Introduction to Finnish

Finnish or suomi, as the Finns call their language, is spoken by approximately 5.5 million people, less than 5 million of whom live in Finland. Finnish belongs to the small Finno-Ugric language group, which is part of the Uralic languages. Other Finno-Ugric languages include Estonian, which is a fairly close relative of Finnish, and Hungarian, a more distant relative of Finnish.

Finnish is not related to the Indo-European languages surrounding it and is very different from them both in vocabulary and in grammar. The Finnish grammar is seemingly complex, with 15 cases for nouns and a rich set of verb forms. On the other hand, Finnish does not have articles or gender, and it is relatively easy to pronounce .

This course was designed for beginners and no previous knowledge of Finnish is assumed. However, the lessons may also be helpful for those who have had previous experience and would like to brush up their Finnish skills.

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Last reviewed: December 9, 1997.