Finnish phrasebook

Understand | Pronunciation | Phrase list

Finnish (suomen kieli) is spoken by people in Finland, and by Finns in other areas, predominately in Scandinavia. Finland is a country that is officially bilingual in Finnish and Swedish, and most Finns eventually learn both languages. In contrast, very few Swedes and even fewer foreigners learn Finnish.

Understand

Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language and hence completely unrelated to almost every language between Ireland and India. (In particular, Finnish has nothing at all in common with Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or any other Scandinavian language or Russian except for a load of loan words.) The origin of these languages traces back over 5000 years to nomadic peoples of the Ural mountains in Russia that migrated westward into Europe. Just across the Gulf of Finland the closest modern relative to the Finnish language, Estonian, is spoken. Other related languages are the Sámi languages of Lapland and the Murmansk Peninsula, and more distantly, Hungarian.

Pretty pretty please?

There is no easy way of politely making requests in Finnish, although starting requests with Saisinko.. (Could I please have..) or Voisitko.. (Could you please..) can often substitute. Better yet, just smile!

I no, you no, we all no

In Finnish, the word "no" — ei — is a verb, so it can be conjugated. Thus, if juo means "drink"..

en juo 
"I don't drink"

et juo 
"you don't drink"

ei juo 
"he doesn't drink"

emme juo 
"we don't drink"

ette juo 
"you all don't drink"

eivät juo 
"they don't drink".

Pronunciation

Vowels | Consonants | Stress and tone | Grammar

The Finnish language is fairly easy to pronounce: it has one of the most phonetic writing systems in the world, with only a small number of simple consonants and relatively few vowel sounds. Native English speakers tend to have the most problems with vowel length and the distinction between the front vowels (ä, ö, y) and back vowels (a, o, u). English does make the same distiction — consider the "a" sounds of father (back) and cat (front), or the difference in the "i" sound for bit (short) and beat (long) — but you will need to pay extra attention to it in Finnish.

In Finnish, all vowels are single sounds (or "pure" vowels). All diphthongs retain the individual sounds of its vowels but are slightly blended together to be pronounced in one "beat". Doubled letters are simply pronounced longer, but it's important to differentiate between short and long sounds. Example:

tuli -> fire
tuuli -> wind
tulli -> customs

The basic Finnish alphabet consists of the following letters:

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v y z ä ö

Additionally the letters š and z appear in a small number of loanwords and are pronounced like English sh and as s in treasure, respectively. The letter w also occurs infrequently in some proper names and is treated identically to v. Lastly, the letter å occurs in some Swedish proper names and is pronounced "o", but the beginning learner need not worry about these minutiae.

Vowels

The harmony of vowels

Finnish has an unusual feature called vowel harmony, which means that the front vowels (ä, ö, y) and the back vowels (a, o, u) can never be found in the same word. (Compound words don't count, and the mid-vowels i, e are OK anywhere.) This extends even into loanwords and conjugations: most Finns pronounce Olympia as olumpia, and suffixes with a bend into ä when necessary (jaa -> jaata, jää -> jäätä).

Long vowels are indicated simply by doubling the vowel in question.

a 
like a in father, but short and clipped

aa 
like a in father

e 
like e in get

ee 
not found in English, but just stretch out the e sound

i 
like i in bit

ii 
like ee in beet

o 
like o in cod

oo 
like oo in door

u 
like ou in would

uu 
like oo in moon

y 
like German ü; similar to ew in few but with lips rounded (transcribed uu)

yy 
not found in English, but just stretch out the y sound

ä 
like a in cat

ää 
like a in bad

ö 
like German ö; similar to e in her (transcribed eu)

öö 
not found in English, but just stretch out the ö sound

Consonants

If a Finnish consonant is doubled, it should be pronounced with a brief glottal stop, meaning that your mouth is ready to say it but pauses for a moment. Hence mato (worm) is "MAto", but matto (carpet) is "MA'to".

b c d f 
pronounced as in English (not used in native Finnish words, except for d that is used in suffixes)

g 
like g in get

h 
like h in hotel; pronounced more strongly before a consonant

j 
like y in yes

k 
similar to English k, but unaspirated and slightly voiced

ks
pronounced as two seperate syllables, not like the letter x.

l m n 
pronounced as in English

nk ng 
pronounced like ng in sing

p 
similar to English p, but unaspirated and slightly voiced

r 
trilled, as in Spanish perro

s 
like ss in hiss

t 
pronounced as in English

v w 
like v in vine

z 
like ts in cats (not used in native Finnish words)

Stress and tone

Word stress is always on the first syllable. There is no tone whatsoever in Finnish speech, just a long strings of monotone sounds. Foreigners tend to think this makes the language sound rather depressing; Finns, on the other hand, wonder why everybody else's languages sound so sing-songy.

Grammar

Finnish grammar is radically different from English (or any other Indo-European language), making Finnish a rather difficult language to master, and Finns love to regale foreigners with horror stories of compound words a mile long and verbs with seventeen suffixes tacked on. Basically, everything in a sentence (nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns) conjugates to indicate who is doing what, why, when and in what way, so constructing even a simple sentence requires lots of tweaking about:

I go to the shop. I quickly buy bread.
Menen kauppaan. Ostan nopeasti leipää.
go-I shop-to. buy-I quick-adverb bread-object.

Nouns can be conjugated in 14 different cases and there is a whole assortment of additional suffixes, leading to improbable but entirely grammatical monsters like talo ("house") -> taloissammekinkohan ("also in our houses, perhaps?") or kala ("fish") -> kalastajamaisuudettomuudellansakaan ("even by using his non-fisherman-likeness").

The good news is that most of these monstrosities are limited to formal written Finnish, and it's possible to "speak like Tarzan" (without conjugating anything) in subject-verb-object order like English and still be more or less understood. Minä mennä kauppa, minä nopea ostaa leipä (I go shop, I quick buy bread) will get you a zero in Finnish class, but it gets the message across.

And there are some minor consolations for the aspiring student: Finnish has no articles and no grammatical gender. Rules for conjugation are often complex, but at least they are very regular.

Phrase list

Common signs
Basics
Problems
Numbers

Phrases in the following phrase list use the informal singular (sinuttelu), which is by far the most common form in modern Finnish and appropriate for almost all situations a traveller might encounter.

Note: Due to the ease, specificity and regularity of Finnish pronunciation, the difficulty of transcribing long vowels, and the general inaccuracy of English-based phoneticizations, it is highly recommended you take a few minutes to learn the alphabet instead of relying on the phoneticizations. That being said, however, Finns are often quite excited to hear a foreigner attempt to speak the language and tend to be very forgiving of pronunciation blunders.

Common signs

AUKI, AVOINNA 
Open

KIINNI, SULJETTU 
Closed

SISÃÃN
Entrance

ULOS 
Exit

TYÖNNà
Push

VEDà
Pull

WC 
Toilet

HERRAT, MIEHET 
Men

NAISET 
Women

KIELLETTY 
Forbidden

Basics

Good day 
Hyvää päivää (HUU-vaa PIGH-vaa)

Hello (informal) 
Moi (MOI), Hei (HAY), Terve (TEHR-veh)

How are you? 
Mitä kuuluu? (MEE-ta KOO-loo?)

Fine, thank you. 
Kiitos, hyvää. (KEE-toss, HUU-vaa)

What is your name? 
Mikä sinun nimesi on? (MEE-ka SEE-noon NEE-meh-see ohn?)

My name is ______. 
Nimeni on ______. (NEE-meh-nee ohn _____.)

Nice to meet you. 
Hauska tavata. (HOWS-kah TAH-vah-tah)

Please. 
none (see box)

Thank you. 
Kiitos. (KEE-tohss)

You're welcome. 
Ole hyvä (OH-lay HUU-va); Ei kestä. (AY KEHSS-ta)

Yes 
Kyllä (KUUL-la), Joo (yoh)

No. 
Ei. (ay)

Excuse me. (getting attention) 
Anteeksi (AHN-tehk-see)

Excuse me. (begging pardon) 
Anteeksi (AHN-tehk-see)

I'm sorry. 
Anteeksi (AHN-tehk-see)

Goodbye 
Näkemiin. (NAK-eh-meen.)

Goodbye (informal) 
Hei hei (HAY-hay)

I can't speak Finnish 
En puhu suomea. (EN POO-hoo SOO-oh-meh-ah)

Do you speak English? 
Puhutko englantia? (POO-hoot-koh EHNG-lahn-tee-ah?)

Is there someone here who speaks English? 
Puhuuko kukaan täällä englantia? (POO-hoo-koh KOO-kahn TAAL-la EHNG-lahn-tee-ah?)

Help! 
Apua! (AH-poo-ah!)

Look out! 
Varo! (VAH-roh!)

Good morning. 
Hyvää huomenta. (HUU-vaa HOO-oh-mehn-tah)

Good evening. 
Hyvää iltaa. (HUU-vaa EEL-tah)

Good night. 
Hyvää yötä. (HUU-vaa UU-eu-ta)

Good night (to sleep) 
Hyvää yötä. (HUU-vaa UU-eu-ta)

I don't understand. 
En ymmärrä (EN UUM-mar-ra)

Where is the toilet? 
Missä on vessa? (MEES-sa ohn VEHS-sah?)

Problems

Help! 
Apua! (AH-poo-ah!)

Leave me alone! 
Anna minun olla rauhassa! (AHN-nah MEE-noon OHL-lah RAU-has-sah)

Don't touch! 
Ãlä koske! (AL-ah KOHSS-keh!)

I'll call the police. 
Kutsun poliisin. (KOOT-soon POH-lee-sin)

Police! 
Poliisi! (POH-lee-see!)

Stop! Thief! 
Pysähdy! Varas! (PUU-sa-duu! VAH-rahs!)

I need your help. 
Tarvitsen apuasi. (TAHR-veet-sehn AH-poo-ah-see)

It's an emergency. 
Nyt on hätä. (NUUT ohn HA-ta)

I'm lost. 
Olen eksynyt. (OH-lehn EHK-suu-nuut)

I lost my bag. 
Laukkuni katosi. (LAUK-koo-nee KAH-toh-see)

I lost my wallet. 
Lompakkoni katosi. (LOHM-pahk-koh-nee KAH-toh-see)

I'm sick. 
Olen kipeä. (OH-lehn KEE-peh-a)

I've been injured. 
Olen loukkaantunut. (OH-lehn LOH-ook-kahn-too-noot)

I need a doctor. 
Tarvitsen lääkärin. (TAHR-veet-sehn LAA-ka-reen)

Can I use your phone? 
Voinko soittaa? (VOIN-koh SOIT-tah)

Numbers

1 
yksi (UUK-see)

2 
kaksi (KAHK-see)

3 
kolme (KOHL-meh)

4 
neljä (NEHL-ya)

5 
viisi (VEE-see)

6 
kuusi (KOO-see)

7 
seitsemän (SAYT-seh-man)

8 
kahdeksan (KAHH-dehk-sahn)

9 
yhdeksän (UUHH-dehk-san)

10 
kymmenen (KUUM-mehn-nehn)

11 
yksitoista (UUK-see-tois-tah)

12 
kaksitoista (KAHK-see-tois-tah..)

1X 
X-toista

20 
kaksikymmentä (KAHK-see-KUUM-mehn-ta)

21 
kaksikymmentäyksi (KAHK-see-KUUM-mehn-ta-UUK-see)

2X 
kaksikymmentä-X

30 
kolmekymmentä (KOHL-meh-KUUM-mehn-ta)

XY 
X-kymmentä-Y

100 
sata (SAH-tah)

200 
kaksisataa (KAHK-see-SAH-tah)

300 
kolmesataa (KOHL-meh-SAH-tah)

1000 
tuhat (TOO-haht)

2000 
kaksi tuhatta (KAHK-see TOO-haht-tah)

1,000,000 
miljoona (MEEL-yoh-nah)

1,000,000,000 
miljardi (MEEL-yahr-dee)

1,000,000,000,000 
biljoona (BEEL-yoh-nah)

number _____ (train, bus, etc.) 
numero _____ (NOO-meh-roh _____)

half 
puoli (POO-oh-lee)

less 
vähemmän (VA-hehm-man)

more 
enemmän (EH-nehm-man)

Chopping up numbers

Does saying things like seitsemänkymmentäkahdeksan for "78" seem terribly long-winded? Finns think so too, and in colloquial speech they abbreviate brutally, leaving just the first syllable of each component: seit-kyt-kahdeksan. Here are the short "prefix" forms, but note that they can only be used in compounds.

1 
yks-

2 
kaks-

3 
kol-

4 
nel-

5 
viis-

6 
kuus-

7 
seit-

8 
kaheks-

9 
yheks-

10 
-kyt

________

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