Basic Adjectives and Opposites
If you’re just getting started with Finnish, these basic adjectives and opposites are a fun way to start. When learning them as pairs, you can learn two with half the effort. Knowing the one will remind you of the other.
Adjectives are the answer to the question “millainen?”. You can learn more about interrogatives (aka question words) on my website as well!
| Finnish | English | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| uusi | new | vanha | old |
| iloinen | happy | surullinen | sad |
| kaunis | beautiful | ruma | ugly |
| pitkä | long, tall | lyhyt | short |
| terve | healthy | sairas | sick |
| lihava | fat | laiha | skinny |
| paksu | thick | ohut | thin |
| nuori | young | vanha | old |
| auki | open | kiinni | closed |
| täysi | full | tyhjä (pic) | empty |
| kallis | expensive | halpa | cheap |
| vaikea | difficult | helppo | easy |
| rikas | rich | köyhä | poor |
| kuuma | hot | kylmä | cold |
| kuiva | dry | märkä (pic) | wet |
| valoisa | bright | pimeä | dark |
| vihainen | angry | rauhallinen | calm |
| sotkuinen | messy | siisti (pic) | tidy |
| leveä | wide | kapea | narrow |
| pehmeä | soft | kova | hard |
| painava | heavy | kevyt | light |
| terävä | sharp | tylsä | blunt |
| hauska | funny | tylsä | boring |
| hidas | slow | nopea | fast |
| korkea | high | matala | low |
| hapan | sour | makea | sweet |
| fiksu | smart | tyhmä | stupid |
| kiltti | good | tuhma | naughty |
| ahkera | hard-working | laiska | lazy |
| likainen | dirty | puhdas | clean |
| vahva | strong | heikko | weak |
| ilmainen (pic) | free of charge | maksullinen | costs |
If you are interested in sayings, you can learn some sayings with basic adjectives! You can also learn the names of the colors in Finnish!
If you’ve been wondering when to use vaikea and when kova, you can find out in this article on how to say “hard” in Finnish.
Important! Note that the adjectives will inflect in the same cases as the word they’re connected to. This means that if the noun has -ssa at the end of it, the adjective also should have the -ssa ending. This is true for all the cases. For example, we’ll say pitkä sohva (long couch), but pitkällä sohvalla; (on the long couch); likewise vahva juoma (the strong drink) becomes vahvat juomat (the strong drinks).
