This article is focused around how to say FOR in Finnish. This topic was suggested by Cass in our Discord server:

So let’s take a look at this very complicated word!

1. The Problem With this Article

English is a messy language, so when asking how to say FOR in Finnish, we’re basically asking how to express dozens of different things that all happen to have this one word in common. Because “for” has so many meanings in English – many of which are just phrases – it’s hard to translate any sentence straight from English to Finnish.

There are very few tendencies where the English and Finnish way of saying something can be translated one way and one way only. Usually there are many ways, both in English and in Finnish, to say the same thing. For example, “What did you do that for?” could just as well be “Why did you do that?”. The following three sentences all mean the same thing and all work. Only one uses “for”:

• I need it for studying.
• I need it to study.
• I need it in order to study.

I’m doing my best in this article to point out some general tendencies but the categories below are far from exhaustive. I’m pointing out some regularities, but since both English and Finnish have several ways to express these phrases, there is no way to give any complete overview of these phrases without doing months of research.

2. Most Common Ways to Translate “For”

Here’s the list of forms that I found to be most often common as a translation for “for” in Finnish.

• the allative (-lle): e.g. Tämä on sinulle “This is for you”
• the mihin-form: e.g. Tarvitsen sen kouluun “I need it for school”
• the translative (-ksi): e.g. Syön puuroa iltapalaksi “I eat porridge for supper”
• “varten”: e.g. Tulin tänne sinua varten “I came here for you”
• “takia”: e.g. Minkä takia tulit tänne? “What did you come here for?”
• “puolesta”: e.g. Olen iloinen sinun puolestasi “I’m happy for you”

3. “For” Expressing Who Something is Meant For

The intended recipient of a thing – the person for whom something is meant – will in Finnish often appear in the allative case (-lle).

4. “For” Expressing What Something is Used For

When you want to express that you use a thing to fulfill a certain function or purpose, Finnish fairly often uses the mihin-form, while in English you can use “for”. Often the function is an action, which in Finnish will appear in the minen-form’s illative (e.g. maalaaminen → maalaamiseen).

5.”For” Expressing What Something is Meant For

If something is specifically created for something, English can also use “for”, while Finnish sometimes uses varten. While the word order in these sentences puts varten at the end like we do with postpositions, varten actually requires the partitive case for the word it’s related to (e.g. kloonausta varten).

6. “For” Expressing What Purpose You Do Something For

When you do something for a purpose – and the purpose is an abstract noun – the translative case (-ksi) can be used.

7. “For” Expressing Support, Favor or Benefit

All the sentences below are similar in meaning: they all express one of the following:

• in support of (a person or policy)
• in favour of (a person or policy)
• on behalf of (a person or policy)
• to the benefit of (a person or policy)

8. “For” Expressing a Length of Time or Distance

English seems to use “for” with several different types of expressions of time. First, if we’re expressing an intended time span, Finnish will generally utilize the translative case (-ksi) (#1). Second, if we’re expressing a realized time span, Finnish won’t use any case at all and just state the time span (#2), or use the genitive if there’s only one of the time increment (#3). This is also true for distances (#4). In negative sentences, we will use the mihin-form for the time span (#5).

9. “For” Expressing a Location or Destination

Finnish uncomplicates location and destination sentences by just using the general missä-mistä-mihin system. So, “for” will either be translated as “to” or as “in”, depending on the sentence.

10. “For” Expressing What Can be Expected

This is a pretty minor use of the preposition “for” in English, but I’m adding it anyway.

 11. “For” in English Phrasal Verbs

Both English and Finnish have “rections”. In English, these are called “phrasal verbs”, which usually come with prepositions (e.g. to wait for, to listen to, to depend on, to be good at). Finnish also has verb rections, but these only very rarely match up with the English rections. Below, you can find some English “for” verbs and their Finnish translation.

12. “For” in English Phrases

There you are! Those are some of the many ways of how to say FOR in Finnish. I think this could definitely be the topic of a dissertation in comparative linguistics. I’ve only scraped at the top of the iceberg of how to say FOR in Finnish. I’ll leave it to someone wiser than me to give a more complete picture!

Related posts:

Finnish Postpositions – Edessä Takana Vieressä The Inflection of Postpositions – Finnish Grammar Adverbs of Location: Täällä, Kaikkialla, Ylhäällä Yllä Ylle Yltä Yläpuolella Ylhäällä Yli – What’s the Difference