Introduction

Finnish is a proud member of the Finno-Ugric language family and, therefore, not related to the English language. It has no articles, no future tense, nor many other features found in so many European languages. It is a pretty regular language.

Who are you?

The word for "I" is minä and for "you" sinä. Finnish verbs are conjugated according to person and number. Here are two forms of the verb olla, "to be":

Pronoun		Verb
minä	I	olen	am
sinä	you	olet	are

Finns rarely use the expression "my name is". Instead we simply say "I am". The quintessential Finnish word for "hello" is terve, literally "healthy".

Terve! Minä olen Väinö. Hello! I am Väinö.

Sinä olet Aino. You are Aino.

Olet hauska ja mukava..

You are funny and nice.

The question word kuka, "who", is followed by words in the same order as if they were in a statement.

Terve! Kuka sinä olet? Hello! Who are you?

To be

The singular present tense forms of olla(to be):

Finnish	English
olen	(I) am
olet	(you) are
on	(s/he) is

The Finnish language has no gender specific pronouns like "he" and "she" in English. Whatever the gender of the person you are talking about, they are referred to as hän in the singular.

Hän on Matti. He is Matti.

Hän on Liisa. She is Liisa.

In Standard Finnish, the words minä and sinä are optional when they are in the subject position. Hän, however, needs to be included.

Minä olen ujo./Olen ujo. I am shy.

Sinä olet rehellinen./Olet rehellinen. You are honest.

Hän on hiljainen. S/he is quiet.

Although common in writing, leaving out personal pronouns is rarer in spoken Finnish.

To be in order

There are no articles in Finnish. That does not mean that you can put any old article in the English translation of a Finnish sentence. Sentences with the verb olla, "to be", put nouns in a certain order. The more important and complete something is, the earlier it appears. If a noun ends the sentence, it is somehow incomplete, often because the word does not include everything it by definition could.

This is why final nouns in sentences with the verb "to be" are translated with an indefinite article.

Liisa on nainen. Liisa is a woman.

Matti on mies. Matti is a man.

Hän on velho. S/he is a wizard.

In sentences with the verb olla, the more complete a noun is, the earlier it appears. The later a noun appears, the less complete it is, and the more likely it is to be translated with an indefinite article.

Hän on ujo poika. He is a shy boy.

However, the English language has so many ways of using articles in generalisations that sometimes an indefinite article starts such a sentence.

Hyvä sauna on aina suomalainen. A good sauna is always Finnish.

In Finnish, that sauna is considered complete, since we are talking about all the good saunas in the world here.

Name is not an omen

Finnish first names

Unlike in many other European languages, the last letter of a first name says nothing about the gender preferences associated with that name. There are also some names that have no preferred gender.

Man	Woman	Neutral
Matti	Liisa	Kaino
Väinö	Aino	Vieno
Otso	Elsa	Lumi
Joni	Anna
Pyry	Tyyne
Miikka	Roosa
Leo	Kaisa

Finnish last names

Finnish last names can usually be found in nature. The most common last names can be divided into four groups:

Last name	Notes
Pöllö	"Owl" - noun
Pöllönen	"Of Owl", or "Little Owl" - noun with the ending nen
Pöllölä	"Owl Place" - noun with the ending la/lä
Pöllövaara	"Owl Fell/Hill/Danger" - compound word that has probably replaced a name in some other language

Knowing me, knowing you

The shortest way to introduce someone is to use the phrase Tämä on..., "This is..":

Joni, tämä on Anna. Joni, this is Anna.

Finns are very informal, but just in case you get invited to the Presidential Independence Day Ball, or to some other very formal event, the Finnish equivalents of "Mr." and "Ms." are herra and rouva.

Herra Presidentti, tämä on rouva Pöllönen. Mr. President, this is Ms. Pöllönen.

Vocabularies

Vocabulary		Vocabulary
Suomi	Finland	maa	country, land
ihminen	person, human being	suomalainen	Finnish (adjective), Finn (person)
lapsi	child	vauva	baby
tyttö	girl	poika	boy
ystävä	friend	perhe	family
kaunis	beautiful	komea	handsome
ujo	shy	rehellinen	honest
hyvä	good, bravo	hiljainen	quiet, silent
todella	really	aina	always
kantele	kantele	soitin	instrument (music)