🇫🇮 The “problem” with Finnish…A Teacher’s Perspective

This is a personal linguistic reflection on why Finnish can feel both extremely logical and extremely difficult to learn at the same time.

Long read, if you only have a few moments to spare, I suggest to read sections “9. Finnish can be learned” & “10. My teaching approach” (tap to jump to 9) and perhaps bookmark this article or email a copy to yourself for later reading.

Also a continuation of my recent, perhaps slightly humorous article about wolves. If you missed it, you can find it here:  Are you just trying to survive Prisma…including a story about wolves. 

Read at your own risk. It might help with your learning, it might drown any tiny desire to ever learn Finnish, or it might simply be some pastime or help you sleep. In any case, I will be very grateful to whoever gets to the end.
Please leave a comment 🙂 Thank you.

If you are serious about studying Finnish, this article will provide you valuable information to support you in your learning journey and how to frame your learning.  

The main idea for the article

Finnish is often described as difficult because of its cases, endings and word forms. But the more I think about it as a native speaker and as a teacher, the more I think the real difficulty is not simply that Finnish has “a lot of grammar”.

The deeper issue is this:

Finnish can be extremely precise, but the precision often sits inside the word form, the sentence structure, and the situation, not in separate little words the way it often does in English.

English often explains relationships with separate words: in, into, from, with, for, should, would, might, some, the, a, back, there, here. Finnish can place a large part of that information inside the noun, the verb, the sentence pattern, or the shared situation. One word can express many things depending on the situation. 

💡 Research note: [tap to see more]

Kotus describes Finnish as a Uralic language where grammatical relationships are typically expressed by adding endings and suffixes to the word stem. Finnish has 15 cases, and other attachable elements include verb person endings, possessive suffixes, clitic particles and derivational endings. 

This technical fact matters for you, the learners, because Finnish is not just “English with different words”. It organises meaning differently and usually depends on the situation, either present, past or future. And here, I am not referring to verb tenses but the actual and complete real-life situation that is taking place, where Finnish is to be used. 

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1. Finnish noun endings do much more than replace English prepositions

A common explanation is that Finnish cases replace English prepositions.

That is useful at the beginning, but it is also too simple from a language point of view. 

Finnish case endings do not only say “in”, “from” or “to”. They often describe the relationship between the person, the place, the action and the situation.

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2. Finnish object endings can describe completion, quantity and result

One of the clearest examples of Finnish precision is the object, and the well known partitive case (omg, feels like I am using swear words, my apologies). 

💡 Research note: [tap to see more]

VISK (Verkko-Iso Suomen Kielioppi) describes the partitive as commonly carrying the meaning of unboundedness: an indefinite quantity, a mass or set, or a situation presented without an endpoint. With objects, the partitive can relate to negation, quantitative indeterminacy, or unbounded aspect.

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3. Finnish can distinguish “something wrong” with very fine precision

This is the kind of example that is difficult for learners but obvious to natives.

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4. Finnish verbs can carry person, mood, uncertainty and tone inside one word

Finnish verb forms can contain information that English often needs several words to express.

Men-isi-n-kö-hän contains movement, conditionality, first person, question-like uncertainty and a soft thinking-aloud tone. Each ‘block’ or part of the word construction carries a meaning.

English needs a whole sentence with the tone also added by saying (almost in whisper to yourself):

I wonder if I should maybe go.

As a beginner, pre-intermediate, intermediate or even advanced learner, you do not need to worry about this. Any normal person would not expect you to be able to construct such things when speaking Finnish. Feel free to leave that to the weird native Finns who love to use their language in their own weird and wonderful way 🙂

What is important to learners is to appreciate that these possibilities and the whole Finnish system exist. You can begin to recognise and use basic words and common noun endings early on, and you will be able to communicate in everyday situations.

But there will be time when you hear a native person speak, and they will use a form that is unfamiliar to you and you might get lost in a conversation. It is not a time to panic! You just need to to remember that only the natives (as far as I know) are able to construct monstrosities such as ‘Menisinköhän?’ and even if you recognise a part of the word, feel free to clarify, “I heard about going somewhere, could you clarify what you meant?”, and we will be more than happy elaborate so that you can also ponder the same life questions with us – to go, or not to go?

💡 Research note: [tap to see more]

Kotus lists verb person endings and clitic particles such as tulethan, sinäkin, Timokaan and onpas as elements that can attach to Finnish word stems. VISK also describes -hAn as a particle that can soften an utterance, make it more suggestion-like, or appeal to shared knowledge depending on the context.

This is not “extra grammar for no reason”. It is compression.

Finnish can pack a whole attitude into one word. Isn’t it wonderful? 

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5. Finnish can be precise and context-dependent at the same time

This is THE paradox. This is where even a native speaker’s or teacher’s brain (including mine) can get a bit jumbled up. I have extreme and unconditional admiration for any professor, linguist or academic who have spent their lives and lifetimes deciphering the ins and outs of Finnish. Hat’s off to them 🎩  

Let’s continue, Finnish can be extremely precise in the form, but at the same time the full meaning may depend heavily on context.

The verb tulen does not automatically mean “come back to the exact place where I started”. It points towards the relevant place in the shared situation.

This is why “it depends on context” is true, but not enough as a teaching answer.

A better teaching explanation is:

Finnish often gives the grammatical shape, but the situation gives the final target.

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6. Finnish often leaves the actor unnamed

This is another major difference from English.

But even that is not perfect.

The Finnish sentence can cover several of these meanings because the person is not the point. The action and the social frame are the point.

This connects with what linguists call zero-person constructions. Lea Laitinen’s work on Finnish zero person describes constructions where there is no overt subject, and the interpretation is built through interaction and human experience rather than a named person.

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7. Why this makes Finnish feel difficult

For many adult learners, this is hard because adult learners want to know why.

They want to understand why Finnish chooses one form and not another.

And the honest answer is:

Because Finnish is constantly asking: what is the relationship between the person, the thing, the action, the result, and the situation?

ALSO

Precisely because of this, we can understand you, even if you use the wrong ending or form.

Our brains are hardwired to read the situation long before your brain completed the translation and searched for the correct ending or form.

It is true that the meaning changes with the ending, but the situation did not and we know what you were trying to say, or what you meant to say.

Do not worry, it is inherent in the Finns to decode situations, not only the language.

If you take anything from this article, please take this comfort. And I hope I speak on behalf of most Finns when I say this is true: we can understand you, and no, we do not find it funny if you use the wrong ending.
We appreciate the intricacies of our language, and we are happy to support you or correct you, if you wish.

So moving on, this brings us to translations. It is often possible to translate word-for-word but it is highly unlikely to give you an accurate Finnish reply or sentence to a situation if the situation is abstract or unknown. 

That sounds complicated, but it is also the key to making Finnish easier.

The problem is not that learners do not understand, or teachers struggle to give accurate answers. The problem is that Finnish cannot simply be viewed through an English-shaped system. 

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8. Why your Finnish teacher keeps asking “what happened before?”

However, as a learner, you do not need to worry about this too much. You can communicate very effectively with simple, practical Finnish.

Even at quite high levels, people can function well without understanding every layer of this system.

9. The important message: Finnish can be learned

Finnish is not impossible.

Finnish is friendly.

Finnish is learnable because it is not random.

The endings are not chaos. They are signals.

In the beginning, as a learner you do not need to master the whole system. You need enough Finnish to function.

Most, if not all, people learning Finnish do not aim to become native-level speakers. They need to survive daily life, speak to people, understand common situations, and slowly build confidence.

There is also a realistic point here: reaching fully native-like ability as an adult is not the usual outcome in second-language learning. Large-scale research on second-language acquisition suggests that age of first exposure strongly affects the likelihood of native-like ultimate attainment, although adults can still reach high and very useful levels of proficiency.

So the goal does not need to be, and usually isn’t, “become a native Finn”.

The usual goal is:

Understand enough. Speak enough. Participate enough. Keep going.

Finnish is different from many languages but the basics of learning it are the same as many others too. You can learn 15-25 verbs, pronouns of course, basic everyday nouns and how to say where from, at in and so on.
And you are good to go take the bus, go to a cafe, go shopping etc.

And honestly, that is already a lot. It is enough to start living life in Finnish, not just studying Finnish.

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10. My teaching approach

I do not teach Finnish as:

Here are 15 cases. Memorise them.

And I do not teach it as:

It depends on context. Good luck.

I frame it more like this:

Let’s learn it bit by bit.
Let’s see where the patterns occur.
Let’s learn one situation at a time.
Let’s learn the basics first, and then slowly build the bigger picture.

My own conclusion, after teaching Finnish (and thinking about languages far too much), is that you, the learners, do not need to attack the whole Finnish case system at once, nor do you need to feel being attacked by it.

Yes, Finnish has 15 cases. Yes, they exist. Yes, you will probably see a big scary table somewhere and wonder what life choices led you to that moment.

But for everyday communication, there are a smaller number of central forms that matter first.

In practical terms, I usually start with around six central case functions. But I do not teach them as one perfect table with one perfect noun, because real language is not a perfect table.

*I don’t even like shopping, it’s all lies.

Everything should be based on real-life situations. And if you have read this far, you already know me a little bit, so this is also a real-life situation for you 🙂 

Of course, other cases appear very quickly too, especially forms like Marialla, Marialta, Marialle. But the point is not to pretend the rest of Finnish does not exist.

The point is to give you a realistic starting map.

Once these core relationships begin to make sense, you will already be able to communicate many normal things in everyday life:

going to a café, ordering food, asking where something is, talking about where you are going, where you came from, what you did, what you bought, what you need, and what happened.

That is central to how I teach Finnish.

Let’s not try to eat the whole elephant in one go. Let’s take it bite by bite, bit by bit. With each small piece, the picture becomes clearer and the elephant gets smaller and smaller.

(Not that I suggest that anybody should eat elephants. It is a metaphor. Please leave the elephants alone.)

Finnish can be made very logical from the beginning when it is taught in the right order and through real situations.

You need to be taken on a journey of understanding, not hit over the head with monstrous grammar and expected to remember everything by force.*

* Albeit, may the force be with you.

Because memory is unreliable.

Human memory is often the first thing that fails when learning a language. If a learner is only told:

then the brain has to store a long list of disconnected information. And disconnected information is easy to lose (like your phone, keys, things like that, same category really).

That is why I prefer to guide you, the learner, through the logic of the form:

Why is this ending here?
What relationship does it show?
What is happening in the situation?
What does this form help the listener understand?

When the learner engages their own brain and goes through the process of understanding, the information has a much better chance of staying there.

This is not about making grammar heavier. It is the opposite.

It is about making grammar meaningful.

A Finnish ending is not just an ending. It is often a small instruction telling the listener how to understand the situation.

So instead of asking only:

What does this word mean?

you can slowly learn to ask:

What is this form doing?

That question changes everything.

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Working conclusion

Finnish is not difficult because it is illogical.

Finnish appears difficult because it is logical in a different way.

It can be extremely precise, but the precision is often stored in places English speakers are not used to looking: endings, verb forms, object cases, missing subjects, small particles and shared context.

But you do not need to worry about every nuance from the beginning.

You do not need to understand every possible shade of Finnish before you start speaking.. You do not need to sound native to communicate.

The aim is not to decode every possible meaning like a native speaker from day one.

The aim is to introduce the patterns gradually, one useful situation at a time.

Finnish is not random.

It is structured.

It is precise.

And yes, it can be learned.

It can even be fun, when it is taught as a system of meaning instead of a monster list of endings.

Give it a try and join one of my courses 🙂

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One tiny final note

If you have read this far, huge congratulations.

Even if you only skim-read, I appreciate it very much.

I would love to hear something in the comments, even if it is just:

I read it.
I got to the end.
Still here.

It helps me know that writing these articles is worth it, and it also helps keep me going.

Thank you again for reading, and if you are a learner of Finnish, hope to see you in class.