#learning finnish

[iibislintu]

places you can go in Finnish

to your own road (mennä tiehensä, to buzz off)

to the wolf (mennä hukkaan, to lose something)

inside the bilberry (mennä mustikkaan, to go pick bilberries; the same form works with other berries and also mushrooms in general)

into the forest (mennä metsään, to make a mistake)

into the doorjamb (mennä pieleen, to make a mistake)

to the magpies (mennä harakoille, to be wasted)

to an ancient god (mennä jumiin, to be stuck)

into yourself (mennä itseensä, to reflect on something bad you said/did)

to become a bunch of vulvas (mennä vituiksi, to be completely unsuccessful)

onto the thighs (mennä reisille, to be completely unsuccessful)

to the havings of sex/into marriage (same root word) (mennä naimisiin, to get married)

into the underworld (mennä manalle, to die)

[beelearnsfinnish]

[09.01.25, thursday]

Had my first italki class after the Christmas break and it went pretty well!! Saw a new sanatyypi, which was the last grammar point we had left of the first book, and did a couple exercises. We also corrected the little text i wrote over the break, and even if there were some corrections the teacher was pretty happy with it so that's always nice :)

besides this, we chatted a little about goals with the language and ways to diversify the learning besides just the textbook (i already try my best to do so, but it's always nice having someone's else opinion, specially if they went through the same process as you) and he highly recommended trying to implement watching the selkosuomeksi uutiset daily. i already knew about this resource existing but tbh when i first tried using it my level was very very low and i felt like it wasn't useful at all. Nonetheless I'll try to give it another go and watch them daily, will see how it goes!

He also mentioned, with us starting the second book, he feels like its the perfect moment to start doing more talking, which ngl sounds scary but we all know it has to be done so will update on that too.

so today i did,

1h class

5 mins of vocab with Drops

5 mins of selkouutiset

[ohcoffeedragon]

This is what the Finnish language looks like according to Käärijä fans. I meant to post this to the Finnish tags a week ago but I forgot, so here it is with a slight delay.

The data is from a survey I made. According to the results: 

70% of international Käärijä fans have taken an interest in Finland

50% decided to learn Finnish in 2023

39% are still learning Finnish one year later

22% have traveled to Finland because of Käärijä

The survey respondents are obviously among the most hardcore fans and I'm sure the numbers would look very different among casuals, but I still find it very impressive.

You can find the full results of the survey here if you're curious: https://at.tofe.me/kaarija-results

Pages 6-7 and 9-10 are about Finland, the rest is about other aspects of the fandom.

If you're Finnish it's something of a mood booster, so I encourage you to have a look ^^

[mehilaiselokuva]

Not studied Finnish yet? This is your sign!

Here are the absolute basics of the language in an even tighter package compared to my earlier posts. Maybe someone new will take interest in the language from these posts!

To my existing followers, are these kinds of posts good for you? Could my normal posts be in this format sometimes too?

[kanelinsuomi]

Idea julmasti pöllitty tästä julkaisusta.

[reflectionsofthesea]

minä: Anteeksi, voin sanoa vain muutaman sanan suomeksi

kaikki: Katsokaa tätä pientä italialaista !! Se osaa puhua suomea

minä : p-p

kaikki: perhe? pasta? pizza?

minä: PASKA

[suomeen]

Finnish Learning Resources

Idk who needs it but I thought I might share some free online resources that I found helpful for other broke overwhelmed learners.

Updated 2025/01/24

I'm pinning this for now since I keep adding new resources.

Best resource for grammar:

A short but nice course in Finnish, has multiple vocabularies:

This is just a demo but still useful:

https://materiaalit-koosto.otava.fi/web/state-jurdmmbvgaydeirmj4yq/649acb7ce5b1d718f439f971

Nice course on grammar with test tasks at the end:

https://openlearning.aalto.fi/course/view.php?id=158#section-0

Other courses at Aalto Open University:

https://openlearning.aalto.fi/course/index.php

Some good learning materials and tests:

https://openlearning.aalto.fi/course/view.php?id=59§ion=8

Very good series of basic videos for immigrants:

Another interactive learning site:

http://tasteoffinnish.fi/

Some listening exercises for learning basic words and phrases.

https://visnakker.no/tema.html

Very good short videos on basic word and phrases:

An online phrasebook with audio:

https://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/EN/ENFI/ENFI002.HTM

English/Finnish tests from the same site:

https://www.goethe-verlag.com/tests/test/EN/FI/1/easy

A curious site where short news headlines are transcribed in pictures:

https://selkosanomat.fi/kuva/

Vocab quizzes:

http://iteslj.org/v/f/

Numerous Quizet vocab quizzes:

https://www.scoop.it/topic/oppitori/?tag=quizlet-mamu

A very nice short course, includes glossaries in English, French, Persian, Arabic and Russian:

A course of spoken Finnish:

https://extreme-finnish.teachable.com/

Finnish verb conjugator:

https://www.verbix.com/languages/finnish

A really good learning channel that has up to 15 subtitles in different languages:

A number of Free online courses:

https://www.savonia.fi/paivita-osaamistasi/muu-jatkuva-oppiminen/maahanmuuttajalle/suomen-kielen-kurssit-savoniassa/

[finnishpod101]

Encouraging Phrases in Finnish! 🎉 PS: Learn Finnish with the best FREE online resources, just click here https://www.finnishpod101.com/?src=tumblr_infographic_encouraging_061324

[sarenhale]

I'm a big fan of getting better at a language you're studying, consuming a lot of listening content like podcasts and videos, and going from hearing a blurred static in your head when the language and words don't make sense and sound so unfamiliar, to slowly recognizing words here and there, and then eventually realizing you're following the entire conversation and you can understand everything they're saying...

[iibislintu]

how you die in Finnish

you sleep away (nukkua pois)

you go forward (mennä edes; "edesmennyt")

you go away (mennä pois; "poismennyt")

and also...

you change your diocese (vaihtaa hiippakuntaa)

you throw a crank (heittää veivi)

you kick emptiness (potkaista tyhjää)

you enter the underworld (mennä manalle)

you join the upstairs orchestra (liittyä yläkerran orkesteriin)

[beelearnsfinnish]

[06.12.24, friday]

today it took me forever to get out of bed, i never feel bad after a night out but man was i knackered. Honestly only thing that made me get up was the italki classs I had at midday, which I was cursing myself for getting, although I signed up for today before knowing about the Christmas dinner.

but hey we made it out of bed and it was a great class! very intense tho, the grammar point we covered today was a bit confusing and i felt you could see the gears turning in my head trying to understand. will definitely have to work on it before my next one, but learning hard things feels like I'm making progress, so that's nice.

didn't have the energy to do much besides the lesson, so today I just did:

45 mins of italki class

30 mins of getting my messy post it notes into my notion and writing everything down so I don't forget next time I go over it

Besides the grammar we did some speaking exercise with work related vocabulary and I feel like it was really useful since its vocab I'm using everyday!

I have busy weekend ahead with lots of papers to do, but feeling good about the studying :)

I ran out of fall pics, and it doesn't feel like fall anymore, so now I'm getting to my winter pics from the last time I was in Finland during the winter. Hopefully I'll be back next year <3

[adventuresinlearningfinnish]

The Finn just announced that we'd handle some things "one potato at a time".

Another idiom she has seamlessly translated from Finnish into English that's completely wonderful.

[mehilaiselokuva]

I made some memes, hope they help someone

:)

Also, this is the last exam week I have, I'll be continuing my regular content after it!

[kanelinsuomi]

Törmäsin taas tällaiseen ja päätin lokalisoida. Tällä kertaa perusjätskimaut!

Tägätkää tai kommentoikaa omat lempparit :)

[reflectionsofthesea]

🔥​🔥​🔥​🔥​ Snadi fisu tiistai 🔥​🔥​🔥​🔥​

[nonivittumitavittuataas]

Useful links to Learn Finnish

~ Learning resources ~

# Apps #

Duolingo, a classic, it teaches you vocabulary and basic sentence structure

Drops, a great app to learn vocabulary, and it’s organized by subjects

Clozemaster, makes you fill sentences, slightly advanced

Memrise, good to learn vocabulary, includes textbooks vocabulary too

Mondly, teaches vocabulary and basic sentence structure

WordDive, seems like a comprehensive course (I haven’t tested this one)

# Textbooks #

Suomen Mestari, the book most Finnish classes use, is in Finnish only

Oma Suomi, a book for self-learning English speakers

# Websites #

The Finnish Teacher, easily approachable grammar lessons

Verbix, to find verb conjugations

Sanakirja, very complete dictionary and translator

Urbaani sanakirja, Finnish equivalent to Urban dictionnary

Uusi kielemme, a good vocabulary list divided by themes and levels

Finnish swear words on Wikipedia, essential!

# Video & audio lessons #

Finnish Pod, numerous audio and video lessons

Supisuomea-videot by Yle, videos with simple Finnish and subtitles

FSI courses, recordings of conversational Finnish

# Complete beginner resources #

A Taste of Finnish, reading, listening and grammar points

Kielet by Yle, lessons in Finnish with videos

Venla, for vocabulary, structures and grammar

Digital Dialects, games to learn Finnish

~ Listening resources ~

# Podcasts #

Opi Suomea!, a podcast in simple Finnish

Yle uutiset selkosuomeksi, a news podcast in easy Finnish

Auta Antti!, a podcast where the host answers listeners questions

# Music & Radio #

Radio Suomi Pop, only Finnish songs & Finnish speakers

Tunein, to access more Finnish radios

#vainsuomihitit, Spotify playlist with all the new Finnish hits

Suomen musiikki, my Finnish spotify playlist

Mirka Karoliina, Disney songs with Finnish subtitles and translations

# Movies & TV shows #

My Finnish movies masterlist (needs to be updated)

Yle Arena, legal streaming of Finnish shows & others with Finnish subtitles

Some American streaming services (Netflix, Disney+ etc) have things dubbed in Finnish (mostly cartoons and kid’s shows), but most of those are only available if you’re in Finland (or use a VPN)

# Youtubers #

Papananaama

KAKSI ÄITIÄ

maiju

~ Reading & Writing resources ~

# Reading #

Yle uutiset selkosuomeksi, news articles in easy Finnish

Oppiminen by Yle, various articles in easy Finnish

Free Finnish books, for advanced level

# Writing #

LangCorrect, write diary entries and get corrected by native Finnish speakers

~ Communities ~

# Finnblrs #

Tags on Tumblr: Finnish / Finnish langblr / Finnblr / Finnish language

This is Finnish

Suomen Kieli

Fennophile

Tealingual

Finn in training (mine)

# Others #

LearnFinnish on Reddit

Static page version of this post can be found here. Older versions of this article can be found here and here.