Finnish Grammar

Here you can find some main topics on Finnish grammar. The articles are arranged by the topic. They are linked together, so you can find diffenent "paths" through the articles. You might want to start from the introduction, pronunciation, verbs in general or nominals in general.

• Introduction into Finnish - What kind of language Finnish is, how Finnish is different from other languages.

Phonetics

Phonetics deal with sounds. This gives an introduction to Finnish vowels and consonants, and explains how to pronounce Finnish.

• Sounds - consonants and vowels explained, learn how to pronounce Finnish.
• Vowel harmony - this rule is applied when suffixes are added.
• Consonant gradation - consonants k, p and t can have different lenghts.

Verbs

Verb is the "head" of a sentence, here you'll find how to use verbs in Finnish.

• Verbs in general - what kind of verb forms are there.
• Personal conjugation - Present tense conjugation.
• Negation - Learn how to say no.
• Tenses - Present and 3 past tensens in Finnish language.
• Simple past tense (imperfect) - Living in the past.
• Negation in the past tenses
• 1st Infinitive - The "basic" form of the verb.
• 3rd infinitive - "Ma"-infinitive, verbs as nouns.
• Verb types - 6 type of verbs and how to conjugate them.
• Va-participles - The present participle behaves like an adjective.
• Nut-participles - The past participle.
• Conditional - I would, if I could
• Passive - The non-person form.
• Imperatives - commands or requests.

Nominals

Nouns, adjectives and pronouns are nominals. In Finnish they behave alike, that's why they are introduced under same chapter.

• Nominals in general - Nouns, adjectives and pronouns.
• Nominative, genitive, partitive - The three most important cases.
• Location cases - Where are you going, where are you coming from (inessive, elative, illative, ablative, adessive, allative).
• Essive, translative, abessive - With or without.
• Pronouns - Little words used instead of nouns.
• Genitive plural - Want to own many things?
• Partitive plural
• Types of nominals -Nouns, pronouns and adjectives in categories depending on the declination

Particles

• Adverbs - Up and down, around and around, here and there, everywhere.
• Emphasizing particles - even these are really important too

Sentences

Finnish syntax, how to form correct sentences.

• Subjects and objects - Which is which?
• Types of sentences - Connection between cases and sentence types.
• Possessive sentence - How to say "I have" in Finnish.
• Questions - How to ask things.
• Modifiers - Let's enlarge our sentences.
• Sentence structures - Different kinds of sentences and structures.
• Connecting phrases and sentences - Conjunctions are little words which can connect sentences.
• Case goverment - Which case to use with a verb.

Derivation

• Derivation is a typical way of word formation.

Orthography

• Orthography - How to write words correctly.