I'm not sure whether this will help anyone, but here's how I've generally internalized Finnish (kirjakielen) word order:
1) Absent any other considerations, the default word order is SVO. Unless you're really aiming for an unusual emphasis, Timo söi omenan is better than Timo omenan söi, Omenan söi Timo (not to be confused with Omena söi Timon...), etc. The simpler the sentence, the more likely it is that this order will be adhered to.
2) Put familiar or general stuff at the beginning of the sentence and new stuff at the end. If we're putting together a story about a murder case, we'll write, for example, Tänä aamuyönä murhattiin Helsingin keskustassa Uudenmaankadulla 47-vuotias mies, because the "familiar" aspects of the sentence, which every reader can relate to, are the time and place. English-style rigid SVO order (47-vuotias mies murhattiin tänä aamuyönä Uudenmaankadulla Helsingin keskustassa) would serve to emphasize the victim over the time/place context and would probably be best translated into English as "The 47-year-old man was killed early this morning...", which of course creates a radically different impression.
3) The modifiers of a noun, adjective, or adverb phrase generally go before the head word, even in places where this is impossible in English:
Eilen tekemäni sämpylät - The rolls I made yesterday
Mannerheimintiellä sijaitseva hotelli - The hotel (located) on Mannerheimintie
Tunteja odottaneet fanit - The fans who had waited for hours
Suomeen tulonsa jälkeen - After their coming to Finland
These phrases could of course be "unpacked" with a subordinate clause (sämpylät, jotka tein eilen; sen jälkeen, kun tulivat Suomeen, etc.)... I assume that this happens quite often in the spoken language, but in writing, it feels too wordy and uneconomical.
These rules are of course imperfect and incomplete, but as a general guideline, I think they hold up pretty well.
News in Finnish: Hameiden alta löytyi 125 muumikulhoa
Re: Interesting news stories in Finnish
Thanks David....
This is close to what I seem to be experiencing...
For many of the more straightforward, simple sentences, I don't have too much trouble...other than issues with vocabulary....but I guess that's a long term problem... Heck, I'm still learning new words in English....
Though with Finnish vocabulary, if I can understand the word stem.... which might lead me to the nominative and genitive forms ...then, I'm usually not slowed down too much....Finnish vocabulary seems to make broad use of its basic word stems.....
But there are words that definitely so slow me down...such as the word, tunteja, in your post above....which to me can look like something to do with "hour", "feel", "know"....the -"ja" part might have something to do with an agent noun... sometimes I have to figure out the context before I will understand....definitely not intuitive yet....
If it's a more complicated sentence, I find I still want to translate it into...at least...literal English so I can get a sense of the "thinking" behind the statement.
This is close to what I seem to be experiencing...
For many of the more straightforward, simple sentences, I don't have too much trouble...other than issues with vocabulary....but I guess that's a long term problem... Heck, I'm still learning new words in English....
Though with Finnish vocabulary, if I can understand the word stem.... which might lead me to the nominative and genitive forms ...then, I'm usually not slowed down too much....Finnish vocabulary seems to make broad use of its basic word stems..... But there are words that definitely so slow me down...such as the word, tunteja, in your post above....which to me can look like something to do with "hour", "feel", "know"....the -"ja" part might have something to do with an agent noun... sometimes I have to figure out the context before I will understand....definitely not intuitive yet....
If it's a more complicated sentence, I find I still want to translate it into...at least...literal English so I can get a sense of the "thinking" behind the statement.
Re: Interesting news stories in Finnish
And here is yet another interesting... and recently published.... paper on language learning issues...written in English:
"Lanugage Transfer in the Written English of Finnish Students."
...it's about the problem areas encountered by Finnish students learning English.....
....and, perhaps, not surprisingly, these "problem areas" are rather similar to those I'm encountering trying to go in the opposite direction....
The paper has, besides the results of the research, enough detail comparing how Finnish and English differ that it would interest learners of Finnish....
...passive construction
...extraposition and existential constructions
...subordinate clause patterns
...expressions for future time...probably more of an issue for Finnish speakers
...prepositional constructions...probably more of an issue for Finnish speakers...
....I think maybe if one can see what is behind these errors, then one can kind of "reverse-engineer" to try to think that way while learning Finnish....
"Lanugage Transfer in the Written English of Finnish Students."
...it's about the problem areas encountered by Finnish students learning English.....
....and, perhaps, not surprisingly, these "problem areas" are rather similar to those I'm encountering trying to go in the opposite direction....
The paper has, besides the results of the research, enough detail comparing how Finnish and English differ that it would interest learners of Finnish....
...passive construction
...extraposition and existential constructions
...subordinate clause patterns
...expressions for future time...probably more of an issue for Finnish speakers
...prepositional constructions...probably more of an issue for Finnish speakers...
....I think maybe if one can see what is behind these errors, then one can kind of "reverse-engineer" to try to think that way while learning Finnish....