In this article, we’ll cover the most common Finnish words for beginners. We’ve gathered in one place all the most important pronouns, numbers, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and conjunctions that you’ll need in order to navigate simple, everyday situations in Finnish. Since our focus is on essential vocabulary, we won’t linger too much on grammar here, but we will point you in the right direction where appropriate!

Although this guide is aimed at beginners, we also warmly welcome any intermediate learners who are looking for a core vocabulary refresher. The more the merrier, so let’s get started.

• Do you learn best by watching videos? Visit our YouTube channel to watch 100 Finnish Words for Everyday Life and All Basics Every Beginner Needs in 40 Minutes.

A smile and a few words in Finnish could lead to new friendships.

Table of Contents

1. Pronouns
2. Numbers
3. Nouns
4. Verbs
5. Adjectives
6. Conjunctions
7. Cultural Vocabulary: Finnish Holidays
8. Lopuksi

1. Pronouns

The first set of words you should add to your Finnish vocabulary are the pronouns. There are three pronoun categories we’ll look at today—personal, demonstrative, and interrogative—and it’s a good idea to learn them sooner rather than later. 

Personal Subject Pronouns

Personal subject pronouns replace a noun as the subject of a sentence:

• Tero puhuu suomea. (“Tero speaks Finnish.”)
• Hän puhuu suomea. (“He speaks Finnish.”)

Person	Finnish pronoun	English
1st person sg.	minä	I
2nd person sg.	sinä / te	you (casual / formal)
3rd person sg.	hän	he / she
1st person pl.	me	we
2nd person pl.	te	you
3rd person pl.	he	they

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns “point” to specific inanimate objects and non-human animate objects. (However, note that in colloquial Finnish se and ne are often used to refer to people too).

Singular	Plural
tämä (“this”)	nämä (“these”)
tuo (“that”)	nuo (“those”)
se (“it” / “that”)	ne (“they” / “them”)

• Read more about the use of Finnish demonstrative pronouns and learn how to pronounce the most useful Finnish pronouns.

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are used in questions. There are three Finnish interrogative pronouns that are still in common use today:

• kuka (“who”)
  Kuka tuo on? (“Who is that?”)

• mikä (“what”)
  Mikä sinun nimesi on? (“What is your name?”)

• kumpi (“which”)
  Kumpi on parempi? (“Which is better?”)

But wait, what about those other common question words? The following are interrogative adverbs rather than pronouns, but we’ll include them here as a bonus. Why not?

• miksi (“why”)
• missä (“where”)
• milloin (“when”)
• miten (“how”)

Kuka minä olen? (“Who am I?”)

2. Numbers

Another key component of the Finnish language for beginners are the numbers. At the beginner level, you’ll be able to get by with the numbers from one to ten most of the time. If you’re ready for some bigger numbers though, you can always head over to our Finnish Numbers vocabulary list to learn more!

• 1      yksi
• 2      kaksi
• 3      kolme
• 4      neljä
• 5      viisi
• 6      kuusi
• 7      seitsemän
• 8      kahdeksan
• 9      yhdeksän
• 10    kymmenen

3. Nouns

First, the good news: Finnish nouns have no gender and there are no articles to worry about. Hurrah! Furthermore, forming the plural in the nominative case can be as simple as adding a -t:

• auto (“a car” / “the car”)
• autot (“cars” / “the cars”)

Now, the not-so-good news: The full story is a bit more complicated than that (and involves things like consonant gradation)! We’re not getting into all of that here, but if you’re feeling lost, we recommend getting started with our absolute beginner lesson Do All Finns Have Blue Eyes? and then working your way up to the more challenging grammar lessons.

That said, let’s go ahead and learn some more Finnish beginner words!

Time

• tunti (“hour”)
• minuutti (“minute”)
• aamu (“morning”)
• päivä (“day”)
• ilta (“evening”)
• yö (“night”)
• viikko (“week”)
• kuukausi (“month”)
• vuosi (“year”)

Days of the Week

• maanantai (“Monday”)
• tiistai (“Tuesday”)
• keskiviikko (“Wednesday”)
• torstai (“Thursday”)
• perjantai (“Friday”)
• lauantai (“Saturday”)
• sunnuntai (“Sunday”)

 Note that the days of the week are not capitalized in Finnish!

People

• nainen (“woman”)
• mies (“man”)
• tyttö (“girl”)
• poika (“boy”)
• äiti (“mom”)
• isä (“dad”)
• lapsi (“child”)
• ystävä (“friend”)

Occupations 

• lääkäri (“doctor”)
• opettaja (“teacher”)
• poliisi (“police officer”)
• myyjä (“sales person”)

Not enough occupations for you? You’ll find the Finnish words for “poet,” “engineer,” and more on our list titled 20 Common Words for Occupations.

Mikä on sinun ammattisi? (“What is your occupation?”)

Shops and Services

• sairaala (“hospital”)
• koulu (“school”)
• pankki (“bank”)
• posti (“post office”)
• kauppa (“shop”)
• hotelli (“hotel”)
• ravintola (“restaurant”)

School and Office Essentials

• kynä (“pen” / “pencil”)
• (pyyhe)kumi (“eraser”)
• teroitin (“pencil sharpener”)
• vihko (“notebook”)
• kirja (“book”)
• tietokone (“computer”)

Body Parts

• pää (“head”)
• silmä (“eye”)
• nenä (“nose”)
• suu (“mouth”)
• korva (“ear”)
• käsi (“hand”)
• jalka (“leg” / “foot”)

For a more comprehensive list, head over to our lesson All Parts of the Body.

Food

• ruoka (“food”)
• vihannes (“vegetable”)
• hedelmä (“fruit”)
• liha (“meat”)
• kala (“fish”)
• kana (“chicken”)
• muna (“egg”)
• leipä (“bread”)

Terveellistä ruokaa (“Healthy food”)

Animals

• koira (“dog”)
• kissa (“cat”)
• hevonen (“horse”)
• lehmä (“cow”)
• lammas (“sheep”)
• sika (“pig”)
• lintu (“bird”)

Home

• koti (“home”)
• talo (“house”)
• ovi (“door”)
• ikkuna (“window”)
• pöytä (“table”)
• tuoli (“chair”)
• sänky (“bed”)

Transport

• taksi (“taxi”)
• Linja-auto / bussi (“bus”)
• juna (“train”)
• lentokone (“airplane”)
• laiva (“ship”)

Nature

• metsä (“forest”)
• järvi (“lake”)
• meri (“sea”)
• joki (“river”)
• vuori (“mountain”)

Saimaa on Suomen suurin järvi. (“Saimaa is Finland’s largest lake.”)

4. Verbs

In this section, we’ve listed 50 must-know Finnish verbs for beginners. Don’t worry if you don’t know much about how Finnish verbs work yet! You can quickly grasp the basics—from adding personal endings to the use of the negative verb—on FinnishPod101.com. You can also dive deeper into Finnish verb conjugation on Wikipedia or try Cooljugator to instantly conjugate common Finnish verbs!

Daily Routine Verbs

• herätä (“to wake up”)
• nousta ylös (“to get up”)
• pukeutua (“to dress”)
• tulla (“to come”)
• mennä (“to go”)
• työskennellä (“to work”)
• opiskella (“to study”)
• syödä (“to eat”)
• juoda (“to drink”)
• nukkua (“to sleep”)

En halua nousta vielä ylös. (“I don’t want to get up yet.”)

Conversation Verbs

• puhua (“to speak”)
• sanoa (“to say”)
• kysyä (“to ask”)
• vastata (“to answer”)
• ymmärtää (“to understand”)
• kuunnella (“to listen”)
• hymyillä (“to smile”)
• nauraa (“to laugh”)

Other Common and Useful Verbs

• olla (“to be”)
• tehdä (“to do”)
• ostaa (“to buy”)
• antaa (“to give”)
• saada (“to get”)
• ottaa (“to take”)
• etsiä (“to look for”)
• löytää (“to find”)
• pitää (“to like”)
• tuntea (“to feel”)
• katsoa (“to watch”)
• nähdä (“to see”)
• lukea (“to read”)
• kirjoittaa (“to write”)
• oppia (“to learn”)
• muistaa (“to remember”)
• voida (“to be able to”)
• osata (“to know how to”)
• tietää (“to know”)
• sulkea (“to close”)
• avata (“to open”)
• haluta (“to want”)
• kävellä (“to walk”)
• juosta (“to run”)
• ajaa (“to drive”)
• laittaa (“to put”)
• käyttää (“to use”)
• matkustaa (“to travel”)
• soittaa (“to call”)
• odottaa (“to wait”)
• saapua (“to arrive”)
• palata (“to return”)

Listen to our recordings and learn how to pronounce many of the above verbs like a native speaker on FinnishPod101.com.

Äiti lukee kirjaa. (“Mom is reading a book.”)

5. Adjectives

An adjective describes what something is like. These are essential beginner Finnish words to pick up, as they can add depth to your speech and help you better express yourself. Finnish adjectives must agree in number and case with the nouns they modify.

Describing Objects

• pieni (“small”)
• suuri (“large”)
• painava (“heavy”)
• kevyt (“light”)
• uusi (“new”)
• vanha (“old”)
• likainen (“dirty”)
• puhdas (“clean”)
• kuiva (“dry”)
• märkä (“wet”)

Describing People

• kaunis (“beautiful”)
• komea (“handsome”)
• ruma (“ugly”)
• pitkä (“tall”)
• lyhyt (“short”)
• laiha (“thin”)
• lihava (“fat”)
• nuori (“young”)
• rikas (“rich”)
• köyhä (“poor”)

Describing Emotions

• iloinen (“joyful”)
• onnellinen (“happy”)
• surullinen (“sad”)
• vihainen (“angry”)
• yllättynyt (“surprised”)
• kyllästynyt (“bored” / “annoyed”)
• hämmentynyt (“confused”)

Onnellinen nainen hymyilee. (“A happy woman smiles.”)

Describing the Weather

• aurinkoinen (“sunny”)
• pilvinen (“cloudy”)
• sateinen (“rainy”)
• sumuinen (“foggy”)
• luminen (“snowy”)

Describing Colors

• sininen (“blue”)
• punainen (“red”)
• keltainen (“yellow”)
• vihreä (“green”)
• oranssi (“orange”)
• violetti (“purple”)
• valkoinen (“white”)
• musta (“black”)
• harmaa (“gray”)

Visit our Most Common Adjectives list to expand your Finnish vocabulary even more.

Värikkäät kirjoitustarvikkeet (“Colorful stationery”)

6. Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that link other words or phrases together. You can get pretty far with the commonly used Finnish conjunctions below. 

• ja (“and”)
  
  tyttö ja poika (“a girl and a boy”)

• tai / vai (“or”)
  
  Haluatko teetä vai kahvia? (“Do you want tea or coffee?”)
  
  Otatko sokeria tai kermaa? (“Do you take sugar or cream?”)
  
  When asking questions, use vai when you expect the listener to choose one of the options. Use tai when the listener can pick any, all, or none of the options. When making statements, you can only use tai.

• jos (“if”)
  
  Soita minulle, jos haluat jutella. (“Call me if you want to chat.”)

• koska (“because”) When asking questions, use vai when you expect the listener to choose one of the options. Use tai when the listener can pick any, all, or none of the options. When making statements, you can only use tai.
  
  Juoksen, koska minulla on kiire. (“I’m running because I’m in a hurry.”)

• mutta (“but”) When asking questions, use vai when you expect the listener to choose one of the options. Use tai when the listener can pick any, all, or none of the options. When making statements, you can only use tai.
  
  Tunnen hänet, mutta en kovin hyvin. (“I know him/her, but not very well.”)

• että (“that”) When asking questions, use vai when you expect the listener to choose one of the options. Use tai when the listener can pick any, all, or none of the options. When making statements, you can only use tai.
  
  Olen varma, että pystyt siihen. (“I am sure that you can do it.”)

Juoksen, koska minulla on kiire. (“I’m running because I’m in a hurry.”)

7. Cultural Vocabulary: Finnish Holidays

Finally, the home stretch. So, let’s get festive and learn the names of some of the most popular holidays and celebrations in Finland!

• uusivuosi (“New Year”)
• laskiainen (“Shrovetide”)
• ystävänpäivä (“Valentine’s Day”)
• pääsiäinen (“Easter”)
• vappu (“May Day”)
• juhannus (“Midsummer”)
• pyhäinpäivä (“All Hallows Day”)
• itsenäisyyspäivä (“Independence Day”)
• joulu (“Christmas”)

If you’re curious about Finnish holiday traditions, make sure you check out our Video Culture Class!

Joulupukki vierailee lasten luona jouluaattona.
(“Santa Claus visits children on Christmas Eve.”)

8. Lopuksi

In this guide, we covered over 200 useful words in Finnish for beginners, from essential pronouns and common nouns to the most important everyday verbs. If you can memorize the core vocabulary included here, you’ll create a solid foundation for all your further studies. Tip: Repetition is vital to committing vocabulary to long-term memory, so feel free to bookmark this page!

Did we miss any words that you expected to see here? Your questions and comments help other learners too, so feel free to share your thoughts with us below.

FinnishPod101 has a lot of free resources for you to explore, including vocabulary lists that cover a vast range of topics. If you’re not sure where to start, you can’t go wrong with our curated lesson pathways for Absolute Beginners and Beginners.

Happy learning on FinnishPod101.com!