! Or, in Finnish, Onnea
Matkaan!

(Much of this tutorial has come from the benefit of my own Finnish professor, Prof.
Brje Vhmki, of the University of Toronto (formerly of the University of Minnesota),
and his book Mastering Finnish (1994). Any inaccuracies found in this tutorial are my
own. If you have constructive criticism, please feel free to comment: josh.pirie [at]
yahoo [dot] ca.)