Finnish Tutorial

8/13/2019 Finnish Tutorial

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Finnish Tutorial

Note: Before heading to the tutorial I would Strictly recommend to download anyonline dictionary which could easily translate the difficult Finnish words provided

below so that you can understand them easily and learn quickly, if you have one sothats good if not then Ill personally preferBabelFish dictionary which is free soyou dont need to buy it. The download link is provided below:

Download BabelFish Translator

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 thephonological 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 phonotacticconstraints in Finnish: there can never be more than one word-initial or word-final

consonant. The wordFranska, then, would have to undergo a change because the cluster

Fr-is not allowed. Consequently, the language spoken in France is referred to as ranskain 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 thatwhere we see twop'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 radicallydifferent 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
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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 uor German

yy longer version ofy, 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)


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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 andz.) 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 couplewith endings that too have front vowels. Finnish has eight pure vowels: three front (,

andy), three back (a, oand u) and two "neutral": eand i. This means that if a word suchas 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 cancoexist with both front and back vowels. Exceptions to this are compound words such as

nihuulet("vocal cords").


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Consonant Gradation

Plosives (stops) in Finnish undergo a process called gradation. Whereas some forms willnaturally exist in "strong" grade, double consonants will appear, such as ppor 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 insaapua > saavun

t d as in katu > kadun

nk ng as inHelsinki > Helsingin

mp mm as in vanhempi > vanhemman

nt nn as in antaa > annan

lt ll as in kulta > kullan

rt rr as inymmrt > ymmrrn

Some Basic Phrases

English Finnish

Hi! Hei! (Hei hei!)

Good morning. Hyv huomenta.

Good day. Hyv piv.


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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


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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


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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. Eventhe personal subject pronouns hn("he"/"she") and he("they" masculine & feminine) are

without gender, despite the existence ofse("it", colloquial "he" and "she") and ne("they"

neuter). This means that when students learn that there are fifteen cases in Finnish, theydon'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 nominaltypes (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 holdtrue 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 samerelationships 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-spokenlanguages. 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-andvocalic endings, in six cases and three genders).


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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 principalparts 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 alarge 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 syntacticcases, which make up the principal parts of

nominals, and eleven semanticcases, 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. Thegenitive 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 endingsare placed in the oblique cases.) The partitive is the case that is used almost as


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commonly as the nominative in Finnish; it carries the meaning of partial, 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 isalmost 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 genitivesingular 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 rolecases. The three obsoletecases 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 see

kirkosta ("from within the church"), but kirkkoon ("into the church"). Again, specificendings will be discussed later. Strong gradation is reinserted for the partitive singular

and plural, but wherever there is weak grade for the singular (as in kirkosta), weak gradewill be reinserted in the plural: kirkoista("from within the churches"); strong grade willbe reinserted, again, in the illative plural: kirkkoihin ("into the churches"). Notice howthe -j- from the partitive plural form becomes -i- before a consonantal ending: -j- betweenvowels will always become -i- before a consonant.


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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 ofpin the partitive form is simply a

result of the partitive ending -tabeing added to a consonantal stem. The form should be

lapsta, but remember, Finnish phonotactic constraints dictate that there shall not be threeconsonants in a cluster unless the first one is a sonorant (i.e. voiced consonantal non-

obstruent n, l, r orm). 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 fewsuch 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 > sis simply a result of palatalization,

which is the same process which yields the "sh" pronunciation in station in English. Thehigh 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 partitiveplurals do not use the consonantal -ta/-tending; 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, asalways, the partitive ending -added to a vocalic stem.

Type 5a (N5a): tupa, tuvan, tupaa, tupia ("cabin")

Type 5b (N5b): kala, kalan, kalaa, kaloja ("fish")


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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 oor uin 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 thecombinations -ie, -yor -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 isadded 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 replacedby -uo, -yand -ierespectively. The first vowel drops in the partitive plural to allow forthe maximum 2-vowel rule in Finnish.

Nominal types N1N7 reflect the STRONG + WEAK + STRONG + STRONG patternof 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 atthe end of the nominative singular. In the genitive, -enwas added to that consonant stem,


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and in the partitive, -tawas added to that stem, yielding a double tt. Since the consonant

tdisappeared, tarvet became tarve; tarpeten became tarpeen; tarvetta remained, 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 rikasas rikkahan.

Type 11 (N11): mahdollisuus, mahdollisuuden, mahdollisuutta, mahdollisuuksia

("possibility")

This complex nominal type is characterized by the endings -usor -ys(which come after a

vowel), where theswas historically a t(hence the change to din the genitive). Historical

gradation is also prevalent here; the vestige of N2 can be seen in this example (rememberuusi, uuden, uutta, uusiafrom 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 singularending 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 kis also removed.


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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 e in N13. Historically, the word-final -n was -m.Epenthetic -e- is inserted between m(which still survives word-medially) and the genitive

-nin N13. In the plural, both types behave similarly.

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

There is no historical change in N15; the -nending 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 dhas

dropped, yielding the present lyhyen. The -e- in the genitive is the same epenthetic vowelused 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.


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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 thegenitive: lmpim- + -mpilmpimmpi(N18).

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

N19 is the superlative form. Note the same Finnish N14 nominal that is being used inboth N18 and N19. The ending -incharacterizes the superlative, whereas other vowels

signify the comparative. Compare: lmpimimmss talossa("in the warmest house") andlmpimmmss 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") and kyhin ("poorest"). N2 adjectives such as pieni, pienen,

pient, pieni ("small") become pienin because the -e- vowel in the genitive singularstem 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") wherekilti- + -in kiltein ("nicest"). N10 adjectives also behave this way: kaunis, kauniin,

kaunista, kauniita ("beautiful") has the genitive singular stem kaunii- + -inkaunein

("most beautiful").

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

Again, historical reasons account for the awkward distribution of tvis--vis dands. 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 thatinstead of writing "twelve thousand five hundredth" as kahdestoistatuhannes viidessadas,

it is written simply as 12.500. Not even the -ththat is included in English is written inFinnish.

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


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These adjectives are specially formed with the -ton/tnending, 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 -utor -yt. Quite often, these can act as nouns referring to a

class or group of people. For example, ajatellut, ajatelleen, ajatellutta, ajatelleitameans"someone who's thought"; juossut, juosseen, juossutta, juosseitameans "someone who's

run"; etc.

Nominal Declensions

As mentioned earlier, there are fifteen cases in Finnish. Some of the forms of thedeclensions are not predictable, but rather are the product of knowing the principal parts

for each of the nominal forms.

The nominativecase, 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 plural

tytt ("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 accusativecase 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 thenominative. Generally, otherwise it looks like the genitive.) In the plural, it always lookslike the nominative plural, i.e. with the -tending. 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 alot of effort required on the part of the doer. (Please keep in mind that these are


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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 fewprepositions 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 thatwe 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 consonantalpartitive 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. suurienand 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 -ienending.

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. Thepurpose of the partitive is to be a predicative complement (either a predicatenoun/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; Latium itself was the district

in which Rome existed, which may explain the use. 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 din ad-has beenassimilated 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 kolmannel lakadul lameans "It's onthe third street." Note how the ending is added to the second principal part, the genitive,

after removing the -nfrom 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 kolmannel ta kadul tameans "It's from the third street." The allative answers thequestion minne? ("where to?" or archaic "whither?") and is formed by adding -lle. This


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case is as close to other languages' dative case as you'll find. "(On)to the third street"

would then be expressed as kolmannelle kadul le.

The internal locative cases are the inessive, elative(formed from ex-lative) and illativeformed when in-assimilated to il-). The endings for these cases go as follows: -ssa/-ss

for the inessive (giving us lmpimimmsskirkossa "in the warmest church," againanswering the question miss? "where?"), -sta/-st for the elative (giving uslmpimimmstkirkosta "from inside the warmest church," again answering thequestion 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 onlyone vowel in the genitive, before the -nending, it is doubled before the -nis reinserted.

Strong grade is then reinserted, for the illative always has strong grade. Our example

would then become lmpimimpnkirkkoon("into the warmest church"). MonosyllabicN6 nominals such asp("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. Thisyieldssuureen maahan("intothe great land") or isoon phn("intothe big head"). Ifthe genitive stem ends in two vowels and the word has more than one syllable, then theendings -seenfor the singular and -siin for the plural are added. This yields kauniiseenperheeseen("intothe beautiful moon").

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

Adessive: kolmannel la kadulla > kolmansil la kaduil la (weak gradereinserted)

Ablative: kolmannel takadulta > kolmansil takaduil ta(again)

Allative: kolmannelle kadul le > kolmansil lekaduil le(and yet again)

Inessive: lmpimimmsskirkossa > lmpimimmisskirkoissa(here too)

Elative: lmpimimmstkirkosta > lmpimimmistkirkoista (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


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Nominative: iso maa("great land") rikas tytt("rich girl")

Accusative: isonmaan/ iso maa rikkaantytn/ rikas tytt

Genitive: isonmaan rikkaantytn

Partitive: isoamaata rikastatytt

Adessive: isol lamaal la rikkaal latytl l

Ablative: isol tamaal ta rikkaal tatytl t

Allative: isol lemaal le rikkaal letytl le

Inessive: isossamaassa rikkaassatytss

Elative: isostamaasta rikkaastatytst

Illative: isoonmaahan rikkaaseentyttn

Essive: isonamaana rikkaanatyttn

Translative: isoksimaaksi rikkaaksitytksi

Abessive: isottamaatta rikkaattatyttt

Instructive: isonmaan rikkaantytn

Comitative: isoinemaine- rikkainetyttine-

Plural

Nominative: isotmaat("great lands") rikkaattytt("rich girls")

Accusative: isotmaat rikkaattytt

Genitive: isojenmaiden/maitten rikkaiden/rikkaittentyttjen

Partitive: isojamaita rikkaitatyttj

Adessive: isoil lamail la rikkail latytil l

Ablative: isoil tamail ta rikkail tatytil t


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Allative: isoil lemail le rikkail letytil le

Inessive: isoissamaissa rikkaissatytiss

Elative: isoistamaista rikkaistatytist

Illative: isoihinmaihi n rikkaisiintyttihi n

Essive: isoinamaina rikkainatyttin

Translative: isoiksimaiksi rikkaiksitytiksi

Abessive: isoittamaitta rikkaittatytitt

Instructive: isoinmain rikkaintytin

Comitative: isoinemaine- rikkainetyttine-

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 -nor -tending, of which there happen to be a lot in Finnish. In suchcases, 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 ourhouse!" would then be expressed Tule taloomme!wherenominative talo> genitive talon > illative taloon+ -mme> taloomme. One could also

say Tule meidn taloomme! *Vowel prolongation is never used in the nominativesingular. Use the -nsa/-ns ending, to avoid making the nominative sound like theillative.


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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 iinstead of an e.

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

V4 does not take -a,but rather -as its infinitive marker. This is a similar difference inN4 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 partitiveplural in -ia if the stem vowel was o or u, and the partitive plural had the -oja ending

otherwise, so too will V5s carry a third principal part in -oiif the infinitive does not havean oor 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 oin 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 V6V11, we'll

see a WEAK + STRONG + STRONG + WEAK pattern.

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


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There is a double vowel before the infinitival ending -da/-din 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 wouldhave looked like kuulda. Verbs of this type aren't restricted to endings of -lla/-ll; there

are also -nna/-nnand -rra/-rrinfinitives, each of which carries a historical dthat has

been assimilated for ease of pronunciation.

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

In this type, the infinitive marker -da/-dhas become -ta/-tas a result of assimilation ofvoicing (voiceless /s/ triggering the /t/ sound). This verbal type always has ansbefore

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 usesinstead of t. In the past participle,the thas 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 thesecond principal part (the present stem). As in V9, the t in the past participle has

assimilated to n.


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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 specialcharacteristic 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 partwithout the -nis 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/-vtin 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


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If the infinitive ends in only one vowel, however, then the passive is formed by addingthe 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 tullaas 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 apast participle + agent]. The direct object in Finnish remains a direct object, but it takes

the form of the nominative: Kirja kirjoitettiinviime vuonna. "The book was written lastyear").

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

are as follows:

present negative pastnegative


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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 ollaplus 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 ollutvanhennut("I hadn't grown old"),sin et ollut vanhennut, etc.

Other moods are used in Finnish. The imperative is formed withsinby simply takingthe present base form, from the second principal part. The plural imperative, with teorTe, 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 lktulkosisn! Thefirst 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 myfriend!")

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 singularform is unmarked, i.e. no vowel elongation occurs: hn puhuisi venj("he/she wouldspeak Russian"). In the perfect, the -isi-is inserted into the present of olla. A common


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expression in Finnish isKukas olisiuskonnut!! ("Who would have thought!!") There areonly 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?") Etksin 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 aspecial 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 kaivaakseenkuopan. 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 theending -vat/-vtand 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 niemeenkaivamaan kuopan, where the third infinitive is in the illative case. However, this formdoes not emphasize the purpose as the translative + possessive suffix form does. Thethird 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 specificpurposes. 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 caseis:Professorin puhuessakirjoitimme vihkoihimme "While the professor spoke, we wrotein 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 possessivesuffix. When using this construction with the instructional case, suffixes are not used.

These are used to answer the question miten? ("how?"):


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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 tytyyand on pakko.

Examples: Minun on pakkomenn pois ("I have to go away"). In such sentences, theaccusative will always look like the nominative:Minun tytyyostaa tuo kirj a("I have tobuy that book").

State impersonal sentences: These are usually used in weather, and come with nosubject, 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 pluralis often ignored in favor of the singular. The first person plural is ignored in favor of thepassive. Examples are as follows:

olla negative tulla ("to come") menn ("to

go")


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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 beautifullanguage, 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: joshman1972 [at]

excite [dot] com.)

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Finnish Tutorial