Orthography

There are two things to remember when writing Finnish: initial letters and compound words.

Initial letter

Capital initial letter is used in:

• the beginning of a sentence
• peoples names: Pekka, Anna, Virtanen, Make
• names of the places: Helsinki, Kempele, Tokio, Amerikka
• names of the companies and such: Nokia, Otava, Kone

Unlike in many other languages, these words are spelled with a small initial letter:

• names of the languages: suomi, ruotsi, arabia
• names of the days and months: tammikuu, helmikuu, maanantai, tiistai
• names of the goverment officials: verovirasto (Internal Revenue Office), eduskunta (Parliament), opetusministeriö (Ministry of Education)
• common compound words: ranskanleipä (baguette, 'French bread'), karjalanpiirakka (Karelian pie)

Together or separately?

There are lots of compound words in Finnish. Quite often you have two words in English, while only one in Finnish. That makes the words often very long and difficult to read, especially, when the long words have endings.

The basic rule: coherent consepts are a single word.

• Together: työpaikka (workplace), puutalo (wooden house), rautatie (railway), perunasalaatti (potato salad).
• Separately: raskas työ (heavy work), punainen talo (red house), opiskelijan kirja (student's book).

Always write as a one word:

Some words are never separated:

• *epä -> epäeettinen (unethical)
• *ihmis -> ihmiskunta (humankind)
• *upo -> upouusi (brand new)
• *nais -> naiskuski (female driver)

Words ending -inen are written together

• aikamoinen ('one of a kind'), huonotapainen (bad mannered), ensikertalainen (fist-timer), viisikerroksinen (five-story), moniosainen (multi part), hyvännäköinen (good looking), itseriittoinen (self-sufficient)

Always write these as 2 words

• Languages: suomen kieli, ruotsin kieli
• Professions, academic degrees and titles: englannin opettaja (english teacher), filosofian maisteri (Master of Arts)

Some words are always writen separately:

• aika (quite), eri (other), kelpo (decent), pikku (little), tosi (really), viime (last)

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