finski pronunciation

8/11/2019 Finski Pronunciation

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Pronunciation

Pronouncing Finnish will certainly not be the hardest part of learning thelanguage. There are some very simple rules that will facilitate the understanding ofthe phonological system of this language. First, stress in Finnish is completelypredictable: you stress the first syllable in every word, regardless of its status either asa native Finnish word or as a foreign borrowing. Second, there exist certainphonotactic constraints in Finnish: there can never be more than one word-initial orword-final consonant. The word Franska, then, would have to undergo a changebecause the cluster Fr-is not allowed. Consequently, the language spoken in Franceis referred to as ranskain Finnish. Word-medially, though, as many as threeconsonants are allowed, provided that the first one is a sonorant, i.e. a consonant thatcan only be voiced, such as /l/ or /r/ or /m/ or /n/. Finally, remember to pronounceeverything you see, including double consonants or vowels. Doubling is phonemic inFinnish, unlike English. This means that where we see twop's in English approach,only one is pronounced. In Finnish, if there are two of any letters, they must bepronounced 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 fromFinnish 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 uor German

yy longer version of y, somewhat like Scottish "stew"


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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 Finnishis the lack of certain consonants, such as c, q, f, w,x and z.) Exceptions are asfollows:

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 willcouple with endings that too have front vowels. Finnish has eight pure vowels: three


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front (, and y), three back (a, oand u) and two "neutral": eand i. This means that ifa word such as loma- can only take one of -llor -lla as an ending, it must take -lla(back vowel harmony). This yields lomalla("on leave"). Within a root, only theneutral vowels can coexist with both front and back vowels. Exceptions to this arecompound words such as nihuulet("vocal cords").

Consonant Gradation

Plosives (stops) in Finnish undergo a process called gradation. Whereas some formswill naturally exist in "strong" grade, double consonants will appear, suchasppor 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 thefollowing:

Strong Grade Weak Grade

pp p as in tappaa > tapankk 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 > annanlt 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.
http://ielanguages.com/mp3s/finnish/finnishbasicphrases.mp3


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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 viisi6

kuusi

7

seitsemn

8

kahdeksan

9

yhdeksn

10

kymmenen

11

yksitoista

12

kaksitoista

13

kolmetoista14

neljtoista

15

viisitoista

16

kuusitoista

17

seitsemntoista

18

kahdeksantoista


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19

yhdeksntoista

20

kaksikymment

21

kaksikymmentyksi

22

kaksikymmentkaksi

30 kolmekymment100

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 allneuter. 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 thatthere are fifteen cases in Finnish, they don't have to be as worried as they mightthink. (In Hungarian, there are 22!) The endings are placed on singular and pluralstems, so there are no fused endings; the Finnish taloissa("in the houses") iscomprised 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 willbe seen in due time.

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

What exactly is inflection? It simply means that where English uses a complex arrayof modal and verbal operators, prepositions and adverbials to show the relationshipsbetween the grammatical constituents in a sentence, Finnish can express the samerelationships with suffixes, as seen in the example above. Finnish isan agglutinatinglanguage, like its closest relatives, Hungarian andEstonian. However, because of the relatively small number of its speakers around theworld, Finnish has not developed the myriads of exceptions and irregularitiescommonly found in more widely-spoken languages. So in the end, the student of


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Finnish won't necessarily be overwhelmed by the different endings (there really areonly fifteen or so, as opposed to the over sixty that are found in Russian thanks to thevarious consonantal-palatalized and non-palatalized-and vocalic endings, in six casesand three genders).

Verbs inflect according to person and number, much like prototypical Indo-Europeanlanguages. 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 theprincipal 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 arefew but each carries a large number of grammatical functions, Finnish cases are quitelight; 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 principalparts of nominals, and elevensemantic cases, three of which have become quiteobsolete and are no longer productively used. The four syntactic cases arethe nominative, accusative, genitiveand partitive. The nominative case is thedictionary case: when you look up words in the dictionary, you will find these. This isthe "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 italways ends in -n; like English but unlike Latin, the possessive form comes before thepossessed noun in Finnish. (I bring up Latin because it too has a genitive, which alsoyields stems onto which case endings are placed in the oblique cases.) The partitiveis the case that is used almost as commonly as the nominative in Finnish; it carriesthe meaning ofpartial, or mass, whereas the nominative carries the meaning ofthe entirety. In English, we grammaticalize this with the use of definite and indefinitearticles. The accusative is almost a non-case in Finnish, as it carries the same form


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the plural. There are a few such curious N2s in Finnish, such as theadjective uusi("new"), whose principal parts are uusi, uuden, uutta, uusia. Historically,the swas a t, and so the principal parts were originally uuti, uuden(regular weakgrade), uutta(regular strong grade with the -taending added to a consonantalstem), 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/ triggerspalatalization in many languages.

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

Words that enter Finnish from abroad (such as taksi,posti, etc) are instantly enteredinto this very productive nominal type. (The easiest way to make a non-Finnish wordending in a consonant into a Finnish word is to simply add -ito the end of it.) Somepartitive 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 thefront 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")

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 theirstems do not add the oin the partitive plural. The Dog and Cabin rule also governsN4 (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, asin 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 inFinnish. The partitive plural *maaita is not correct. This rule also explains why theconsonantal partitive -ta/-tis added to a vocalic stem.

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


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N7 is made up of nominals that end exclusively in diphthongs. Historically, thesenominals were of type 6, and ended in -oo, -and -ee, which have since beenreplaced by -uo, -yand -ierespectively. The first vowel drops in the partitive plural toallow for the maximum 2-vowel rule in Finnish.

Nominal types N1N7 reflect the STRONG + WEAK + STRONG + STRONGpattern of gradation within the principal parts. N8 N17 will reflect a differentscheme: WEAK + STRONG + WEAK + STRONG. (Again, some cases, such as theillative and the essive, as we'll soon see, always require strong grade, so it isreinserted.)

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

This nominal type is easier to see in its historical context, when there was aconsonant at the end of the nominative singular. In the genitive, -enwas added tothat consonant stem, and in the partitive, -tawas added to that stem, yielding adouble tt. Since theconsonant tdisappeared, tarvetbecame tarve; tarpetenbecame tarpeen; tarvettaremained, 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 thegenitive of rikasas rikkahan.

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

("possibility")

This complex nominal type is characterized by the endings -usor -ys (which comeafter a vowel), where the swas historically a t(hence the change to din thegenitive). Historical gradation is also prevalent here; the vestige of N2 can be seen inthis example (remember uusi, uuden, uutta, uusia from N2?) N11s tend to denoteadjectives that in English would never become plural, such as vanhuus("oldage"),pimeys ("darkness") and leveys ("width"); as a result, the plural stem is takenmostly from the N12 stem.


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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 allowsconsonant clusters word-initially or -finally, the kdrops from the nominative singular;from the partitive singular, which would otherwise be vastauksta, which is notallowable (can't have three consonants in a row) the kis 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 thegenitive includes a/ in N14 instead of ein N13. Historically, the word-final -nwas -m. Epenthetic -e- is inserted between m (which still survives word-medially) and thegenitive -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 N13and N14.

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

Historically, in the weaker grade in the genitive, which should yield lyhyden, the dhasdropped, yielding the presentlyhyen. The -e- in the genitive is the same epentheticvowel 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, suchas kanadalainen, amerikkalainen, egyptilinen, etc. Both nouns and adjectives arefound in N17.

N1 N17 all include both nouns and adjectives, hence the name nominals. Thefinal 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 -mpiisjust added to the oblique stem, taken from the genitive: 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 othervowels signify the comparative. Compare: lmpimimmss talossa ("in the warmesthouse") and lmpimmmss talossa ("in the warmer house"). Note than all word-

final vowels in adjectives such as vanha("old"), kyh ("poor") completely disappearin N19: they become vanhin("oldest") andkyhin("poorest"). N2 adjectives suchaspieni, pienen, pient, pieni("small") becomepieninbecause the -e- vowel in thegenitive singular stem drops, as it does in -a- and -- in N4 and N5 adjectives. N3adjectives (those with the vowel -i- stem) face the following changes: kiltti, kiltin, kiltti,kilttej ("nice") where kilti- + -inkiltein("nicest"). N10 adjectives also behave thisway: kaunis, kauniin, kaunista, kauniita("beautiful") has the genitive singularstem kaunii- + -inkaunein("most beautiful").

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

Again, historical reasons account for the awkward distribution of tvis--vis dand s. As Finns tend to write out numbers in full before twenty and inflect allnumbers (which all fall into the categories of the nominal types) and numbersegments, it's reassuring to know that beyond 20, the ordinal numeral is writteninstead of the word. This means that instead of writing "twelve thousand fivehundredth" as kahdestoistatuhannes viidessadas, it is written simply as 12.500. Noteven the -ththat is included in English is written in Finnish.

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

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

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


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This nominal type is reserved exclusively for past participles. These will make up thefourth principal part of all verbs, as will be seen in the verbal section. The participialending is any consonant plus -utor -yt. Quite often, these can act as nouns referringto 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 principalparts 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 andunpredictable in form. The nominative plural, however, is formed from the genitivesingular stem. The -nis removed and replaced with -t. The nominativesingular tytt (N1 "girl") has as its pluraltytt ("girls"). Note that a weak grade in thegenitive has yielded a weak grade in the nominative plural as well. The pluralof vastaus("answer") is vastaukset("answers"), and so on.

The accusativecase has no separate form; in the singular, it looks like thenominative or the genitive, depending on the sentence type. (In impersonalsentences, it looks like the nominative. Generally, otherwise it looks like thegenitive.) In the plural, it always looks like the nominative plural, i.e. with the -tending. This case is one of two used for direct objects. The other is the partitive. Ifthe accusative is used, it usually means the entirety of the object was acted upon andthe action of the verb was complete. If the partitive is used as direct object, it meansthat the action was either incomplete, or that there was a lot of effort required on thepart of the doer. (Please keep in mind that these are generalizations intended to givethe first-time visitor to Finnish syntax a generalidea. More information on this isincluded in the section on sentence types.)

The genitivecase 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 inFinnish.) The form of the singular is not necessarily predictable, other than the factthat we know it ends in -n, without fail. The plural is not as easily formed. To form thegenitive plural in Finnish, you must look at the partitive plural ending (i.e. the pluralstem). If it ends in the vocalic -a/-, then simply add -en. The nounpoika, pojan,

poikaa, poikia(N5 "boy") has as its genitive pluralpoikien("of the boys"). If theconsonantal -ta/-tis present, then the ending -denis used. The nounperhe,

perheen, perhett, perheit(N8 "family") carries the genitive pluralperheiden("of the


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families"). Some people still use a similar genitive plural ending in this situation: - tten,yieldingperheitten("of the families"). Some genitive plurals are formed from theconsonantal partitive singular ending -ta/-t. This is especially common with N2nominals, such as suuri, suuren, suurta, suuria ("great"), and N17 nominals, suchas nainen, naisen, naista, naisia("woman"). The genitive plural can be formed as

above, i.e. suurienand naisien, or by removing the -ta/-tending and replacing itwith -ten, giving suurten ("of the great.") and naisten ("of the women"). It is ultimatelymore common with N2s and N17s than adding the -ienending.

The partitiveforms for singular and plural are both part of the principal parts, so theyshould be memorized along with the nominative singular and the genitivesingular. The purpose of the partitive is to be a predicative complement (either apredicate noun/adjective) or an object complement. The sentence types will furtherillustrate.

There are three external locative cases in Finnish:the adessive, ablativeand allative. (The Latin root LAT- is found in many of thelocative cases; the root is from the Latin past participle of the verb "ferre," whichmeans to bring, so the cases echo this idea of being brought onto something, or awayfrom something, or into something, etc. This is just a little aside, but if you study manyinflected 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". TheLatin root ESS- has the meaning of "being", as found in the Latin infinitive esse("tobe"). The din ad- has been assimilated to al-for English language reasons in ourterminology. The uses of these cases, therefore, should be clear. The adessive caseanswers 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 tothe second principal part, the genitive, after removing the -n from it. The ablativeanswers the question mist?("from where?" or archaic "whence?") and is formed byadding the ending -lta/-ltto the genitive stem. Se on kolmannel takadul tameans"It's fromthe third street." The allative answers the questionminne? ("where to?" orarchaic "whither?") and is formed by adding -lle. This case is as close to otherlanguages' dative case as you'll find. "(On)tothe third street" would then beexpressed as kolmannel le kadul le.

The internal locative cases are the inessive, elative(formed from ex-lative)

and illativeformed when in-assimilated toil-). The endings for these cases go asfollows: -ssa/-ssfor the inessive (giving us lmpimimmsskirkossa"inthe warmestchurch," again answering the question miss? "where?"), -sta/-stfor the elative(giving us lmpimimmstkirkosta"from insidethe warmest church," againanswering the question mist? "from where?"), and a variety of formations for theillative, which will again answer the question minne?"to where?" or mihin? "intowhere?" If there is only one vowel in the genitive, before the -nending, it is doubledbefore the -nis reinserted. Strong grade is then reinserted, for the illative always


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has strong grade. Our example would thenbecome lmpimimpnkirkkoon("intothe warmest church"). Monosyllabic N6nominals such asp("head") or maa("land") cannot prolong a vowel that is alreadydouble, so to form the illative, they add an -h-, then repeat the vowel, then add -n. This yields suureen maahan("intothe great land") or isoon phn("intothe big

head"). If the genitive stem ends in two vowels and the word has more than onesyllable, then the endings -seenfor the singular and -siinfor the plural areadded. This yieldskauniiseenperheeseen("intothe beautiful family").

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 lakadul la > kolmansil lakaduil la(weak gradereinserted)

Ablative: kolmannel takadul ta > kolmansil takaduil ta(again)

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

Inessive: lmpimimmsskirkossa > lmpimimmisskirkoissa(here too)

Elative: lmpimimmstkirkos ta > lmpimimmistkirkoista (and here too)

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

Finnish has two "role" cases: the essivecase (which, like the illative, always hasstrong grade) and the translativecase. The essive takes on a -na/-nending, suchas tyttn("asa girl"), plural tyttin("asgirls"), andpoikana("asa boy"),pluralpoikina("asboys"). Whereas the essive denotes a state, the translativedenotes change, such as when we need to say that one thing turned intoanother. The ending is -ksi-, but it's not always an ending. In fact, it's rarely anending, as Finnish usually makes use of possessive suffixes, such as -ni("my") and -

si("your"). The iin the suffix then changes to e: "intoa man" is renderedas mieheks i; "intomy 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 andpostpositions are entering the language more and more frequently now. The abessive


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once showed the absence of something; it carries the ending -tta/-tt it's used inexpressions such aspitemmit tpuheit ta("withoutfurther ado", lit. "without longerspeeches") and in what we'll call the third infinitive (Finnish has fourinfinitives). Where in English we use the preposition without + a gerund, Finnish usessimply the third infinitive, which has the endings -ma/-mand then behaves like N4

and N5 nominals, in the abessive:puhuma("speaking")>puhumat ta("withoutspeaking"). The instructive case is much like the instrumentalcases in the Slavic languages, denoting the meaning of "by means of." The endingis -n, which makes it look similar (at least in the singular) to the genitive. It's mostoften used in the plural, though, in set expressions such as ominksin("withone'sown hands"). The nominative form is oma (N5) ksi (N2). The comitative case alsohas the meaning of "with" but rather with accompaniment, not manner. The ending forthe comitative is -ne-, which must always be added to thepluralstem, and which, likethe translative, often uses a personal possessive suffix. The term "smallfamily,"pieni (N2)perhe(N8), takes the comitativepienineperheineni ("withmy smallfamily"). Remember, -niadded 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: isonmaan/ iso maa rikkaantytn/ rikas tytt

Genitive: isonmaan rikkaantytn

Partitive: isoamaata rikastatytt

Adessive: isol lamaal la rikkaal latytl lAblative: 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: isoks imaaks i rikkaaks itytks i

Abessive: isot tamaat ta rikkaat tatytt tInstructive: isonmaan rikkaantytn

Comitative: isoinemaine- rikkainetyttine-

Plural

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


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Accusative: isotmaat rikkaattytt

Genitive: isojenmaiden/maitten rikkaiden/rikkait tentyttjen

Partitive: isojamaita rikkaitatyttj

Adessive: isoil lamail la rikkail latytil l

Ablative: isoil tamail ta rikkail tatytil tAllative: isoil lemail le rikkail letytil le

Inessive: isoissamaissa rikkaissatytiss

Elative: isois tamaista rikkaistatytis t

Illative: isoih inmaih in rikkaisi intyttih in

Essive: isoinamaina rikkainatyttin

Translative: isoiks imaiks i rikkaiks itytiks i

Abessive: isoit tamait ta rikkait tatytit t

Instructive: isoinmain rikkaintytinComitative: isoinemaine- rikkainetyttine-

Personal Possessive Suffixes

Possession in Finnish is expressed using either the genitive pronoun before the nounor 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 happensto be, unless there is an -nor -tending, of which there happen to be a lot in Finnish. Insuch cases, the -nor -tdrops before the suffix is added. When adding to anominative or genitive (or accusative that looks like a genitive), strong grade ispresent or re-inserted. If in the third person, there are already two vowels, then adifferent ending is added: -nsa/-ns. "Come to ourhouse!" would then beexpressed Tule taloomme!where nominative talo> genitive talon > illative taloon+ -mme> taloomme. One could also say Tule meidntaloomme! *Vowel prolongationis never used in the nominative singular. Use the -nsa/-nsending, to avoid makingthe nominative sound like the illative.

Prepositions & Postpositions in Finnish

Certain common prepositions include ilman("without"), ennen("before"), keskell("inthe middle of"), lhell("near"),pitkin("alongside") and vasten ("against"). These all


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require the partitive case: ilman rakkautta ("without love"), etc. Prepositions that takethe genitive case include alle("under"), kautta("throughout"), lpi("though"), etc.

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

Verbals: Principal Parts

Just as the nominals had four principal parts, so too will the verbals have four principalparts for the student to master. These are made up of first the basic infinitive (whichwill always end in -a/- or any assimilated form of -da/-dand -ta/t), then the firstperson 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 onlyeleven 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 backand front versions of mid to low vowels: o, , uand y.

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

This, like N2, seems to make more sense when considering that t> sbefore i. N2nominals 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 andN3: V3 has as its thematic vowel an iinstead of an e.

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


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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 apartitive plural in -ia if the stem vowel wasoor u, and the partitive plural had the -ojaending otherwise, so too will V5s carry a third principal part in -oi if the infinitivedoes not have an oor a uin 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 thestem.

Now, we start to see some of the -da/-dverbs. Up until now, we've seen the basicSTRONG + WEAK + STRONG + STRONG gradation pattern. From V6V11, 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/-din V6. In the thirdprincipal 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. Thesecond d is removed before the personal endings are affixed. Historically, theinfinitive would have looked like kuulda. Verbs of this type aren't restricted to endingsof -lla/-ll; there are also -nna/-nnand -rra/-rr infinitives, each of which carries ahistorical 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

of voicing (voiceless /s/ triggering the /t/ sound). This verbal type always hasan sbefore the infinitive.

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


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The -t- has disappeared in the second principal part, hence the double aa. Onceagain, due to palatalization, the third principal part will use sinstead of t. In the pastparticiple, 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- inthe second principal part (the present stem). As in V9, the tin the past participle hasassimilated 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 specialcharacteristic in the second and third principal parts: an epenthetic -ene-.

Verb Conjugations

Finnish has what you might call four indicativetenses: present, past, perfectand pluperfect. Their formations are quitestraightforward. The second principal part without the -n is called the present baseform. 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 pastbase form; the same endings as above are added to this stem. In the third personsingular, however, there is no ending added-this form is unmarked.

tappaa("to kill") tavata("tomeet")

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


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te, Te: tapat te tapoit te tapaat te tapasit te

he,ne: tappavat tappoivat tapaavat tapasivat

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

In the negative, the negative particle ei("no") is inflected, and in the present, itaccompanies the present base form. In the past, the negative particle is inflected, andit appears with the past participle of the verb, which is already a N22 typenominal. The ending -nut/-nytis used for singular, and -neetfor 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 eitavannut

me: emme tapa emme tappaneet emme tapaa emmetavanneet

te, Te: ette tapa ette tappaneet ette tapaa ette tavanneet

he, ne: eivt tapa eivt tappaneet eivt tapaa eivttavanneet

It should be noted that a special passive form is used in conversational Finnish. Itcarries the ending -taan/-tn, which is added to the present base form (secondprincipal part), always with weak grade. The verbpyrki, pyrin(V3 "strive") takes asits passive formpyritn. The verb antaa, annan (V5 "give") would take the passiveform annetaanbecause any aor changes to ebefore this ending can beattached. The negative version is formed by removing -Vnand putting the

negative eibefore it. The negatives of the above two examples would then be eipyritand ei anneta. These passive forms replace the first person plural form, bothindicative 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 addingthe endings -an/-n to the infinitive (first principal part): the verb olla ("to be") would


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then take ollaanas its positive passive and ei olla as its negative. Tulla, tulen("tocome") 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 isinserted 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 thesentence 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 directobject, but it takes the form of the nominative: Kirja kir joi tett i inviime vuonna. "Thebook 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 emmeolleet

te, Te: olette ette ole olitte etteolleet

he, ne: ovat eivt ole olivat eivtolleet


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This is important for the formation of the perfect and the pluperfect, which require theauxiliary verb olla. The present tense of ollaplus the past participle gives us theperfect tense in Finnish: min olen tavannut ("I have met"), sin olet tavannut, hn ontavannut, me olemme tavanneet, te olette tavanneet, he ovat tavanneet. In thenegative, 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 ollaintothe past and keeping the past participle inflected for number, just like in theperfect: min olin vanhennut("I had grown old"), sin olit vanhennut, hn olivanhennut, me olimme vanhenneet, te olitte vanhenneet, he olivat vanhenneet. In thenegative, this would yield min en ollut vanhennut("I hadn't grown old"), sin et ollutvanhennut, etc.

Other moods are used in Finnish. The imperative is formed with sinby simply takingthe present base form, from the second principal part. The plural imperative,with teor Te, is formed by adding -kaa/-kto the infinitive stem (the infinitive withoutthe 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 theverb in -taan/-tn. It should be noted here that the accusative in imperativesentences takes the form of the nominative:Anna tuo kir jaystvlleni!("Give thatbook to my friend!")

The conditional is also common in Finnish. And, it's easy! It's just a matter of addingthe infix -isi- between the present base form (second principal part) and the personalending. The indicative min puhun englantia("I speak English") would become in theconditional min puhuis in englantia("I would speak English"). The third person

singular form is unmarked, i.e. no vowel elongation occurs: hn puhuisivenj ("he/she would speak Russian"). In the perfect, the -isi-is inserted into thepresent of olla. A common expression in Finnish is Kukas olis iuskonnut!! ("Whowould 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/-kto the verb ornegative particle (in whatever form) and inverting subject and verb/negativeparticle:Asutkosin Amerikassa?("Do you live in America?") Etksin asuWashingtonissa? ("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 firstinfinitive to show purpose. It must also be accompanied with a personal possessive


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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 niemeenkaivaakseenkuopan. This construction is also possible with what we call the thirdinfinitive. The third infinitive is formed by taking the strong-grade third person pluralform without the ending -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 renderedas follows: Minun is meni niemeen kaivamaan kuopan, where the third infinitive is inthe illative case. However, this form does not emphasize the purpose as thetranslative + possessive suffix form does. The third infinitive is mostly used to allow forcase 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/-dor -ta/-tandreplacing it with -e-, onto which will then be added either the instructive case or theinessive 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 theinessive case is: Professorin puhuessakirjoitimme vihkoihimme "While the professorspoke, we wrote in our notebooks" lit. "With the professor's speaking, we wrote in ournotebooks"). Another example with the inessive case is: Olimme juuri symssteidn tullessanne ("We were just about to eat when you came" lit. "We were just ineating in your coming"). Note tullessanne= tulla("to come") > tulle->tullessa+ -nnepossessive 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 kytteninfinitiiv! ("Answer using an infinitive!")

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

Example with 1stINF: Min haluan kalastaa. ("I want to fish.")

Example with 2ndINF: Min on varovainen kalastaessani. ("I'm careful when

fishing.")Example with 3rdINF: Tule kalastamaan! ("Come and fish!")

Example with 4thINF: Min pidn kalastamisest a. ("I like fishing.")

(Note: The verbpit(V4 "to like") takes the elative case, hence the -staending.

Participles


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Finnish has past participles, which are the fourth principal part of every verb type, andalso declinable as N22 nominals. There also exists a present participle: it is formed byremoving the -tfrom the third person plural form in the present tense. From theverb 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 formthe 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 typesthat require a nominative subject:

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

Transitive sentences: in these sentences, the sentence requires a direct objectcomplement. The subject is in the nominative and the object is in either theaccusative or the partitive. Example: Min juon teet ("I drink tea"). Notice the objectis in the partitive becausejuoda("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, eitherbecause the action is strenuous or because it's long-lasting. Some verbs can takeboth 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 definiteobject 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 olenkanadalainen ("I am a Canadian") is an example. Both subject and predicative nounare in the nominative. The plural will usually feature partitive plural: He ovatkanadalais ia ("They are Canadians") because we're not saying that those are alltheCanadians of the world over there. There is no natural set, so we do not use partitiveplural. Partitive singular is also used, when saying, for example, that "the food wasgood":ruoka oli hyv.

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

Locative existential sentences: This is a sentence type that keeps the subject in thenominative even though it falls at the end of the sentence. The sentence begins witha location, followed by a verb and then the subject. Example:Sairaalassa oli vanhatohtori ("In the hospital was the/an old doctor"). The subject can be in the partitive in


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limited situations, such as in Kaloja ui vedess("There are fish swimming in thewater").

Possessive existential sentences: Like Russian, Finnish does not have a verb "tohave." Instead, the possessor is placed at the beginning of the sentence in theadessive case, and the verb olla ("to be") is used, followed by the subject, in thenominative. 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. Thesentence Minulla on rahaa("I have some money") has the subject in thepartitive. The verb is always singular.

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

singular.

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

Necessive impersonal sentences: There are a few impersonal third person singularverbs in the present that require a genitive to come before them, suchas tytyyand on pakko. Examples: Minun on pakkomenn pois ("I have to goaway"). In such sentences, the accusative will always look like thenominative: Minun tyty yostaa tuo kir ja("I have to buy 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) arepossible: Sataa ensilunta ("The first snow is falling"). Sometimes one word isenough: Tuulee("It's windy," lit. "blows").

Experiencer impersonal sentences: Some verbs require the "subject" to appear in thepartitive. 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 notspoken in full, and quite often the most common verbs are somewhat truncated. Thirdperson plural is often ignored in favor of the singular. The first person plural is ignoredin favor of the passive. Examples are as follows:


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

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 thecomponents 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 totackle the Finnish national epic:Kalevala. Good luck! Or, in Finnish, OnneaMatkaan!

(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.)

finski pronunciation

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