Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Finnish grammar
This article details the grammar of the Finnish language. It is probably best to read the introduction to Finnish and Finnish phonetics articles to make best use of this article. There is also a separate article covering the ways in which spoken Finnish differs from the formal grammar of the written language.
| Contents |
Pronouns
The pronouns are inflected in the Finnish language much in the same way than their referent nouns are.
Personal pronouns
Unlike in English, the personal pronouns are used to refer to human beings only. The personal pronouns in Finnish in the nominative case are listed in the following table:
| Personal pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| Singular | |
| minä | I |
| sinä | you |
| hän | she or he |
| Plural | |
| me | we |
| te | you |
| he | they |
| Polite | |
| Te | you |
Since Finnish verbs are inflected for person, personal pronouns are not required for sense and are usually omitted in written Finnish except where used for emphasis. In spoken Finnish, however, the pronouns are generally used.
In common with some other languages, the second person plural can be used as a polite form when addressing one person. This usage is diminishing in Finnish society.
[EDIT: personal pronouns are not required when talking about 1st & 2nd persons (both singular and plural), however, when talking about 3rd persons (both singular and plural), the pronoun is needed: "hän menee" = he goes, "he menevät" = they go. This applies for both, colloquial and written language.]
Demonstrative Pronouns
The demonstratives are used of non-human animate entities and inanimate objects. However, se and ne are often used to refer to humans in colloquial Finnish. Furthermore, the demonstratives are used to refer to group nouns and the number of the pronoun must correlate with the number of its referent.
| Demonstrative pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| Singular | |
| tämä | this |
| tuo | that |
| se | it/that |
| Plural | |
| nämä | these |
| nuo | those |
| ne | they/those |
Interrogative pronouns
| Interrogative pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| kuka | who, which (of many) |
| ken | who, which (of many) - (old or dialectal word) |
| mikä | what, which (of many) |
| kumpi | which (of two) |
| kumpainen | which (of two) - (old or dialectal word) |
[EDIT: "ken" is somewhat old word itself as its nominative form, however, "ketä" is a word derived from it, and it's fairly common: "Ketä rakastat?" = "Whom do you love?"]
Relative pronouns
| Relative pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Example | English |
| joka (refers to preceding word) | "hän on ainoa, jonka muistan" | "s/he was the only one who (I) remember" |
| mikä (refers to preceding clause/ sentence or to a pronoun or a superlative that refers to a thing) | "se on ainoa asia, minkä muistan" | "it was the only thing that (I) remember" |
Reciprocal pronouns
| Reciprocal pronouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Example | English |
| toinen | "he rakastavat toisiaan" | "they love each other" (plural) |
| "he rakastavat toinen toistaan" | "they love one another" (double singular) | |
Reflexive pronouns
| Reflexive pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | Suffix | Example | English |
| itse | plus corresponding possessive suffix | "keitin itselleni teetä" | "(I) made myself some tea" |
Indefinite pronouns
A large group that entails all of the pronouns that do not fall into any of the categories above.
| Indefinite pronouns | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| joka (uninflected) | every, each |
| jokainen | every, everyone |
| joku | some, someone |
| jompikumpi | either one |
| jokin | some, something |
| kukin | each one |
| kumpainenkin | both (old or dialectal) |
| kumpikin | both |
| mikin | each thing (dialectal) |
| kenkään | anyone (old or dialectal) |
| kukaan | anyone |
| -> ei kukaan | no-one |
| kumpikaan | either one |
| -> ei kumpikaan | neither one |
| mikään | anything -> ei mikään = nothing |
Some indefinite adjectives are often perceived as indefinite pronouns. These include:
| Indefinite adjectives | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| ainoa | only |
| eräs | some, certain, one |
| harva | few |
| itse (non-reflexive) | self |
| kaikki | all, everyone, everything |
| molemmat | both |
| moni | many |
| muu | other |
| muutama | some, a few |
| sama | same |
| toinen (non-reciprocal, non-numeral use) | another |
Noun forms
The Finnish language does not distinguish gender in nouns or even in personal pronouns: 'hän' = 'he' or 'she' depending on the referent. This causes some unaccustomed Finnish speakers to muddle "he" and "she" when speaking languages such as English or Swedish, which can be a source of confusion.
Cases
Finnish has fifteen noun cases: four grammatical cases, six locative cases and five marginal cases. Please see the article Finnish language noun cases for details.
| Finnish cases | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Suffix | English prep. | Sample | Translation |
| Grammatical | ||||
| nominatiivi | - | talo | house | |
| genetiivi | -n | of | talon | of (a) house |
| akkusatiivi | - or -n | - | talo or talon | house |
| partitiivi | -(t)a | - | taloa | house (as an object) |
| Locative (internal) | ||||
| inessiivi | -ssa | in | talossa | in (a) house |
| elatiivi | -sta | from (inside) | talosta | from (a) house |
| illatiivi | -an, -en, etc. | into | taloon | into (a) house |
| Locative (external) | ||||
| adessiivi | -lla | at, on | talolla | at (a) house |
| ablatiivi | -lta | from | talolta | from (a) house |
| allatiivi | -lle | to | talolle | to (a) house |
| Marginal | ||||
| essiivi | -na | as | talona | as a house |
| translatiivi | -ksi | to (role of) | taloksi | to a house |
| instruktiivi | -n | with (the aid of) | taloin | with the houses |
| abessiivi | -tta | without | talotta | without (a) house |
| komitatiivi | -ne- | together (with) | taloineni | with my house(s) |
Plurals
There are three different 'plurals' in Finnish:
Nominative plural
This is the 'general' form of the plural.
| Nominative plural | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| "koirat olivat huoneessa" | "the dogs were in the room" |
| "huoneet olivat suuria" | "the rooms were large" |
Following numbers
After numbers greater than one, the noun is put in the partitive singular.
| Following numbers | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| "huoneessa oli kaksi koiraa" | "there were two dogs in the room" |
| "talossa oli kolme huonetta" | "the house had three rooms" |
Inflected plural
This uses the stem of the partitive plural inflected with the same set of endings as for singular nouns.
| Inflected plural | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'huone' -> 'huoneita' | '(some) rooms' |
| -> 'huoneissa' | 'in rooms' |
As a combined example of plurals
| Inflected plural | |
|---|---|
| Finnish | English |
| 'lintu on puussa' | 'the bird is in the tree' |
| -> 'linnut ovat puissa' | 'the birds are in the trees' |
Inflection of pronouns
The personal pronouns are inflected in the same way as nouns, and can be found in most of the same cases as nouns. For example:
| Inflection of pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Finnish | Case | Example | English |
| 'minä' | nominative | 'I' | |
| 'minun' | genitive | ('my, mine') | |
| 'tämä talo on minun ' | 'this house is mine ' | ||
| 'tämä on minun taloni ' | 'this is my house' | ||
| 'minut' | accusative | 'hän tuntee minut' | 's/he knows me' |
| 'minua' | partitive | 'hän rakastaa minua' | 's/he loves me' |
| 'minussa' | inessive | 'tämä herättää minussa vihaa' | 'this provokes (lit. awakens) anger in me' |
| 'minusta' | elative | 'hän puhui minusta' | 's/he was talking about/ of me'. Also used idiomatically to mean 'in my opinion'. |
| 'minuun' | illative | 'hän uskoi minuun' | 's/he believed in me' |
| 'minulla' | adessive | 'minulla on rahaa' | 'I've got some money' |
| 'minulta' | ablative | 'hän otti minulta rahaa' | 'he took some money from/ off me'. |
| 'minulle' | allative | 'anna minulle rahaa' | 'give me some money' |
| 'sinuna' | essive | 'If I were you' (lit. 'as you') | |
| 'minuksi' | translative | 'häntä luullaan usein minuksi' | 's/he is often mistaken for me' |
Noun/adjective stem types
Vowel stems
Consonant stems
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