Finnish Grammar

Learning a new language can be a daunting proposal, especially when one starts to think about grammar and all of the rules that they are going to have to learn. Understanding Finnish grammar might seem difficult at first, but it is nothing to fear! By learning the basics of the grammar rules, it makes it easier to dive into learning the actual language. Once you understand the basics, the rest of the grammar rules will come and they will make more sense to you.

Similarities of Finnish and English

The differences between English and Finnish are quite easy to see. However, you will find some similarities as well. In English, the order of sentences follows the order of SVO, or subject-verb-object. In the Finnish language, we follow the same SVO rules. Thus, the phrase “I chew gum” will have the words in the same order. Since they both follow the SVO order, it makes it much easier for many people to learn the language.

Tenses

The tenses in Finnish are similar to those in English as well. Tenses refer to time. We have past, present, and future tenses, as well as varieties of each, such as past perfect tense. Different tenses have different meanings, and this is true in Finnish as well. Just as in English, you will be able to add other words to indicate a future time, such as “tomorrow” or “next year”. Again, the similarities with English help to make this an easy language to learn.

Conjugating

Conjugating Finnish verbs might not sound like a good time, but it isn’t too difficult. In English, there are quite a few irregular verbs and conjugation can be difficult. For example, “fly” would become “flew” rather than “flied”. In the Finnish language, the verb changes according to the subject.

Singulars and Plurals

Singulars and plurals are interesting as well. In Finnish, the singular word can change to a plural as well. Understanding the rules for Finnish plurals is no more difficult than English. An example of a plural would be the singular word kissa, which means cat. The plural form of the word is kissat.

Understanding Finnish grammar will take a bit of time, but thanks to the similarities with English, it should come faster than you might imagine. Learning the basic rules will help you learn the correct order for words in sentences, how to form questions, and much more.