Have you noticed that Päivi Virkunen and I will have a Finnish pronunciation workshop on March 26? You can read more about the worshop here and sign up here. The workshop costs €32.
Long and short vowels in Finnish
One thing we'll practice on the workhop is long and short vowels. Pronouncing the long vowel long enough is particularly important with verb type 1 verbs ending with oa, ua, yä, ia and iä.
In standard Finnish, it goes like this:
- Hän sanoo. - He says. (two o's)
- Hän sanoi. - He said. (o and a past tense marker i)
In spoken Finnish, the past tense marker is often dropped after another vowel:
- Se sanoo. - He says. (Notice that in many dialects, we say 'se' instead of 'hän'.)
- Se sano. - He said.
If you don't pronounce the o long enough in sanoo (says, will say), it will sound like sano (he said).
Long and short vowels in sentences
tutkia - to study, to examine
- Lääkäri tutkii potilaan. -The doctor will examine the patient.
- Lääkäri tutki potilaan. - The doctor examined the patient.
kysyä - to ask
- Se kysyy opettajalta. - She'll ask the teacher.
- Se kysy opettajalta. - She asked the teacher.
Notice that in spoken Finnish, we conjugate the plural 'he' the same way as the singular 'hän':
Standard Finnish:
- He sanovat - They say.
- He sanoivat - They said.
Spoken Finnish:
- Ne sanoo. - They say.
- Ne sano. - They said.
More examples in plural:
puhua - to talk, to speak
- Ne puhuu tästä kokouksessa. - They will talk about this in a meeting.
- Ne puhu tästä kokouksessa. - They talked about this in a meeting.
tanssia - to dance
- Ne tanssii hyvin. - They dance well.
- Ne tanssi hyvin. - They danced well.
Read more:
- Spoken language tips
- The Finnish pronoun 'se'
- Verb conjugation in spoken Finnish
- Finnish pronunciation workshop on March 26 from 7 pm to 9 pm.
- A podcast episode with Päivi Virkkunen
- The importance of R
Kiitos, kun luit! Jos pidit postauksesta, voit jakaa sen eteenpäin.
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– Hanna
– Hanna
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