Modal adverbs (modaaliset adverbit) express how likely the speaker finds what they’re saying to be true (e.g. maybe, probably, certainly). In other words, these are adverbs that express (un)certainty, (im)probability and (un)likelihood.

While this page lists a large variety of adverbs and gives you one example sentence, the usage of these words can be limited to certain situations. Some of them are more official than others. Some only appear in certain types of sentences. Some are just plain too rare to be necessary to learn early on in your Finnish studies.

As such, these lists are lacking the fine details. Nevertheless, I hope you find these useful. I have marked the easiest and most common words in green below.

1. Adverbs that Express Certainty

The following adjectives all express certainty: the speaker considers the statement to be correct.

2. Adverbs that Express Likelihood and Uncertainty

These following adverbs express likelihood, unlikelihood and uncertainty. While the adverbs above were all pretty close in meaning, the ones below have more variation in how likely the speaker thinks something is.

You can find an overview of other types of adverbs here!

Probability can also be expressed in other ways, for example by conjugating verbs in the potential mood or with certain auxilliary verbs like mahtaa, taitaa and saattaa.

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