Finnish Spoken Language Pronunciation
Finnish spoken language differs from written Finnish in many ways: there’s differences in the inflection of nouns, the conjugation of verbs, the formation of sentences and the pronunciation.
In this article, we’re looking at the Finnish spoken language pronunciation. We take a look at the phonology and phonotactics of Finnish spoken language and written Finnish and how they differ.
- Omission in common short words
- Omitting the -i at the end of a word
- In the basic form
- In the translative case -ksi → -ks
- For the possessive suffix -si → -s
- In the imperfect tense -i → Ø
- In the conditional -isi → -is
- Omitting the -t at the end of a word
- The NUT-participle
- Omitting the -n at the end of a word
- In the basic form
- In the mihin form
- In the passive
- Omitting the -A at the end of a word
- In the location cases
- In the plural partitive
- Letters disappearing within a word
- Diphthongs (e.g. oi, ai, ui)
- The consonant -d-
- The consonant cluster -ts-
- Assimilation of vowels
- Vowel clusters in base words
- Assimilation in the partitive case
- Assimilation in verbs
- Assimilation of consonants
- Assimilation of -n
- Assimilation of -t
- Elision of sounds
The most obvious difference between Finnish spoken language pronunciation and its written cousin is that words are often shorter in spoken language. This often affects the final letter(s) of a word, but there are also situations where the middle of the word is affected.
We’ll go over the phenomenons called omission, assimilation and elision. Omission means that letters aren’t pronounced: they are just left unsaid. Assimilation is when instead of being left unsaid, the sound of a letter is changed into a different sound due to the presence of another sound next to it. Elision is a term that refers to many sounds being left out, which changes the syllable structure of the sentence. Those are the main causes of changes in the Finnish spoken language pronunciation compared to written Finnish
1. Omission in Common Short Words
First, there is a group of high-frequency words of two syllables that get reduce to one syllable in spoken language. You will hear these again and again, so better get acquainted with them!
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
sitten | sit | “then” |
mutta | mut | “but” |
vaikka | vaik | “although” |
että | et | “that” |
kyllä | kyl | “yes, indeed” |
vielä | viel | “still” |
2. Omitting the -i at the end of a word
Most commonly, the last letter of a word is omitted when speaking Finnish. This is especially common with words and forms ending in an -i.
2.1. In the basic form
A select group of words ending in -i in their basic form will have this vowel omitted in spoken language. This is especially common in the numbers. You can read more about the numbers in spoken language here.
While I’m not sure what specifically makes these words eligible for losing their -i, it clearly follows the tendency of making common words of two syllables into one syllable words, as seen above.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
puoli | puol | “half” |
ensi | ens | “next” |
yksi | yks | “one” |
viisi | viis | “five” |
uusi | uus | “new” |
täysi | täys | “full” |
2.2. In the translative case -ksi → -ks
The translative case ending is very often shortened in spoken Finnish.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
anteeksi | anteeks | “sorry” (fossilized translative) |
päiväksi | päiväks | “for a day” |
huomiseksi | huomiseks | “for tomorrow” |
lääkäriksi | lääkäriks | “to be a doctor” |
2.3. For the possessive suffix -si → -s
In Finnish spoken language it is very common to omit possessive suffixes altogether. The second person singular possessive suffix -si, when used, can be shortened to -s.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
vaimosi | vaimos | “your wife” |
takkisi | takkis | “your coat” |
talossasi | talossas | “in your house” |
päähäsi | päähäs | “onto your head” |
2.4. In the imperfect tense -i → Ø
In the third person imperfect tense, we can omit the -i at the end of the verb when it creates a dipthong (e.g. oi, ai) or the ending is -si.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
sanoi | sano | “he/she said” |
istui | istu | “he/she sat” |
kysyi | kysy | “he/she asked” |
tiesi | ties | “he/she knew” |
halusi | halus | “he/she wanted” |
lainasi | lainas | “he/she borrowed” |
2.5. In the conditional -isi → -is
The conditional will lose its final -i in the third person singular. In addition, if there’s a vowel in front of the -isi like in siivoaisin or haluaisit, that first vowel will be omitted: siivoisin and haluisin (see section 6.1.).
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
tulisi | tulis | “he/she would come” |
lukisi | lukis | “he/she would read” |
hakkaisi | hakkais | “he/she would beat” |
tapaisi | tapais | “he/she would meet” |
3. Omitting the -t at the end of a word
Apart from the word nyt (spoken: ny), I haven’t been able to come up with any regular words that get their -t omitted. However, there is one large group of words ending in -t that fall under this category:
3.1. The NUT-participle
The active past participle, which appears in the imperfect, perfect and plusquamperfect tenses will lose its final -t in spoken language.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
en sanonut |
en sanonu | “I didn’t say” – Imperfect |
olin laulanut |
olin laulanu | “I had sung” – Plusquamperfect |
en tullut |
en tullu | “I didn’t come” – Imperfect |
ei ole pessyt |
ei oo pessy | “he/she hasn’t washed” – Perfect |
on halunnut |
on halunnu | “he has wanted” – Perfect |
ei ollut auennut |
ei ollu auennu | “it hadn’t opened” – Plusquamperfect |
4. Omitting the -n at the end of a word
4.1. In the basic form
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
sitten | sitte | “then” |
niin | nii | “so” |
vähän | vähä | “little, few” |
ainakin | ainaki | “at least” |
muuten | muute | “by the way” |
4.2. In the mihin form
The final -n at the end of the mihin-form is also prone to being omitted. This happens in the plural as well.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
kahvilaan | kahvilaa | “to the café” |
maahan | maaha | “to the ground” |
kouluun | kouluu | “to school” |
isompiin | isompii | “to larger x:s” |
papereihin | papereihi | “to papers” |
töihin | töihi | “to work” |
4.3. In the passive
While the final -n in the passive and the past passive can be omitted, it’s often also assimilated. See more about assimilation below!
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
puhutaan | puhutaa | “to talk” in the present passive |
tullaan | tullaa | “to come” in the present passive |
puhuttiin | puhuttii | “to talk” in the past passive |
mentiin | mentii | “to go” in the past passive |
5. Omitting the -A at the end of a word
5.1. In the location cases
The missä and mistä location cases are very commonly shortened in spoken Finnish, either by removing the -A, or two letters from the end of the case.
In addition, in several dialects, you will also come across missä-forms when the -s- is pronounced as a short sound. For example, tässä talossa could in some dialects appear as täsä talosa, while in regular spoken language you will hear täs talos.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
talossa | talos | “in the house” – Inessive case |
puistossa | puistos | “in the park” – Inessive case |
talosta | talost | “from the house” – Elative case |
puistosta | puistost | “from the park” – Elative case |
asemalla | asemal | “at the station” – Adessive case |
autolla | autol | “by car” – Adessive case |
asemalta | asemalt | “from the station” – Ablative case |
5.2. In the plural partitive
With words that have the -ja/-jä ending in the plural partitive, the last letter will often be dropped, which leaves the word with a -j- or -i- sound at the end. These are also often the target of assimilation.
The final -A will also be omitted from plural partitives ending in -ita/-itä, which leaves us with just a -t at the end of the word.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
katuja | katui | “streets” |
taloja | taloi | “houses” |
tulitikkuja | tulitikkui | “matches” |
kirjeitä | kirjeit | “letters” |
töitä | töit | “work” |
opiskelijoita | opiskelijoit | “students” |
6. Letters disappearing within a word
6.1. Diphthongs
Diphthongs ending in -i (e.g. oi, ai, ei) will in spoken language often lose their -i, even in the middle of words. This happens in both nouns and verbs. For verbs, this is especially clear in conditional forms, where -isi gets added to a vowel.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
punainen | punane(n) | “red” – Basic form |
iloinen | ilone(n) | “happy” – Basic form |
kotoisin | kotosi(n) | “originally” – Basic form |
takaisin | takas(in) | “back” – Basic form |
viimeinen | viimene(n) | “the last” – Basic form |
punaisessa | punases(sa) | “in the red” – Inessive case |
viimeisellä | viimesel(lä) | “on the last” – Adessive case |
tarkoittaa | tarkottaa | “to mean” – Basic form |
tarkoitan | tarkotan | “I mean” – 1sg present tense |
istuisin | istusin | “I’d sit” – 1sg conditional |
lähettäisit | lähettäsit | “You’d send” – 2sg conditional |
ottaisitko | ottasitko | “Would you take” – 2sg conditional |
6.2. The consonant -d-
I have a whole separate article about the pronunciation of the consonant -d- in Finnish here.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
pöydällä | pöyvällä, pöyrällä, pöylällä | “on the table” |
tehdään | tehään, tehhään, tehrään | “let’s do” |
lähden | lähen, lähhen, lähren | “I leave” |
meidän | meiän, meijän, meirän | “our, ours” |
6.3. The consonant cluster -ts-
The consonant cluster -ts– will be replaced with either one or two t’s in spoken language. Often (though not always) the weak and strong forms will follow the general consonant gradation rules. For example, of the verb katsoa, the infinitive because kattoa, but when conjugation you will generally hear mä katon, sä katot, se kattoo with the weak grade in the first and second person.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
katso | kato | “Look!” |
katson | katon | “I watch” |
katsoa | kattoo | “to watch” |
en viitsi | en viiti/viitti | “I can’t be bothered” |
etsin | etin | “I search” |
itse | ite, itte | “(my)self” |
seitsemän | seittemän | “seven” |
7. Assimilation of Vowels
All combinations of vowel clusters ending in -a can be the subject of assimilation, where the last vowel changes into the same sound as the vowel before. So, -oa- with become -oo-, -yä- will become -yy- and -ia- will become -ii-. While this is most common at the end of a word, you can also see it in the middle of words.
7.1. Vowel clusters in base words
Most commonly, you will find the vowel cluster -ea/-eä at the end of adjectives, but other vowel clusters also assimilate. Note how these words will have the assimilated vowel also when you put the word in a case.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
hirveä | hirvee | “terrible” |
vaikea | vaikee | “difficult” |
kipeä | kipee | “hurts” |
ainoa | ainoo | “the only” |
oikeastaan | oikeestaan | “actually” |
hirveästi | hirveesti | “terribly, horribly” |
vihreässä | vihreessä | “in the green” – Inessive case |
tärkeän | tärkeen | “of an important” – Genitive case |
7.2. Assimilation in the partitive case
When the singular partitive is added to a noun ending in a single vowel, the -a/-ä will assimilate to the vowel it was attached to.
The partitive ending for words like tärkeä (see 6.1.) will become -ta/-tä because they end in two vowels in spoken language (tärkee + tä).
The plural partitive will also be subject to assimilation (-ia will become -ii).
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
autoa | autoo | “car” – Partitive singular |
sivua | sivuu | “page” – Partitive singular |
lehteä | lehtee | “newspaper” – Partitive singular |
tärkeää | tärkeetä | “important” – Partitive singular |
tahmeaa | tahmeeta | “sticky” – Partitive singular |
kenkiä | kenkii | “shoes” – Plural partitive |
sukkia | sukkii | “socks” – Plural partitive |
kananmunia | kananmunii | “eggs” – Plural partitive |
7.3. Assimilation in verbs
You will also find assimilation in verbs, especially in the basic form of verbtype 1 (e.g. sanoa, kysyä, istua) and in the conjugated forms of verbtype 4 (e.g. haluan, siivoaa, tajuat).
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
itkeä | itkee | “to cry” – Basic form |
lähteä | lähtee | “to leave” – Basic form |
inhoan | inhoon | “I detest” – sg1 present tense |
en halua | en haluu | “I don’t want” – sg1 present tense |
et siivoa | et siivoo | “you don’t clean” – sg2 present tense |
se aukeaa | se aukee | “it opens” – 3sg present tense |
8. Assimilation of Consonants
Less clear than the assimilation of vowels is the assimilation of consonants. For some reason, it’s harder to hear when two consonants get assimilated. Another difficulty to recognize them is related to where these consonants are situated: often it’s the last consonant of a word and the beginning consonant of the next one.
8.1. Assimilation of -n
Cases that end in -n are the genitive and the mihin-form. In both of these cases, you can notice assimilation. The -n can also appear at the end of the passive.
Written | Spoken | Explanation |
---|---|---|
minun vaimo | minuv vaimo | “my wife” |
sateen jälkeen | sateej jälkeen | “after the rain” |
tavan mukaan | tavam mukaan | “as usual” |
uuteen ravintolaan | uuteer ravintolaan | “to the new restaurant” |
en mä | em mä | “I don’t” |
mennään meille | mennääm meille | “let’s go to my place” |
juodaan viiniä | juodaav viiniä | “let’s drink wine” |
8.2. Assimilation of -t
The final -t of the NUT-participle can just disappear in spoken language, but if it’s followed by another word that starts in a consonant, it’s often also likely that the second consonant will be doubled.
Written | Spoken | Translation |
---|---|---|
En sanonut mitään. | En sanonum mitään. | I didn’t say anything. |
Et tullut kotiin. | Et tulluk kotiin. | You didn’t come home. |
En saanut sitä. | En saanus sitä. | I didn’t get it |
En halunnut puuroa. | En halunnup puuroo. | I didn’t want porridge. |
9. Elision of Sounds
Last but not least, in spoken language we can sometimes skip a whole bunch of letters. For example “Minulla ei ole” can become “Mulla ei ole“, but through the use of elision, we can still make it shorter until we get “Mull‿eioo“.
Written | Spoken | Translation |
---|---|---|
mulla ei ole | mull‿eioo | “I don’t have” |
tämä on mun | tää‿ommun | “this is mine” |
täällä on | tääll‿on | “over here is” |
siellä oli | siell‿oli | “there was” |
minä olen | m‿oon | “I am” |
Just reading these examples won’t give you the whole picture unfortunately. What’s so interesting about these is that they break up the stress rhythm. Through elision, we remove the second syllable of the first word. In a regular sentence the secondary stress would have been on the second word (e.g. mulla EI ole; tämä ON mun), but because a syllable gets dropped, the neutral stress is now on the next word (e.g. mulleiOO; tääomMUN). We can of course change the stress while speaking as needed, but it’s interesting to see how elision changes the pattern.
Read more elsewhere
- Pro gradu: Sanojen lyhentyminen eräiden porilaisnuorten puheessa
- Pro gradu: Puheenomaisten piirteinen ilmeneminen erityyppisissä suomalaisissa kirjoitetuissa teksteissä
- The book Kato hei – puhekielen alkeet (Maarit Berg – Leena Silverberg)
- The book Finnish: A comprehensive Grammar (Fred Karlsson)
That’s it for this article on Finnish spoken language pronunciation! I will be working on other spoken language articles in the future, so check back then!
Regarding 5, leaving out the A at the end: How about singular partitive, ‘maa kiertää aurinkoa’? There is no hint of an ‘a’ in the pronunciation by a native Finnish speaker in Glossika.
PARTITIIVI used to be -tA in singular and -itA in plural.
the t disappears between two vowels.
autota (original) autoa (modern)
the t is conserved between a consonant and a vowel (ihmis+tä) ihmistä. Similarly it’s conserved after a stressed syllable (tä+tä=tätä)
(other examples: kirjainta, koota, kokoa, ihmistä, kampaa, eläintä)
In the form where the t has been lost, the a/ä sound tends to assimilate to the previous vowel, thus making it long:
(autoa, korua, maitoa) become (autoo, koruu and maitoo)
They can’t drop a, because then it wouldn’t be clear whether you’re talking about the nominative or partitive form of the noun.
However, in the words that have conserved the t of -tA or -itA, the final vowel (A) can be dropped.
ihmistä->ihmist,
Dropping the A of -ta is especially common in nen words (s+ta) naista->naist
Dropping of a is also very common in -ita and -ja words
(modern) autoja (orig. autoita) spoken autoi
j cannot occur at the end of a word nor are there three vowels together. So, the j returns back to the original sound /i/
veneitä -> veneit
ta->t
ja->i
ita->it
oa->oo
ua->Uu
ia->ii
ea->ee
Vaikea->vaikee
puhua->puhuu
katsoa->kattoo
So, in Helsinki you can hear
ihmistä or ihmist
autoa or autoo.
Kiertää is a verb that requires the object to be either in the partitive or accusative case. Aurinko is in the partitive case.
Maa kiertää aurinkoa will be transformed into Maa kiertää aurinkoo in the spoken language. (au-rin-koo)
After assimilation, there is one syllable less than before (au-rin-koo vs. au-rin-ko-a). So, it’s more efficient to assimilate the vowel
I have had another listen to the example ‘Maa kiertää aurinkoa’. The o at the end might be pronounced as a double o by the native speaker but for somebody like me it is hard to tell. Spoken Finnish is harder than I thought.
Section 7 actually mentions -oa becoming -oo.
Yeps, most of the things Pasi mentioned in this comment are already in the list, they’re just not specifically focused on the partitive like his comment is 🙂
For some speakers the double o is so subtle it is indeed extremely hard to hear it.