Pronunciation Guide for Finnish
by Steisi
Finnish pronunciation..
...is not as horrendous as it looks!
The vowels:
Vowel sound and IPA |
Equivalent in English |
Example (short) |
Example (long) |
A /ɑ/ |
Father, calm. |
Antti (a name) |
Aalto (wave) |
O /o/ |
BrE hot, AmE authority. |
On (”is”) |
Foorumi (forum) |
U /u/ |
AmE boot |
Ujo (shy) |
Uusi (new) |
I /i/ |
Feet, meet |
Ikkuna (window) |
Hiiri (mouse) |
E /e/ |
bed |
Että (that) |
Eetu (a name) |
Ä /æ/ |
Cat. Never said like German ä! |
Äiti (mother) |
Ääni (sound, voice) |
Ö /ø/ |
Girl. German ö, French eu. |
Öljy (oil) |
Insinööri (engineer) |
Y /y/ |
Try saying i with your lips rounded. German ü. |
Yö (night) |
Pyytää (to request) |
You will also see the vowels doubled, don't worry! Finnish doesn't change its sounds like English (eg hot, but food). It just means you pronounce the sound for double the time. Don't worry if it sounds weird, to a Finn, you sound just right :)
The consonants:
B,C, F, G, Q, X, and Z are only found in loan words or slangi.
Consonant and IPA |
English equivalent |
Example |
D /d/ |
Eng. Do, deck |
Sydän (heart) |
H /h/ |
Always pronounced. Slightly breathy. Never like Scot. Loch or German Bach. |
Lehti (leaf, paper, pamphlet) |
J /j/ |
Never like English j! Pronounced as Eng.y, or German j. |
Jäätelö (Ice cream) |
K /k/ |
Unaspirated. Compare skip and kip to see the difference. |
Kuningas (King) |
L /l/ |
Similar to English l. Pronounced with the tongue slightly further back. |
Lamppu (Lamp) |
M /m/ |
Mum, Monster |
Minä (I) |
N /n/ |
Nail, Nun |
Nimi (name) |
NG /ŋk/, /ŋ:/ |
Not a separate letter, but always pronounced as in standard english singer, never like ”finger”. |
Lanka (thread) |
P /p/ |
Unaspirated |
Pikku (small) |
R /r/ |
Rrrrrolled! |
Rakkaus (love) |
S /s/ |
Always unvoiced. Swim, sea. |
Vesihiisi sihisi hississä! (tongue twister, the water dragon hissed in the lift) |
T /t/ |
Unaspirated (compare stand, tooth) |
Tehdä (to do) |
V/W /ʋ/ |
W is mostly obsolete and only seen in old words. V is pronounced more ”lazily” than the English v. Touch your teeth gently against the bottom lip but not as strongly as in English. |
Vanha (old) |
It's very important to distinguish long and short consonants and vowels, for example (
):
taka- ”rear-”
takka ”fireplace”
Taakka ”burden”
tuli = fire, tuuli = wind, tulli = customs ()
and: Kyllä (indeed, yes) ()
Kylä (village)
It's also important to distinguish front vowels from back vowels (See the section on
vowel harmony). A short recap: A,O and U cannot be in the same word as Ä, Ö and
Y (except compound words eg pää|kaupunki (capital| city). I and E are so-called
”neutral” vowels and can mix with both, eg Paitsi (except) and Helsingiss
ä (In Helsinki). Eg:(
)
välittää – to care
valittaa – to complain.
Note that in Finnish, stress always falls on the first syllable!
Diphthongs
Diphthong |
Equivalent (where applicable) |
Example |
ai |
My, time |
Aika (time/quite) |
au |
Now, foul |
Auto (car) |
äi |
Ä + i |
Äiti (mother) |
äy |
Ä + y (Dutch ui) |
Käy (to visit/to be suitable) |
ei |
Day, weigh |
Ei (no) |
eu |
E + u |
Neuvo (advice) |
iu |
I + u (sounds like e-ew) |
Liukas (slippery) |
io |
I + o |
Huomio (attention) |
ie |
I + e |
Vie! (take!) |
oi |
Boy, foil |
Moi (hi) |
ou |
O + u |
Koulu (school) |
öy |
Ö + y, similar to british english ”oh” |
Löytyy (is found) |
öi |
Ö + i |
Öitä (nights (partitive plural)) |
ua |
U + a |
Minua (me) |
uo |
U + o |
Suomi (Finland) |
ui |
U + i |
Kuitenkin, uida (however, to swim) |
ue |
U + e |
Lue! (read!) |
yö |
Y + ö |
Yö (night) |
yi |
Y + i |
Hyi! (Ew! Yuck!) |