Finnish has eight vowels, but i it is definitely the most popular one when it comes to functioning as a marker, being used for making new words or joining Finnish endings to foreign names. Please leave a comment if I forgot something.
1. Making loan words
Loan words are often among the first words that students learn, because they are so easy to remember! Just ad an i at the end of the word in another language, and it might be a real word in Finnish. Sometimes we also change or double the consonant. (With verbs, the ending is -ata. I'll write about that later.)
- posti - a post office, mail
- kahvi - coffee
- presidentti - a president
Loan words can also end with other vowels, but i is the most common one. You can read more in my post about the loan words.
2. A glue between a consonant and an ending when declinating names
If a name ends with a vowel, we just add the ending:
- Hanna > Hannan kanssa - with Hanna
If a name ends with a consonant, we add an i and then the ending:
- Max > Maxin kanssa - with Max
- Charles > Charlesin kanssa - with Charles
- Exception: Matias > Matiaksen kanssa - with Matias (also Topias, Markus and other names ending with as, us or os can behave like this.)
Notice that if a word ends with a consonant but is pronounced with a vowel, we add an apostrophe, heittomerkki, and then the ending:
- Louis Theroux > Louis Theroux'n kanssa - With Louis Theroux
3. Past tense marker
We put an i or si between the verb stem and a personal ending to express that something happened in the past.
- sanon > sanoin - I say > I said
- pelaan > pelasin - I play > I played
Sometimes vowels disappear or change, but there's always an i in the positive past tense.
- olen > olin - I am > I was
- maksan > maksoin - I pay > I paid
You can read more in my post called Past tense in a nutshell.
4. Plural marker
The nominative plural marker is t:
- talo > talot - a house > houses
- laukku > laukut - a bag > bags
- kissa > kissat - a cat > cats
- nainen > naiset - a woman > women
However, in all other cases, the marker is i.
- laukussa > laukuissa - in a bag > in bags
- kadulla > kaduilla - on a street > on streets
When i is placed between two vowels, it becomes j. This happens sometimes with plural genitive and with plural partitive.
- talo > taloja - a house > houses
- kissan kanssa > kissojen kanssa - with a cat > with cats
Sometimes the last vowel of the stem changes or disappears before the i:
- Minä tykkään kissasta. > Minä tykkään kissoista. - I like a/the cat. I like cats.
- Tykkään suomalaisesta oluesta ja suomalaisista. - I like Finnish beer and Finns.
Read all my posts about the plural forms:
- T-plural or plural partitive?
- 100 words in plural partitive
- Long words in plural partitive
- Plural genitive
- Consonant change in nouns
I know. The plural is quite tricky, so I should write more about it.
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