The main focus of this article is timespans: from when until when something took place. This is useful in many situations. You use timespans like this when describing a store’s opening times (from 8 to 5), the duration of your vacation (from June until August) or the duration of your studies (from 2004 until 2017).

There are quite a few other pages on my website as well that deal with expressions of time. I will be linking other relevant articles in each section.

1. Timespans of Hours

When you want to express from what time until what time something happens, you will use the mistä and mihin form of the numbers. If you’re a beginner, read more about telling the time in Finnish first.

1.1. From eight to five

Finns use the 24-hour system when writing down the time in numbers, for example: klo 8.00-17.00. However, when speaking Finnish, it’s common not to mention whether the 8 in “8 AM to 5 PM” is in the morning or the evening. It is generally clear based on the context: “from 8 to 5” generally doesn’t mean “from 8 PM to 5 AM”. If it does mean that, you should specify it, as I’ve done in section 1.2.

It is possible to add the word kello when explaining timespans as well: “Liike on avoinna kello kahdeksasta viiteen.” Leaving it out – like in the examples below – is common.

1.2. From eight in the morning to five in the afternoon

When you do want to specify the AM and PM in these phrases, you have multiple ways of doing so. First, it’s possible to use the 24-hour system to specify the difference between morning and evening.

However, just like in the previous section – if it’s clear from the context – you can just use “viiteen” instead of “seitsemääntoista“.

You can also add the prefixes “aamu-” and “ilta-“. This is used fairly often, so you’re likely to hear this in everyday life. Again, this is generally only used when the context doesn’t make it 100% clear whether we’re talking about AM or PM.

1.3. From half eight to quarter past nine

Even when you’re not dealing with “round” numbers (such as 8:00), you can use the mistä and mihin forms to express a timespan. This is generally hard for second language learners to get the hang of.

1.4. Between eight and five

When something happens somewhere between two times, we can use the genitive case combined with the postposition välillä “between”. This doesn’t express the exact timespan. Rather, it gives the rough timespan within which something happened.

2. Timespans of Days

2.1. Days of the week in timespans

The days of the week can also be inflected in the mistä and mihin forms to express a time span.

2.2. Dates – From date until date

If you’re a beginner, I suggest you first read up on the theory related to telling the date.

Expressing how long something lasts using dates is a little bit tricky in Finnish:

• It’s easiest to say the month before the day, and inflect the month in the genitive case.
  (e.g. joulukuun 3. “the third of December”)
• You use the ordinal numbers (list) and inflect those in the mistä and mihin forms.
  (e.g. viidennestä “from the third” rather than viidestä “from three”)
• Adding päivästä and päivään helps make clear that you’re talking about dates.
• The whole phrase can be translated as e.g. “from the sixth day of January to the third day of March”: tammikuun kuudennesta päivästä maaliskuun kolmanteen päivään.

Concerning the last example in the table above, the full date for the mihin form would be “joulukuun kolmanteenkymmenenteenensimmäiseen päivään“. However, there is little reason to use this when you can just use the word viimeinen “last”.

3. Timespans of Months

4. Timespans of Years

Finnish numbers can become very long when inflected. This is the most apparent with years, e.g. the year 1839 is tuhatkahdeksansataakolmekymmentäyhdeksän. While it is absolutely possible to add e.g. the mistä form to this number (tuhannestakahdeksastasadastakolmestakymmenestäyhdeksästä), this is luckily not used when we’re expressing from when the when a timespan of years lasts.

Let’s take a look at the different ways to read 2016-2020 out loud in Finnish:

• You can inflect the word vuosi in the mistä and mihin form, while the number remains in its basic form: “vuodesta kaksituhattakuusitoista vuoteen kaksituhattakaksikymmentä”
• You can also use vuosien in combination with välillä:
  “vuosien kaksituhattakuusitoista ja kaksituhattakaksikymmentä välillä“
• You can also use the word viiva “dash”, but this is frowned upon by some speakers:
  “vuonna kaksituhattakuusitoista viiva kaksituhattakaksikymmentä”
• It’s also possible to use the word vuosina and say both years in a row:
  “vuosina kaksituhattakuusitoista kaksituhattakaksikymmentä”

4.1. From the year until the year

I would suggest you get used to the first method I mentioned, as it’s the clearest and probably the most common:

4.2. Combining months and years

When you want to mention both the month and the year, you will inflect the months in the mistä and mihin form, while the year is read out loud without any case endings.

4.3. I’ve lived in Finland since…

I can imagine that students who have moved to Finland would like to say that they’ve lived in Finland from, for example, January 2018. In these cases, you will use the mistä form for the month, but say the year in regular numbers without any case endings. It’s common to add lähtien, alkaen or asti in these phrases. All three of these words mean “starting from”.

5. Overview of the numbers in the mistä and mihin forms

I’m listing the mistä and mihin forms of the numbers 1-24 below because these are the ones used when talking about time. However, do realize that the bigger numbers are generally not used. For example, klo 20-23 is normally said as “kello kahdeksasta yhteentoista” rather than “kello kahdestakymmenestä kahteenkymmeneenkolmeen“. You can read more about the inflection of ordinal numbers here.

6. Overview of the ordinal numbers in the mistä and mihin forms

The ordinal numbers are used in dates, much like in English. For example, 1.1.-5.1. is read out load as “tammikuun ensimmäisestä päivästä viidenteen päivään“. I’m listing the numbers up to 31 because of the number of days in a month.

Read more about timespans elsewhere on the internet:

Related posts:

Telling the Time in Finnish: Mitä kello on? Questions of Time – Ajanilmaukset Ajanilmaukset – Expressions of Time – Example Sentences The Months – Kuukaudet