Suomi Grammar
Complete grammar guide from beginner to intermediate
Master Finnish grammar from beginner to intermediate level. Our comprehensive guide covers A1, A2, and B1 grammar topics with clear explanations, conjugation tables, and practical examples to help you speak and write Finnish correctly.
Beginner
Basic grammar rules, simple sentence structures, and essential verb forms.
Nouns & Cases
Learn Finnish noun basics including the nominative, partitive, and genitive cases. Finnish has no articles but uses suffixes.
Present Tense
Master Finnish present tense verb conjugation. Learn how to find the verb stem, add personal endings, and conjugate common verb types.
Personal Pronouns
Master Finnish personal pronouns minä, sinä, hän and understand how verb endings often replace pronouns in casual speech.
Articles (Finnish Has None)
Learn how Finnish expresses definiteness without articles. Understand word order, demonstratives, and context clues that replace 'a/an' and 'the' in Finnish.
Present Tense Verbs
Conjugate Finnish verbs in present tense with personal endings and learn essential verbs olla (to be) and voida (can).
Basic Word Order
Learn Finnish SVO word order and its flexibility. Understand how word order changes for questions, emphasis, and information structure.
Elementary
Past tenses, comparatives, and more complex sentence structures.
Past Tense
Form Finnish past tense using the imperfekti (-i-) for simple past and perfekti (olla + past participle) for completed actions.
Present Perfect Tense
Connect past actions to the present using Finnish present perfect (perfekti). Formed with 'olla' + past participle, this tense describes completed actions and experiences. It is the most common past tense in spoken Finnish.
Adjectives & Case Agreement
Master Finnish adjective inflection where adjectives must agree with nouns in number and case.
Possessive Pronouns
Learn Finnish possessive pronouns (omistuspronominit) to replace nouns and avoid repetition. Unlike many languages, Finnish uses possessive suffixes attached to nouns, but standalone possessive pronouns also exist. This lesson covers both systems for expressing ownership.
Possessives
Express ownership in Finnish using possessive suffixes -ni, -si, -nsa and the genitive case for possessors.
Prepositions (Location & Direction)
Master Finnish postpositions and prepositions for location and direction. Unlike most European languages, Finnish primarily uses postpositions (placed after the noun) and case endings instead of prepositions. Learn the essential location markers and how they combine with cases.
Intermediate
Subjunctive mood, passive voice, and advanced grammar concepts.
Future Tense
Express future actions in Finnish using present tense with time expressions, or tulla + verb constructions.
Conditional Mood
Express hypothetical situations, wishes, and polite requests in Finnish using the conditional mood with -isi- marker.
Relative Clauses
Connect clauses in Finnish using relative pronouns joka, mikä, and interrogative-relative constructions.
Passive Voice
Form impersonal and passive constructions in Finnish using the passive voice markers -taan/-daan and understand its unique 'we' usage.
Reported Speech
Report what others said in Finnish using että-clauses, indirect questions, and appropriate tense shifts.
Past Perfect Tense
Master the Finnish past perfect (pluskvamperfekti) to describe actions completed before another past event. Formed with the auxiliary olla in past tense plus the past participle, this tense is essential for storytelling and explaining sequences of past events.