In this release:
- Personal pronouns
- Verbs olla, opiskella
- Demonstrative pronouns
- Interrogative forms
- stress
- Vowel harmony
- Sade
Personal pronouns
The table below shows personal pronouns in Finnish. Please note that the Finns do not have a division into female and male. In sentences, first and second person pronouns (minä, sinä, me, te) can be omitted. In such cases, the verb endings, as it were, denote personal pronouns.
In the third person, the "irregularity" of the verb is manifested. And the particle -la is an indicator of the infinitive.
The negative form of the verb is formed using the particle ei in the desired form and the stem of the verb:
As can be seen from the table, in the third person singular, the last vowel of the stem is doubled.
Demonstrative pronouns
The following demonstrative pronouns are used in Finnish:
Formation of interrogative forms
Questions in Finnish are built either with interrogative words (mikä, kuka, milloin, etc.) or by adding a particle –ko/-ko to the verb. At the same time, the word order in the sentence changes, which is typical of many European languages.
intonation and stress
Intonation in interrogative sentences is no different from declarative sentences, unlike the Russian language, where the same phrase, pronounced with different intonation, can be both interrogative and declarative. And here stress always falls on the first syllable, and in compound words, the main stress falls on the first syllable of the first word, and secondary, tertiary, etc. on the first syllable of the following compound words.
For example: r a-vin-to-la (restaurant), t ä -nään (today), t e r-ve-t u-lo-a/
But the first syllable is always stressed the most! But at the same time, it is not necessary to pull the stressed vowel, as it would be in Russian.
Vowel harmony
Another very important rule in Finnish is vowel harmony. Vowels are divided into vowels back row(a, o, u), front row(ä, ö, y) and neutral(e, i). In the same word, back and front vowels never occur at the same time. Exceptions are compound words that include different roots. Neutral vowels, as a rule, are combined with both back and front vowels.
As an example:
In addition to vowel harmony, it also shows the formation of nationalities by adding the ending -lainen/-läinen to the name of the country. Exceptions are:
Suomi (does not require translation) - suom a lainen
Ruotsi (Sweden) – ruots a lainen
Venäjä (Russia) – venäläinen
Practice the formation of nationalities with the following languages (and at the same time remember the Finnish names):
Saksa
ranska
España
Italy
Englantia
Japani
Kiina
Turkish
Arabia
Swahili
Viro=Eesti
And finally, a nice poem, which is quite consistent with the current weather.
I have long wanted to write this material, especially since I was asked many times to help or asked for advice on the methodology.
I have addressed this issue several times in a fragmented form, but now I will try to generalize.
In doing so, I will rely on both personal experience and the experience of acquaintances who also learned Finnish (or other foreign languages).
General remark
The study and memorization of words is inextricably linked with the study of the language in general, including the study of grammar and the study of phraseology. Learning a language, in turn, is very dependent on motivation.
I knew Finns who began to learn Russian “it’s a beautiful language, I really like it” - and after a long or short torment, they abandoned their teaching.
But here I had an acquaintance who met a Russian woman, fell in love with her very much, and he terribly wanted to speak with her in her language. And not just "I love you" or "let's have coffee."
There was one Finn who needed the Russian language to communicate with his like-minded sectarians in Russia, and he made progress very quickly in his studies.
One Finnish lawyer found a niche for himself in Russia, the business was very profitable, but he needed a good Russian - and he moved very quickly.
That is, if a person has a strong motivation, then he will learn. If the motivation is weak or very abstract “I want to read Eino Leino in the original”, there are few chances to learn the language. (I'm talking about ordinary people now, there is such a category as natural language geniuses, or the Finns call them kielipaa- they suck up a foreign language (or even languages) like a sponge water - and I met such people, but my notes are not for them).
It would seem that Russian speakers living in Finland have more than enough motivation, but, alas, life and practice show that this is not so. There are a huge number of older and middle-aged people who, having lived in Finland sometimes for quite a few years, practically never learned the language. Children, relatives, acquaintances, official translators help them cope with difficulties, again now in Finland at the municipal level it is not so difficult to find an employee who speaks Russian or a Russian-speaking doctor.
Although for me, of course, it is extremely strange how one can live in a country and not know the language of this country at least at an elementary level.
So, this was the first discussion of a general nature.
Motivation assumes that you understand why you want to learn Finnish.
It's one thing if you just want to consult in institutions, shops, a doctor and a pharmacy. It can be called asiointikieli- the language for conducting social affairs.
Another thing is if you want to communicate with Finnish colleagues at work, for example.
Third - if you need the language exclusively for business.
Maybe you want to understand Finnish movies, shows and even songs by ear.
It is by understanding what you want from the Finnish language (=why do you need Finnish) that you will be able to understand what you need to learn from Finnish words and what you don’t need (I think there are many people among Russian speakers who don’t know what “implicit” or, from a different lexical layer, which means “to get dirty” - and nothing, their life was quite successful).
Because there are many words in the Finnish language, there are enough different kinds of lexical layers, and our life, alas, is not so long, and it certainly should not be wasted.
Let's leave the general part and move on to the practical part.
Dictionaries
First of all, you need a good Finnish-Russian dictionary. You can talk a lot about dictionaries for a long time, but in order not to waste time: if you want to know Finnish in a size more than " terve!" and " kiitos“Then you need to purchase a dictionary. It is by no means perfect, but there is no better book on the market at the moment. Alas, only 5 million people on the planet Earth speak Finnish, so, unlike English, the choice is very small.
A Russian-Finnish dictionary is also needed, but to a much lesser extent - from personal experience, access to the Russian-Finnish dictionary occurs an order of magnitude less often than to the Finnish-Russian one. Although, of course, the tasks that you need to solve also affect this.
Many words that I cannot find in Vahros have to be searched on the Web or, for example, through English - there are much more Finnish-English dictionaries, including on the Internet, than Finnish-Russian ones, and most importantly, they are more consistent the current state of the language. Although, as you understand, if you do not know English, at least a little, there is little benefit from this. But, nevertheless, the Finnish>English>Russian option can sometimes help.
If you set yourself specific goals - for example, you work in the timber and paper industry, then you need to find a specialized dictionary for this industry. Again, the choice is small, but there are such dictionaries. On www..
A very important point!
If your task is an in-depth knowledge of the language, then at some stage it is very important to switch to Finnish-Finnish dictionaries. This transition is extremely difficult, in itself it means that you are a very advanced student, but this step is necessary. Because you must understand that while you are learning Finnish with a Finnish-Russian dictionary (and vice versa), you are learning so-called Russian Finnish. But if you want to know exactly Finnish, then you need to be able to understand explanations (interpretation of words) in Finnish.
As a practical tip, you can search the Web for dictionaries laid out in the format pdf, it is very important that they have a so-called text layer (that is, that they be recognized - OCR is such a computer term). Then, opening such a dictionary with the program Adobe Reader(it's free), you can find the word you are interested in as in a regular dictionary.
The first steps
The journey of ten thousand miles begins with the first step. Our path to Finnish vocabulary from the word kissa. And with the offer Aurinko paistaa«. 🙂
If it’s more serious, then first you need to learn the basic vocabulary. What it is? This is some set of the most common words. How many?
How many words are there in Finnish? Here are the Finns answering this question: Eräiden arvioiden mukaan suomessa on noin miljoona sanaa. - According to some estimates, there are about a million words in the Finnish language ( Jouko Vesikansa , prominent Finnish lexiographer and dictionary editor).
But don't panic! Because in fact there are even more words - the Finnish language is very alive and is constantly being born in it.
In fact, Finns use several thousand words in everyday life (it all depends on the level of education, I knew Finns who managed a couple of hundred, while half of them were swear words - this, as we understand, happens not only among Finns) . To read a hoodlit, you need to know a couple of tens of thousands of words. So this is the range of goals that you should aim for.
So, at the first stage, you need to know the words somewhere. This is a very conditional figure, plus or minus 200 (rather, plus). And they are not that hard to learn. I just want to warn you right away, don’t chase the quantity, don’t count feverishly - “yeah, today I know 346 words!” This is just a waste of time and unhealthy haste (“plan for the shaft”, as it would be called in Neuvostoliitto).
What words belong to this basic vocabulary? You can fully trust any Finnish textbook for beginners, the authors there give exactly the most common and necessary words at the first stage, there are no “frustrations” and “epistemologies” there.
Therefore, as you study according to the textbook that you have, you are gaining this minimum necessary vocabulary.
One more note. Language learning, as they would say again in Neuvostoliitto, the process is dialectical. This is the study of new words, and the study of grammar. At the same time, both are interconnected and interdependent. It should not be that you are typing new words, but at the same time lame in grammar - and vice versa.
Although here, too, I met people who coped with absolute, that is, total ignorance of grammar. They said this:
MINÄ HALUTA KAHVI- I want coffee
Agree that your Finnish interlocutor will understand you. Although I call such a language Finnish-Tatar (let the Tatars, if they happen to read this, do not be offended - I treat them with great respect, and in fact Russian Tatars know Russian very well, and at the same time they also know their wonderful language, that is are bilingual, and this, as psychologists confirm, is very useful for human brain activity, for example, bilinguals are much less likely to have Alzheimer's).
In general - one more digression to the side - but this is really very important.
When engaging in language communication (that is, simply communicating with foreigners, in our case with a Finn), you should not worry too much about the fact that you speak incorrectly, with errors or an accent. It's almost inevitable. Your task is 1) to convey some idea to the interlocutor (the car is loaded, you want the same, but with mother-of-pearl buttons, your mother will arrive from Petrozavodsk tomorrow morning) 2) to understand what your interlocutor wants from you. At the same time, point two, in general, is not your problem - if your level of language proficiency is not high enough for adequate understanding, let your interlocutor try to convey the message embedded in his message in some other way.
So: don't be afraid to speak the wrong way. You will talk wrong for a very long time, but it is better to say wrong than not to say anything.
And further. The Finns are a small people and, as expected, therefore proud. So a foreigner who speaks at least a little of their beloved Finnish (and they love their language, like every person loves their language), causes them sympathy and respect. Noticed both on personal and on someone else's experience!
So let's do yhteenveto, summary: you learn grammar and words at the same time. No need to rush and catch up with the number of words. At the first stage, you need to know a few hundred words - even with their help, you can already communicate a lot in real communication. " Better less, but better!”, as the classic said (for some reason, today I have Soviet stamps on my mind all the time, perhaps the weather or the international situation influences this).
So specifically
What are the ways to start learning words.
There are resources on the Internet (I remember only one, however, “Words in a Run”), where they show you a word, and you must choose the correct one from the ten offered. I do not see any practical value in this kind of approach, but at the very, very first stage, perhaps it can be a help.
Starting to learn a language, new words should be written in a notebook. Almost everything, except for those that you don’t really need in Russian either. It is best to divide the notebook sheet in half, write the word in Finnish on the right, and the translation on the left. Be sure to write through the line.
Write legibly and always correctly, beginners constantly forget to put the so-called. umlauts- that is, two dots above the letters ä and ö . In practice, that is, in writing, this is a dash above the letter. At the same time, some even say: is it really so important?
Yes, important: Valittaa and valittaa Those are completely different words! In no case should you write down (and memorize) words incorrectly - Relearning is harder than learning from scratch.
Swedish å in practice, I never came across, but perhaps in the west of Finland things are different.
If in doubt, check again. I sometimes get confused with diphthongs :h yo ty or h oy ty, j ou sta or j uo sta - so if in doubt, check again. And in the beginning, check, even if you have no doubts.
Very short.
In Russian, "I met ANNA" - "with whom."
But in Finnish they get acquainted - tutustua- "in whom" ( keneen?) - i.e mihin- case (illative).
Sometimes in Russian and Finnish management coincide - for example, in Russian we “fall in love with whom” - and in Finnish rakastua — keneen.
However, this does not always happen.
We "find the money in the pocket", the Finns "find the money out of the pocket" - loytaa taskusta — mista- case (elative).
How to find out the correct control of verbs (less often, control is also nouns, as in Russian, for example: “connection WITH WHOM” - and not to whom)?
Textbooks talk about this, although somewhat scattered, plus there are special books dedicated to rektio.
This book is probably the best one so far:
There is another feature of management.
Consider suggestions:
I want to buy a house.
I helped him up.
In the "verb + verb" bundle, the second verb is in the dictionary form (infinitive).
In the first case, Finnish coincides with Russian:
Haluan ostaa talon.
But in the second case, everything is not so simple:
Autoin hänet nousemaan.
When you have advanced in Finnish, start reading simple non-adapted literature. At the same time, I strongly advise not native Finnish, but American (namely American) thrillers or romance novels translated into Finnish. The main thing is that they should have more dialogues and less descriptions of nature and reflections on the essence of being. And an exciting storyline. American books translated into Finnish meet these requirements well.
You will not understand, perhaps, every second word, but the plot will pull you forward. For each word, you don’t need to go into the dictionary, no more than 2-3 words per page.
Bilingual texts are very helpful. One can, for example, find Waltari's Sinuhe the Egyptian in both Finnish and Russian, and read it in turn in both languages. It is also quite interesting to see how the translator worked to convey to us what was written in another language. Some turnovers can be written out if you do not rely on your memory.
Remember that our two languages are very different languages.
It is not always possible to find a 100% type match lintu — bird, kuorsata — snore.
Sometimes you need to think hard to understand what something means. toimentulotuki and on what principle this three-word word is formed (income support for action literally, and this does not say anything, but “social assistance” probably already says more). BUT tulla toimeen- This cope, or get along(with someone). This is important to understand, because many do not understand why the Russian " live» can and should be translated into Finnish with different verbs eläa and asua- and that these verbs should not be confused.
Languages and their vocabulary are really different Universes, and sometimes in this alien Universe it is not so easy to understand what kind of creature is in front of you, sometimes in our Universe there are simply no words and terms for this.
But - take my word for it - at some stage you will suddenly feel that you begin to understand something in this alien world - when you can say something to your Finn interlocutor or understand him, catch a line in a Finnish song, understand a note in newspaper. And, if you don’t fold your hands (because a foreigner cannot LEARN a language, he will always LEARN it), then just as a rocket leaves the Earth and goes into space, so your language learning will reach a stage when you will already enjoy a foreign language language.
And the Finnish culture - despite the fact that this people is small - is actually very rich and unique, and getting to know it, which involves knowledge of the language, will enrich any person.
- ,
Finnish is considered a difficult language. But learning Finnish is quite possible. You can even learn Finnish on your own by listening to the news in simplified Finnish. All you need is a basic understanding of Finnish grammar, a basic vocabulary and desire. At the same time, learning Finnish will be easy and even interesting. What is Simplified Finnish, and where can you find such news? This will be discussed.
I want to tell you how to learn Finnish. If you follow my recommendations, then after 2-3 months you will notice significant progress in Finnish. Why am I suggesting this to you? Because I tested it myself, and this method really works. I have been studying Finnish for ten years now and I must say that I have come across different methods, most of which have not justified themselves. For example, I don't really believe in language immersion when you go abroad to learn a language. This is especially doubtful in Finland, since the Finns, as soon as they see that you speak Finnish poorly, they will immediately switch to English. Therefore, the Finnish environment is unlikely to help you significantly improve the language in a short time. There are also various cutting-edge language courses that promise you knowledge of the language in a few weeks or months. I tested the courses myself and they don't work. Courses are needed to get basic knowledge about the language - the basics of grammar and basic vocabulary. And then you need to work on your own. Without it, there is no way to learn a language. To work independently, you need to be interesting, easy and simple. And now I will tell you how to make learning Finnish as simple and interesting as possible for you. First of all, I recommend that you watch a short video about simplified Finnish, and if you still have questions, then continue reading.
There is a TV channel YLE in Finland. This is something like our first channel, only here, in addition to TV, newspaper publications and even Finnish radio are also collected. All this is available not only with a TV, but also via the Internet at www.yle.fi. This allows you to learn Finnish online.
The Finnish information channel YLE has both a section with text news and a section for TV and video programs, which can also be watched offline. The amount of news and programs is huge. But this is all in everyday Finnish, and at first you are unlikely to understand anything here. However, the site also has a special section for Finnish learners – something like “Finnish online” or “Learn Finnish”. This news is in simplified Finnish. This section is called "selkouutiset": http://yle.fi/uutiset/selkouutiset/ . Simplified Finnish means that the news is read by a professional announcer using as simple sentences as possible and basic Finnish vocabulary.
Try listening to the daily news block, which is only 5 minutes long. Just click on the play button and listen. I offer you the following. You listen to these Finnish news, and if something or everything is not clear to you, then you read the text below, which repeats word for word what the announcer said. Here you deal with the dictionary, write out the words if you wish. After that, you listen to the news again. If you do this every day (and this news comes out almost every day), then in two or three months you will be surprised at the result... You will understand Finnish! This I guarantee you. It is very simple and only takes 15-25 minutes if you listen to the block twice and write out the words with a dictionary.
You don't have to listen every day. News is stored in the archive for some time and you can simply choose a couple of days a week for classes.
In addition to being simple, it is also interesting. It is interesting to hear what the Finns are talking about there. I must, however, warn you that the news from the Finns, even on such a training channel, is very biased. We are constantly told that there is no democracy in Russia. But in fact, there is no democracy in the West, including in Finland, sadly. The fact is that all the news about Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, Syria, Libya, etc. represent only one pro-Western view of the situation. Often the Finnish news is just a lie. I will give you one illustrative example.
Since the news is stored in the archive for a couple of months, they can be listened to with a delay. That's what happened to me this summer. I came back from vacation and in the autumn I began to listen to the news for the middle of summer. I'm sure you remember that in mid-July a Boeing was shot down over Ukraine. By whom he was shot down, it is still unknown. However... Finnish news knows everything in advance. Immediately after the disaster, the Finns began to blame the militias from the southeast and even Russia. This is the second day after the disaster! At the same time, of course, the Finns do not have any reliable sources and references, so they simply write “many believe” or “many believe that the plane was shot down by militias with Russian support.” And this is simplified news for non-Finns!
In general, it is very strange for a developed democracy ... In my opinion, this is just stupid propaganda. And the results of this propaganda have already demonstrated themselves in Ukraine. Do the Finns really need a war?? More precisely, not to the Finns, but to those who manage them ...
However, read and listen to Finnish news yourself. I guarantee you that your Finnish language will improve, and you will also learn a lot of interesting things about Finland and, among other things, about the so-called "Western democracy"...
You can find out why Finnish only seems difficult to us, and read more interesting materials about the Finnish language.
It is possible to learn Finnish, and the number of foreigners who speak the language is constantly growing. For this article, we asked friends and colleagues to tell you what textbooks they use when learning Finnish and give tips for mastering it.
In recent years, many textbooks for Finnish as a second language have appeared on the market - so many that it is impossible to cover them all in one article. A visit to a bookstore in Helsinki revealed textbooks written for native speakers of English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Swedish, as well as books written only in Finnish, regardless of the student's native language (often with a separate bilingual wordlist attached).
Those we're talking to here come up with surprising proposals for study guides and plenty of ways to get stimulated, including proven practical advice and an action plan for Finnish learners at all levels. In fact, we received so many recommendations that the article had to be divided into two parts.
An absolute classic and a new look
“Suomea suomeksi,” now in its 20th reissue and still relevant.Photo: thisisFINLAND
thisisFINLAND staff: Suomea suomeksi Eila ja Ossi(“Eila and Ossie”) by Mika Lamminpää (Gummerus ed.), study guide, supplemented by CD, intended for immigrants. Both books are written in clear, uncomplicated and practical language exclusively in Finnish (in Eila ja Ossi three pages of a Finnish-English dictionary are included, with space to add a third language if desired).
Take action, don't give up!
Celia from France: my first book was Le finnois("Finnish") by Tuula Laakkonen (Assimil ed.). This book allowed me to learn Finnish while I was living in France. The lessons are well designed with culture and humor. They make it easy to learn the language. I have reached a satisfactory level and would recommend this book to French speakers.
Suomen mestari(Finnish Champion), the first volume, was the second book I used in the Summer University courses in Turku. After learning Finnish on my own, I enjoyed attending classes and deepening my knowledge of the language. The well-written book enriched my vocabulary and strengthened my grammar.
Celia's recommendations: To achieve a decent level of knowledge, you need strong motivation. In addition, when learning any foreign language, you will always encounter stages of ups and downs. I intended to quit my studies completely several times, but since I really wanted to visit Finland, my motivation was strong and I continued to study the language. I now speak Finnish almost fluently and can't even explain how great it feels to watch films without subtitles, speak Finnish at the bank and talk about everything with my friends. So go ahead, don't give up!
Learning right now
This path is not used in winter - but you may have realized this without even being able to read this sign. Photo: flickr/Tomi Tapio, cc by 2.0
Stanislav from Poland: When I came to Finland 24 years ago, I studied from a textbook Finnish for Foreigners(“Finnish for foreigners”) by Maija-Hellikki Aaltio (ed. Otava) in the courses of the University of Tampere. In my opinion this is a very good book. Grammar and logic were clear to me. I learned a lot of words, which was important at the beginning of my studies.
Stanislav's recommendations: A good method is to watch Finnish TV and read the subtitles. I did this and consciously tried to remember some keywords for future reference. It is also very useful to communicate with the Finns - ask them to correct your sentences. It is important to start learning the language right now.
Finnish - couldn't be easier
Daria from Russia: For me, the most suitable books are children's books. For three reasons:
1. Illustrations and common words make it easy to identify what you like. 2. I have a small son. It is much more interesting to read books in such a pleasant company. We are learning together. 3. The language is generally easy to understand and the books are not at all bulky.
One of my favorite books is Kummamumma("Funny Granny") by Oili Tanninen (published by Otava). I bought it at a flea market because of the illustrations. Later I found that the text is very useful in everyday life. My other favorite book is Leonardon suuri unelma ("Leonard's Dream"), by Hans de Beer (ed. Lasten keskus). The text consists of simple, useful words. Dialogues are simple, but emotional, which helps to learn how to express thoughts in different ways. The penguin in the book doesn't just talk about the weather - he describes it this way: “Eipä taida olla tänään lentosää” (It looks like it's going to be non-flying weather today), so you'll learn something new.
Finnish Language Champion
The title “Suomen mestari hints that you are on your way to becoming a Finnish language master or champion.Photo: thisisFINLAND
Florian from Germany: Series Suomen mestari("Finnish Champion") is intended for those who are learning Finnish from scratch, as well as for those who know Finnish and want to improve it. Chapters are devoted to specific topics, and grammatical concepts are reinforced by numerous written, speech and listening tasks. A CD is included separately. The lessons and related exercises have many illustrations which is really helpful. I would recommend this book to study with a teacher.
Florian's recommendations: Finnish grammar is manageable - it's quite systematic with a few exceptions, but phrases can be hard to pronounce, so learning the words is crucial. Mastering spoken Finnish is a separate challenge.
With the participation of Peter Marten, Sabrina Salzano and Sara Vihavainen, May 2014
