Finnish is synthetic and agglutinative language. Those contribute to the relatively small number of base words but also to the presence of very long words. If you know the patterns used to derive words from others and a number of base words you can usually make an educated guess what the meaning is. One of the rules, -sto / -stö -suffix is "a collection of something" usually forming some entity: - lipas -> a small storage box - lipasto -> a drawer - kirja -> a book - kirjasto -> a library - sana -> a word - sanasto -> a vocabulary There are quite a few of these patterns/rules so a lot of related words have the same base: - kirja -> a book - kirjasto -> a library - kirjain -> a letter (of alphabet) - kirje -> a letter (as in mail) - kirjoittaa -> to write - kirjailija -> an author - kirjasin -> a font - kirjallinen -> in written form - kirjaimellinen -> literal - kirjallisuus -> literacy etc. etc.
In school (50+ years ago) my favourite food was jauhelihaperunasoselaatikko, which is a compound word of five parts: jauhe-liha-peruna-sose-laatikko = minced-meat-potato-smash-casserole.
There's absolutely a huge differences on dialects. Me and my best friend are both from Northern-Savonia and during the first 2 years of our Uni, no one understood us perfectly. Even during assignments we might debate on how it should be done properly and other classmates thought we were fighting. Similar thing happened when I was kid and my aunt from North-Savonia called me. I put the phone on speaker and we talked around 45 mins after which my friend just nonchalantly said "I didn't understand anything but curse words".
Few examples for spoken vs written language and how words are shortened: TV, Televisio, = Telkkari. Livingroom, Olohuone = Olkkari. Bedroom, Makuuhuone = Makkari. Serviceman (Maintenace guy) , Talonmies = Talkkari Volkswagen = Volkkari
Also "hän" is only meant for people, objects or animals are it="se", and honestly in modern spoken finnish we even call people "se", instead of "hän", as its probably easier but idk the reason why finnish has become such
It ain't always easy to understand English dialects and slang, either, you've gotta be one of the blokes. Or just need to learn the levels and variations to become fluent in them. That's normal. All languages change all the time. Young people develop their own speech just to sound cool.
As I've learned it, 'se'/it for people, except for the people you hate (or dislike very much), in which case refer to them as 'hän'. Also most animals (especially pets) are 'hän' (although for animals it is much more loving 'hän' than when referring to people with that)
@@Murdorch No, I guess someone who doesn't know grammar, tried to fix a rule for you, and this person didn't quite get it right. "Hän" is the correct use for she and he - it doesn't concern feelings at all. Writing well, one always uses hän of a person. In everyday, sloppy speech, in English called vernacular, in Finnish called "puhekieli", it has become more and more common to use "se" about people, too. And peculiarly enough, some pets that are like family members are often called "hän". So Finns have their own problems with pronouns. 😀 If one writes exactly as one speaks, like in textmessages and comments, then especially teenagers write what ever they are capable of. They make a statement out of it, against the more serious adult culture. This is how generational slang evolves. If you are not speaking and writing Finnish as a native, do stick to the more polite use of Finnish, and use the pronoun hän in translation of he and she also when you speak, so that your tongue doesn't slip and you happen to say "se" about a person in a context when it does matter, like outside of your family and the group of your closest friends. It does sound really stupid and respectless in the wrong contexts.
@@DNA350ppm obviously it isn't the official written language, but more dialectical in nature (which I admit, I could've mentioned), nothing sloppy or young about it (well, young people have co-opted it so in that sense maybe). For me at least hearing someone referring to me as "hän", who I know isn't basically a foreigner (so including other regions of Finland), I would most likely take offense to it as it is so rare here that it could be likened to using "se" about a person in literary Finnish or in a region where dialect always uses "hän" or some form of it. "Hän" is just so unnatural when not talking about pets and animals. Obviously for non-native Finnish speakers I do grant the leniency, just as I wouldn't expect people from other dialectical regions do it either. But you are fair to point out that dialects and even general parlance are things that non-natives should be at least partially careful about when trying (although I would add the dialectical region along with the family and closest friends). It is somewhat unfortunate that the local dialects (or languages, even) have dwindled with the more standardised form of the language that have been imposed on them. But to be fair, it was based on most to all dialects, so it could've been much worse of a deal. Btw, what's your opinion on "ketä"? 😄 (and yes, in *that* usage)
@@Murdorch Indeed, if it is about a genuine dialect and one lives fully immersed in a community speaking the local dialect, then why not do as they do, also language-wise, or whatever you can perform, to the best of your ability. I'm not policing here. I'm thinking of an immigrant to Finland, who has no natural roots in a certain dialect nor in a specific local community, and for whom it is very dubious if this person can stay put in that certain village for life - I'd say: don't learn (or teach her or him) limited vernacular. It is only in small villages that strong dialects are spoken. In towns adult people are speaking closer to how their native Finnish teachers speak, and in towns dialects mix, and diverge towards a relaxed version of written language that everybody can understand (standard Finnish). A genuine dialect is passed on from generation to generation and is specific geographically. Slang is learned from one's contemporaries and is sometimes not really understood by an other generation. Both have a limited range.
Comparing Finnish to Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic is weird, because they are from different language families. If you compare Finnish with Estonian, the languages start to look a lot like one another... because they are since they come from the same background and are part of the same language family. Of course there are similarities with the Nordic languages from the history and influence from the Swedish language and from Russian, especially in dialects.
Moi sullekin! One can compare on any level - between sounds, between words, between grammar, between two languages, between spelling of languages, between groups of languages, and between languages families. Finnish is easy on the sound level, Finnish has many loanwords from European languages, Finnish has a rather similar grammar as Estonian and many related words (but Estonian is about as different from Finnish as Dutch is from Swedish), Finnish is easy to spell if you know it, Finnish has a rather reliable grammar, and there are levels of complication, so there are easy levels, too, and because of its main features Finnish belongs to the Fenno-Ugric language family, not to the much larger Indo-European language family. Finnish is written in the Latin alphabet in a consistent way, very closely according to the classic Latin alphabet. But Finnish is neither a Romance or a Germanic language, of course. If you want to read the novels "Sinuhe Egyptiläinen" (by Mika Waltari) or "Alastalon salissa" (by Volter Kilpi) you need a very high level of Finnish, so I have read translations, but I haven't read James Joice's Ulysses in English, either. In languages it is always a question of levels and degree of perfection. I don't think perfection and the elusive "native level" are meaningful goals. You can just love Finnish anyway, on the level you know it - a little or well.
@@mustanaamiotto3812 Do you really think so? Estonian is a bit difficult to understand even if you know Finnish, but Danish is rather easy if you know Swedish, especially in writing.
@@DNA350ppm I understand most of what estonians say, and even more in writing. Could just be do to more exposure to finnic languages, i do speak viena karelian as well as finnish and have had discussions with native veps and olonets karelian speakers.
😂😅Thank you! You really should react to a Finnish comedian ISMO. He is great playing with words and showcasing funny English words and their meanings. He speaks "English", so it is easier for you.❤❤
2:59 "Do finnish people feel different from the other nordics?" My opinion is a yes. But answers may vary depending who you ask and what part of finland they are from. For example, I have a lot of family in eastern and northern finland and I feel more similar to Estonians. But if you were to ask someone from the western coast, where a lot of people speak swedish and live a more scandinavian lifestyle, they might say that we are similar to sweden. Overall we're a nice mix of both eastern european traditions and culture and our nordic neighbors. In my personal expirience I feel the people themselves represent a more eastern european mindset, compared to the more social and jolly swedes, and some of the architecture reminds me of those countries aswell. But then again places Turku generally look more western. I think we're really just Finnic. Not eastern or western in particular because everyone has their own opinion on that :)
I know this is my second comment on the same video, but I think it's worth mentioning *IF* it's correct. I've heard that Finnish is the closest language to how Latin was spoken (possibly due Agricola), so practically for Finnish person Latin would be kinda easy language to learn as well as for person who knows how to speak Latin to learn Finnish pronunciation, which seems to be the hardest part of the Language for people from Germanic languages like English.
I think that is true - there was both Middle Age Latin, that was spoken by scholars and priests and which the Vatican still uses, and the real spoken and written Latin from the time of the Roman Empire. Classic Latin. The stress was not always on the first syllable but the alphabet sounded very similar to Finnish, except for y, ä and ö, which Finnish has extra. "polýMATHY" discusses such questions. Thanks to rythm and rhymes in written poems and grammars much of the ancient pronunciation has been reconstructed.
Very interesting. Now I can understand why as an Italian I find that Finnish has a pronunciation and some words that sound familiar or at least in some way close to my language. Perhaps because being as similar to Latin as you say Finnish sounds "easy" to Italian speakers in some respects
@@liv0003 That could very well be. Both languages stem from the same background even if the language group itself would vary. Something that comes to mind immediately as similarities would be hard consonants and expressiviness in pronounciation within words 🤔
Muu means other or else. Sanopa muuta = (Try to) say something else Älä muuta sano = Don't say anything else Both have the same meaning of "You said it!" in English. 🤷♂️
With language comes culture. Sure, Finland has been heavily influenced by Sweden, but ultimately Finnish is a Uralic culture with a Uralic language just like Estonian is. So yes, I would say the different language also makes us different from tour Scandi neighbours and that’s also why the Estonians feel closer to us.
In Finland we don't have the same problem with pronouns as in English and we actually are not able to misgender anyone with pronouns because we just have "Hän" except of course if we say the gender itself out loud
Spoken and written language do differ in finnish as well. Like yes, you can definitely get by and be understood if you spoken the way you officially write but it would seem quite odd. Finland does have quite a few different dialects and they have their own quirks. Like the word I is officially minä but in spoken depending where you are it could be: mä, mie, myö etc.
Yes dialects differ from each other very much but we native speakers generally still understand each other. For language learner they will definitely be a challenging thing.
@@oh2mp Sometimes though you look at the person in front of you and think wtf? 🤣 I have heard quite a few words that are utterly different and you're just baffled.
Sometimes I ,who are a Native speaker,have tought that it is actually strange that we understand each other between all such different dialect's! 😆😂 However Turunmurre=Turku dialect has so many loanwords from the Swedish language so it is an advantage there to be able to speak the other public language as well! 😆 I still absolutely admit that Swedish is not as difficult and fun language as Finnish are. 😊💙👍🏼
Oh yes, Finland has tons of local dialects with their own vocabularies and expressions. Spoken Finnish is insanely forgiving, in a sense. It doesn't need to follow any of the rules of written Finnish and you'll likely still be understood and without anyone batting an eye. Nobody speaks formal Finnish, unless it's at least their second language.
What about partitiivi? Im almost two years in and I still don't get it. Give me your take on it. What is it? How do I use it, and what purpose does it serve?
@@jixxytrix1705 basically you take a piece of something, not the whole thing. for example: juon vettä = i drink water (partitive) since you can't drink ALL the water. Though you could say you drank a bottle of water but usually then you'd specify the amount you took instead of switching the case. ie. join pullollisen vettä = i drank a bottle of water (still partitive, but with a specified amount). Ofc you CAN say you drank THE water, but it'd be in very specific situations and hence useless information for someone not already proficient in the language as a non native
@@F3zyX But that's not the whole story. I read yle a couple of days ago, and in one article they put Sauli Niinistös name in partitiivi. Niinistöä. Am I wrong? And you're supposed to use partitiivi when you don't have something, right? Mul on auto, mul ei oo autoa. I swear, I've seen that in reverse! Same as tunnen ihmisiä ja tunnen ihmiset. I know people, I know the people. I've seen that in reverse too! I know I have. It was in the first episode of black mirror. It feels like theres a lot of fluidity with the rules. Finnish is like a rubiks cube where the colors keep changing
@@jixxytrix1705 In the Niinistö case the "a" is there because it's the subject of the sentence. when something happens to someone, the "someone" is the subject. When you say "mul on auto" you're referring to a specific car (the one you have) but when you say "mul ei oo autoa" you're basically saying that you don't have any of the cars that exist. in that situation you're not talking about a specific car but cars as a whole category/concept so technically the same rule still applies as with water. (i cant say for all cases but at least most of the time) if you can add the word "any" or "some" in front of the substantive in english you can also add the "a" in finnish. Same with people: "i know (some) people" and "i know the (specific/limited group of) people"
As a Finn, in Finland, of Finnish descent, we have this thing called "Always start a comment on anything Finland related with: As a Finn, in Finland, of Finnish descent, we have this thing called ad infinitum... It will never stop until perkele swallows you all into his sauna of mämmi, skiing and rally.
Vuoristorata is a good example of compounds. Vuoristorata means roller coaster but if you separate the two worlds vuoristo and rata the meaning changes to mountain track or track in the mountains
They say written and spoken languages are the same. True to some extent, as words are pronounced as they're written, but people don't speak 'written language'. Spoken language has many words shortened and such. Not to mention different dialects.
But this is nothing unique for Finnish - this difference between written language and spoken, is known from every language, especially when we also consider level, dialects and slang. In Finnish schools we for example learn RP-English, which is useful for studies, but when we come to Scotland, Eastern London or rural Wales, we don't understand their speech, until we get a little used to it. Many who learned Swedish in school, don't understand Stockholm slang or Scanian dialects, not even Swedes themselves - and there's a huge difference between Paris and Provence, and between Berlin and München - and between how people speak in different parts of big cities... it is normal. But for sure Finnish spelling and pronunciation are very similar at the same level of the language, compared to how complicated spelling can be in other languages. Just think of Danish, English, French, Swedish, for example, at the level of best news channels.
Some Finns have little trouble reading /writing the language in general, but have some difficulties recognizing when words should be compounded and when not. That is something that is paid special attention to, and extra care is is given from early on in the school to try to alleviate the problem as much as possible.
In theory you can learn to read Finnish text fairly correctly and pretty easily without understanding any of it just by learning how the Finnish alphabets are pronounced and hyphenation rules, because the same syllables are almost always pronounced the same way regardless of the word they are in. That's how Finns learn to read; by reading a syllable at the time and putting them together. Someone living in Asia might find interesting the similarities there are between Finnish and Japanese. Like in Finnish and Estonian, there's same and similar words in Japanese and Finnish, which mean different things: "Japanese person makes fun of Finnish surnames". Works other way around too: "Kei ja kumppanit - Aion olla homo". One Finnish pastime is to come up with Finnish sentences, which sound Japanese. There's these "What's a Japanese..?" jokes, to which the answers are some Japanese sounding Finnish answers. Some say learning Japanese is easy for a Finn: "Best Japanese Speaking Foreigner I Know: REAL POLYGLOT". A Finn, Tsurunen Marutei (Martti Turunen), was the first foreign-born Japanese of European origin to serve as a member of the Diet of Japan: "参院選を終え ツルネンマルテイから、皆様へのお礼の言葉". This meme might explain the unlikely language connection: " MasterofRoflness Alternate history be like".
Really like the comment about "mielenkiintoisaa" to be "this is very interesting" as mielenkiintoista literally means "this is interesting" or "this is very interesting".
Interesting side note: the oldest language mentioned there inthe beginning was TAMI,L finnish language is pronounced exactly like TAMIL so basically if you know Finnish OR tamil they you can pronounce both languages so The finnish is somehow far-related to tamil language at least in favour of pronouncement... Simple and easy language see the joke below, , : An English man, A German man and a Swedish man were talking then Finnish guy interupts the good conversation by telling about KOIRA=DOG. English: A dog. Swedish: What? English: The dog. English: Two dogs. Swedish: Okay. We have: En hund, hunden, Två hundar, hundarna. (a dog , two dogs) German: Wait, I wan't to try it too! English: No, go away. Swedish: No one invited you. German: Der Hund. English: I said go away.... German: Ein Hund, zwei Hunde. Swedish: Stop it! German: Den Hund, einen Hund, dem Hund, einem Hund, des Hundes, eines Hundes, den Hunden, der Hunden. Finnish: Sup. English: NO. Swedish: NO. German: NO. Finn, you go away!! Finnish: Koira, koiran, koiraa, koiran again, koirassa, koirasta, koiraan, koiralla, koiralta, koiralle, koirana, koiraksi, koiratta, koirineen, koirin. German: WHAT? Swedish: You must be kidding us! English: This must be a joke... v Finnish: Aaaand... koirasi, koirani, koiransa, koiramme, koiranne, koiraani, koiraasi, koiraansa, koiraamme, koiraanne, koirassani, koirassasi, koirassansa, koirassamme, koirassanne, koirastani, koirastasi, koirastansa, koirastamme, koirastanne, koirallani, koirallasi, koirallansa, koirallamme, koirallanne, koiranani, koiranasi, koiranansa, koiranamme, koirananne, koirakseni, koiraksesi, koiraksensa, koiraksemme, koiraksenne, koirattani, koirattasi, koirattansa, koirattamme, koirattanne, koirineni, koirinesi, koirinensa, koirinemme, koirinenne. English: Those are words for a dog??? Finnish: Wait! I didn't stop yet. There is still: koirakaan, koirankaan, koiraakaan, koirassakaan, koirastakaan, koiraankaan, koirallakaan, koiraltakaan, koirallekaan, koiranakaan, koiraksikaan, koirattakaan, koirineenkaan, koirinkaan, koirako, koiranko, koiraako, koirassako, koirastako, koiraanko, koirallako, koiraltako, koiralleko, koiranako, koiraksiko, koirattako, koirineenko, koirinko, koirasikaan, koiranikaan, koiransakaan, koirammekaan, koirannekaan, koiraanikaan, koiraasikaan, koiraansakaan, koiraammekaan, koiraannekaan, koirassanikaan, koirassasikaan, koirassansakaan, koirassammekaan, koirassannekaan, koirastanikaan, koirastasikaan, koirastansakaan, koirastammekaan, koirastannekaan, koirallanikaan, koirallasikaan, koirallansakaan, koirallammekaan, koirallannekaan, koirananikaan, koiranasikaan, koiranansakaan, koiranammekaan, koiranannekaan, koiraksenikaan, koiraksesikaan, koiraksensakaan, koiraksemmekaan, koiraksennekaan, koirattanikaan, koirattasikaan, koirattansakaan, koirattammekaan, koirattannekaan, koirinenikaan, koirinesikaan, koirinensakaan, koirinemmekaan, koirinennekaan, koirasiko, koiraniko, koiransako, koirammeko, koiranneko, koiraaniko, koiraasiko, koiraansako, koiraammeko, koiraanneko, koirassaniko, koirassasiko, koirassansako, koirassammeko, koirassanneko, koirastaniko, koirastasiko, koirastansako, koirastammeko, koirastanneko, koirallaniko, koirallasiko, koirallansako, koirallammeko, koirallanneko, koirananiko, koiranasiko, koiranansako, koiranammeko, koirananneko, koirakseniko, koiraksesiko, koiraksensako, koiraksemmeko, koiraksenneko, koirattaniko, koirattasiko, koirattansako, koirattammeko, koirattanneko, koirineniko, koirinesiko, koirinensako, koirinemmeko, koirinenneko, koirasikaanko, koiranikaanko, koiransakaanko, koirammekaanko, koirannekaanko, koiraanikaanko, koiraasikaanko, koiraansakaanko, koiraammekaanko, koiraannekaanko, koirassanikaanko, koirassasikaanko, koirassansakaanko, koirassammekaanko, koirassannekaanko, koirastanikaanko, koirastasikaanko, koirastansakaanko, koirastammekaanko, koirastannekaanko, koirallanikaanko, koirallasikaanko, koirallansakaanko, koirallammekaanko, koirallannekaanko, koirananikaanko, koiranasikaanko, koiranansakaanko, koiranammekaanko, koiranannekaanko, koiraksenikaanko, koiraksesikaanko, koiraksensakaanko, koiraksemmekaanko, koiraksennekaanko, koirattanikaanko, koirattasikaanko, koirattansakaanko, koirattammekaanko, koirattannekaanko, koirinenikaanko, koirinesikaanko, koirinensakaanko, koirinemmekaanko, koirinennekaanko, koirasikokaan, koiranikokaan, koiransakokaan, koirammekokaan, koirannekokaan, koiraanikokaan, koiraasikokaan, koiraansakokaan, koiraammekokaan, koiraannekokaan, koirassanikokaan, koirassasikokaan, koirassansakokaan, koirassammekokaan, koirassannekokaan, koirastanikokaan, koirastasikokaan, koirastansakokaan, koirastammekokaan, koirastannekokaan, koirallanikokaan, koirallasikokaan, koirallansakokaan, koirallammekokaan, koirallannekokaan, koirananikokaan, koiranasikokaan, koiranansakokaan, koiranammekokaan, koiranannekokaan, koiraksenikokaan, koiraksesikokaan, koiraksensakokaan, koiraksemmekokaan, koiraksennekokaan, koirattanikokaan, koirattasikokaan, koirattansakokaan, koirattammekokaan, koirattannekokaan, koirinenikokaan, koirinesikokaan, koirinensakokaan, koirinemmekokaan, koirinennekokaan. English: Swedish: German: Finnish: Aaand now the plural forms! Actually same amount . .
Writing might be sometimes hard for children but most learn it quickly. We have different ways of speaking Finnish in different areas of Finland so understand each other is sometimes hard and since the spoken language is written the same way if you go to a different city or a totally different area in Finland it's hard to understand the writing also sometimes 😅
Kokoo koko kokko kokoon. Koko kokkoko kokoon? Koko kokko kokoon = Put together the whole bonfire. The whole bonfire together? The whole bonfire together.
If you just learn how the alphabets are pronounced, learn couple words for each how they are read, you can read anything in Finnish. I think you should start from pronounciation, and then mess your head with different postpositions. You need like 4 for daily talk like in all languages, then learn 3-4 more for most commonly needed time/owner related (past, present, mine, yours and 3rd person) and the rest you don't really need, let them come naturally as you use the language.
You have a good understanding of vowels, all you said sounded understandable. I say you might be a good one as to immigrate. Unlike most other English ;) Scots may be better. Just our grammar rules are complex, very. Same as hungarians in that. Please dont be fooled that finnish is an easy language. It is not.
@@DNA350ppmFor someone's I guess. Pronunciation is simple in Finnish, but grammar is most complex. The guy who made the reviewed video, could only learn rally english. Or he was pronouncing like that as a joke.
@@jarmosalonen2068 Indeed - one can start with simple grammar in Finnish, too. English is very difficult, but one can try to keep it simple and don't mind the mistakes one makes. And that's what one can do also in Finnish. Let's say Rally-English has a counterpart in Hard Rock-Finnish (one can't hear what they sing anyway...) 😀 It is very difficult to grade languages, I know. Some think grammar is the worst, I think pronunciation is the worst to correct (if starting as an adult). Grammar and vocabulary are learnable. I don't mind that people speak with an accent, if they don't speak with such speed, that one can't understand them.
It is easy know if you should write a compound in one or as two words - if both parts are conjugated they are always two words, if only the latter is conjugated it is a real compound word. Say you wonder about 'bank account' - you have the parts pankki and tili. Try it out in a sentence - you wonder: do you say, I put my salary on my bank account as: Panen palkkani *pankille tililleni or Panen palkkani pankkitililleni. We might use hyphens for easier reading, but the grammar is the same in any case. Pankkitili is simply one compound word and it becomes clear when you use it in sentences and conjugate it. This would not be a compound word: Suomalainen pankki - I have an account in Suomalainen pankki - Minulla on tili Suomalaisessa pankissa. Both words are conjugated.
I have to tell you more about the word kone (machine). The words roots are so old rare knows what kone means other than machine. Like i have heard finns were known for their magic in old times, vikings raided us but feared us for our magic, so i guess we had also many words for magic, like kone, it was some item you made magic with. So tietokone (computer) is knowledge magic, lentokone (plane) is flight magic.
For some people it's hard to know if a word is a compound word or not. Is it written woodchair or wood chair to make a lousy example. Good way to remember is if you can put an adjective between the words or not. But yeah this stuff doesn't exist in english
It is technically true that "hän" is the pronoun used for both genders according to official grammar rules, but in almost every spoken language dialect the pronoun used for both genders, animals and objects is "se". "Hän" is more of a half-Swedish relic based on "han" or "hon" that was picked because Mikael Agricola lived in an area populated with a lot of Swedish speakers, as did most of the clergy and the academics of that time. So I would argue that the 3rd pronoun should be "se".
I'll go off on a tangent about computer. Computer used to be a profession. People just doing lots of simple computations. First theoretical machines that would do the same were called computers and they developed into what we call computers now. People did a lot of theoretical work on computers before we could actually feasibly build any.
Finnish is extremely hard to master 'cause there is 18 types of conjugation for words. But if you just use non-inflected words in sentence, everybody will understand, the form of sentence is in that case usually command. It doesn' t even really matter if you say words in different order.
Finns are definitely quite different from other Nordic nations and they often make fun of us due to that... but we also make fun of them so it's all in good sport. ;) We Finns have a reputation of being gloomy, silent, somewhat prone to violence and that we drink a LOT. Our Nordic brothers are sisters aren't completely wrong with that. 😅 But in general, I would say that cultural differences ARE notable. We are more serious, more silent, require more space and are more... just more socially awkward? More introverted. We are also quite blunt and honest and take people by their word no matter what they say. Do not tell a Finn "hey, it would be nice if you visited sometimes!" if you don't mean it because this Finn will soon be knocking on your door. I mean, you invited him, didn't you. Other nordics are more social, more happy-go-lucky, better with financial stuff and commerce in general (Sweden, looking at you), more outgoing, have fun parties instead of everybody just drinking in an icy hole.
Well yes, Finnish is hard... sometimes even for us Finns😅 There are different dialects in Finland... mainly you understand all of them... there are some that are a bit harder to understand and you really need to concentrate on what the other people are saying. What I have heard from people who study Finnish, one a bit confusing thing is the difference between book Finnish (or the formal Finnish) and the spoken Finnish. Book Finnish being what everyone is taught at shcool and on those learning books, the official words should I say. Spoken Finnish is what people use in their day-to-day lives. I'll give you an example: In book Finnish the word for I is "minä" People do use it also in the spoken Finnish. But in the spoken Finnish it can also be a shortened version of it "Mä" And it also varies on which dialect you are speaking so I could also be "Mie" ....and so on....
Estonian is Finnish little brother. Finnish is much harder, thaan Estonoan. In Estonian are some same kind of words like in Swedish aand German. Finnish has mostly unique, only in Finnish, words.
Definately the mentality of the Finnish people is closer to Estonia than those weird nations with crosses sideways in their flags, with even weirder colours I might add. Many words are almost similar, but sometimes the same word means different thing in Finnish and Estonian, for example the word "hallitus" is "government" in Finnish, and "mold" in Estonian. "Mielenkiintoisaa" is missspelledd in the beginning of the video, should be "Mielenkiintoista", maybe it was done on purpose. This misgendering business is madness, fukc all that. That being said, using only "hän" or "se" which means "it" in English, is simple. Some compounds might go wrong occasionally, but there are rules. I go with my ear, probably getting most of them correctly. Dialects differ in specific definitions and slang words, but if one tries, I can get what any other Finn would try to express if I want to. Actually, I´m from Savo -area of Finland, which has one of the most obscure and infamous dialects in Finnish. People from Savo can definately make people from helsinki or Turku unsure of the message given. There is even an apothegm "When a person from Savo speaks, the responsibility for getting the message correctly is with the receiver of the message." (Yes, I tried to make the translation as difficult and weird as possible without altering the meaning too much). What else? English varies much more being global, or semi-global language. I first got used to scouser -English, so Scottish accent was never a problem for me, I think they sound quite similar. I have a friend from Nigeria, and it took me some time to get used to that version of spoken English, but after a while I got used to that as well, which then served me well in decoding Indian etc accents later. I can´t do any of the accents well, but if people aren´t trying to make it un-understandable, spoken English I understand well. Don´t be shy people, learn Finnish, and you´ll never be the same... Lesson 1: languages are written without the capital first letter: "englanti" is English and "suomi" is Finnish. Unless of course it starts the sentence.
"Foreigners try to speak Finnish" and picture from k-18 movie. My neighbor has seen that video and it doesn't speak any Finnish. there is very little talk anyway
No, we are nordic land but Estonia is also very close to us. Little Brother of Finland, Estonia In Estonias independens war with bolseviks, there where many finnish vollenteers to help Estonia. In 2ww it was other way, Estonia was conquest by soviet and many free Estonians helped us in a fight with Soviet Union
One could say that the Estonian people are "brothers and sisters" of the Finns, but the Estonian language is "a cousin" to the Finnish language. Carelian and Meänkieli are the closest family to the Finnish language, to the east and the west of Finland, respectively. Not the same, and not as close as dialects, but very close and largely mutually understandble, with a few explanations needed here and there.
06:19 Compounds nowadays can be pretty hard coz we (atleast i) write so much english in our everyday lives. And coz things are written differently. You kind of forget how to write them in finnish 😅 just example: At this moment = tällä hetkellä or tällähetkellä (1st one is correct) Right away = Saman tien or samantien (2nd one is correct)
As a non-native learning Finnish, I can tell you that the cases can be a bit confusing at first (I get confused a lot to be honest but again, I'm still new to it) but I appreciate the literal simplicity behind actually learning the words
Finnish language is overflowing meanings which are not translatable for Indo-European languages. The most interesting ones prehaps could mention *the so-called passivation of the "to be"-verb , or *the weakening of the subject's position by the power of *tu ty verb derivatives , whose Indo-European counterpart candidates do not reach the flow of meanings and its movements in Finnish language. Offered equivalents, for example, returning the (presumed) passive to a subject-predicate structure and tu ty derivations reflexive visioning fade the ontological nihilism of the Finnish language, and replace it with Indo-European subject and object metaphysics. Benefit and political expediency bribe us to accept the equivalents, but the remarkable uniqueness of the Finnish language is lost. The metaphysics of Indo-European languages is the metaphysics of technical reason and abstraction. It leads to objectification, personalization, emphasis on causation and utility, and logical chains. In light of that, human appears as a person pursuing his own interest, and the world ultimately as a big machine or a big axiom system. It is Indo-European metaphysics that requires us to argue/talk instead of thinking, to look for arguments that can replace convincing experience, and in general to behave cleanly/ nicely. But the fact that Hellaakoski's epic poem “Erällä “ cannot be translated into Indo-European languages without losing the relevance of the Finnish language, is not at all a question that can be solved by “arguing”or supporting “clever” opinions..“ - PAULI PYLKKÖ Finland is based on a mistake;
That "dont say moo" is so weird to me, never heard it. "Muu" is "other/different", ive always thought itd mean "dont say anything else about that", as there is nothing else to add to it.
Finns love to present Finnish as very complicated and difficult - and God knows what they are comparing Finnish to, then. They hardly know a language that would be easier, to tell the truth. For a native Finn who starts to study another language as an adult all languages are difficult to pronounce, because Finnish is really easy to pronounce, except for those who can't say a Finnish Y, though for example Germans can (Ü) and French can (vue - sight) and all the Scandinavian languages, in addition to Estonian and Sami and a bunch of others - so Finnish is not difficult! All other Finnish sounds are represented in English, as a matter of fact. But not all English sounds are part of proper Finnish pronunciation. So Finnish is simpler. Finnish has no future tense - one just adds a word for time to a sentence in the present tense. And btw, no noun or adjective has a gender form or an article (no translation of a, an, the, der, die, das etc, la, le etc, den, det, en, ett) and there is just one pronoun for people (hän) and one for things (se) in singular. So Finnish is easy! (This doesn't influence gender dysphoria, because there are words for male and female persons, of course.) It is possible to use very complicated grammar in Finnish literature, and it possible to use very simple constructions in everyday speech. So a person learning Finnish can choose on which level s/he wants to learn to understand and use Finnish. And there are lots of material for study for free. And I want to mention, that Finns are generally very laid-back and not snobbish at all, and mostly very friendly and helpful. In contrast to many other nationalities they will not laugh at your mistakes, but try to understand what you mean. If Finnish is your first foreign language the main difficulty probably is, that you in a childish way expect, that all languages should resemble your mother tongue, but with a little training you get over it. For example: you can be absolutely tone-deaf and speak proper Finnish anyway. Finnish is simple in a global perspective and there are thousands and thousands of loanwords from other languages, mainly European languages. So the more languages you know, the easier it is to pick up Finnish vocabulary.
Yeah, even here were those comments like: "If you learn written finnish it is completely different from spoken one. Be scared. Nobody is speaking like that." Or like our dialects are impossible to understand... (some spesific words maybe, but not the dialects - except Rauma) I don't understand why should try to make finnish sound much more difficult than it is. Everyone can speak and understand written finnish. And everyone is using mostly it at the work. I love our language and want to inspire people to learn it. Not turn them down.
@@haneski8020 So do I, and also I want to encourage people to see learning Finnish as a positive adventure. I myself have had some struggle with every language I've studied, also because I'm a little bit dyslectic and so have had to work a bit extra with spelling in my mother tongue, Swedish, which has much more difficult sounds than Finnish, and more random spelling than for example German and Finnish. And then we have the very helpful thing with Finnish, that all people in Finland have learned written Finnish in good schools, so that is the same curriculum in the whole country. People may speak dialect or slang, but they understand good spoken written Finnish. No language skill comes without effort if you want to reach a high level and you start as an adult, but if you are openminded and willing to put your pride aside, at least Finnish is not impossible. Just accept that there is a Finnish alphabet and that it is always used in every written word, without exception, that the stress is on the first syllable, and then you can practice pronunciation - even on your own - on every word you see anywhere. It is simple!
Still Finnish is a very difficult language. You have learnt it. Try learn Hungarian. It has quite the same grammar base. For me it is much more difficult than say swedish. Even with fact that it is an uralic language same as my finnish.
@@jarmosalonen2068 Yes, I 100% believe Hungarian is a very difficult language and more difficult than Finnish. For me, I have to love something about the people or a country to have the stamina to learn a language - I have not found anything to attract me especially to Hungarian. What was your reason to approach it? (I'm glad you think that Swedish is not that difficult, though for every noun you have to learn if it has en or ett as the article, and the grammar is rather irregular, and "sju sköna sjuksköterskor skötte sju sjösjuka sjömän" in Stockholm-dialect is hopeless, and spelling is difficult also for native speakers. For a Finn it is nothing unusual about the sounds y,å,ä,ö or about long and short vowels, but these are huge stumbling stones for many of the immigrants here - sil, sill, kapa, kappa, snut, snutt - getting them wrong causes misunderstandings.)
How can you misspronounce anyone when there is a "one fits for all" pronoun. However, I mispronounce ppl all the time as my Finnish brain has decided to use he for everybody.. even women. I just don't understand why you need to know the gender to speak about someone.
The speaker in the original video has so utterly Finnish accent it's not true 😅 Accents are fine, don't get me wrong, but there's a point at which it gets a bit grating, and this crosses that line 😉 But I realize it was probably done on purpose, for comedy effect; it's just that many Finns have a similar accent and it's *not* on purpose...
Misgendering still happens, i.e. if you point out to a child an adult they need to go to for something, you say "that man over there" or "that lady over there", right? In Finnish we have the same, we're just "aunts" and "uncles" instead of "ladies" and "men". But pronouns aren't an issue.
Finnish is synthetic and agglutinative language. Those contribute to the relatively small number of base words but also to the presence of very long words. If you know the patterns used to derive words from others and a number of base words you can usually make an educated guess what the meaning is.
One of the rules, -sto / -stö -suffix is "a collection of something" usually forming some entity:
- lipas -> a small storage box
- lipasto -> a drawer
- kirja -> a book
- kirjasto -> a library
- sana -> a word
- sanasto -> a vocabulary
There are quite a few of these patterns/rules so a lot of related words have the same base:
- kirja -> a book
- kirjasto -> a library
- kirjain -> a letter (of alphabet)
- kirje -> a letter (as in mail)
- kirjoittaa -> to write
- kirjailija -> an author
- kirjasin -> a font
- kirjallinen -> in written form
- kirjaimellinen -> literal
- kirjallisuus -> literacy
etc. etc.
In school (50+ years ago) my favourite food was jauhelihaperunasoselaatikko, which is a compound word of five parts: jauhe-liha-peruna-sose-laatikko = minced-meat-potato-smash-casserole.
Niin hyvää 👌
Hyvää on 🤤
I liked it too, it resembles a little minced meat and potatoe pie, except for the non-existent crust.
Love it
I was born in 2000 and that was literally my favourite food too! some ketchup on top and its like heaven.
There's absolutely a huge differences on dialects. Me and my best friend are both from Northern-Savonia and during the first 2 years of our Uni, no one understood us perfectly. Even during assignments we might debate on how it should be done properly and other classmates thought we were fighting.
Similar thing happened when I was kid and my aunt from North-Savonia called me. I put the phone on speaker and we talked around 45 mins after which my friend just nonchalantly said "I didn't understand anything but curse words".
Few examples for spoken vs written language and how words are shortened:
TV, Televisio, = Telkkari.
Livingroom, Olohuone = Olkkari.
Bedroom, Makuuhuone = Makkari.
Serviceman (Maintenace guy) , Talonmies = Talkkari
Volkswagen = Volkkari
Playstation = Pleikkari
Show me an adult Finn who doesn't know the words olohuone and televisio! That is the whole point!
McDonald's = Mäkkäri
back room, takahuone = bäkkäri
flashlight, taskulamppu = fikkari
loppipop, tikkukaramelli = tikkari
Running Man = Runkkari
Pervasive = Pervo
Pillow = Pillu
Perseverence = Perse
Great video, both original and reaction! BTW I love your Scottish accent, much love from Finland!
This video was kinda meant for Finns who already speak Finnish and understand the jokes he's making throughout the video.
True, it is very tongue-in-cheek.
It must be so with that pronunciation!
🤣🤣🤣
True😂😂
@@tessmargauxhelen3035 Exactly 😄
Also "hän" is only meant for people, objects or animals are it="se", and honestly in modern spoken finnish we even call people "se", instead of "hän", as its probably easier but idk the reason why finnish has become such
It ain't always easy to understand English dialects and slang, either, you've gotta be one of the blokes. Or just need to learn the levels and variations to become fluent in them. That's normal. All languages change all the time. Young people develop their own speech just to sound cool.
As I've learned it, 'se'/it for people, except for the people you hate (or dislike very much), in which case refer to them as 'hän'. Also most animals (especially pets) are 'hän' (although for animals it is much more loving 'hän' than when referring to people with that)
@@Murdorch No, I guess someone who doesn't know grammar, tried to fix a rule for you, and this person didn't quite get it right. "Hän" is the correct use for she and he - it doesn't concern feelings at all. Writing well, one always uses hän of a person.
In everyday, sloppy speech, in English called vernacular, in Finnish called "puhekieli", it has become more and more common to use "se" about people, too. And peculiarly enough, some pets that are like family members are often called "hän". So Finns have their own problems with pronouns. 😀
If one writes exactly as one speaks, like in textmessages and comments, then especially teenagers write what ever they are capable of. They make a statement out of it, against the more serious adult culture. This is how generational slang evolves.
If you are not speaking and writing Finnish as a native, do stick to the more polite use of Finnish, and use the pronoun hän in translation of he and she also when you speak, so that your tongue doesn't slip and you happen to say "se" about a person in a context when it does matter, like outside of your family and the group of your closest friends. It does sound really stupid and respectless in the wrong contexts.
@@DNA350ppm obviously it isn't the official written language, but more dialectical in nature (which I admit, I could've mentioned), nothing sloppy or young about it (well, young people have co-opted it so in that sense maybe). For me at least hearing someone referring to me as "hän", who I know isn't basically a foreigner (so including other regions of Finland), I would most likely take offense to it as it is so rare here that it could be likened to using "se" about a person in literary Finnish or in a region where dialect always uses "hän" or some form of it. "Hän" is just so unnatural when not talking about pets and animals. Obviously for non-native Finnish speakers I do grant the leniency, just as I wouldn't expect people from other dialectical regions do it either. But you are fair to point out that dialects and even general parlance are things that non-natives should be at least partially careful about when trying (although I would add the dialectical region along with the family and closest friends).
It is somewhat unfortunate that the local dialects (or languages, even) have dwindled with the more standardised form of the language that have been imposed on them. But to be fair, it was based on most to all dialects, so it could've been much worse of a deal.
Btw, what's your opinion on "ketä"? 😄 (and yes, in *that* usage)
@@Murdorch Indeed, if it is about a genuine dialect and one lives fully immersed in a community speaking the local dialect, then why not do as they do, also language-wise, or whatever you can perform, to the best of your ability. I'm not policing here. I'm thinking of an immigrant to Finland, who has no natural roots in a certain dialect nor in a specific local community, and for whom it is very dubious if this person can stay put in that certain village for life - I'd say: don't learn (or teach her or him) limited vernacular. It is only in small villages that strong dialects are spoken. In towns adult people are speaking closer to how their native Finnish teachers speak, and in towns dialects mix, and diverge towards a relaxed version of written language that everybody can understand (standard Finnish). A genuine dialect is passed on from generation to generation and is specific geographically. Slang is learned from one's contemporaries and is sometimes not really understood by an other generation. Both have a limited range.
Comparing Finnish to Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic is weird, because they are from different language families. If you compare Finnish with Estonian, the languages start to look a lot like one another... because they are since they come from the same background and are part of the same language family. Of course there are similarities with the Nordic languages from the history and influence from the Swedish language and from Russian, especially in dialects.
Still, it has a completely different meaning than the Estonian language.
Moi sullekin! One can compare on any level - between sounds, between words, between grammar, between two languages, between spelling of languages, between groups of languages, and between languages families.
Finnish is easy on the sound level, Finnish has many loanwords from European languages, Finnish has a rather similar grammar as Estonian and many related words (but Estonian is about as different from Finnish as Dutch is from Swedish), Finnish is easy to spell if you know it, Finnish has a rather reliable grammar, and there are levels of complication, so there are easy levels, too, and because of its main features Finnish belongs to the Fenno-Ugric language family, not to the much larger Indo-European language family. Finnish is written in the Latin alphabet in a consistent way, very closely according to the classic Latin alphabet. But Finnish is neither a Romance or a Germanic language, of course.
If you want to read the novels "Sinuhe Egyptiläinen" (by Mika Waltari) or "Alastalon salissa" (by Volter Kilpi) you need a very high level of Finnish, so I have read translations, but I haven't read James Joice's Ulysses in English, either. In languages it is always a question of levels and degree of perfection. I don't think perfection and the elusive "native level" are meaningful goals. You can just love Finnish anyway, on the level you know it - a little or well.
@@DNA350ppm Finnish is as different from Estonian as Swedish is to danish.
@@mustanaamiotto3812 Do you really think so? Estonian is a bit difficult to understand even if you know Finnish, but Danish is rather easy if you know Swedish, especially in writing.
@@DNA350ppm I understand most of what estonians say, and even more in writing. Could just be do to more exposure to finnic languages, i do speak viena karelian as well as finnish and have had discussions with native veps and olonets karelian speakers.
😂😅Thank you! You really should react to a Finnish comedian ISMO. He is great playing with words and showcasing funny English words and their meanings. He speaks "English", so it is easier for you.❤❤
Well Ismo speaks better English than the speaker of this original video 😄
Mandelin is the most humorous channel about Finland. I always get good laughs.
2:59 "Do finnish people feel different from the other nordics?"
My opinion is a yes. But answers may vary depending who you ask and what part of finland they are from.
For example, I have a lot of family in eastern and northern finland and I feel more similar to Estonians. But if you were to ask someone from the western coast, where a lot of people speak swedish and live a more scandinavian lifestyle, they might say that we are similar to sweden. Overall we're a nice mix of both eastern european traditions and culture and our nordic neighbors.
In my personal expirience I feel the people themselves represent a more eastern european mindset, compared to the more social and jolly swedes, and some of the architecture reminds me of those countries aswell. But then again places Turku generally look more western. I think we're really just Finnic. Not eastern or western in particular because everyone has their own opinion on that :)
I know this is my second comment on the same video, but I think it's worth mentioning *IF* it's correct.
I've heard that Finnish is the closest language to how Latin was spoken (possibly due Agricola), so practically for Finnish person Latin would be kinda easy language to learn as well as for person who knows how to speak Latin to learn Finnish pronunciation, which seems to be the hardest part of the Language for people from Germanic languages like English.
I think that is true - there was both Middle Age Latin, that was spoken by scholars and priests and which the Vatican still uses, and the real spoken and written Latin from the time of the Roman Empire. Classic Latin. The stress was not always on the first syllable but the alphabet sounded very similar to Finnish, except for y, ä and ö, which Finnish has extra. "polýMATHY" discusses such questions. Thanks to rythm and rhymes in written poems and grammars much of the ancient pronunciation has been reconstructed.
Very interesting. Now I can understand why as an Italian I find that Finnish has a pronunciation and some words that sound familiar or at least in some way close to my language. Perhaps because being as similar to Latin as you say Finnish sounds "easy" to Italian speakers in some respects
@@liv0003 That could very well be. Both languages stem from the same background even if the language group itself would vary. Something that comes to mind immediately as similarities would be hard consonants and expressiviness in pronounciation within words 🤔
Muu means other or else.
Sanopa muuta = (Try to) say something else
Älä muuta sano = Don't say anything else
Both have the same meaning of "You said it!" in English. 🤷♂️
Or rather, "You don't say!" in English, which is more more idiomatic ;)
With language comes culture. Sure, Finland has been heavily influenced by Sweden, but ultimately Finnish is a Uralic culture with a Uralic language just like Estonian is. So yes, I would say the different language also makes us different from tour Scandi neighbours and that’s also why the Estonians feel closer to us.
Mandellin videos are amazing, more of them please
In Finland we don't have the same problem with pronouns as in English and we actually are not able to misgender anyone with pronouns because we just have "Hän" except of course if we say the gender itself out loud
Gotta love the ralli english of the guy in the video :D
Spoken and written language do differ in finnish as well. Like yes, you can definitely get by and be understood if you spoken the way you officially write but it would seem quite odd. Finland does have quite a few different dialects and they have their own quirks. Like the word I is officially minä but in spoken depending where you are it could be: mä, mie, myö etc.
Yes dialects differ from each other very much but we native speakers generally still understand each other. For language learner they will definitely be a challenging thing.
@@oh2mp Sometimes though you look at the person in front of you and think wtf? 🤣 I have heard quite a few words that are utterly different and you're just baffled.
Sometimes I ,who are a Native speaker,have tought that it is actually strange that we understand each other between all such different dialect's!
😆😂
However Turunmurre=Turku dialect has so many loanwords from the Swedish language so it is an advantage there to be able to speak the other public language as well!
😆
I still absolutely admit that Swedish is not as difficult and fun language as Finnish are.
😊💙👍🏼
A small correction: myö doesn't mean the word I. Myö is the Karelian version the word we
Oh yes, Finland has tons of local dialects with their own vocabularies and expressions.
Spoken Finnish is insanely forgiving, in a sense. It doesn't need to follow any of the rules of written Finnish and you'll likely still be understood and without anyone batting an eye. Nobody speaks formal Finnish, unless it's at least their second language.
What about partitiivi? Im almost two years in and I still don't get it.
Give me your take on it. What is it? How do I use it, and what purpose does it serve?
@@jixxytrix1705 basically you take a piece of something, not the whole thing. for example: juon vettä = i drink water (partitive) since you can't drink ALL the water. Though you could say you drank a bottle of water but usually then you'd specify the amount you took instead of switching the case. ie. join pullollisen vettä = i drank a bottle of water (still partitive, but with a specified amount). Ofc you CAN say you drank THE water, but it'd be in very specific situations and hence useless information for someone not already proficient in the language as a non native
@@F3zyX But that's not the whole story.
I read yle a couple of days ago, and in one article they put Sauli Niinistös name in partitiivi. Niinistöä. Am I wrong?
And you're supposed to use partitiivi when you don't have something, right?
Mul on auto, mul ei oo autoa.
I swear, I've seen that in reverse!
Same as tunnen ihmisiä ja tunnen ihmiset. I know people, I know the people.
I've seen that in reverse too! I know I have. It was in the first episode of black mirror.
It feels like theres a lot of fluidity with the rules. Finnish is like a rubiks cube where the colors keep changing
@@jixxytrix1705 In the Niinistö case the "a" is there because it's the subject of the sentence. when something happens to someone, the "someone" is the subject.
When you say "mul on auto" you're referring to a specific car (the one you have) but when you say "mul ei oo autoa" you're basically saying that you don't have any of the cars that exist. in that situation you're not talking about a specific car but cars as a whole category/concept so technically the same rule still applies as with water. (i cant say for all cases but at least most of the time) if you can add the word "any" or "some" in front of the substantive in english you can also add the "a" in finnish.
Same with people: "i know (some) people" and "i know the (specific/limited group of) people"
@@jooo9515 Thanks, that helps.
yeah , as a transperson (non-binary) I am rarely bothered by being misgendered in eg. workspace , so i dont need to be out to people:D
As a Finn, in Finland, of Finnish descent, we have this thing called "Always start a comment on anything Finland related with: As a Finn, in Finland, of Finnish descent, we have this thing called ad infinitum... It will never stop until perkele swallows you all into his sauna of mämmi, skiing and rally.
Vuoristorata is a good example of compounds. Vuoristorata means roller coaster but if you separate the two worlds vuoristo and rata the meaning changes to mountain track or track in the mountains
Man.. Mandelins sarcasm and humor is otherworldy. I love him (original videos creator) xD
ABC-kiria is the first book that was published in the Finnish language. It was written by Mikael Agricola and was first published in 1543.
Kyllä kuulee että suomalainen puhuu englantia 😮
They say written and spoken languages are the same. True to some extent, as words are pronounced as they're written, but people don't speak 'written language'. Spoken language has many words shortened and such. Not to mention different dialects.
But this is nothing unique for Finnish - this difference between written language and spoken, is known from every language, especially when we also consider level, dialects and slang. In Finnish schools we for example learn RP-English, which is useful for studies, but when we come to Scotland, Eastern London or rural Wales, we don't understand their speech, until we get a little used to it. Many who learned Swedish in school, don't understand Stockholm slang or Scanian dialects, not even Swedes themselves - and there's a huge difference between Paris and Provence, and between Berlin and München - and between how people speak in different parts of big cities... it is normal. But for sure Finnish spelling and pronunciation are very similar at the same level of the language, compared to how complicated spelling can be in other languages. Just think of Danish, English, French, Swedish, for example, at the level of best news channels.
When you said mielenkiinoisaa is an interesting word. You were very correct, since the word literally means interesting
Some Finns have little trouble reading /writing the language in general, but have some difficulties recognizing when words should be compounded and when not. That is something that is paid special attention to, and extra care is is given from early on in the school to try to alleviate the problem as much as possible.
It is indeed very interesting, that you find the word that literally means "interesting", interesting :D
In theory you can learn to read Finnish text fairly correctly and pretty easily without understanding any of it just by learning how the Finnish alphabets are pronounced and hyphenation rules, because the same syllables are almost always pronounced the same way regardless of the word they are in. That's how Finns learn to read; by reading a syllable at the time and putting them together. Someone living in Asia might find interesting the similarities there are between Finnish and Japanese. Like in Finnish and Estonian, there's same and similar words in Japanese and Finnish, which mean different things: "Japanese person makes fun of Finnish surnames". Works other way around too: "Kei ja kumppanit - Aion olla homo". One Finnish pastime is to come up with Finnish sentences, which sound Japanese. There's these "What's a Japanese..?" jokes, to which the answers are some Japanese sounding Finnish answers. Some say learning Japanese is easy for a Finn: "Best Japanese Speaking Foreigner I Know: REAL POLYGLOT". A Finn, Tsurunen Marutei (Martti Turunen), was the first foreign-born Japanese of European origin to serve as a member of the Diet of Japan: "参院選を終え ツルネンマルテイから、皆様へのお礼の言葉". This meme might explain the unlikely language connection: " MasterofRoflness Alternate history be like".
It seems to be great fun! 😀
Really like the comment about "mielenkiintoisaa" to be "this is very interesting" as mielenkiintoista literally means "this is interesting" or "this is very interesting".
6:33 As a finnish person still have to google if i have to say ''viinapullo'' or ''viina pullo''
Interesting side note: the oldest language mentioned there inthe beginning was TAMI,L finnish language is pronounced exactly like TAMIL so basically if you know Finnish OR tamil they you can pronounce both languages so The finnish is somehow far-related to tamil language at least in favour of pronouncement...
Simple and easy language see the joke below, , :
An English man, A German man and a Swedish man were talking then Finnish guy interupts the good conversation by telling about KOIRA=DOG.
English: A dog.
Swedish: What?
English: The dog.
English: Two dogs.
Swedish: Okay. We have: En hund, hunden, Två hundar, hundarna. (a dog , two dogs)
German: Wait, I wan't to try it too!
English: No, go away.
Swedish: No one invited you.
German: Der Hund.
English: I said go away....
German: Ein Hund, zwei Hunde.
Swedish: Stop it!
German: Den Hund, einen Hund, dem Hund, einem Hund, des Hundes, eines Hundes, den Hunden, der Hunden.
Finnish: Sup.
English: NO.
Swedish: NO.
German: NO. Finn, you go away!!
Finnish: Koira, koiran, koiraa, koiran again, koirassa, koirasta, koiraan, koiralla, koiralta, koiralle, koirana, koiraksi, koiratta, koirineen, koirin.
German: WHAT?
Swedish: You must be kidding us!
English: This must be a joke... v Finnish: Aaaand... koirasi, koirani, koiransa, koiramme, koiranne, koiraani, koiraasi, koiraansa, koiraamme, koiraanne, koirassani, koirassasi, koirassansa, koirassamme, koirassanne, koirastani, koirastasi, koirastansa, koirastamme, koirastanne, koirallani, koirallasi, koirallansa, koirallamme, koirallanne, koiranani, koiranasi, koiranansa, koiranamme, koirananne, koirakseni, koiraksesi, koiraksensa, koiraksemme, koiraksenne, koirattani, koirattasi, koirattansa, koirattamme, koirattanne, koirineni, koirinesi, koirinensa, koirinemme, koirinenne.
English: Those are words for a dog???
Finnish: Wait! I didn't stop yet. There is still: koirakaan, koirankaan, koiraakaan, koirassakaan, koirastakaan, koiraankaan, koirallakaan, koiraltakaan, koirallekaan, koiranakaan, koiraksikaan, koirattakaan, koirineenkaan, koirinkaan, koirako, koiranko, koiraako, koirassako, koirastako, koiraanko, koirallako, koiraltako, koiralleko, koiranako, koiraksiko, koirattako, koirineenko, koirinko, koirasikaan, koiranikaan, koiransakaan, koirammekaan, koirannekaan, koiraanikaan, koiraasikaan, koiraansakaan, koiraammekaan, koiraannekaan, koirassanikaan, koirassasikaan, koirassansakaan, koirassammekaan, koirassannekaan, koirastanikaan, koirastasikaan, koirastansakaan, koirastammekaan, koirastannekaan, koirallanikaan, koirallasikaan, koirallansakaan, koirallammekaan, koirallannekaan, koirananikaan, koiranasikaan, koiranansakaan, koiranammekaan, koiranannekaan, koiraksenikaan, koiraksesikaan, koiraksensakaan, koiraksemmekaan, koiraksennekaan, koirattanikaan, koirattasikaan, koirattansakaan, koirattammekaan, koirattannekaan, koirinenikaan, koirinesikaan, koirinensakaan, koirinemmekaan, koirinennekaan, koirasiko, koiraniko, koiransako, koirammeko, koiranneko, koiraaniko, koiraasiko, koiraansako, koiraammeko, koiraanneko, koirassaniko, koirassasiko, koirassansako, koirassammeko, koirassanneko, koirastaniko, koirastasiko, koirastansako, koirastammeko, koirastanneko, koirallaniko, koirallasiko, koirallansako, koirallammeko, koirallanneko, koirananiko, koiranasiko, koiranansako, koiranammeko, koirananneko, koirakseniko, koiraksesiko, koiraksensako, koiraksemmeko, koiraksenneko, koirattaniko, koirattasiko, koirattansako, koirattammeko, koirattanneko, koirineniko, koirinesiko, koirinensako, koirinemmeko, koirinenneko, koirasikaanko, koiranikaanko, koiransakaanko, koirammekaanko, koirannekaanko, koiraanikaanko, koiraasikaanko, koiraansakaanko, koiraammekaanko, koiraannekaanko, koirassanikaanko, koirassasikaanko, koirassansakaanko, koirassammekaanko, koirassannekaanko, koirastanikaanko, koirastasikaanko, koirastansakaanko, koirastammekaanko, koirastannekaanko, koirallanikaanko, koirallasikaanko, koirallansakaanko, koirallammekaanko, koirallannekaanko, koirananikaanko, koiranasikaanko, koiranansakaanko, koiranammekaanko, koiranannekaanko, koiraksenikaanko, koiraksesikaanko, koiraksensakaanko, koiraksemmekaanko, koiraksennekaanko, koirattanikaanko, koirattasikaanko, koirattansakaanko, koirattammekaanko, koirattannekaanko, koirinenikaanko, koirinesikaanko, koirinensakaanko, koirinemmekaanko, koirinennekaanko, koirasikokaan, koiranikokaan, koiransakokaan, koirammekokaan, koirannekokaan, koiraanikokaan, koiraasikokaan, koiraansakokaan, koiraammekokaan, koiraannekokaan, koirassanikokaan, koirassasikokaan, koirassansakokaan, koirassammekokaan, koirassannekokaan, koirastanikokaan, koirastasikokaan, koirastansakokaan, koirastammekokaan, koirastannekokaan, koirallanikokaan, koirallasikokaan, koirallansakokaan, koirallammekokaan, koirallannekokaan, koirananikokaan, koiranasikokaan, koiranansakokaan, koiranammekokaan, koiranannekokaan, koiraksenikokaan, koiraksesikokaan, koiraksensakokaan, koiraksemmekokaan, koiraksennekokaan, koirattanikokaan, koirattasikokaan, koirattansakokaan, koirattammekokaan, koirattannekokaan, koirinenikokaan, koirinesikokaan, koirinensakokaan, koirinemmekokaan, koirinennekokaan.
English:
Swedish:
German:
Finnish: Aaand now the plural forms! Actually same amount . .
Writing might be sometimes hard for children but most learn it quickly. We have different ways of speaking Finnish in different areas of Finland so understand each other is sometimes hard and since the spoken language is written the same way if you go to a different city or a totally different area in Finland it's hard to understand the writing also sometimes 😅
Kokoo koko kokko kokoon. Koko kokkoko kokoon? Koko kokko kokoon = Put together the whole bonfire. The whole bonfire together? The whole bonfire together.
If you just learn how the alphabets are pronounced, learn couple words for each how they are read, you can read anything in Finnish. I think you should start from pronounciation, and then mess your head with different postpositions. You need like 4 for daily talk like in all languages, then learn 3-4 more for most commonly needed time/owner related (past, present, mine, yours and 3rd person) and the rest you don't really need, let them come naturally as you use the language.
You have a good understanding of vowels, all you said sounded understandable. I say you might be a good one as to immigrate. Unlike most other English ;) Scots may be better.
Just our grammar rules are complex, very. Same as hungarians in that.
Please dont be fooled that finnish is an easy language. It is not.
But Finnish is much easier than English!
@@DNA350ppmFor someone's I guess. Pronunciation is simple in Finnish, but grammar is most complex. The guy who made the reviewed video, could only learn rally english. Or he was pronouncing like that as a joke.
@@jarmosalonen2068 Indeed - one can start with simple grammar in Finnish, too. English is very difficult, but one can try to keep it simple and don't mind the mistakes one makes. And that's what one can do also in Finnish. Let's say Rally-English has a counterpart in Hard Rock-Finnish (one can't hear what they sing anyway...) 😀 It is very difficult to grade languages, I know. Some think grammar is the worst, I think pronunciation is the worst to correct (if starting as an adult). Grammar and vocabulary are learnable. I don't mind that people speak with an accent, if they don't speak with such speed, that one can't understand them.
If finns make mistakes with compound words its usually because they are writing fast and arent concentrating as "kin" rule is very simple
It is easy know if you should write a compound in one or as two words - if both parts are conjugated they are always two words, if only the latter is conjugated it is a real compound word. Say you wonder about 'bank account' - you have the parts pankki and tili. Try it out in a sentence - you wonder: do you say, I put my salary on my bank account as: Panen palkkani *pankille tililleni or Panen palkkani pankkitililleni. We might use hyphens for easier reading, but the grammar is the same in any case. Pankkitili is simply one compound word and it becomes clear when you use it in sentences and conjugate it. This would not be a compound word: Suomalainen pankki - I have an account in Suomalainen pankki - Minulla on tili Suomalaisessa pankissa. Both words are conjugated.
@@DNA350ppm indeed and if there is an exception its usually a place name or has a - between the words
I have to tell you more about the word kone (machine). The words roots are so old rare knows what kone means other than machine. Like i have heard finns were known for their magic in old times, vikings raided us but feared us for our magic, so i guess we had also many words for magic, like kone, it was some item you made magic with. So tietokone (computer) is knowledge magic, lentokone (plane) is flight magic.
Hahaha, you telling how words like this (mielenkiintoisaa) are interesting, and the word means interesting.
For some people it's hard to know if a word is a compound word or not. Is it written woodchair or wood chair to make a lousy example. Good way to remember is if you can put an adjective between the words or not.
But yeah this stuff doesn't exist in english
Meni hienosti ! Suomen kieli ! 👍😉
It is technically true that "hän" is the pronoun used for both genders according to official grammar rules, but in almost every spoken language dialect the pronoun used for both genders, animals and objects is "se". "Hän" is more of a half-Swedish relic based on "han" or "hon" that was picked because Mikael Agricola lived in an area populated with a lot of Swedish speakers, as did most of the clergy and the academics of that time. So I would argue that the 3rd pronoun should be "se".
I'll go off on a tangent about computer. Computer used to be a profession. People just doing lots of simple computations. First theoretical machines that would do the same were called computers and they developed into what we call computers now. People did a lot of theoretical work on computers before we could actually feasibly build any.
Finnish is extremely hard to master 'cause there is 18 types of conjugation for words. But if you just use non-inflected words in sentence, everybody will understand, the form of sentence is in that case usually command. It doesn' t even really matter if you say words in different order.
Finns are definitely quite different from other Nordic nations and they often make fun of us due to that... but we also make fun of them so it's all in good sport. ;) We Finns have a reputation of being gloomy, silent, somewhat prone to violence and that we drink a LOT. Our Nordic brothers are sisters aren't completely wrong with that. 😅 But in general, I would say that cultural differences ARE notable. We are more serious, more silent, require more space and are more... just more socially awkward? More introverted. We are also quite blunt and honest and take people by their word no matter what they say. Do not tell a Finn "hey, it would be nice if you visited sometimes!" if you don't mean it because this Finn will soon be knocking on your door. I mean, you invited him, didn't you.
Other nordics are more social, more happy-go-lucky, better with financial stuff and commerce in general (Sweden, looking at you), more outgoing, have fun parties instead of everybody just drinking in an icy hole.
Well yes, Finnish is hard... sometimes even for us Finns😅
There are different dialects in Finland... mainly you understand all of them... there are some that are a bit harder to understand and you really need to concentrate on what the other people are saying.
What I have heard from people who study Finnish, one a bit confusing thing is the difference between book Finnish (or the formal Finnish) and the spoken Finnish.
Book Finnish being what everyone is taught at shcool and on those learning books, the official words should I say. Spoken Finnish is what people use in their day-to-day lives.
I'll give you an example:
In book Finnish the word for I is "minä"
People do use it also in the spoken Finnish.
But in the spoken Finnish it can also be a shortened version of it "Mä"
And it also varies on which dialect you are speaking so I could also be "Mie" ....and so on....
That last clip is kind of an inside joke and hard to grasp without context :D
Estonian is Finnish little brother. Finnish is much harder, thaan Estonoan. In Estonian are some same kind of words like in Swedish aand German. Finnish has mostly unique, only in Finnish, words.
Are you planning on moving to finland at some point?
At least visit, won't you?
It is easy. Even kids learn it.
One should never forget that!
Definately the mentality of the Finnish people is closer to Estonia than those weird nations with crosses sideways in their flags, with even weirder colours I might add. Many words are almost similar, but sometimes the same word means different thing in Finnish and Estonian, for example the word "hallitus" is "government" in Finnish, and "mold" in Estonian. "Mielenkiintoisaa" is missspelledd in the beginning of the video, should be "Mielenkiintoista", maybe it was done on purpose. This misgendering business is madness, fukc all that. That being said, using only "hän" or "se" which means "it" in English, is simple. Some compounds might go wrong occasionally, but there are rules. I go with my ear, probably getting most of them correctly. Dialects differ in specific definitions and slang words, but if one tries, I can get what any other Finn would try to express if I want to. Actually, I´m from Savo -area of Finland, which has one of the most obscure and infamous dialects in Finnish. People from Savo can definately make people from helsinki or Turku unsure of the message given. There is even an apothegm "When a person from Savo speaks, the responsibility for getting the message correctly is with the receiver of the message." (Yes, I tried to make the translation as difficult and weird as possible without altering the meaning too much).
What else? English varies much more being global, or semi-global language. I first got used to scouser -English, so Scottish accent was never a problem for me, I think they sound quite similar. I have a friend from Nigeria, and it took me some time to get used to that version of spoken English, but after a while I got used to that as well, which then served me well in decoding Indian etc accents later. I can´t do any of the accents well, but if people aren´t trying to make it un-understandable, spoken English I understand well.
Don´t be shy people, learn Finnish, and you´ll never be the same... Lesson 1: languages are written without the capital first letter: "englanti" is English and "suomi" is Finnish. Unless of course it starts the sentence.
"Foreigners try to speak Finnish" and picture from k-18 movie. My neighbor has seen that video and it doesn't speak any Finnish. there is very little talk anyway
Definitely have difficulty understanding people from Savo area. Sometimes Turku dialect can be hard to understand as well
East side and western have bit understanding problems. West speaks fast,we in east are slower
No, we are nordic land but Estonia is also very close to us. Little Brother of Finland, Estonia In Estonias independens war with bolseviks, there where many finnish vollenteers to help Estonia. In 2ww it was other way, Estonia was conquest by soviet and many free Estonians helped us in a fight with Soviet Union
Still, it has a completely different meaning than the Estonian language.
One could say that the Estonian people are "brothers and sisters" of the Finns, but the Estonian language is "a cousin" to the Finnish language. Carelian and Meänkieli are the closest family to the Finnish language, to the east and the west of Finland, respectively. Not the same, and not as close as dialects, but very close and largely mutually understandble, with a few explanations needed here and there.
Heh, I think the rallienganti was used in this clip intentionally.
People from Rauma and from Savo (Kuopio area etc) are difficult to understand
06:19 Compounds nowadays can be pretty hard coz we (atleast i) write so much english in our everyday lives. And coz things are written differently. You kind of forget how to write them in finnish 😅 just example:
At this moment = tällä hetkellä or tällähetkellä (1st one is correct)
Right away = Saman tien or samantien (2nd one is correct)
As a non-native learning Finnish, I can tell you that the cases can be a bit confusing at first (I get confused a lot to be honest but again, I'm still new to it) but I appreciate the literal simplicity behind actually learning the words
Finnish language is overflowing meanings which are not translatable for Indo-European languages. The most interesting ones prehaps could mention *the so-called passivation of the "to be"-verb , or *the weakening of the subject's position by the power of *tu ty verb derivatives , whose Indo-European counterpart candidates do not reach the flow of meanings and its movements in Finnish language.
Offered equivalents, for example, returning the (presumed) passive to a subject-predicate structure and tu ty derivations reflexive visioning fade the ontological nihilism of the Finnish language, and replace it with Indo-European subject and object metaphysics. Benefit and political expediency bribe us to accept the equivalents, but the remarkable uniqueness of the Finnish language is lost.
The metaphysics of Indo-European languages is the metaphysics of technical reason and abstraction. It leads to objectification, personalization, emphasis on causation and utility, and logical chains. In light of that, human appears as a person pursuing his own interest, and the world ultimately as a big machine or a big axiom system.
It is Indo-European metaphysics that requires us to argue/talk instead of thinking, to look for arguments that can replace convincing experience, and in general to behave cleanly/ nicely.
But the fact that Hellaakoski's epic poem “Erällä “ cannot be translated into Indo-European languages without losing the relevance of the Finnish language, is not at all a question that can be solved by “arguing”or supporting “clever” opinions..“
- PAULI PYLKKÖ
Finland is based on a mistake;
That "dont say moo" is so weird to me, never heard it. "Muu" is "other/different", ive always thought itd mean "dont say anything else about that", as there is nothing else to add to it.
That's absolutely what it means. But the joke in the video is a play on words, and refers to that a cow makes a 'muuuu' sound in Finnish.
@@DNA350ppm Well the joke is then to lie to people. Not a fan.
@@toniheikkila5607 It's not my humor, either! But I often like Ismo's jokes - do you?
Turku is hard to understand, i don't mean dialect, i mean peoples.
Eeeh, the video isn't entirely correct. But it's fun.
Finns love to present Finnish as very complicated and difficult - and God knows what they are comparing Finnish to, then. They hardly know a language that would be easier, to tell the truth. For a native Finn who starts to study another language as an adult all languages are difficult to pronounce, because Finnish is really easy to pronounce, except for those who can't say a Finnish Y, though for example Germans can (Ü) and French can (vue - sight) and all the Scandinavian languages, in addition to Estonian and Sami and a bunch of others - so Finnish is not difficult! All other Finnish sounds are represented in English, as a matter of fact. But not all English sounds are part of proper Finnish pronunciation. So Finnish is simpler.
Finnish has no future tense - one just adds a word for time to a sentence in the present tense. And btw, no noun or adjective has a gender form or an article (no translation of a, an, the, der, die, das etc, la, le etc, den, det, en, ett) and there is just one pronoun for people (hän) and one for things (se) in singular. So Finnish is easy! (This doesn't influence gender dysphoria, because there are words for male and female persons, of course.)
It is possible to use very complicated grammar in Finnish literature, and it possible to use very simple constructions in everyday speech. So a person learning Finnish can choose on which level s/he wants to learn to understand and use Finnish. And there are lots of material for study for free. And I want to mention, that Finns are generally very laid-back and not snobbish at all, and mostly very friendly and helpful. In contrast to many other nationalities they will not laugh at your mistakes, but try to understand what you mean.
If Finnish is your first foreign language the main difficulty probably is, that you in a childish way expect, that all languages should resemble your mother tongue, but with a little training you get over it. For example: you can be absolutely tone-deaf and speak proper Finnish anyway. Finnish is simple in a global perspective and there are thousands and thousands of loanwords from other languages, mainly European languages. So the more languages you know, the easier it is to pick up Finnish vocabulary.
Yeah, even here were those comments like: "If you learn written finnish it is completely different from spoken one. Be scared. Nobody is speaking like that." Or like our dialects are impossible to understand... (some spesific words maybe, but not the dialects - except Rauma)
I don't understand why should try to make finnish sound much more difficult than it is.
Everyone can speak and understand written finnish. And everyone is using mostly it at the work.
I love our language and want to inspire people to learn it. Not turn them down.
@@haneski8020 So do I, and also I want to encourage people to see learning Finnish as a positive adventure. I myself have had some struggle with every language I've studied, also because I'm a little bit dyslectic and so have had to work a bit extra with spelling in my mother tongue, Swedish, which has much more difficult sounds than Finnish, and more random spelling than for example German and Finnish.
And then we have the very helpful thing with Finnish, that all people in Finland have learned written Finnish in good schools, so that is the same curriculum in the whole country. People may speak dialect or slang, but they understand good spoken written Finnish.
No language skill comes without effort if you want to reach a high level and you start as an adult, but if you are openminded and willing to put your pride aside, at least Finnish is not impossible. Just accept that there is a Finnish alphabet and that it is always used in every written word, without exception, that the stress is on the first syllable, and then you can practice pronunciation - even on your own - on every word you see anywhere. It is simple!
@@DNA350ppm Hear, hear! This is what we should tell to all!
Still Finnish is a very difficult language.
You have learnt it. Try learn Hungarian. It has quite the same grammar base. For me it is much more difficult than say swedish. Even with fact that it is an uralic language same as my finnish.
@@jarmosalonen2068 Yes, I 100% believe Hungarian is a very difficult language and more difficult than Finnish. For me, I have to love something about the people or a country to have the stamina to learn a language - I have not found anything to attract me especially to Hungarian. What was your reason to approach it?
(I'm glad you think that Swedish is not that difficult, though for every noun you have to learn if it has en or ett as the article, and the grammar is rather irregular, and "sju sköna sjuksköterskor skötte sju sjösjuka sjömän" in Stockholm-dialect is hopeless, and spelling is difficult also for native speakers. For a Finn it is nothing unusual about the sounds y,å,ä,ö or about long and short vowels, but these are huge stumbling stones for many of the immigrants here - sil, sill, kapa, kappa, snut, snutt - getting them wrong causes misunderstandings.)
How can you misspronounce anyone when there is a "one fits for all" pronoun. However, I mispronounce ppl all the time as my Finnish brain has decided to use he for everybody.. even women. I just don't understand why you need to know the gender to speak about someone.
i heard that finnish is the easiest language to learn to koreans, funny.
The speaker in the original video has so utterly Finnish accent it's not true 😅 Accents are fine, don't get me wrong, but there's a point at which it gets a bit grating, and this crosses that line 😉 But I realize it was probably done on purpose, for comedy effect; it's just that many Finns have a similar accent and it's *not* on purpose...
Misgendering still happens, i.e. if you point out to a child an adult they need to go to for something, you say "that man over there" or "that lady over there", right? In Finnish we have the same, we're just "aunts" and "uncles" instead of "ladies" and "men". But pronouns aren't an issue.
Second
first
You need to talk slower for Finnish.
English you talk like a rifle.
Finnish you talk like a shotgun.
For english speaking person it is almost impossible to learn to speak, sorry...