Expressing your opinion is a big part of everyday conversations. In this article, we will go through the most common ways of expressing your opinion. I’m focusing on common phrases used when talking with people.

1. Using Verbs to Express a Feeling

There are multiple verbs you can use when expressing your opinion through feelings. This page just contains the basic verbs. We have separate pages on other negative and positive feeling verbs.

In the table below, you can find a sentence with each verb, with three things you might have feelings about: sinä (you), suklaa (chocolate) and ratsastaminen (horse riding). You can find out more about the verbs tykätä and pitää on our separate page.

2. Using Phrases to Express your Opinion

The translations for the following phrases aren’t literal translations. I translated them the way you’d say them in English. All of these phrases below are very commonly used.

2.1. Overview of phrases

2.2. Examples of “minusta“

We can add the elative case to express what someone’s opinion is. For example, we can turn minä into minusta when we want to say “in my opinion”. As you can see below, we can do this for all the personal pronouns as well as for names and nouns.

2.3. Examples of “minun mielestäni“

Another way to say “in my opinion” in Finnish is to use minun mielestäni. This phrase is used in the exact same way as minusta, so you just follow up the phrase with a statement expressing your opinion. In spoken language, we can leave out the possessive suffix and just say mun mielestä. Using both the pronoun and the possessive suffix sounds very official.

2.4. Examples of “minusta tuntuu, että“

2.5. Examples of “luulen, että“

For the following sentences, it’s important to notice that in English, it’s often possible to omit the “that” that comes behind “I think” (e.g. I think that I love you). This isn’t possible in Finnish: you will always use että (Luulen, että rakastan sinua).

3. Asking about someone else’s opinion

4. Asking for reasons/explanations

5. Agreeing with someone

6. Disagreeing with someone

Straight-out disagreement with someone else’s opinions is fairly rare in Finland. Part of being polite means that you don’t just say someone else is wrong. As such, those phrases that express strong disagreement are great when you’ve just started your studies and want to be clear.

However, as you advance further, it would be wise to familiarize yourself with some of the more subtle ways to disagree. It’s fairly common to express being of the same opinion as someone, but then adding a “but” or “however”. That way, you’re still expressing your opinion, but respecting someone else’s opinion.

7. Expressing your opinion in spoken language

If you would like to write about your opinion, you would benefit from reading through mielipidekirjoitus phrases and words here!

Related posts:

Communication – Finnish Vocabulary The Senses – Aistit – Finnish Vocabulary Negative Emotions – Kielteiset Tunteet Puhelin Kännykkä – Finnish Telephone Vocabulary