Finnish language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Finnish
Suomen kieli
Native to	Finland, Estonia, Ingria, Karelia, Norway, Sweden
Native speakers	c. 5 million  (2011)
Language family	Uralic Finnic Northern Finnic Finnish
Writing system	Latin (Finnish alphabet) Finnish Braille
Official status
Official language in	Finland  European Union recognised as minority language in:  Sweden  Russian Federation: Karelia
Regulated by	Language Planning Department of the Institute for the Languages of Finland
Official language.      Spoken by a minority.
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Finnish (called Finnish: Suomen kieli in Finnish) is a unique language from the Uralic language family. It's one of the two official languages in Finland. It's also recognized as an official minority language in Sweden.

Did you know Finnish is one of only four national languages in Europe that isn't an Indo-European language? The others are Estonian, Hungarian (also Uralic languages), and Basque. About 5 million people speak Finnish.

How Finnish Connects to Other Languages

Finnish grammar and most Finnish words are very different from those in other European languages. This is because Finnish is not an Indo-European language.

The two other national languages that are Uralic languages, like Finnish, are Estonian and Hungarian. People who speak Estonian and Finnish can often understand each other a little. However, their languages are still quite different.

Even though Finnish and Hungarian are related, they don't sound or look similar at all. These languages separated a very long time ago. Each language then developed its own unique vocabulary. This means a Finnish speaker cannot understand Hungarian without studying it. The same goes for Hungarians trying to understand Finnish.

But there are a few basic words that are very similar! For example:

• 'hand' is käsi in Finnish and kéz in Hungarian.
• 'to go' is mennä in Finnish and menni in Hungarian.
• 'fish' is kala in Finnish and hal in Hungarian.

Understanding Finnish Grammar

Finnish is a synthetic and agglutinative language. This means that words in Finnish are built by adding many small parts to a main word stem. Each added part changes the word's meaning.

Think of it like building with LEGOs. You start with a base brick (the stem). Then you add other special bricks (endings) to change what the word does in a sentence. This is similar to how Japanese, Turkish, and Latin languages work.

In Finnish, there are 17 different word types, called cases. A "case" is an ending added to a word. It helps show the word's role in a sentence. For example, it shows if a word is the subject, object, or location.

Finnish verbs also have 5 tempora (which means tenses). These include the present tense, past tense, perfect, pluperfect, and future tense. Verbs also have two participle forms (active and passive).

Gerunds are also common in Finnish. A gerund is a noun made from a verb. For example, "reading" (lukeminen) comes from "to read" (lukea).

Finnish is known for being a complex language. The U.S. Department of State has even ranked it as very difficult for native English speakers to learn. This difficulty comes from its unique grammar structure. It also comes from its pronunciation and how you use your voice (intonation), which are different from English.

Finnish Spelling and Pronunciation

One cool thing about Finnish is that it's pronounced exactly how it's spelled! This means if you know the rules, you can usually say any Finnish word correctly just by reading it.

Some letters sound like English, but others are different:

• j sounds like the 'y' in 'yes'.
• s sounds like the 's' in 'sad' (never like 'z').
• h is always pronounced, even at the end of a syllable. For example, in 'ahdas' (meaning 'narrow').
• When you see a double vowel (like 'aa' or 'uu'), it means you make the sound long.
• ä sounds similar to the 'a' in English 'cat'.
• ö is almost like the English word 'a', but with rounded lips. It's like the 'eu' in French 'peur'.
• The letter c is not used. It's replaced by 'k' or 's' to keep writing simple.
• The letter q is not used. It's replaced by 'k' or 'kv' for simplicity.
• The letter y sounds like the 'u' in French, or the 'i' in 'in' but with rounded lips. It's very close to 'ö'.
• The letter z sounds like 'ts', similar to German. It's often written as "ts" to make writing simple.
• The letter x is usually written as 'ks' to make writing simple. For example, "taksi" instead of "taxi".

English speakers often exhale a puff of air when saying letters like "k", "p", and "t". In Finnish, you don't do this. Learning to "swallow the sound" takes a lot of practice!

The proper pronunciation for Finnish diphthongs (like öy, yö, äy, eu) can also be tricky.

Common Finnish Words

Basic Finnish Phrases

Images for kids

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  Areas in Southern Sweden with a Finnish-speaking population (2005)

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  Birch bark letter no. 292 is the oldest known document in any Finnic language.

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  Mikael Agricola, a 19th-century drawing by Albert Edelfelt. He is often called the "father of written Finnish".

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  Elias Lönnrot as depicted in a 19th-century drawing. Lönnrot traveled to Karelia and Eastern Finland to collect old stories and songs. He then put them together to create the Kalevala, Finland's national epic.

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  Map of Finnish dialects and forms of speech.

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  The Turku dialect is famous for its seemingly inverted questions. For example, "Ei me mittä kaffelle men?" looks like it means "So we don't go for a coffee?" but actually means "Shall we go for a coffee?"

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  A sign in Savonian dialect: "You don't get cognac here, but proper wheat made buns and good strong Juhla Mokka-brand coffee you will have. Welcome."

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  An example of a Finnish sign using a participle construction.

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  Suomalaisen Sana-Lugun Coetus (1745) by Daniel Juslenius was the first big dictionary of the Finnish language. It had 16,000 words!

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  The first page of Abckiria (1543), the very first book written in the Finnish language. The spelling in the book was a bit inconsistent. For example, the /k/ sound could be written as c, k, or even g.

See also

In Spanish: Idioma finés para niños