Finnish vowel harmony

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Which Finnish vowels are the hardest ones for you? Leave a comment below!

[@muqadussnaseer4340]

@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap for example yota.tykkatko sounds of y

[@miaow8670]

This is probably the only channel on KZbin that directly compares the pronunciation of the Finnish "A" and that of "Ä" (the difference between which is extremely problematic for many foreigners, including me) as isolated phonemes. Exactly what I needed, thank you so very much! I have been trying to find this kind of comparison for such a long time, but in no other video have I found a comparison where "A" and "Ä" are pronounced right one after the other and where they are not presented as within a word (which actually makes the difference harder to spot), but really as isolated sounds. Thank you once more! :)

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Thank you for the comment! It makes me so happy that this has helped you. :) Happy new year!

[@Kiwamare]

I just remember them by the IPA a is /a/ and ä is /æ/

[@Incognito11200]

I believe Academia Cervana made a really good video on vowel harmony and pronunciation of all the letters in Finnish.

[@Youdu-y2b]

@@Kiwamare Probably right. These sound similar!

[@spedupaudios5225]

Nah, distinguishing A and Ä from eachother is easy, because I already speak Swedish and German, trying to pronounce Y is the real deal.. it's so hard

[@mayabayona6010]

Oh my God the way i have different to get to know how and where to use these, and in 2022 today i run into your channel and i finally understand it …. My goodness… thank you a lot . And now am watching everthing for this fact that you made me understand.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

I'm glad I could help! :) :) :)

[@rieblogs7859]

You are a very intelligent teacher. Been studying this for 11 months and finally got to understand it from you .

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

So happy to hear that! :)

[@dilinikalankeshwara6979]

Me too been studying in 7 mouths,but couldn't understand before. But finally I catch up this videos. Great teacher ❤

[@jenniferyo2866]

This is so far the best video to explain the confusing a and ä. Thank you so much!

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Glad it was helpful!

[@AnnaMarianne]

4:55 As a native Finnish speaker, I notice I pronounce "olympialaiset" as "olumpialaiset". "Psykologia" and "labyrintti" are easier, though I might turn them into pseudo combound words: "psy-kologia" and "la-byrintti".

[@food1705]

Is there a group, telegram or whatsapp, we can learn the Finnish language through conversation

[@FrancisKatto-q3m]

When you meet quality content you just know . I hit subscribe button immediately. I've an interview with my Finn employer in a weeks time.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Thanks for subscribing! How did your interview go?

[@hurguler]

This is very interesting. Finnish vowel harmony is almost the same as Turkish, except we have no neutral vowels. In Turkish the neutral vowels "i and e" are considered front vowels. I'm not a linguistic expert but my guess is that neutral vowels are probably the Indo-European influence.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

How interesting! So you mean that the relationship between Turkish vowels is the same but the ends of the range of "backness" or "frontness" are more towards the back than in Finnish?

[@hurguler]

@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap I'm not sure if I understand your question. I'm not a linguist and your video was the first time I learned about front and back vowels. In any case, vowel harmony in both languages sounded similar to me. Thanks for the educational video.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

@@hurguler I'm glad it was useful for you 🙂 Don't worry, I just started to wonder about the Turkish vowels and how they differ from the Finnish. I'll have to look up a video and try to pronounce them at some point 😁

[@seherhayrunnisaaktas9733]

Turkish has 2 types of Vowel Harmony: Major Vowel Harmony and Minor Vowel Harmony. In Major vowel harmony, there are 2 types of vowels:Back(hard or dark) Vowels - a, ı, o, u. And Front (soft or light) Vowels - e, i, ö, ü(ü is the same sound as y in Finnish). Minor Vowel Harmony has 2 types of vowels too. Straight Vowels - a, e, i, ı and Round Vowels - o, ö, u, ü. So the relationship between vowels is the same as in Finnish. In Finnish and Turkish there are 'frontness' and 'backness' about vowel harmony. So yeah, they are almost the same.

[@VikktorVampiir]

Been studying finnish as a beginner for months and never heard it explained like this. You made this so clear instantly. But for some reason 'Y' gives me the most trouble lol 😆

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Glad it was helpful!

[@abigailmacaulley]

Am glad I found u. U are a great teacher

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Thanks for the comment and your kind words. 🙂

[@rashiidsheebe950]

Thank you so much. I have been seven years in Finland and never understood those roles before today. Really appreciate that. 🙏

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Happy to help! :)

[@masiyon007]

Im watching your video now its almost 4 years later since did this video and I want to say your videos are the most easiest to understand. Thank you and God bless you 🙏 ❤

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Glad you like them!

[@jlu3ai]

((Hi, vowel harmony gang. In Hunagrian we have two helping words: autó (car) for the low vowels (a, á, o, ó, u ú,), and teniszütő (tennis racket) for the high vowels (e, é, i, í, ö, ő, ü, ű). The logic is basically the same, although we have mixed word roots, and also a low í in the word híd (bridge), which is a remainder from the past, and goes with low suffixes.)) Finnish sounds more and more interesting with every such video. I have half a mind to try to learn at least the basics now. Thanks for your work.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Thanks for the interesting comment! It's fascinating how our languages are so similar but not at first glance, right?

[@Sssara14]

Kiitos paljon for this video! It's very illustrative :D When I started learning how to pronounce them (since my native language only has a, e, i, o and u), the best advice to pronounce ö and y was: - ö: position your lips as if you were to pronounce an O, but pronouce an E (Spanish E, or the one in rEd) - y: position your lips as if you were to pronounce an U, but pronounce an I (Spanish I, or the one in sit) Best of luck to all of us!! (Tsemppiä!!), I hope this is useful for someone :)

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Hey, glad you liked it! Thanks for the explanation, I tried it on the tram silently just now (must have looked funny) and it does make sense 😂

[@dilinikalankeshwara6979]

Thank you thank you very much. I learned so many times vowel harmony But i couldn't understand it completely! But now, i watched your this video. I did understand completely now. Thank you very much❤🌹♥️

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Glad it was helpful! 🙂 Thank you for your comment.

[@oluchukwunwanneka6996]

I love the way teach, it makes Finnish language easy for me. Please do you have online class will like to know

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Moi! Thank you so much for your nice comment! You can find updates on all my courses and resources at finkingcap.com/.

[@shammyfinn]

omg I just found you channel. Thank you for your explanation! It is very clear! I like how you explain as they like to "hang out" ☺

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

You're so welcome! :)

[@muryllomv]

Ótimo vídeo, continue produzindo conteúdo como este!!! Kiitos paljon :)

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Murilo Moliterno Hehe, lisää tulee! 🙂

[@muryllomv]

Olen erittäin iloinen voidessani tietää!

[@KingPaulW]

Thank you for your videos! I like how you explained the vowels and how they are pronounced.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

You are so welcome! Thank you for your comment.

[@kruls1101]

Just started soumen last night. I love this kitos!

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Ole hyvä! Olen iloinen, että pidit videosta. Onnea opintoihin! :)

[@kruls1101]

@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap wait, I'm going to use my coursii book to reply not Google translate lol

[@kruls1101]

Ei se mittan! Hauska tutustua!

[@ngarinotetana2605]

Here in New Zealand the Maori vowls A E I O U are pronounced the same however we don't have Ä Ö Y. But we do have Wh which makes the same sound as the letter F. We roll our R too

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Sounds interesting. Can you recommend a video tutorial in which I could listen to these vowels?

[@ngarinotetana2605]

@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap Yeah sure. Keep up the great videos too!kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIWzXqGIqsmHr5o

[@ngarinotetana2605]

@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJ7bi5RpltWkeKs this finnish guy nails the Maori pronounciation

[@asmahanrami6593]

Kiitos Emmi tämä video auttää minua paljon 😊😊😊

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Kiva! Kiitos kommentista!

[@asmahanrami6593]

@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap Anteeksi minä kirjoittaa ( auttaa) vääriin☺

[@keshavkes7122]

Great explanation, thanks you so much!

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@pitilessnightmare6879]

Thank you!! You were very clear!! ❤

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Thank you for you comment, it's always great to hear that my videos are useful 😊

[@anhtranthilan1223]

very useful and easy to understand

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Glad I could help! :)

[@piostolarz]

Excellent video, thanks for it and keep going... ;) I'm at the beginning with my finnish language adventure, and the most difficult aspect of the finnish vowels for me is a difference between a and ä. I've watched tons for videos and still have a problem with distinguishing between them "from hearing". Sometimes ä sounds for me as in english "man" (between a and e) but in most of cases like regular a (like in my native polish). Your video helped me a lot... Another finnish peculiarity are diphthongs. Maybe some video about them. I'm subscribing and... paljon kiitoksia!

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

pstolarz Glad you found this useful! It takes a lot of practice to differentiate the vowels - but I know you'll get there!

[@piostolarz]

Thanks for the replay. I'd be more than happy to check out your website, if I could get access to the free resource lib. I had tried several time with providing an email but didn't get any password to reach the access... UPDATE: I got some welcome/questionnaire email... At first moment I thought it'll open the gate to the resources, but it didn't. So I'm waiting for the password patiently. ;) UPDATE2: Finally found the password in spam... The gate is open ;)

[@karhukivi]

Tämä on erittäin hyvä selitys - kiitos!

[@h.e.a311]

this is excellent thank you, you are serious teacher I like this

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Thank you for your feedback! I'm glad you like my video. :)

[@mahmoudalsayed9700]

Kiitos 💙

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Ei kestä :)

[@Kiwamare]

It's 11:46 at night and my entire family is asleep and I'm trying to pronounce Finnish vowels. I cannot tell the difference between Ö and Y

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Do you mean you can't hear the difference? If it helps, Ö is very close to how the vowel in the middle of the English word "bird", and Y is similar to the vowel that you hear in "huge". I know, these words can be pronounced quite differently depending on the English accent... but I hope this helps you differentiate them!

[@victorfab7221]

please, make a video about the suffixes / endings.... I would love that, it's really hard to learn on your own..... greetings from Brazil

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Hi Victor, thanks for the suggestion. Which endings are especially difficult for you?

[@victorfab7221]

Finking Cap almost all of them, as I said, it's hard to learn on your own, sometimes I'm not sure if I'm learning it correctly. I think it would be interesting to have a video (or a series of videos) covering all of them, at least the basics. Thanks for your reply.

[@TeverRus]

Kiitos, kaunis opettaja! :)

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Ole hyvä!

Opettaja, make a video on CONSONANT CHANGES.

[@LeQuocHung1]

Since the neutral vowel can go with either the Front or Back vowels and itself, can the Front vowel go with the Front vowel as well as the Back vowel go with the Back vowel?

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Front vowels like to go together with front vowels, and back vowels like to be with other back vowels. 🙂

[@mariorestrepojcg]

Excelente vídeo. Finalmente, Yo creo que entendí la diferencia entre las vocales frontales y las «traseras». ¡Vídeo genial!

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Kiva että voin olla avuksi! :)

[@mnktb5873]

It is similar to Turkish vowel harmony. AIOU (back) and EİÖÜ (front)

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

I've heard! It's interesting 😀

[@FitaahOsman-f8n]

kiitos paljon opettajalle🫡🤚🏻

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Ei kestä! 😊

[@ankitanegi9748]

Thanks for telling the difference btw ssa and ssä can you also talk about vat and vät, ko & kö

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

-vat is added to third person plural verbs that follow the back vowel harmony (he tulevat, ne haluavat), and -vät is used for those that have front vowels or neutral vowels (he näyttävät, he hiipivät). Same thing with -ko (back vowels) and -kö (front vowels and neutral vowels). 🙂

[@LanguageSimp]

Gigachad language

[@mauriciocv1658]

Bien explicado, chulenga!

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Glad you liked it!

[@bettyakkemaai5499]

Oh this is so helpful

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Glad to hear that! Thank you for your comment. :)

[@flavioalmeida4608]

Ótimo vídeo,a fonética do finlandês é muito difícil.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Kiva, että voin olla avuksi, Flavio!

[@TheMan-gq2gp]

You are excellent

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Thank you for the comment. :)

[@dioic13]

Nice video, but I still struggle to differentiate a and ae by ear.

[@dakevinmg]

Sorry for late reply, but in at least most American English dialects you can hear the difference in the words “car” and “cat. “Car” uses the Finnish /a/, while “cat” uses the /ä/ sound. Note the tongue position; the a in car is low and back in the throat, while in cat it’s slightly lifted in the front of the mouth. Hope this helps!

[@yassine0798]

Thank you it was really clear

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

You're welcome!

[@siimtulev1759]

Weirdly enough, as Estonian I can't find many words in Estonian which would end with Ä Ö Ü or Õ. Only words I can remind myself are "öö", "töö", "löö", "vöö", "pää"(Estonian uncommon dialect) and couple more :D. Never thought about it before. Southern Estonians use those a lot.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Interesting! What do those words mean?

[@siimtulev1759]

I thought a little more of those words and found some more :D I am putting Finnish too, but I am not 100% sure. I am still learning. Jää - Jää - ice pää ("pea" is more common) - pää - head vöö - vyö - belt töö - työ - work löö - lyö - hit söö - syö - eat süü - syy - guilt müü - myy - sell rüü - kaapu - robe "Kaabu" in Estonian means a hat which looks like what Abraham Lincoln wore :D @@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

I love comparing Finnish and Estonian! I wonder if it would be a fun language for me to learn (and easy??) @@siimtulev1759

[@siimtulev1759]

I find Finnish very fun to learn. I bet Estonian is easiest language ever for Fins to learn. Grammar is very similar, words are very similar time to time and the accent is pretty much same. That's why I am learning Finnish right now and to keep Ural languages alive :D@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap

[@muqadussnaseer4340]

These words R tough for me please tell us about kpt❤❤

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

What are the most difficult words for you?

[@muqadussnaseer4340]

@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap sounds of yota sound of y

[@alexbaklanov3685]

selvä. sä selität tosi hyvin. tykkään et mä näen sua videossa.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Alex Baklanov Hyvä, tosi kiva että tykkäsit! 🙂

[@AngelaEzeh-rj2tl]

Good evening. Pls where can one Register and write Finnish language examination and obtain a certificate? Kittös palyjon

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

If you mean YKI test, you can find more info here: www.oph.fi/en/education-and-qualifications/registering-yki-test

[@sup5916]

I am confused. When you pronounce "A" and "Ä" on their own I have no difficulties to tell the difference because it's basically the same in German. But when you pronounce words like "minä" and "kiva" suddenly both letters sound like an "A". And it's not only you where I've noticed this. Is it just me having bad ears or is it some kind of finnish slang/dialect etc.? And can I pronounce the "Ä"s more clearly or would that make me less understandable? Thanks for the help

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Moi! It's not a feature of puhekieli or anything, it's just very hard to tell the difference in the beginning (or even later on!). The German Ä actually sounds more like E to the Finnish ear, which is of course even further from A when I hear it. The Finnish Ä and A are "open" vowels, so there's lots of space between the tongue and the roof of your mouth. But E (which is what the German Ä reminds me of but of course isn't exactly the same) is a mid-vowel, and therefore the tongue is raised a little more than in open vowels. Does this help? I know it can be tricky!

[@viinisaari]

I would be relatively sure it's your German ears. Firstly, the German ä is not the same sound as the Finnish ä, but rather somewhere between the finnish ä and e. Secondly, German doesn't have the normal german ä, or e for that matter, at the ends of the words, but rather the reduced e-schwa.

[@ephatla58]

Kiitos

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Ole hyvä!

[@ubahabdukadirshire5862]

Kiitos paljon ❤

[@phuongkhanhluu]

Thank you for the video, but I have a question hope you could answer me. The exercise 2 of Chapter 1 in Suomen mestari book, there is a question that is “punaviini-....” and I fill “ssa” in it. However, the answer is “-ssä”. Why do I wrong? The word “punaviini” has back vowels and neutral vowels, how can it be “-ssä”?

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Hei Jennifer! Glad you liked the video! To answer your question: punaviini consists of puna + viini, which means it's a compound noun. In this case, we'll only consider the vowels in the word viini, which will require an 'ä' in the case ending. I hope that helps!

[@phuongkhanhluu]

Learn Finnish with Finking Cap I understood! Thank you for your answer ❤️

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

@@phuongkhanhluu Best of luck with your studies! :)

[@roeese1]

A>Ä, O>Ö, BUT U>Y ??? It should be U>Ü !!! What happened?

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Haha, you know what, I'm not sure! I do know that the dots in Finnish are not caused by the same kind of sound change as in German, for example. Instead, ä, ö and y are considered their own sounds entirely. But luckily, pronunciation can be explained as in the video! Finnish only uses ü in loan words and names...

[@Kara_Pabuc]

Turkish nailed that one but failed at Ä hahah; A > E, I > İ, O > Ö, U > Ü

[@AnnaMarianne]

As a native Finnish speaker.... you have no idea how this bothers me!

[@PaulVinonaama]

@@Kamellion I'm happy we have y. It's quicker to write than u with dots. Moreover, in handwriting ü get's confused with ii.

[@okaro6595]

@@Kamellion Estonian uses ü as German influence was strong there. So one is yksi (yks in spoken language) in Finnish but üks in Estonian. German also uses y in loan words where it is same as ü. In some native words like Bayern it is prounced like i. Estonian on the other hand uses ü even when German uses y. Physik - Füüsika

[@mohammadomer1985]

pretty useful :) paljon kiitoksia!

[@oluchukwunwanneka6996]

Hi Emmi,i really want to learn Finnish from the scratch,pls i love your videos can you be my teacher

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Hi! Check out my blog at finkingcap.com/ for my free content, finkingcapclub.com/ for paid courses and sign up for conversation class updates at finkingcap.com/finnish-conversation-classes/ 🙂

[@anushakaoishey4568]

Rovaniemellä or Rovaniemella which one is correct? Seinäjoella or Seinäjoellä which one is correct?

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Moi! Rovaniemellä and Seinäjoella. We look at the last word of the compound noun - in these cases they are niemi and joki.

[@food1705]

Is there a group, telegram or whatsapp, we can learn the Finnish language through conversation.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

You might find some in a Facebook group called Find a Finnish Teacher, and I think there's another big group called Let's Learn Finnish (or something similar) where people often set up study groups. Hope you find something that suits your needs!

[@food1705]

@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap ♥️♥️♥️ Thank you very much for helping me ♥️♥️♥️

[@montulet1536]

Ahhhh Kiitos!

[@shi_no_kurai_kage]

Me: "yö."

[@ImKezo-kq4pq]

I like the Finnish language

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Jatka opiskelua! ❤️

[@digitalis-y9h]

I just can't get the Ä right for the life of me.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

It does take a lot of practice, I know!

[@ObunikePatrick]

Kittos

[@ObunikePatrick]

Well explained

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Kiitos kommentista! 😊

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Ole hyvä! Kiitos kommentista. ,

[@muqadussnaseer4340]

Kittos Moikka

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Ole hyvä!

[@mambooooooo917]

*Myymäläauto* äa

[@Triumphator72]

Just like Hungarian.

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

Cool!

[@ckdanekfan3397]

I understand the difference between a and ä. Only thing i dont hear that difference when i hear the spoken language. Or when i listen Käärijä 's music. Btw venäjä - venäjällä. Why not venäjässä?

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

This is what I found in Kielitoimiston ohjepankki: "Poikkeuksellisen Venäjällä-taivutuksen taustalla on arveltu olevan Venäjän suuri koko. Rajantakainen Venäjä on ehkä suomalaisten mielikuvissa ollut laajaa, jatkuvaa maata." (www.kielitoimistonohjepankki.fi/ohje/442 ) Basically, they think that the -llä ending may be due to Russia's large size and that in Finnish people's minds, Russia has been this vast area that never ends.

[@ckdanekfan3397]

@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap that is not hard to accept, but is Russia the only example?

[@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap]

@@ckdanekfan3397 I want to say yes it's the only exception BUT if you have a country that ends in -rannikko (which means "coast") or any other Finnish word that requires -llA, then you'd use -LLA --> Norsunluurannikolla. And, of course, islands are their own different world, you can read about them here: www.kielitoimistonohjepankki.fi/ohje/265

[@ckdanekfan3397]

@@learnfinnishwithfinkingcap i wasnt thinking only about the countries in particular, but nouns in general

[@Kidduu]

Kiitos