Thursday, June 30, 2016

The importance of [r] in Finnish

Rolling the Finnish [r] is tricky for many language learners, and also for Finnish kids. Many kids end up visiting a speech therapist if they don't learn the [r] by themselves before they are six years old. The [r] is often replaced by [l] which might cause some confusion and giggling.

How many of these words do you know?


  1. hiiri / hiili
  2. karkki / kalkki
  3. karju / kalju
  4. marja / malja
  5. murkku / mulkku
  6. muuri / muuli
  7. ori / oli
  8. purkka / pulkka
  9. rakastua / lakastua
  10. rokki / lokki
  11. suora / suola
  12. varas / valas


Here are the translations:


  1. hiiri / hiili - a mouse / charcoal
  2. karkki / kalkki - a candy / calcium, lime
  3. karju / kalju - a boar, a hog / bald
  4. marja / malja - a berry / a bowl
  5. murkku / mulkku - an ant (spoken language for muurahainen) / a dick
  6. muuri / muuli - a stonewall / a mule
  7. ori / oli - a stallion / (he) was
  8. purkka / pulkka - a chewing gum / a sled
  9. rakastua / lakastua - to fall in love / to wither, to fade
  10. rokki / lokki - rock music / a seagull
  11. suora / suola - straight / salt
  12. varas / valas - a thief / a whale



Kiitos, kun luit! Jos pidit postauksesta, voit jakaa sen eteenpäin.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it. 
– Hanna

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