Finnish grammatical tenses and plurality of the nouns

She · Post by **She** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:41 pm

Hi (:
I wanted to learn Finnish for quite a lot of time now. I just started with some basic things like numbers, months & days of the week, some basic words, etc. and I want to learn more.
So I was wondering if finnish language does have tenses, like english?
And it would be really nice if someone could write down all the tenses [past, present, future] and explain about them a little bit. And oh, I almost forgot - what's going on with verbs? Do they stay the same [like does the verb stay the same and there is a word added, etc.] or does the ending change? I'm pretty sure that there are irregular verbs, too.

And there is also another question about plural nouns. Is there any universal ending, like in english -s or -es, or it depends on a word?

Thank you. (:

**Sponsor:**

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:55 pm

KVG

http://www.uta.fi/~km56049/finnish/
http://users.jyu.fi/~pamakine/kieli/suo ... lysen.html
http://venla.org/

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:59 pm

These are some oft-quoted, recurring resources on this forum so let’s get them out of the way:

Finnish Grammar (Kimberli Mäkäräinen)
Uusi kielemme – Finnish for busy people – Grammar (Inge Holsteyn)
The Finnish language (Jukka K. Korpela)
Tavataan taas! (University of Helsinki Language Centre)
Learn Finnish with Sulkasiipi (Sulkasiipi)
Finnish language (Wikipedia)
Finnish grammar (Wikipedia)
Finnish grammar (Panu Mäkinen)
Finnish Language for Foreigners (Wikibooks)

Where are you from, if you don’t mind me asking? (From which country, I mean.) What is your mother tongue?

She · Post by **She** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 11:13 pm

Oh, thank you for the links. (:

I'm from Slovenia, and slovenian is also my mother tongue.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 11:27 pm

Finnish courses are pretty grammar-heavy for a reason, the endings change the word so if you cannot figure out the ending or whats changed it makes almost impossible then to find an unfamiliar word in the dictionary. Unfortunately theres no shortcuts.

She · Post by **She** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 11:38 pm

But are there any universal endings [for male/female form, etc.] or does ending depend on a word?

onkko · Post by **onkko** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 11:47 pm

She wrote:But are there any universal endings [for male/female form, etc.] or does ending depend on a word?

male/female form in language where isnt any genders like english he/she...

She · Post by **She** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 11:52 pm

I didn't know. : O
I'm a complete beginner, so I just asked because in my language we have different endings, and they basically depend on the m/f form and the case the verb is in.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Sat Jan 30, 2010 11:59 pm

In Finnish it depends on the case of the noun, what is then plural is usually a slightly different form http://www.peda.net/veraja/kittila/ylaa ... sijamuodot

AldenG · Post by **AldenG** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:07 am

There are more than a dozen possible plural endings for nouns and adjectives (one for each grammatical case), but that number is multiplied by more than 6 when you consider all the possessive suffixes that can additionally be added after the number+case endings. Then there are a few miscellaneous suffixes that can be added instead of -- or after -- the possessive suffix. In addition, consonant combinations inside the word, before any of the endings, change in complicated patterns of which there are nearly two dozen. So as Pursuivant mentioned, even knowing what to look up in the dictionary can be a gigantic problem for learners of the language.

The office for official research into the Finnish language lists about 50 declension patterns for nouns and adjectives, PLUS variations resulting from the consonant changes I mentioned, and maybe about 30 conjugation patterns for verbs -- I don't recall quite how many there are.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:15 am

You don't *have* to be crazy to learn Finnish, but it helps...

No worries, the grammar *will* make you crazy

She · Post by **She** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:27 am

^^ I guess so.

Thanks for all the help. (:

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:53 am

She wrote:I'm from Slovenia, and slovenian is also my mother tongue.

Ahaa. Sinä olet slovenialainen ja puhut sloveniaa.

Ref · Post by **Ref** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 1:35 am

if you need so me helping materials try to find a book called "from start to finnish" by Leila White!

mvgrogan · Post by **mvgrogan** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 1:54 pm

Leila White also wrote a Grammar book which is a really good, easy to follow reference. I'm doing a course in Finnish and it's hard to follow everything in class so I often refer to her book for stuff I don't understand.

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