Why Finnish Is One of The EASIEST Language [7 Reasons]

Is Finnish really that hard? Many Finnish learners stumble and struggle with the complexity. However, many things make Finnis actually an easy language compared to others. Today, we will find those out.
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[@AleksiHimself]

Watch next: FUNNY Finnish Phrases Finns Don't Expect You to Know: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnW1pYKqg9V-p68

[@ahtishamulhaq1882]

Hello sir, How can I get driving job from aboard please guide....or can i get job on visit visa....??

[@Member_zero]

It's not intuitive to me: Bussi = Bus ... if you say so... it's not the first thing that came to my mind ... I taught it would mean something that starts with a "P"... I was a bit off.

[@EricT3769]

@@Member_zero 😂

[@EricT3769]

There are definitely some aspects of Finnish that make it an attractive language to want to learn. Thank you for the video.

[@FrozenMermaid666]

The Ö is an EO sound, like the Œ in the French word cœur, not the I in bird - the i in bird is pronounced like a schwa sound, which is the same sound in the first letter of the English word alone or again, a speaker of English would never pronounce bird like beord, only ppl from Germany or Austria etc might pronounce it that way because of the accent!

[@jopeteus]

Finnish is pronounced exactly like it's written. It can't get any easier than that

[@b6983832]

Not exactly. There are exceptions to this rule. For instance, onpa is pronounced ompa. Ota vaan would be pronounced otavvaan, with the v doubling.. Same goes with tule tänne - tulettänne.

[@crossboSpiritual]

Or magneetti = maNGNeetti Also: In 'kengät', 'ng' is pronounced like in English word 'sing' (normally 'g' is pronounced like in English 'gut', but when paired like 'ng', you use this softening exception)

[@bakeraus]

Not true, I hear this bs a lot from Finns

[@jopeteus]

@@bakeraus 99% pronounced like it is written

[@tickleman127]

@@b6983832 but that's ez

[@overse7938]

As a serb who's main language has 7 cases, gendered nouns, a lot of tenses and a special vocal change system, i have to say that this video really encouraged me to start learning

[@lil.serbian.girl.]

Same bro same

[@HippieVeganJewslim]

Nu, Engliš has just one case, prijatelju, unless You count ðe possessive case (like cat’s). Engliš also has few gendered nouns (like doe and stag, bitč and cur, waiter and waitress).

[@huffelpuffwerewolfgirl5811]

German has four. But we tend to use the first for the third too

[@HippieVeganJewslim]

@@huffelpuffwerewolfgirl5811 Nominativ für Dativ? For many words, ðe cases are ðe same.

[@overse7938]

@@HippieVeganJewslim im aware that english practicaly has one case, but my main language(serbian) has 7, and all of the things ive listed above

[@Sh0ckmaster]

I've been using Dualingo to get my head around the fundamentals of Finnish. Despite their very strange sentence structure of the examples they use, I can now at least introduce myself in Finnish and recognise a lot more words when I hear it spoken aloud. Kiitos for another great video mate.

[@DontReadMyName9461]

@Boon-vh6zk I’ve used it for Norwegian and I’ve learned a sh*t ton. I got over 150 day streak and before that I had over 80 day streak, so I’ve been learning for over 200 days. It does teach quite a lot, but of course the proper way to learn is by speaking it and communicating with native speakers and having fluent speakers teach the language, no matter what language it may be.

[@shirl6135]

Yeah like Tyyna, sinä olet aina mukava

[@alfia6690]

I'm learning Finnish on Duolingo too (as well as from books and podcasts) and Duelingo is fun. It's only formal Finnish but I like that the sentences reflect Finnish values like honesty and love of the forest, its mushrooms and creatures. Apua! Karhu hallua syödä siilini! Or something like that. :^D This guy's channel seems very good for getting more info on colloquial Finnish.

[@jhericadams6505]

The problem with duolingo is it teaches to speak in a formal way, instead of a colloquial way like a normal finn should speak

[@TXTsOneAndOnly]

@@romulosoares5216 pls don't say a language is extremely hard to learn, some learners can be discouraged and think they'll never master it, these kinds of videos where they say hard languages are easy are for people to know that they CAN do it and that not everything is hell in earth (and btw a language being easy or hard to learn depends on who is learning, i'm kind of a fast learner and for me it's VERY easy to learn grammar in languages, it's hard to explain but it just makes sense in my brain lol)

[@haelidh]

I studied Finnish many years ago. Getting started was difficult, because the grammar is so different from Indo-European languages and I had to wrap my head around that. It was also difficult to get started with the vocabulary, because many of the root words could not be related to any other word that I already knew. But once I got past that, it was actually very easy. The grammar is very regular and if you know some basic vocabulary, many difficult words are based on the same roots and easy to learn. :-)

[@zizou9921]

How are your speaking skills now? Would you say you could get by in Finland ?

[@haelidh]

@@zizou9921 I lived in Finland for a little while, which is already 15 years ago. Then I studied for a few more years after that and I could easily have basic conversations. Nowadays I still understand pretty well, but it's hard to find the words due to a lack of practice

[@KibyNykraft]

​@@haelidhThe grammars are much more complex than english. But finnish is a very logical language. That means that it just depends on your IQ + effort. For englishspeaking and germans + south norwegian the pronounciation in finnish is tough to adapt to. For north norwegians somewhat easier. The finnish intonation is not very far from english.

[@watermelon7998]

Hi Aleksi, very good! I'm Hungarian and we have the same problem - the language comes at you quite scary first, just to say a simple sentence you have to know so many endings, rules etc. But Finnish and Hungarian are "grateful" languages: once you have learnt the rules, the language will keep them, and after some time you just need to learn new words. We also write what we say, no gender, present tense is used for future etc. This is such an honest and helpful video, exactly what we like about Finns!

[@Peti661]

Hello Aleksi, another Hungarian here. :) Actually everything you mentioned in this video applies to Hungarian pretty much as well, except for the definite/indefinite article thing. Also it's the same in the sense that you need to learn a whole lot of grammar to properly say even just the simplest things, but actually it doesn't get that much more difficult than that. When I first came to Finland I was actually surprised by how easy the pronunciation was, I could just use my Hungarian pronunciation and get away with it fairly well.

[@watermelon7998]

@@Peti661 I agree, pronunciation is quite easy for Hungarians.

[@mustanaamiotto3812]

Finnish and hungarian are related languages.

[@nyekijudit6272]

​@@watermelon7998 yes, it is. 😀

[@RichieLarpa]

I just finished my own comment, while defending your beautiful language. With that so-called "Lego logic", you can learn new words automatically, once you know enough base words and memesters showing off with that repetitive "megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért" are getting ridiculous and needlessly satanizing Hungarian language and making it "the worst language in the universe". The hated "rendőrség" gets more logical, once the learner finds out that it's technically just "order guarding" in your logic. Or "warehouse of healing tools" known as "gyógyszertár". People should stop eating that ѕhіt memesters put out and give Hungarian a second chance.

[@nataliem3748]

I love the "Finnish no bullshit attitude"!👍👍👍👏👏👏 This has been a really helpful video - kiitos, Aleksi!🎉

[@bro-yq1hj]

Finnish language is hard not because it has any hard words, grammar, etc. -There are only ~~6 million people in the world whose speak it - it's hard to find a friend for having conversations, practice (I mean FOR SPEAKING, not for having lessons) -It's very hard to find a Finnish movie/cartoons - For example, in yle areena a lot of movies are blocked outside Finland. -2 languages in 1. Even Finnish government says, that this is a problem. Like, "for old and very young fins is hard to understand fast Puhekieli". That's what I noticed while been learning it.

[@aev6075]

Puhekieli = spoken language. Or slangi = slang if you mean influx of borrowed words appropriate to age group

[@ghenulo]

No worries. Friends are a myth.

[@Kuutamon]

I started studying Finnish last year October when I left Suomi, and I felt instant koti-ikävä. Now I returned two weeks ago and practiced speaking and it feels so good to understand stuff and to be able to talk a few basic sentences. Especially I really love how people felt touched that I am learning their language :) Tosi hyvä video! Pidän!

[@theoddyboi]

Kiva juttu

[@Kuutamon]

@@theoddyboi kiitos :)

[@ainyc88]

It’s my dream to learn Finnish. Since I first heard this language many years ago I felt like it’s my lost long forgotten native language. I can’t explain the feeling. But the peace and love that I feel listening to it is unbelievable. P.S I’m Serbian

[@drzeworyj]

same. I am Polish, and my DNA has actually showed I am 23% "Finnish". which checks out cause 3/4 of my ancestors are from the Baltic countries or Central Russia area.

[@jemil1112]

Maybe you were Finnish in your previous life and you remembered it somehow. I think it is very possible

[@ganbiandoujiao]

My dream too! My limbs tingle in mild euphoria when I hear Finnish!

[@vibe9120]

Ući nešta normalno

[@MaybeOrangeJuice]

Not to be rude, but I'm genuinely surprised you're not American.

[@mariajosemartinez5135]

As a spaniard I would like to add that most of the sounds are easy to pronounce. Not all of them, but I think it's an easy language to speak if you are a spanish speaker, just when it comes to pronunciation of course.

[@tommi7554]

And vice verca, it's really easy to Finnish to pronounce Spanish. Even if they have different ways to say like J and H, when you learn how they use those, it's simple.

[@DNA350ppm]

I guess so, too, if you also can pronounce a German ü as in Frühling or like in bien sûr in French, then you have Finnish y, ä and ö, written in the Finnish way. Y is the most difficult for native English speakers among the vowels. Sing along in children's alphabet songs! 🙂

[@b6983832]

Try to say "yötyöttömyydettömyydessänsäkäänkö? (and not even in his lack of nightly unemployment)

[@DNA350ppm]

@@b6983832 How much did you practice 'The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick'. as one of your first English lessons? Valueless joke - just goes to show nothing at all.

[@Xoruam]

Having finished Japanese major, it's interesting to see some similarities between Japanese and Finnish. Lack of gendered nouns is one thing, but the Aorist/Present-future tense, as well as the agglutinative nature of the language. The example with Studying/Studying tomorrow can be transcribed almost word for word, as Benkyou Suru = (is) studying (lit. (is) doing study) Ashita Benkyou Suru = Tomorrow (will be) studying (lit. Tomorrow (will be) doing study) I wonder if Finnish is as regular as Japanese, though. I absolutely love Japanese for its regularity, where, as long as you know a suffix and how to identify consonant/vowel verbs, you can mix and match any suffix with almost any verb, and in most cases it should be correct grammar.

[@Pyovali]

Finnish is super regular. There's only like 5 irregular verbs and that's it.

[@traceymccullough7585]

You have no idea how much this helped me! Kiitos paljon!

[@teijaflink2226]

I'm boen in Sweden but my first language is Finnish so it comes naturally to me. When starting to learn other languages in school I always found the gendered words difficult and specially with German, I just can't with that language. I love that Finnish is so logical even if I never have had to really think about that as it's the first language I spoke. Many outsider find Finnish difficult because it's so different but it probably will help when you start realising how logical it is.

[@miaow8670]

I've been learning Finnish for a couple of years and I absolutely love it. Several features that make it easy to learn: 1) *REGULARITY* . However complex the Finnish grammar is, it is in fact exceedingly regular and predictable. Whichever exceptions may be there in the inflections of nouns, verbs, syntax, etc. are very few. 2) *VIRTUALLY 100% TRANSPARENT SPELLING* , as you said. Every single letter is always pronounced, 1 letter = 1 sound, and it's always pronounced in precisely the same way. This is cross-linguistically a very rare feature (not even Slavic languages have this transparent spelling) and facilitates learning enormously. 3) *REGULAR WORD STRESS* . Finnish always has stress on the 1st syllable of the word (if it's a compound word, then the primary stress is always on the first syllable of each of the component words). Again, this makes learning 200% easier - 500% easier if you compare it with English. (:D) 4) *NO ARTICLES & NO GENDER* , as you have aptly said. 5) *FEW CROSS-LINGUISTICALLY RARE SOUNDS* . Finnish only has a couple of rare phonemes - essentially only those behind the Finnish "y" and "ö" are rather rare; the other sounds of the Finnish phonological inventory are pretty common and therefore don't pose too much of a challenge for learners of Finnish. So far, there have been only 2 things about Finnish that are really challenging - because they're unpredictable: 1) the so-called rections (= a phenomenon whereby a specific noun or verb requires its related word, like a noun or adjective, to be in a specific word case, but it doesn't necessarily have any meaningful reason - for example, the Finnish way of saying "I like it" is basically "I like away from it"; or, "this sounds interesting" is basically "this sounds off interesting"; or, "nice to meet you" in Finnish is basically "nice to meet into you") - you simply have to memorise which nouns and verbs require which rections; 2) the object cases - the object in Finnish can be either in nominative, genitive, accusative, or partitive, and there are complex rules underlying the correct choice of the object case (and it is even intertwined with rections, so that in many scenarios, everything suggests that the object should be in genitive but no, it will be in partitive because the verb is one of those that require its object to be in partitive, according to rections).

[@ghenulo]

I wish I could study some language with clusivity. That sounds like an awesome feature.

[@stable-shadow]

Hei Outstanding breakdown, I experienced the "reactions" in a conversation yesterday regarding microplastics in the Worlds water, and since I'm a native speaker the Suomi reply I received from a friend was something like " microplastics have always been waterproof." Lol or that's how my mind translated it, but what she was saying is that it was sad that microplastics are in the Worlds water supply.... something to that effect..... even the best translation tools screw this up.... I love learning from real human being native speakers.... I agree though all your points display the clean, logical, and pleasant pattern of Suomi.... Kiitos, Be Well moi moi 🕊️

[@serdip]

Paljon kiitos tälle videolle. Luulen että Suomea on varmasti vaikea kieli mutta se on myös niin kaunis ja mielenkiintoinen. Anteeksi minulle for making so many mistakes! 😊

[@tuutelis]

Suurkiitos tästä videosta tai kiitos videon tekijälle Anna minulle anteeksi

[@dontwanagivit1860]

Pääasia että viesti menee perille! Kyllä, siellä oli virheitä mutta ymmärsin kuitenkin, mitä halusit sanoa! Hyvää työtä! ✌️🇫🇮

[@RassePo]

@serdip Hyvin kirjoitettu. Harjoitus tekee mestarin!

[@syamakosha2598]

I love the idea that the first "layer" is more difficult than those which go after❤ That sounds encouraging. I'm on the way to A1 and studying is painful at times😫

[@maxturgeon89]

Excellent video! You've almost convinced me to learn Finnish, along with German and Greek which I'm already studying 😅

[@movierepeater8537]

As a native Chinese speaker, I think Finnish has a lot similarities with Chinese, in Chinese language there is no time tense too and also a character could usually have at least two or more meanings depending on situation. Thank you, this video boost my courage to learn Finnish.

[@omp199]

I doubt that Finnish and Mandarin have much in common. They belong to different language families, and are of very different types, with Finnish being agglutinative, with all sorts of endings to stick onto words, while Mandarin is analytic, which means you don't stick endings onto words at all. Finnish does have tenses. He shows this in this video from 6:51. Chinese characters are part of the writing system, not the language itself. But words having more than one meaning is not a rare thing. I suspect there are words with more than one meaning in every language.

[@xolang]

but on 6:52 he explains about the tenses in Finnish

[@miaow8670]

Except that (among other things) Chinese has virtually no inflection at all, whereas Finnish is so crazy inflectional that it can inflect even some prepositions and conjunctions. :'D Also, Finnish does have tenses (only that it doesn't have the future tense), and that a word can have 2+ meanings depending on the situation is generally a feature present in every single natural language of the world. (It's true, though, that in Chinese, this works in a rather specific way.)

[@InfiniteDeckhand]

That could not be further from the truth. Finnish and Chinese have next to nothing in common.

[@PeaknikMicki]

Finnish language does have time tense. It's easier than Mandarin in that it's not tonal but the grammatical rules are very hard to learn for someone who doesn't do deep immersion. And one of the quirky things is that single words can be extended in to forming whole sentences. For example (and I am missing the special characters as I am writing with English keyboard) Tyo=work/job Tyopaikka = place of work tyopaikassa = at the place of work tyopikassanikin = at my workwplace too

[@FinGreek]

The truth is that the Finnish language isn't hard. The hard point is to understand the language. But first...what language? Kirjakieli, puhe kieli, mure? I study Finnish about a year at Rovaniemi. At the school we learn from Suomen Mestari but in my opinion- ans some teachers opinion also- isn't a good book. When you go out for work, the spoken Finnish is at 50% different. For example the "partitiivi" that used only in Finnish and German language. The total different is the Finnish people. Finnish people are happy when see you that try to speak, and also are very polite. And as we can say, when there is a will, there is a way. When i came to Finland i went to Ajovarma to register my car. The lady at the service she doesn't speak English at all. I left the office after half an hour, totally satisfied and happy. Aleksi as you said in a an old video, the Finnish language is a language that you must learn with your heart. I'm absolutely satisfied for my choose to come to Finland, and thank's again for your help. P.S verbi syödä, mme ja tte se on painvastoin :)

[@b6983832]

Most of the books I have seen are not very good. One weird thing I saw was teaching beginners of Finnish to write spoken vernacular. It is not a written form of language. Also, in that book, the vernacular was very much like it is spoken in Tampere region. Somebody learning this kind of Finnish in Helsinki would make him sound ridiculous, unless he had some connection with Tampere. It is true that Finnish has many registers, and especially using too familiar register in a formal situation will sound funny. Many foreigners learning Finnish do this, and I think the reason is teaching the vernacular (Finnish: puhekieli) to beginners of Finnish. That said, Finnish people are not overly formal, and using of titles is almost completely unnecessary (outside of the army). In most cases, use of informal you (sinä) instead of formal (Te) is also not required, but there are occasions when this should be done. Reason for this is that the official form of Finnish is not based on any natural dialect, but was constructed by linguists and other scientists of the time. This means nobody speaks formal Finnish as a mother´s tongue. It is taught at school, and used mostly in formal occasions only.

[@johncrwarner]

My experience with the fourteen cases was that I just need to learn the nominatiivi, genetiivi and partitiivi forms and basically the rest are made regularly from these. The genetiivi - contains the root plus n and helps build the other cases The partitiivi is the most "irregular" form and the nominatiivi for the dictionary. I did learn Estonian first as I was working and living there and only came to Finnish after that when I was working in Finland and got to know Finnish friends so my approach to Finnish might be weird when compared to the average Indo-European native speaker.

[@johncrwarner]

BTW when I visited the Suomen Kansallisteatteri in Helsinki and saw Molière's "Dom Juan" in Finnish. It was interesting that in a very funny play virtually nobody laughed except me the foreigner and a ten year old boy two rows in front of me. But when I visited more theatres Like the Oopera in Helsinki and the Kaupunginteatteri in Jyväskylä I discovered the etiquette of Finnish audiences and modified even my level of clapping LOL

[@mostlyfinnishlifeeventsand5112]

Well, if you know Estonian, you also know a lot of irregular variations in Finnish; most importantly, old nouns' having an 'e' instead of 'i' in genitive). I'd say the vast majority of ancient Estonian words also existing in Finnish (e.g. 'järv' (vs. 'järvi')) have the same irregularities in there.

[@mostlyfinnishlifeeventsand5112]

Just don't try speaking Finnish using the Estonian pronunciation, which is a LOT more reminiscent of Russian :) And pay special attention to plural partitive, which is MASSIVELY different in the two languages. Those are the two most common mistakes Estonians can immediately can be recognized. Generally, even when they only utter a single Finnish word (just like Russians speaking Finnish) OR, in writing, they keep using plural nominative (as in Estonian) where plural partitive should be used (as in Finnish).

[@troybastman2662]

I grew up from the upper peninsula of Michigan where we had a lot of Finnish people. I am half Finnish. I am glad to hear the language from you!

[@Halloumillalalloumiallaa]

"Koskea" could also be used in the case where let's say some people are rowing towards some rapids. "He soutivat kohti koskea." "They rowed towards the rapids."

[@mistguides]

Hey Aleksi, thank you for your efforts on introducing so many things about Finland. I wish you get a boom of subscribers one day for all the effort you put in.

[@susankemunto2542]

Thanks Aleksi. This helps a lot. Am slowly getting the basics of the language and it's getting easier now

[@trianapark1787]

I studied a lot of languages, but Finnish my favorite one. I obsess about finnish culture and especially nature, but more I obsess about pronunciation and a such softness in talking of language. Hope maybe one day I visit Finland for practice in language. With love from Ukraine 🥰

[@smileyface3956]

I am also a polyglot I speak 5 languages and I am studying my 6th language I like those rare languages I like finnish culture and after Icelandic I will learn finnish. I only speak one non indo european language and that is basque it is by far my favorite language. Hope that finnish would take my heart

[@cosmicflower5891]

@@smileyface3956 Kannst du sie alle fließend sprechen?

[@smileyface3956]

@@cosmicflower5891 Nein. Ich war fleißing in Deutsch aber jetz ich habe vieles vergesen. Jetz ich bin in Bayern und ich can sprechen Deutsch aber ich bin nicht Fleißig. Ich bin Fleißig in Kroatisch und Englisch aber mein Baskisch is nicht fleißig aber es ist sehr gut. Mein Italianisch is sehr Schlecht und ich noch immer lerne Islandish.

[@elporrovegano]

@@smileyface3956 Sprichst du Baskisch, aber nicht Spanisch?

[@alfia6690]

Another polyglot here, also enamored of Finnish. Having studied several Slavic languages and Sanskrit the cases themselves don't bother me, but one always has to learn how each is used idiomatically. Phonologically the only challenge is the doubled consonants and phonemic vowel length. Ok, I'm still getting some of the vowels confused, especially a and ä. Vocabulary is challenging, but I just love the sounds so it's all good. Hope I can visit Finland one day too..

[@oh2mp]

Aleksi you just told everything that I've said when someone claims that our language is hard. The learning curve is of course very steep in the beginning for people from other language groups, but after learning the basic system everything gets easier.

[@phuttyyt]

To be fair, that's true of all languages - only most of them are easier to start with 😉 Claiming that a language is easy to learn *once you get past the incredibly difficult early stages* is a bit disingenuous. Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree with you: I don't have the experience of [actively] learning Finnish but I am fluent in Estonian, which is just as hard at first for much the same reasons and does get easier. You'll just never find me telling anyone it's easy generally! 😄

[@erikstenviken2652]

@@phuttyyti am from Sweden and when I lived next to the border for some years I tried to learn finnish. But it was to hard for me even if i heard finnish almost every day.

[@joanarodriguesribeiro8273]

Hii!! Could I ask you a favor? There's an album by a Finnish singer who I love, but I can't find the lyrics to sing along. Could you put the lyrics over here? 🥰 I Know I'm asking too much, but pleeeease 🥰🥰 His name is Ville Laihiala and the album is Ei meillä ole kuin loisemme. I would be in debt forever with you hahaha

[@rygd4871]

As a native Spanish speaker (Dominican 🇩🇴), I think is a Lot easier for me to learn Finnish. BTW, your channel is super awesome and usefull.

[@historygal7]

My native is English and Spanish my second and I feel the same way

[@rygd4871]

@@historygal7 that's cool😊

[@Mark_Kuckerberg]

I love how you have spoken out the german words. Very accurate!

[@ghenulo]

Deutsch ist eine phonetische Sprache auch.

[@Hamm3rJack]

Wow! Great videos, I watched all of them and now "minä puhun sujuvasti suomea!" Kiitos näistä hyvistä videoista Aleksi. Olet tehnyt hienoa työtä levittääksesi suomen kielen ilosanomaa.

[@LeoNicola_lnljix]

Hei, Aleksi! You made a misprint at 6:56 : Söit = You ate (not "You eat"). Kiitos tästä videosta!

[@Sauko2626]

And also the syömme and syötte are wrong way a raund

[@allkindsofthings1497]

This was great stuff! I say this as a Finn who has started suspecting Finnish isn't as difficult as they say.

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff! 😃🙌

[@foughtthelol]

2:57 koskea = by/along the rapids . Veneellä koskea pitkin = By boat along the rapids

[@paavoviuhko7250]

Great video. I love this. I went to the English School in Helsinki in the 50's (near Kuusitien Katu where I used to live). All my school friends were Americans but living at home I had to speak Finnish. So two languages as a child. But when you're young everything is easy. But watch out for that Aleksanterin Katu. I almost died there trying to cross that road when I was six.

[@b6983832]

It is Kuusitie, not Kuusitien katu. In Meilahti, Helsinki. Otherwise it would mean the Fir tree road street.

[@paavoviuhko7250]

I apologize but my Finnish has suffered the burden of separation over the years. We left that place in 1958 when my parents dragged me to Canada. I wish you well and give you my blessings..

[@mansurdorado]

I love to learn Languages and discover different cultures, i hear all the good things about Finland 🇫🇮 I still remember when i was listening to north European radio stations and German radio as well. back in the late 90s, I wasn’t understand what they were talking about, even though I enjoyed them i was young. what i loved a lot is the good music they were chosen to play

[@paradiseoctagon21794]

Not only is it easy to learn, but the words just look really cool. Like, imagine if english had cool words like "Uskomaton", "Perimmäinen" or "Monikulmio"

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff! 😃🙌

[@muraliram8802]

Very good subject to present. It will tempt many to start learning finnish.

[@bugaysotvlog8223]

Paljon Kiitoksia 😊. It’s very helpful video again…

[@kristinaoravcova372]

This gives me hope, haha. 😁😄Kiitos paljon.

[@learningtosharesharingtole9920]

Great video! Good info! I love this!

[@paholainen100]

love this video. I don't think Finnish is as difficult as people say. It's actually a logical language

[@omp199]

Says a man called "paholainen100".

[@b6983832]

@@omp199 Mikä lie perkele...

[@eickler]

I vividly remember that I wanted to buy a ticket to Pihtipudas in Finnish and drove the lady nuts because I didn't know that you go "Pihtiputaallla" (on Pihtipudas insteas of to Pihtiludas, also screwed up the ending). So thanks for the regularity. 😂

[@samuthemapper600]

in italian we also have the double letters so that's easy for me, but when i heard about the suffix thing, i realized that it's just like latin, very hard.

[@mkqly6858]

Koskea can also mean something that concerns a rapid or a white-water. The base word in this example is _Koski_ = which means a rapid / white-water. Kosk(ea) in an example sentence: "En uskalla mennä lähelle *koskea*", means "I don't dare to go near a rapid".

[@historygal7]

Great video! Extremely helpful at this time as I’ve still a lot to learn!

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff!

[@michaelshannon9169]

Excellently presented and very interesting.

[@freebozkurt9277]

You should add one more thing: the stressing of the words and sentences. When you do it wrong in other languages you can completely confuse others. In Finnish and Hungarian the stress is always on the first syllable. I remember a situation where I put the stress on the first syllable in the word "percent" (as comes natural for a Hungarian) and colleagues did not understood what I was trying to say. I tried to change and twist my pronounciation here and there but it still did not get through. It was very frustratind as I was already a fluent English speaker. I just could not understand why they did not understand what I am trying to say. It turned out they understood "person". Finally I just had to change the stress and stress the last syllable. And voila! magic, it became clear.

[@jippiijajee]

@freebozkurt9277 make sense! I've always had issues with "percent", now I finally understood why! I am a Finn

[@kathiheiser1337]

Good info :)

[@AleksiHimself]

Glad you think so!

[@lukasappelqvist2000]

As a Swede I can never unsee that the word "kissa" in Swedish means to pee...

[@johnsmith_1942]

And rest of the world can't unsee all the different farts in swedish traffic

[@ヽゝ-y6j]

I love your videos so much because you show your country’s culture and traditions with happiness and humour . You are my favourite KZbinr and I thank you for all these knowledge you give us. Keep up your nice work and make us love Finland more and more !! Lots of love from Greece 🇬🇷 ❤🇫🇮

[@suleyabdirahman4349]

I'm half Finnish and i recently found this channel and really enjoy it

[@samueldesmond440]

I am considering starting Finnish on Duolingo, so this has certainly helped to encourage me. Really all I want to do is learn the lyrics to Cha Cha Cha and i could just do it phonetically by rote, but I think speaking Finnish would be a cool way to flex.

[@sandrotopnotch]

Very interesting pieces of information. Thank you

[@AleksiHimself]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@yassies9640]

After finding I enjoy a Finnish metal band who exclusively sings in Finnish I can’t get enough of the language. Great video actually thanks!

[@buraktanyeri2818]

I didn’t know Turkish and Finnish had so much in common, I’m really surprised lol

[@ghenulo]

Other than vowel harmony, I don't see much of a similarity.

[@yalnizyildizebegumeci1841]

Do you speak Turkish?@@ghenulo

[@justanotherguy2824]

Nice video. Even as it is completely untrue to call Finish one of the easiest languages. When you want to see a really easy language you may try Esperanto. I started to study it on a Monday morning, like 9 o´clock. Before lunch time I was done with grammar and spelling. I mean really done, with the entire grammar, and all spelling rules (there are none except to know which letter represents which sound). There are only 14 grammar rules, no exeptions, no irregularities, nothing more, the entire grammar fits on a single page. Within a week I had a basic knowledge, including a major part of the vocabulary. This was some 30 years ago, and with hardly any practicing I can still read and understand simple texts. As there is not much you need to learn, there is not much you can forget, so your skills do not deteriorate so quickly. Of course there are other artificial languages, some of them very complex, but some similarily easy as Esperanto. One of my favorites is Interlingua, which any speaker of a Romance language can understand quite well without ever spending a single minute on learning it, but is much easier than Italian, Spanish etc.

[@haroldgoodman130]

mi ankau gxojas paroli kaj legi esperante. mi kredas ke esperanto estas unu el la plej belaj kaj utilaj lingvoj en la mondo. gxis.

[@ghenulo]

It really took me a while to learn Esperanto (I stopped several times and then each time went back when I considered how much progress I had made), but I'm glad I did. It taught me concepts that I was able to take to other languages (especially the concept of transitive verbs, and German's "two-way prepositions" (what caused me to crash and burn in high-school German) actually started to make sense with Esperanto's easier version of it). BTW, in modern terminology, Esperanto isn't an artificial language, because it's used by humans (you can find it in ISO's list of natural languages). La problemo kun Esperanto por mi estas tio, ke ekzistas malmultaj spektindaj kanaloj. La plejparto de filmetoj estas neinteresaj paroladoj el kongresoj aŭ ĉagrenaj muzikaĵoj. Tamen ĝi estas bona lingvo por konfuzi familianojn, do ĝi tute estas lerninda.

[@TheMrGobelin]

Learning Finnish is my plan after i'm fluent in Polish !

[@finntastique3891]

Also, the intonation is very straightforward. The first syllable is always emphasized, e,.g. HEvonen (horse), not heVOnen nor hevoNEN. This applies to every single word in the Finnish language.

[@okaro6595]

Hevonen is a funny word as it is actually a diminutive of "hepo".

[@General-DM]

GOKUUUUU!!! Great Videos ❤

[@eerojarvilehto6666]

This is a funny video, because the purpose is probably to inspire those starting to learn Finnish as a foreign language to think that Finnish is not that difficult, but I guess things are not quite that simple. Personally, I would present Finnish as a rather challenging language, but fun and interesting thanks to fun puns, for example. Examples of fun puns include palidroms, such as: "saippuakauppias" (= soap merchant), or "Sakari rakas" (= Zachary dear), which can be read from end to beginning, such as from beginning to end. In Finnish, it is also possible to write entire stories using only one specific vowel. For writing such a story, the most versatile vowel is the letter "A", like: "Kanat kaakattavat kanalan takana..." To some extent, the same can be done with other vowels. For those learning Finnish as a foreign language, it is not easy to pronounce words as they are written. In fact, it may be difficult for those whose pronunciation and writing differ in their own languaget apart. For this reason, people who speak Finnish as a foreign language often have a foreign accent even after decades of living in Finland. According to a friend of mine who has studied Finnish as a foreign language, the most challenging thing about the Finnish language is the inflection forms of words. Word inflection forms are especially difficult because they need to be correctly combined with other words in sentences. These errors quickly reveal, for example, scam messages made with a translator without proper language skills. ;D The inflection of some words is difficult even for those who speak Finnish as their own national language, such as the word "kirkua" (= scream). In order not to discourage anyone, one challenge for those studying Finnish as a foreign language can be several fairly similar words with completely different meanings, and a difference in one letter can completely change the meaning, especially variations of double vowels and double consonants, such as: kato, katto, kaato, katos, katso, katse, etc. At the same time, however, there are a lot of funny puns associated with words like this, which can make studying Finnish fun. Finnish compound words can also be challenging but fun for those studying Finnish as a foreign language. Finnish is certainly not the most difficult language in the world, but it may not be the easiest language either - but it is definitely a fun and playful language.

[@josephbrowning4220]

I feel like this video is a very subtle Finnish joke designed to make Finnish people laugh while everyone else in the world is tricked into studying Finnish. 🤔🤔🤔

[@jerrimenard3092]

I was thinking the same. It can be hard. Written and spoken Finnish seem to be different. I try to learn by watching TV shows and movies. I am getting better very slowly.

[@kostasplaneart]

Nice video!!! I have my friend Yuka Tiitanen who comes every year in Corfu for vacations...he teaches me some Finish....well...it is not a big deal..but then...it is also difficult !!! You have to live in the country to really learn!!!! Thanks Aleksi....

[@ratajs]

‘Begin’, which you used as an example of an irregular verb in English, is a completely regular class 3 strong verb, so not irregular.

[@stefandsl]

Good to know!💙

[@MartinZanichelli]

Linguists already regard Finnish as one of the most difficuls for Indoeuropean language speakers.

[@curtpiazza1688]

Great informative video!! 😂

[@FinDi90]

I can think of a fourth one for "koskea". It's a partitive form though. Koski= rapids. Ex: Oletko koskaan laskenut koskea?

[@xolang]

Kiitos! My father tongue has aspects like Finnish: it's phonetic, doesn't have complicated sounds or consonant clusters, no genders, but it's even easier than Finnish since: 1) there's no verbal conjugation according to who's the subject (just like in Swedish, or English to some extent) İ/we/they/you/he/it/she STUDY 2) there's no extra form for the past: İ/we/they/you/he/it/she STUDY YESTERDAY

[@xolang]

@@paddor malaijin kieli 😉

[@volker4897]

This is Finnish...but not the end

[@martinneosel3403]

I see what you did there. 😉

[@BrouxNoux]

Para nós, falantes de portugues, falar finlandes é bem facil porque nossa lingua tambem se fala como escreve. O finlandes é lindo!

[@Andreas-gh6is]

I find it easier to learn than Arabic or Chinese. The cases hardly register because they are easier than those in Latin, basically just agglutinative and hardly any exeptions. The sounds are luckily similar enough to the Germanic languages, so no stress there.

[@coolcat8b]

You know what else Finnish has got? Your beautiful voice! It's seriously dreamy.

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff! 😃🙌

[@Windows-95]

Very good video! Agglutinative is just an annoying one we have. 'Uh-glue-tah-na-tive' You do great, I'm a native English speaker and I screw up some of the funniest words like colloquial often.

[@tonyclifton265]

i'm obsessed with Finnish and Finland cos i'm hopelessly addicted to the films of aki Kaurismäki

[@muhammadtajwer2530]

Wow such a great video

[@amorscientiae]

Great Video Aleksi ! i think im gonna start studying finnish language soon ! Having JLPTN2 i think it's fair to say thay Finnish is not as difficult as japanese. 😢❤ (I say these words with purely good intention)

[@amarug]

People who study Finnish, could you let me know why you are doing it? I almost can't see any reason, as if you like to travel there, basically, everyone speaks really good English and people are mostly so introverted, it's not like you are going to have many great conversations randomly on a train. I grew up in Switzerland and Finnish is my second mother tongue, but even when I go to Finland I sometimes get tired and just switch to English myself, although I used to speak native level (people could not tell I was a foreigner) until the age of about 15. I have learned Japanese, which is quite useful for me since I travel a lot in Japan and their people really don't speak English in general and they are often so excited (especially in the countryside) if some traveling Northern European looking tourist can have fun conversations with them. Also there are about 120 million native speakers, with a whole culture that is exported worldwide, while Finland has like 10 speakers in total. I can use it at the local Ramen shop in Switzerland, or recently, I saved a really lost travel group who was looking to change trains but their translater wasn't around... etc etc and its always fun. But I just don't see an equivalent situation happening for Finland. Unless you really plan on living there long long term, I really have no idea why anyone would go through the pain. 😂I would really love to hear your stories!

[@zoesouth7287]

For me, I'm an opera singers and I'm singing in Finnish three times over the next year (Luonnotar twice, and Kullervo once), and I have a total allergy to singing in languages I don't speak at least well enough to pass the time of day with a native speaker. I've always had a "why am I learning [x]? Because it's THERE" attitude to languages. Also, I'm probably mad.

[@amarug]

@@zoesouth7287 Wow, I am truly impressed, that is some dedication! I understand the "mad" part though, as for myself, I studied Japanese to complete "effortless fluency" in complete secret to prank my wife of 14 years on a holiday in Japan...

[@zoesouth7287]

@@amarug Pranks also always a good reason to learn a language! Outstanding work!

[@ainyc88]

Pure love. I’ve never been to Finland or have any connection with finish people (hopefully I will visit one day and meet some finish folks ), basically no practical use for me. But the love that I feel when I hear finish is unexplainable to me and I feel a need to know it. Even if I’d have to talk to myself only.

[@amarug]

@@ainyc88 that is amazing, thank you so much for your reply! i hope you have fun progressing and you meet some fun finnish folk to use it with

[@BlankRami]

I don't even know what I'm doing here. I'm supposed to work on German and am a native Farsi speaker.

[@85sharifa55]

Funny, I wanted to see films about Italian language, and here I am ( a finnish woman) and seeing films about learning finnish😄

[@BlankRami]

@@85sharifa55 lol. Is it interesting to learn about your own language through an English speaking channel? xD I wonder how the algorithm suggested this video to you.

[@thunderwing2124]

I'm supposed to be learning Swedish

[@Neko-gs4ip]

Kiitos, Aleksi!

[@StarshipTrooper4231]

Kiitoksia. Awesome video. I need some funnier shorter inputs in my learning progress. I know many words by now. But it is the suffixes that kills my inspiration. 😅

[@welshboo1]

In Wales we use the word -Cwtch also written as Cwtsh.. Pronounced like Kutch / kuch. It has several meanings. The most famous being a cuddle.

[@Oren618]

The second point raised (no future tense) is also the same in Japanese. though the verb at the end of the sentence. I will study Japanese tomorrow in Japanese = ashta nihongo o benkyou shimas. I study Japanese = nihongo o benkyou shimas. I know Japanese and Finnish have similarities, but didn't know about that one

[@GugureSux]

6:46 Wirhe Syömme/Syötte kohtien ENG käännösten kohdalla. "Syömme" = We Eat, "Syötte" = You (people) eat.

[@TheogRahoomie]

I’m currently learning French and Finnish will be my next language. My mom is Finnish and I know a lot of Finnish speakers. I actually wish I would have tackled Finnish before French but I’m to deep in French to change now.

[@ghenulo]

You'll never be finished learning French or any language.

[@TheogRahoomie]

@@ghenulo yes I’m deeply aware of that but at some point I’ll get to a point in French where I’m happy with my competency and then I’ll learn Finn.

[@krisztinabudur2957]

I like it this! I'm learning Finnish because it's a country close to my heart and I want to live and work there!

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff!

[@arclight2012]

I'm definitely not a Finnish learner but I am a language nerd and this video is awesome.

[@freebozkurt9277]

When people ask why Hungarians are not good in languages I always answer that the distance between A and B is the same as the distance between B and A. It is not just it is a nightmare for an Englishman or German to learn Hungarian but for us too it is a nightmare to learn the Indo-European languages. I remember first starting to learn a language at the age of 10. I did not even understand what this is all about. So for us I do not think English is a reverse pyramid. First you still have to get your head around it and understand the whole language concept. Of course others are even more difficult for a Hungarian, like German or Russian but all these are real pyramids. I guess even Japanese would be much easier to learn than English (If you do not need to learn the writing system, of course)

[@yalnizyildizebegumeci1841]

we Turkish people have hard time to learn foreign languages as well, especially speaking.

[@noqueq9003]

Don't care if it's easy or not, I love it. Been searching for a language interesting enough (to keep my attention and interest because I have focussing issues) and I'd get easily bored of all of them until I stumbled upon Finnish. I honestly find it one of the most unique languages I've heard and just so..different. Finnish stands alone in its own little language cloud, vibing to its own tune and I love that xD

[@Hash1Suspect]

I went from watching oldschool Runescape videos to this within 2 hours of recommended videos

[@aminahasani3163]

Please make these kinds of videos ❤

[@tioalex-px]

Hello Aleksi, how do you do the zoom transition in your video? Is there a tutorial for doing that or something that you could share? God bless you! :D

[@КириллЛасточкин-с6ь]

I just learning to this language several months and I can say that I down together with you that because of these different reasons this the wonderful language is easy than else languages and also I can say that there in my opinion really hard grammar part together with different difficult moments but I think that's may will overcome. Great channel 🇫🇮❤️.

[@DNA350ppm]

I totally agree! My pet peeve is when people who are no great language-lerners call Finnish a very difficult language, when it is NOT! Look, some try to describe Finnish as an "agglutinative language" (check if you understand Wikipedias explanation of this term, with Finnish as an example - bet you have to read it twice, even if English is your native language and you're not an linguist). Well that's mostly Latin and Greek, and the expression is in itself an example of agglutination. I think one should explain that Finnish is as easy as a childplay with lego, or as efficient as using tape for putting parts together. You quickly understand how they work, if you have a good teacher, textbook or grammar. The difficulty is on the English side of the equation, not the Finnish. I guess it is easier for Italians to get a grip on Finnish, for example. Do native English persons immediately observe the glue in agglutinative? Well, in long Finnish words, not loan words, Finns at once hear or see the simple building-blocks and understand their meaning. Even a young child att once knows what it is about, just by hearing, compare refrigerator - jääkaappi ~ ice+sideboard, negotiation - neuvottelu ~ advice+(ac)tion, compare with councelling bureau - neuvola ~ advice+place, and neuvo - advice, neuvoja - advice+person, congratulations - onnittelu ~ happiness+(ac)tion, exercise - harjoittelu ~ practice+(ac)tion imagination - kuvittelu ~ picture+(ac)tion So you can learn simple Finnish words, used in everyday since childhood, and then build on them for a varied vocabulary. book - kirja author - kirjailija library - kirjasto bookshop - kirjakauppa write - kirjoittaa letter - kirje envelope - kirjekuori

[@Harvey142009]

Native English speaker here (USA). English is a bit more figure it out and memorize it. In English the city of the government is the capital. The Finnish translation is pääkaupunki. It's formed by pää, meaning head, and kaupunki, meaning city. Pääkaupunki in literal English means 'head city'. For example / esimerkiksi: suomesta/Finnish: Helsinki on Suomen pääkaupunki. englanniksi/English: Helsinki is the *head city* of Finland. Even the agglutination makes things a bit easier bc you build up on stuff you already know/learned and can apply them to new things. This is where Finnish wins. It also wins in consistency. Every letter is pronounced exactly as it is. English is a bit more abstract and not obvious. You have to memorize the words, know the definitions and the different moving pieces. And the pronunciations vary wildly, so does spelling and verb conjugations. I even noticed that English words can be pronounced differently depending on the country, the sub unit (ie US states, countries of the UK etc), the speaker's accent to name a few reasons. Verb conjugation olla / to be: Present tense: Minä olen - I am Sinä olet - you are Hän on - he/she is Me olemme - we are He ovat - they are Past tense: Olin - I was Olit - you were Oli - he/she was Olimme - we were Olivat - they were Even if 'olla' verb is one of the irregular verbs in Finnish it's still consistent as a form of the root 'olla' is found. Compare to English where its equivalent 'to be' takes on different forms as above!

[@DNA350ppm]

@@Harvey142009 Indeed! How many English kids understand directly that "capital" has something to do with the head. (From Latin: caput, caitalis) All Finnish kids hear it immediately as soon as they know the most important parts of the body. You presented a very useful and clear example. In Finnish abstract concepts are derived from simpler, concrete concepts, adding simple markers which help you understand what is literal and what is abstract. But English has the proclivity to take a trip to Rome and Athens to import the words needed, though Greek and Latin have climbed up the same ladder of abstraction as Finnish does. I don't wonder that American kids don't have it as easy in school as Finnish kids have, whose teachers support kids to play and learn by doing, with very good results, far less struggle with reading and writing. English need a spelling reform, at least.

[@Harvey142009]

@@DNA350ppm it's quite a bit rote memorization and some application. You do apply things once you reach college level here in America (the first year college student is 18yr old on average). Americans know 'capital' in the sense of capital punishment, when the suspect is killed for murdering an innocent person. And 'capital' in English can also mean money, if you're talking about financial matters - 'Nokia's capital investments into the American market is a prime example of good business relations between Finland and the United States' as an example sentence for this definition. On another note I took Spanish (one of the other most widely spoken Indo European languages) when I was 16 & 17. I didn't get a chance to write an essay in Spanish. And a majority of the announcements are still in English (for example / esimerkiksi/ por ejemplo 'on Monday you will have a quiz over verb conjugations for the word 'ir' (to go in English, mennä in Finnish/Suomeksi). In American high schools, most students take Spanish (espanjan kieli / idioma español) as a foreign language, but French (ranskan kieli / langue française) is also another choice too. It's only in college that Americans finally get to immerse themselves in the materials. One of my college friends did a study abroad in Colombia in South America. And that's why his Spanish is way better than mine. He had the chance to fully immerse himself in the language and materials and to think like a native speaker. Finland is doing significantly better than America when it comes to teaching things whether it be languages or anything else. America and the rest of the world could learn from Finland indeed.

[@Harvey142009]

@@DNA350ppm I also forgot to add that American English is spelled the way it's supposed to sound, while British English is spelled the way it's spelled in the source language. For example: 🇺🇸 The *center* line is not where one would do most driving *maneuvers*. 🇬🇧 The *centre* line is not where one would do most driving *manoeuvres*. Notice how American English is spelled lthe way it's supposed to be said, while British English took alot of French influence. And over there, they don't spell it 'spelled' but rather 'spelt'. American English may be easier to learn and spell for languages that say exactly how it supposed to be said, like Finnish (Uralic) or for the Indo European group, Italian for example. America may be the land of spelling bees, but the work of Noah Webster has helped this country be clear. (Noah is pronounced 'know-uh')

[@DNA350ppm]

@@Harvey142009 This was very well put and nicely explained, Harvey! And I agree with your opinions 100%. I had Latin as my fifth language in High School/College (from 16-19 years old) in Finland - it is said to help with all languages. Yes, one has to memorize a lot, that's not so bad when you are young, but later it helps a lot if you can support the memory with logical thinking, connecting the dots, and other "tricks". I'm so happy that Finnish is one of your languages! You are a real bridgebuilder between cultures, and those are much needed.

[@dillonmachine2468]

Im a native English speaker who can speak Norwegian and its interesting how the letters Ä and Ö correspond to Norwegians Æ and Ø just like Swedish. It sounded like the Y sound was similar too. With Finland being a nordic country too, I guess I shouldnt be surprised.

[@davidaway753]

I love that the equivalent of the english phrase "It's Chinese for me" to describe something that you don't understand, is in Finnish "It's Hebrew for me" Because my native language is Hebrew and it makes it feel like we have some kind of a connection :)

[@flavioxy]

in english you can use the present continuous + adverb of time for the future

[@blagobanov2055]

It looks really simple and good sounding. Finish - one irregular verb, English - hundreds. I speak Czech, if i compare with the Finish - vesi (water) is one word. But in Czech depends on situations - (on the water, with water etc.) - voda, vody, vodě, vodu, vodou, vodami, vodách....

[@Ψυχήμίασμα]

It's the same in Finnish. Vesi is the nominative. But Vesi has 15 cases depending on the "situation" and number. It can be vettä, veden, vetenä, veteen, vesien, vesiä, vesissä, vesistä, vesiin, vedessä, vedelle, etc., etc. (in water, out of water, part of water, into water, from water, blah blah blah).

[@stylo9000]

As a native Tamil-English speaker, I find Finnish has many similarities to Tamil. Both are agglutinative languages with no articles, various cases marked by suffixes, with a distinction between long and short vowels and single vs double consonants, leading to a similar rhythmic feeling. I think languages with cases suffixes tend to have a lot of homonyms. For example, "enna" in Tamil can mean "what", or it can mean "me" (en-a, "en" meaning me and "a" being the accusative suffix). Because most words have a suffix indicating their function in the sentence, word order can be very flexible. One difference is that Tamil is head-final, meaning that like Japanese the main topic of the sentence always comes at the end. We also like to teach newbies tongue twisters :) Try this one, which I have written long vowels in the Finnish style ("ee" for /e:/ etc). The consonant sounds are slightly different but you can see similarity in the patterns of vowels. "eezhaik kizhavan vaazhaippazhaththoolmeel sarusarukki vazhuvazhukki kiizhee vizhundhaan" It means, The old man (on a banana peel--) slide-slidingly and slip-slippingly fell down!

[@0mgskillz96]

‘Koskea’ can also mean the partitive of ‘rapids’ (koski)

[@drychaf]

Hi, I just drove through Finland and wondered what the place name elements were. I guessed or researched the following... Järvi = lake lahti = bay joki = river la = place vesi = water kiven = stone kallio = rock mäki = hill niemi = peninsula What are... perä suo neva vaara (I used to know someone with that as a surname) aapa salmen kylä ...and can you suggest any other commonly used toponyms? Kiitos / diolch (that's my language - Welsh)

[@6St6Jimmy6]

btw the "-la" can also be "-lä". perä = far in the back is what it's often in place names. Kind of like far away from anything else. suo = swamp neva = swamp type that's open and treeless vaara = rocky hill. Also means danger, but in place names it means the first. aapa = related to a swamp again. The swamp goes down in the middle and is likely also more open in that area. salmen = strait's. Basic word is salmi = strait. kylä = village rinne = slope ranta = beach virta = stream puro = creek mylly = mill, grinder vuori = mountain saari = island, saaren = island's maa = ground, land

[@drychaf]

@@6St6Jimmy6 Very kind of you, thanks.

[@okaro6595]

La is not a word, many places have it as and. Sika = pig, sikala is where they live. Stone is "kivi", "kiven" is the genitive. Niemi is a cape, peninsula is niemimaa (cape + land) Perä means tail (of a ship for example, not one of a dog). Suo is swamp, neva is a specific type of swamp (one without trees), vaara is a type of mountain, it can also mean danger, aapa is again a swamp., salmen is the genitive of salmi (narrows). Kylä is village.