Finnish is a member of the Finnic group of the Uralic language family. There are quite a lot of grammar rules in our language since words don't often stay in their basic forms. Our language modifies and infect nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs and numerals depending on their roles in the sentence. There are 15 different grammatical cases in our language, these include postpositions (we also have separate words for postpositions).
Because of this, different words can become homonyms when they're modified (on top of already existing homonyms). One example of this would be the sentence "Kuusi palaa" which has nine meanings depending on the context.
- The meanings in case you want to know:
"Six pieces"
"The number six is on fire"
"The number six returns"
"The spruce is on fire"
"The spruce returns"
"Six of them are on fire"
"Six of them return"
"Your moon is on fire"
"Your moon returns"
There are eight vowels in our language with almost no allophony, and the stress of the word is always on the first syllable (unless we're talking about expressions since those are a different thing altogether).
Pronouns are often dropped in Finnish since verbs have personal suffixes for each person. Finnish has four tenses: present, past, perfect and pluperfect. We don't have a future tense because the context and telic contrast tell the time. You can also always use the equivalent of "I plan to" which would be "(Minä) aion". Finnish also has four different grammatical moods: indicative, imperative, conditional, and potentional.
Our language has two main varieties. The first one is the standard / written language, and the second one is the spoken language. There is a big difference between the two, and the standard one is used mainly in formal situations, news and writing. (When referred to written language, it's commonly called "kirjakieli" which translates to "book language".)
Some of the biggest differences between the two varieties are the length of sentences and selection of words. We shorten our words a lot in spoken language and use some slang words you won't hear in standard language. Our grammatical cases are often shortened in spoken language, too. This can make learning and understanding the spoken language difficult if you're not a native speaker since schools don't teach it. For example, the sentence "En minä käynyt siellä tänään" (I didn't go there today) is shortened to "En / E mä käyny siel tänää".
Here are some basic Finnish words and sentences: "Hello / Hi" - Hei / Moi, Moro, Terve ("Hei" is the most polite of these)
"Goodbye" - Näkemiin
"Farewell" - Hyvästi
"See you" - Nähdään
"How are you?" - Miten voit? / Mitä kuuluu?
"I'm doing good / I'm fine" - Ihan hyvin / Voin hyvin
"Good morning / afternoon / evening" - (Hyvää) huomenta/ päivää / iltaa
"Nice to meet you" - Hauska tutustua
"What are you up to?" - Mitä olet tekemässä? / Mitä puuhaat?
"Happy Birthday" - Hyvää syntymäpäivää
"I like you" - Pidän sinusta
"I love you" - Rakastan sinua
"I'm from -country-" - Olen kotoisin -country name- sta/stä/lta/ltä. (For example "Olen kotoisin Yhdysvalloista" (I'm from the US.) or "Olen kotoisin Saksasta" (I'm from Germany)
"I speak a little bit of Finnish" - Puhun vähän Suomea
"My name is -your name-" Nimeni on / Olen -your name-
"I was born in -month-" - Synnyin Tammi/ Helmi/ Maalis/ Huhti/ Touko/ Kesä/ Heinä/ Elo/ Syys/ Loka/ Marras/ Joulu+kuussa. (The months are written without the plus in between, for example Tammikuussa (In January))
"Where's the closest ladies' / gentlemen's room? Where's the closest restroom?" - Missä on lähin naisten / miesten huone? Missä on lähin vessa?
"Help!" - Apua!
Numbers: "One" - Yksi ("yks" in spoken language)
"Two" - Kaksi (often "kaks" in spoken language)
"Three" - Kolme (often "kol" in spoken language)
"Four" - Neljä (often "nel" in spoken language)
"Five" - Viisi (often "viis" in spoken language)
"Six" - Kuusi (often "kuus" in spoken language)
"Seven" - Seitsemän (often "seittemän" in spoken language)
"Eight" - Kahdeksan (often "kaheksan" in spoken language)
"Nine" - Yhdeksän (often "yheksän" in spoken language)
"Ten" - Kymmenen (often "kymmene" in spoken language)
"Eleven" - Yksitoista (often "ykstoist" in spoken language)
"Twelve" - Kaksitoista (often "kakstoist" in spoken language)
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"Twenty" - Kasikymmentä ("kakskyt" in spoken language)
"One hundred" - Sata
"Two hundred" - Kaksisataa (Often "kaksataa" in spoken language)
Ordinary numbers can be written as:
1st - 1. (ensimmäinen)
2nd - 2. (toinen)
3rd - 3. (kolmas)
4th - 4. (neljäs)
You will also run into different dialects of Finnish depending on where you go. The most creative are the Savonian dialects.
We also have loanwords from other languages; the older ones are mostly borrowed from Swedish while the newer ones are borrowed from English. Foreign TV programs, documents and movies are subtitled instead of dubbed with the exception of media targeted to small children.
Subject: [Finland] Language ![[Finland] Language I_icon_minitime](https://2img.net/s/t/21/09/42/i_icon_minitime.gif){kind=icon}
30th August 2015, 1:59 pm![[Finland] Language F_language_by_tsuki_no_kagayaki-d97wuz2](https://2img.net/h/orig04.deviantart.net/3ad6/f/2015/243/8/6/f_language_by_tsuki_no_kagayaki-d97wuz2.png)
I have always been fascinated by Finland. When I was a kid I did a book report on the country, though I have forgotten a lot of that over the years. 
