Tuesday, August 15, 2017

How to say 'about' in Finnish

Sometimes Finnish is so easy. The English about is either the the adverb noin or the ending sta / stä, depending on the sentence.



About = noin:


  • Maitopurkki maksaa noin euron. - A carton of milk costs about one euro.
  • Jyväskylästä Tampereelle on noin 150 kilometriä. - It's about 150 km from Jyväskylä to Tampere. 

You can replace noin with suunnilleen, which means approximately. 

  • Maitopurkki maksaa suunnilleen euron. - A carton of milk costs approximately one euro.

However, noin requires some kind of amount. With other words, use suunnilleen:

  • Tämä on suunnilleen näin. - This is approximately like this. 
  • Tämä on suunnilleen oikein. - This is approximately correct.

About = the ending sta or stä:


  • Saanko kysyä jotain Yki-testistä? - May I ask something about the Yki exam? 
  • Voidaanko vähän jutella sun rahankäytöstä? - Can we talk a little about the way you use money?

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About the author of this blog:

My name is Hanna Männikkölahti. I am a professional Finnish teacher who gives private online lessons and simplifies books into easy Finnish. You can contact me through www.privatefinnishlessons.com. You can subscribe to this blog from the right-hand banner. 


1 comment:

Marcin Mińkowski said...

I've noticed that some Finns actually use the English word "about" when speaking Finnish. Why is that? Today I asked some woman for directions and she said that I have to go "about tähän suuntaan" (or something similar).