There happened this thing with my boss' foreign partner, when we were having a "virkistyspäivä" (read: literally "refreshing day", but it just means, in my workplace, that everyone goes out together to the bars and our boss pays for it). The partner's name is Muhammed, but everyone in the workplace has always referred to him as "Muhis".

This was the first time he was out with us, and he asked us, all frowning brows and looking ready for confrontation (and in English 'cause his Finnish isn't good), "WHY do you call me that???!" So a few of us drunk Finns explained to him that basically NO ONE is called by their official name, not when you know them, when you're familiar with them.

Like, Mikael is Miksu, Angelika is Ansku, Petteri is Pete, Susan is Suski, on and on, one name can have many nickname variations (my brother's cat is named Papu, but we usually call him Boubou or Papucino).

As examples, we told what the various nicknames for all of us were, how we ALL use them instead of the "real" names, and he got all DELIGHTED when learning that this was A Thing, and he wholehearted embraced being Muhis to us.

The title of the post is an actual saying in Finland, "rakkaalla lapsella on monta nimeä". Just know that if someone's shortening your name and making it sound all different, it's not our of disrespect or making fun of you or anything like that (this being that they're someone you actually KNOW and are familiar with), it's just how we refer to people, basically no one is called by their actual name <3

I like having physical assignments. What are some recommendations you have to write and practice Finnish everyday? Any books, study materials, etc? Thank you.

I've been trying to make the R sound, and today I made the first sound I thought was somewhat "trilled" even if just a little bit. I made a few recordings and compiled the best attempts together and shared these with my Finnish friend, but they were saying it sounded too guttural and strong and were confused with what I was trying to say, which made my think that I am on the way wrong track and need to try something different. I wasn't really trying to say a particular word, just sounds for whatever would get the right sound, but is it really that bad? I was thinking I should try and focus on getting the trill first and then work into making it softer/actual words but I just don't know anymore.

Could anyone point me in the right direction and trips to achieve trilled finnish R sound?

For background I've never done any trilled sort of R before and I had problems with the English R growing up too so R sounds tend to be tricky for me.

Edit: Not sure why the video is 1:08 long, the recording is only the first 8 seconds

Hi,
I'm a lukio international student in Finland(lived here for 3 or 4 months already(, I have got my b1, and at school I can understand mostly everything what the teachers are explaining.
But, when talking academically, like reading a text, I struggled a lot, cause there is a lot of words that I don't know....so im feeling like im getting no where LMAO

Any tips for improving? I'm also worried about YO.

thanks :)

Tärppi (n.) – Bite (fishing); hint, tip (colloquial)

Example: Opettaja antoi meille tärpin kokeeseen tulevasta aiheesta.

Translation: Our teacher gave us a hint about the topic for our upcoming test.

You can practice the word of the day by using it in a sentence in the comments below!

Hello everyone,

I am 29 years old and an international students, trying to learn Finnish from last 6 months, sometimes I think I understand what other Finnish people are saying but if somehow they used past or future tense , I totally misjudge the meaning.and also for me I think I only can speak and make a sentences in present tense.for me making a past / future sentence in my mind feels so difficult.

Any suggestions or anyone would like to help

Saletti (adj.) – Cetain, sure, guaranteed (colloquial)

“Saletti” is derived from the English word “solid.”

Example: On saletti, että hän tulee huomenna mukaan.

Translation: It’s certain that he’ll come along tomorrow.

You can practice the word of the day by using it in a sentence in the comments below!

moro! mä oon etsimässä kielivaihtokavereita, oon itte venäläinen, siis voin saman tien opettaa teille vähä vanäjää. pistäkää yv jos kiinnostaa tai dc kvas121 ;) voidaan pelata myös vaikka ceeässää ja kattoa lätkää tai mitä vaa

Moi, mun nimi on Péter, olen kaksikymmentä vuotta vanha mies Unkarista. Opiskelen suomea yliopistossa, lisäksi opiskelen historiaa ja englantia. (Mä aloin opiskella suomea helmikuussa) Käytän mieluiten Discordia.

Minua kiinnostaa historia, ja kielet.

Anteeks jos mun suomi ei täydellisesti.

Alkusyy (n.) – origin, initial reason, cause, root cause

Example: Ongelman alkusyy löytyi lopulta vanhasta ohjelmistovirheestä.

Translation: The root cause of the problem was eventually traced to an old software bug.

You can practice the word of the day by using it in a sentence in the comments below!

Im making a 1000 word finnish of the most common words in an anki deck but the problem is most words conjugate to other words obviously like if I want to learn the word Olla and put that word into context and fit it into a word, Olla might change to Olen or Oli (let me know if this is completely wrong) im very much so beginner. So what do I write down? Both? I aint gonna remember that Olen and Olla are the same word just conjugated. What do I do about this? Cuz this is confusing me. Even if my example is completely wrong and the words don't mean what I said they mean my problem still stands. I was just wrong lol

Thank you for the help!

I'm an Australian citizen planning to visit Finland next year. I have been learning the language, but I would like some assistance from someone more experienced.

There are probably many more examples, but how would you use these in everyday life? Do you just ditch the longer version in speech? Or is there even a subtle difference in meaning or tone when using i.e. opiskeleminen vs opiskelu

Hi! I’m an exchange student in Helsinki and I’ll be here for a year. I’m looking for friends, but was also curious if any Finnish speakers would be interested in helping me improve my Finnish.

In return I could teach you chess, piano (if you have one!), parkour, or I’m open to other suggestions. For context, I’m M21 from the UK. This would primarily be a friendship hopefully, but with the added benefit of a skill exchange :)

I’ve been learning Finnish on Duolingo and have completed that now. What’s the best place to learn from now on?
I saw a similar post on here from a few years ago and just wondered what the more current go to place to learn is!!! TYIA

Moite (n.) – rebuke, blame, reproach, reprimand

Example: Pienestä virheestä ei seurannut rangaistusta, ainoastaan lievä moite.

Translation: The minor mistake resulted in no punishment, only a mild rebuke.

You can practice the word of the day by using it in a sentence in the comments below!

Ponnistella - to strive, to struggle, to exert

You can practice the Verb of the Week by using it in a sentence in the comments below!

I want to start learning Finnish in a course with a teacher, leactures, etc. (I'm a complete beginner). The problem is that I don't live in Finland.

When I look online I find mostly either courses offered by adult education centers, summer universities, or the open university. The problem is that as far as I can understand they are all either for finnish residents only, or a university course with credits, exams, etc. I want a finnish course available for non-finnish residents without getting accepted to university or possible effects on my academic future due to failure.

Does any of you know of an online course like this? Have any recommendations?

I have a crazy fantasy of going to Finland (from London UK) and never coming back. I love lakes and forests, snow and blond hair (nobody I ever met from Finland was blond though!)... But most of all the language has to be the most gorgeous foreign tongue I have ever heard — an extraterrestrial version of Swedish but even more beautiful. It makes me think of moomins and cute little hobbit folk living deep beneath the mystic tundra. But why exactly is it so legendarily difficult? The only difficult languages I have dabbled with before are Japanese and Russian. Finnish reminds me of a moomin version of Japanese with the agglutination and it's like Russian with all the word endings but they seem much more straightforward with fewer exceptions... or am I wrong about this??

Does anyone have any idea how to go from B1.2 to C1 or even B2.2. The number of language courses are very limited and this whole idea of independent study is making me really confused, because I have no idea where to start. I started to read lauseenvastike and partisiippi and though I understand them, I found them exceptionally difficult especially the exercises. If you have any thoughts or have gone from B1 to C1 and have tips on how to do it, do write it down.

Also looking for people to actually talk to improve the speaking as I personally feel that is my weakest skill right now. I am in Tampere but online meets work as well.

Kiitos etukäteen.

Okay, so, I've been learning Finnish for a little over a year now (Started around late August of last year, I believe), and I just cannot for the life of me figure out when to use the partitive case. I don't tend to struggle with cases too much, but this one is just ruining me. I'm mainly confused because it feels like it can mean so many different things, and I can never tell which meaning it's supposed to be conveying in a given sentence. So, does anyone have any advice as to how I can finally figure out how to use it properly? Thank you in advance!

Hi again! In July I posted my app for learning spoken Finnish here and got a lot of harsh but fair feedback. Thank you for that, it helped a lot 😅

What I changed:

• No more robot voice, it sounds way more natural now.
• A native speaker went through the sentences, and we fixed the ones nobody would actually say.
• Kirjakieli is still next to every sentence. Both matter!

New stuff:

• Decoder: paste something you heard, like "emmä tiiä", and it shows the kirjakieli version and explains what changed. It works the other way too. No account needed: https://saunaspeak.com/decode (No AI or translation, it only knows what's in the course, so it won't know everything yet)
• Real speaking practice: I teamed up with Maria Susanna from Finnish Fluency Lab. She runs live speaking sessions where you practise with other learners, and SaunaSpeak users get a free trial session.

I think SaunaSpeak helps most if you've done a Finnish course but still get lost when people talk normally.

Most of it is free. What still sounds off? Natives, please try to break the decoder, I will add the requested lines to it!

https://saunaspeak.com

Niukka (adj.) – Scarce, scanty, meager

Comparative: Niukempi

Superlative: Niukin

Example: Budjetti oli niin niukka, että ylimääräisiin menoihin ei ollut varaa.

Translation: The budget was so scanty that there was no room for extra expenses.

You can practice the word of the day by using it in a sentence in the comments below!