Basics of Finnish

[Chidar_K_]

I'm just writing some shit.

First off, pronunciation.

Pronunciation in finnish is a pice of cake. All words are pronounced as they are written. If you learn to pronounce the letters in the alphabet, you will know all about pronunciaton in finnish.

a = like a in father
b = like b in ball
c = like c in cat
d = like d in do
e = like e in set
f = like f in fan
g = like g in guide
h = like h in hen
i = like i in sit
j = like y in yes
k = like k in pumpkin
l = like l in let
m = like m in moon
n = like n in no
o = like o in toy
p = like p in spin
q = k
r = like r in roll
s = like s in stop
t = like t in stop
u = like u in book (but lips more pursed)
v = like v in van
x = ks
y = like German ü or French u
ĺ = o
ä = like a in hat
ö = like German ö or French eu

For example word aasi can be pronounced by saying a, a, s and i together.

Articles. Finnish has no articles.

The about bending words. Unlike in english where you use prefixes like to a house (house = talo), in a house from a house, in finnish there are used suffixes like taloon, talossa, talosta. These are MANY in nature. We shall only learn a few at a time.

Let's learn some words some different bendings. There are bendings for bot verbs and nouns and sometimes you can mix them. However, today we will only learn simple bendings which fit easily with nouns.

a house = talo
to a house = taloon
in a house = talossa
from a house = talosta

Notice how the last word defines the suffix.

However, if the word has no vowels a,u or o, and if it has some of vowels e or i the vowels in the bending are replaced by ä, y and ö. For example:

a stick = keppi
in a stick = kepissä

Also, when you add a suffix to the end of the word, you sometimes have drop out letters. For example
I = minä
In me = minussa
health = terveys
in health (abstract) = terveydessä

This is quite hard to learn.

More words:

I = minä
you = sinä
a car = auto
an airplane = lentokone
a pearl = helmi

Try to make up bendings for these words above. More tomorrow.

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