Trainee's Guide 2003

IAESTE LC Helsinki

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The Finnish language

Finnish is not related to any major languages other than Estonian, and more distantly, Hungarian. It has also been said to be a very difficult language to learn...

letter pronunciation as in... a e g i j o r u y ä ö father set get fit yellow for (sharp, like in Spanish) book (similar to German ü) hat (like in German; nearest English    equivalent 'turn' or 'her') c,q,w,x,z,å only appear in words of foreign    origin, and are usually pronounced like    's/k','k','v','ks','ts','o'. All other letters are as you would expect in    the English language. k,p,t tend to be    softer, though (without aspiration).

But don't worry, most people in Helsinki can speak at least some English, so learning Finnish is not a requirement for survival. Often you may also be able to guess the meaning of street signs, etc., because they are usually written in both Finnish and Swedish (which is related to English). Still, you might want to learn some basic Finnish, just for fun!

Pronunciation of Finnish is very easy - the language is mostly "spoken the same way as it's written", meaning that one letter always corresponds to the same sound, and all letters are clearly pronounced. The stress is always on the first syllable of a word. On the right is a table showing some approximations for the sounds of different letters.

One thing to watch for, though, is the difference between long and short letters, which can change meanings completely - for example, 'kuka' (who) vs. 'kukka' (flower); 'tapaan sinut' (I'll see you) vs. 'tapan sinut' (I'll kill you). To get the idea, think of the difference of the long and short sounds in the English words 'seat'/'sit' and 'get to'/'go to'.

Unfortunately, the grammar is not all that simple. For instance, words can have 15 cases and numerous other endings, sometimes making them difficult for a foreigner to recognize even with a dictionary. But here are some basic phrases to begin with:

 

(the links to sound files above are from travlang, Introduction to Finnish, Virtual Finland and Helsingin Sanomat)

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Some more translation help:

• List of online dictionaries - both Finnish and Swedish