Finnish for busy people

Typical Features of Finnish Spoken Language – Puhekieli

Finnish spoken language differs considerably from written Finnish. As such, it’s generally considered a good idea to get acquainted with both of them at the same time. After all, you want to be able to understand people when you’re out and about. This article contains links to all the articles I have on Uusi kielemme related to typical features of Finnish spoken language.

[su_box title=”Table of Contents” style=”bubbles” box_color=”#a7cb4d”]

  1. Different types of spoken language
  2. Differences between written and spoken Finnish
    1. Vocabulary differences
    2. Conjugation differences
    3. Pronunciation differences
    4. Syntax differences

[/su_box]

1. Different types of spoken language

There are different types of Finnish spoken language. What type of spoken language is used depends on where you are and who you are talking to.

First, there’s yleiskieli: the spoken language used in the news or during a job interview. This version of spoken Finnish is the closest to written Finnish, though you will also hear some spoken language elements there.

Second, puhekieli is the type of spoken language you use among friends and colleagues. This is the spoken language version that is the topic of this article. In this register, there are many things that differ from written Finnish. All the spoken language features presented in this article are the type that will be present when people are talking to their friends.

Third, murre aka “slang” refers to the regional dialects that people use. These dialects can be extremely local and hard to understand for people from outside the community. The article you are currently reading doesn’t address regional spoken language because those features wouldn’t be useful to people living outside of the region in question. Maybe I will write some articles detailing the murre of certain groups of places later.

2. Differences between written and spoken Finnish

Finnish spoken language slightly differs from written Finnish in almost every way.

2.1. Vocabulary Differences

Spoken Written Spoken Language Articles
mä, sä, se minä, sinä, hän personal pronouns
tää, toi, se tämä, tuo, se demonstrative pronouns
tämmönen tällainen proadjectives
kakskyt, ysiysi
kaksikymmentä, 99 numbers in spoken language
roskis, idis
roskakori, idea words ending in -is
jälkkäri, hodari
jälkiruoka, hotdog words ending in -Ari

Check out this overview of spoken language vocabulary also!

2.2. Conjugation differences

Spoken Written Spoken Language Article
ne menee he menevät third person plural, “he
mä meen minä menen some verbs get shortened
nukkuun nukkumaan third infinitive gets shortened
me mennään me menemme first person plural, “me-passive”
me mentiin me menimme past tense “me-passive”
me mentäis me menisimme conditional “me-passive”

Also check out this article which contains more information!

2.3. Pronunciation differences

Description Spoken Written Spoken Language Article
d > ∅, r, l meiän, meirän meidän pöydällä vs pöyrällä
ts > tt seittemän seitsemän ts– is rare in spoken language
oa > oo; ia > ii
taloo, kahvii taloa, kahvia partitive’s ending will assimilate
ea > ee
hirvee, vaikee hirveä, vaikea assimilation of vowel clusters
diphthongs punanen, kotosin punainen, kotoisin diphthongs ending in –i shorten
i > ∅ viis, sano viisi, sanoi i at the end of words is dropped
t > ∅ tullu, menny tullut, mennyt NUT-participle is shortened
n > vähä, kouluu vähän, kouluun n at the end of words is dropped
a > talos, asemal talossa, asemalla a at the end of words is dropped
schwa vowel kylymä kahavi kylmä kahvi schwa vowel in some dialects

Check out this article for an overview with more details!

2.4. Syntax differences

Spoken language differs from written language in many ways: in spoken language sentences are shorter, there’s more repetition and unfinished sentences and the speaker can also use non-verbal communication such as facial expressions and gestures.

Spoken Written Spoken Language Article
Tuletsä? Haluuksä? Tuletko? Haluatko? -ko/kö questions
Tuletsä milloin? Milloin sinä tulet? Question word redundancy
Et sattuis tietään? Satutko tietämään? Negative questions
mun kirja, sun kuppi kirjani, kuppisi No possessive suffixes
Kun nousin ylös Noustessani ylös No temporal constructions
Jotta saisin apua Saadakseni apua No final constructions
Luulin että tiesin Luulin tietäväni No referative constructions
Shorter sentences Longer sentences
More repetition Less repetition
tota, tota tota, niinku (not used) Filler words when thinking
Se Pekka tuli taas
Pekka tuli taas More pronouns used

Check out this article for an overview with more details on syntax differences!

Read more elsewhere on the internet

[su_list icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#aadf67″ indent=”1″]

[/su_list]

3 Comments

  • mun kirja, sun kuppi on kirjani, kuppisi

  • When I was invited to a whatsApp group with my coworkers, it was the first time I was ever exposed to live spoken Finnish in written format. It was there that I began to believe that everything I knew about Finnish was wrong. Words you think can’t be shortened are shortened and what not. Partitive really put me down as I studied that more than anything only to find that vowals are changed to long vowels(like in this article) and have heard it in speech a few times haha.

  • Thanks for sharing. I read many of your blog posts, cool, your blog is very good. https://www.binance.info/fr/join?ref=W0BCQMF1

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *