Finnish Sounds

Finnish spelling rules are so simple that Finnish children never have to worry about participating in spelling bee competitions. There, quite simply, is no need for them.

Vowels

The Finnish vowels always sound the same regardless of their place in the word. The instructions refer to General American English unless stated otherwise.

	IPA	Notes	Examples
A	[ɑ]	as in "palm tree"; never as in "hat"	absurdi, palmu, utopia
E	[e]	like the first E in the Australian English (GA) and British English (RP) "legend"	emu, genre, legenda
I	[i]	pronounced like the letter Y in "gallery"	idoli, galleria
O, Å	[o]	almost like the letter O in "corny" but more closed, never as in "not gold"; the letter Å, the "Swedish O", is used only in names of Swedish origin	korni, operetti, studio, Måns
U	[u]	as in ”moose taboo" but short	urbaani, pulu, tabu
Y	[y]	the "French U" and the "German Ü"; close to the expression of disgust ”eww”, but short and pronounced in the front part of the mouth; start with the vowel sound in the word "sea" and then pout like a proud pufferfish	yksi, tyly, hyeena
Ä	[æ]	like the letter a in "band"	ässä, bändi
Ö	[ø]	the closest thing found in English can be heard in some words before R, as in ”early bird”; the Finnish sound is pronounced closer to the teeth	söpö, ötökkä

The dots above Ä and Ö are NOT accents nor stress marks used to modify A and O. The two letters stand for distinct sounds made in the front part of the mouth, whereas the sounds represented by the dotless letters are produced at the back. Forgetting your dots results either in incomprehensible gobbledygook or in some wholly unrelated word. It is better to tell someone that they are hellä (tender, gentle) than to call them hella (kitchen stove).

GOOOOAAAAL!

Long vowels are written with double letters. They are the same sounds as the single letter ones but longer. If you get the length wrong, there is a risk of either being misunderstood or not being understood at all. If your biology paper is tuulessa, the wind has caught it. If it is tulessa, it is on fire. If your language doesn’t have a long sound found in Finnish, a good way to practice is to take the corresponding short sound and stretch it like an excited sports announcer after a goal or a touchdown.

	IPA	Notes	Examples
AA	[ɑː]	as in ”Aargh!” and the British English (RP) ”bar"	baari, aaria, hurraa
EE	[eː]	never as in ”sweet dreams”, but a British (RP) soccer announcer shouting the name ”Best” - ”Beest!”	eeppinen, toffee, magneetti
II	[iː]	as in ”team”	iilimato, tiimi, kirii
OO	[oː]	Australian (GA) rugby announcer yelling the name ”George” - ”Geoorge!”	ooppera, virtuoosi, neuloo
UU	[uː]	as in ”boom” and ”vacuum”	vakuumi, buumi
YY	[yː]	as in the German "kühl"; similar to "eww" but closer to the teeth	volyymi, titityy
ÄÄ	[æː]	baseball announcer hollering ”Mantle” - ”Maantle!”	väärä, ääni, bää
ÖÖ	[øː]	basketball announcer shouting ”Erving” - ”Eerving!”; the Finnish sound is closer to the teeth	insinööri, miljöö

Foreign names and loanwords sometimes defy these rules. For example, Chile has a long I in the middle and duo has a long U.

Consonants

Let's aspire to not aspirate. Aspiration is a feature in Germanic languages, which can be found in most varieties of English. It means releasing a concise but violent puff of air while producing the sounds [k], [p], and [t] beginning stressed syllables, as in kind, pampered, tomcat. However, when one of these three sounds appears after the sound [s], or ends a syllable, the sounds are unaspirated, as in skydiving, wasp, stung, or Mick, lip, fat. In Finnish, [k], [p], and [t] are always unaspirated regardless of their place in the word. Native English speakers from India, Pakistan, and some parts of Africa often pronounce the sounds like Finns do - no huffing and puffing.

The instructions refer to General American English unless stated otherwise.

	IPA	Notes	Examples
B	[b]	as in "banana"	zombi, banaani
C	[k], [s]	appears only in rare loanwords; usually an unaspirated [k] as in the French "café"	cancan, café
D	[d]	as in "domino"	domino, video
F	[f]	as in "festival"	ufo, festivaali
G	[g], [ŋ]	usually as in "gorilla", never as in "gentleman"	gorilla, agentti
H	[h], [ɦ], [ç], [x]	[h] in the beginning of the word, as in "hiccup"	hikka, haiku
J	[j]	always like the word initial Y in English, as in "yeti", never like the English J, as in "jolly"	jeti, jojo
K	[k]	unaspirated; always as in "risk", never as in "kiss"	kilogramma, riski
L	[l]	as in "lotus"	lootus, Englanti
M	[m], [ɱ]	most often pronounced as [m], as in "mascot"	samba, maskotti
N	[n], [ŋ], [ɱ]	almost always pronounced as [n], as in "noodle"	nuudeli, fani
P	[p]	unaspirated; always as in "sponsor", never as in "pirate"	panda, sponsori
Q	[k], [kʋ], [kw]	extremely rare and appears only in loanwords; most often an unaspirated [k] as in the Spanish word "tequila"	tequila, quiche
R	[r]	the "Scottish R" also found in Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Russian; produced by making the tip of the tongue vibrate against the ridge behind the upper front teeth; "rock music" with bagpipes	rock-musiikki, dinosaurus
S	[s], [ʃ]	usually as in "silk", never as in "easy", or "decision"	silkki, illuusio
T	[t]	unaspirated; always as in "pessimist", never as in "tango"	tango, pessimisti
V	[ʋ]	close to "vampire" but more relaxed	vampyyri, diiva
W	[ʋ], [w], [u]	extremely rare and appears only in loanwords; almost always pronounced as a [ʋ]	kiwi, watti
X	[ks]	extremely rare; always as in "Exterminate!", never as in "existence"	ex-partneri
Z	[ts]	rare and found only in loanwords; as in "paparazzi", never as in "zone"	zen, gorgonzola

Seeing double

Long consonant sounds are marked by double letters or ng. The Finnish double letter sounds are very similar to those found in Italian. Splitting words with long consonants into syllables usually helps those with trouble pronouncing them: alt-to, mok-ka, karamel-li, bas-so.

	IPA	Notes	Examples
KK	[kː]	as in the Italian "mocca"; or "black_cat", but unaspirated	gekko
LL	[lː]	as in "soul_love"	balladi
MM	[mː]	as in "beam_me up"	gramma
NN	[nː]	as in "heaven_not hell"	savanni
PP	[pː]	as in the Italian "cappuccino"; or "stop_panicking", but unaspirated	ooppera
RR	[rː]	as in the Italian "guerra"	terrieri
SS	[sː]	as in "this_state"	passi
TT	[tː]	as in the Italian "frutti"; or "to be, or not_to be", but unaspirated	botti
NG	[ŋː]	as in the Spanish "tango"	tango

In spoken language and some loanwords BB, DD, FF, GG, HH, JJ, and VV are also possible.

Happily married

Finnish diphthongs and vowel unions are blissfully happy. The letters in them represent the same sounds they stand for on their own. For example,

a + u = au [ɑ] + [u] = [ɑu].

Stressed for success

In words that have three or fewer syllables, the stress is always on the first syllable. Unlike in English, the place of the stress does not affect the quality of the sounds.

lap-si kau-nis ko-me-a mu-ka-va

This applies to Standard Finnish and many of the southern dialects. Most other forms of Finnish are considerably "bouncier".

Words are wind

Whenever the letter H appears in some other place than the beginning of the word, it should be pronounced more violently, or the listener may interpret it as a long vowel, or not notice it at all. They may think that you are lamenting how quickly the past few weeks, viikot, have gone, when you actually need new notebooks, vihkot. Or that you are going to visit your friend Pia instead of going to your yard, piha. To find the right sounds, imitate the wind howling on a snowy plain and observe how the movement of air changes the sound.

	IPA	Notes	Examples
H	[h]	starts a word; as in "haiku"	hikka, haiku
H	[ɦ]	appears in the middle of a word, followed by a vowel; as in "Bohemian"	boheemi, mohikaani
H	[ç]	hissing wind pronounced behind the front teeth; preceded by I or Y either before a consonant or at the end of the word; can be found in "human" and in the German "Richter"	vihreä, lyhty
H	[x]	formed between the soft spot at the back the mouth's ceiling and the back of the tongue; preceded by A, O, or U, and followed by a consonant; can be found in the Scottish "loch" and the German "Bach"	kahvi, sohva, juhla