Learning Finnish thread

Actually Finnish basic grammar is quite easy, once you get into it.
I only have a little Finnish, took some classes for fun many years ago, but from what I recall it wasn't all that hard.
As opposed to French it's a wysiwyg language, i.e. you pronounce everything written down.

The easiest thing about Finnish....

It's a phonetic language (as mentioned above) so there are no irregular letters or sounds.
It's logical. Sometimes, when I've been stuck for a word, I've just been able to guess it from logic.


The most difficult things..

Grammar is horrible. In English, people can get away with using bad grammar but in Finnish it can cause huge misunderstandings.
Pronunciation. Even though I mentioned phonetics as a positive, if you mispronounce one single letter, such as 'a' instead of 'ä', you could find yourself in an embarrassing situation. Eg. When I first came to Finland, I would say in Finnish "see you later", but somehow it would come out as "f*** you later".

Rasmus wrote: »

I don't have much Finnish, but have learnt Estonian extensively and they are similar languages. Once you get beyond the primary learning, Finnish is not too bad. It takes dedication though, and if you had problems with German (which is easy in the beginning) then I am not sure Finnish is for you. Saying that, any language can be learned with some patience. One of the posters above is right, though - you won't have much use for it outside of Finland and Estonia, or a call centre in Ireland (Unless of course you want to be a translator at some point).

Miks õppisid eesti keelt? Kas sa ikka oskad? Mina elan siin Eestis ja mu naise pere räägib ainult eesti keelt.

CiniO wrote: »

I know one foreign language so far (English). Polish is my first language.
They were trying to force me to learn German (I had lessons in primary school for 3 years, another 3 years in high school, and 1 year at college), but I was very resistive and thankfully I can't speak German at all.
However I was thinking about learning another foreign language (as it always might be useful in your life) and just today I decided it's going to be Finnish.
I took a quick look at few videos from youtube with sample lessons, and while it looks like I won't have too many problems with pronounciation, but grammar looks quick awkward.

Is Finnish considered difficult to learn?
I would like to learn as much as I can from different materials from internet this year, and then possibly take some lessons next year...

Any advices?

@ OP: What others have said. Reading is pretty straightforward (no irregular stress like Lithuanian) and after a little introduction the grammar is pretty straight-forward, nothing too crazy. People always get stressed about the cases but there aren't as many as 14! I am not exactly sure for Finnish but in Estonian there are really only 3 cases (nominative, genitive, partitive) and 4 basic forms to learn (nom. sg., gen. sg., part. sg. and part pl.), everything else is built off these forms in a REGULAR and predictable (even boring!?) fashion (Finnish is quite similar though not exactly the same).

Good luck for your studies! Jõudu tööle! as we say here in Estonia. Check out my Finnish and Estonian blogs if you wish.

Lucena wrote: »

You're HAPPY you can't speak German?:eek:

S/he's Polish!

Geman is piss easy why did you hate it and also you ronounce everything phonotecially aswell!

syntax1 wrote: »

Well the younger generation does speak English quite well but as you move up the generation less and less competence in English is to be found. For example my brothers in law, my mother in law and her sister and my wife's cousins have pretty good English but my father in law and my mother in law's parents don't have any English. My wife and I used to live in her grandparents' house so that's where I learned my Estonian. Then it gets weirder on my father in law's side of the family as many of them don't speak much Estonian - just Russian. My wife's paternal grandmother for example just speaks Ukrainian.

Hope you enjoyed your time in Estonia!

You will find that greater numbers of older native Russian speakers will have minimal English compared to their native Estonian counterparts, especially in the older generation. However, I am not planning on entering that political discussion! : )

syntax1 wrote: »

And I guess you heard the common:

"Some people have been here for 40 years! And you speak Estonian and they don't! How can that be.....blah blah"

Yes, it's a common opening gambit. BTW why is your blog apparently by a young girl?

syntax1 wrote: »

The video? If you read the text you understand it's not me, that it's a native speaker. Funny that you got that impression

No, I got that impression from the profile pic of the blog by 'Syntax' ! Apologies - I guess it is not indicative of your true image.

syntax1 wrote: »

No need to apologize. Mea cupla. I guess it is a bit strange if you think about it. Sure, at the end of the day it's just an avatar. My main blog has an about me and a link to my tumblr which has my cv and also an about me.

I feel I have hijacked the thread! Sorry OP!

Fair enough, yes it's a bit strange but then again I am probably a bit too curious. A few years ago I knew most Irish folks in Estonia having been there a long time. Good luck with your studies.

Terve kaikille!

This thread is quite old. How are people getting on with their Finnish? I would learn but I have no time. Currently I am focusing on Estonian. You can follow my experiences with these languages here and here.

Estonia was mentioned a couple of times at the start of this thread. Estonia is often called Baltic because it together with Latvia and Lithuania were the three Baltic states of the USSR. They were the most Western and richest parts of the USSR and together the formed a natural trio being that they shared such a similar experience under the Soviet occupation. However, culturally and linguistically Estonia is not Baltic. There are only two remaining Baltic languages: Latvian (including Latgalian) and Lithuanian. Together they are the remains of the Baltic branch of Indo-European languages.

Estonian is one of the Finnic/Fennic languages, a language family of some 9 languages (2 state languages and 7 minority ones) that is part of a much greater family of some three dozen languages, which is called Uralic. Estonia and the Estonians have much in common with Finland and the Finnish (and to a less extent with Sweden and the Swedes). Estonia has a very Germanic and Nordic feel to it, very different from its eastern and southern neighbours. Estonia orientates itself northwards and westwards. However, Estonia is not a member of the Nordic Council.

So, Estonia is culturally and linguistically Finnic (and Nordic) but was in the C20th and is today often considered politically considered Baltic. In a way, Finland is what Estonia would have been had it never been annexed by the Soviet Union. The first Republic of Estonia was actually a very prosperous and liberal place with a great deal of exports, civil freedoms and a high per capita income.

I know politics is frowned upon in the language section but I just wanted to point out the usage of the terms Nordic and Baltic in reference to Estonia. I hope that that is okay.

Jamir Brave Pajamas wrote: »

What is?

Finnish language.