Language/Finnish/Grammar/Plurals
Hi Finnish learners! 😊
In this lesson, you will learn how to form plurals in Finnish. As you may know, Finnish is an agglutinative language, which means that suffixes are added to the end of a word to change its meaning. Understanding how to form plurals in Finnish is essential if you want to communicate effectively in this language. We will also provide cultural and fun facts about Finnish as we go along! So, let's get started!
With the completion of this lesson, consider investigating these related pages: How to Use Have, Indefinite Articles in Finnish, Past Tense & Forming Questions.
Basic Rules[edit | edit source]
In Finnish, there are two ways to form plurals:
1. Add -t or -et at the end of the word 2. Change the vowel(s) in the word
1. Adding -t or -et[edit | edit source]
The most common way to form plurals in Finnish is to add -t or -et at the end of the word. The ending you choose depends on the word's stem.
Words ending with a vowel take -t. For example:
| Finnish | Pronunciation | English | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huone | huↄ-ne | Room | Kukka | kuk-ka | Flower | Pöytä | pøy-ta | Table |
Words ending with -e or -ö take -t. For example:
| Finnish | Pronunciation | English | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lehti | leh-ti | Leaf | Talvi | tål-vi | Winter | Kengät | ken-gæt | Shoes (plural only) |
Words ending with -i, -ä, or a consonant take -et. For example:
| Finnish | Pronunciation | English | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirja | kir-ja | Book | Omena | o-me-na | Apple | Koti | ko-ti | Home | Talot | tal-ot | Houses |
2. Changing the Vowel(s)[edit | edit source]
A smaller group of Finnish words changes the vowels in the word to form the plural. These words end with -nen, -si, or -ti. Here are some examples:
| Finnish | Pronunciation | English | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kissa | kis-sa | Cat | Kissat | kis-sæt | Cats |
| Asiakas | a-si-a-kas | Customer | Asiakkaat | a-si-a-kkæt | Customers |
| Lintu | lin-tu | Bird | Linnut | lin-nut | Birds |
Please note that there are some exceptions to these rules, but we'll get into that in the advanced section of this lesson.
Fun fact: Finnish is the official language of Finland, where it's spoken by around 5.5 million people. It's also an official minority language in Sweden. Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family, which is quite different from the Indo-European languages that dominate much of Europe.
Advanced Rules[edit | edit source]
Now that you understand the basic rules of forming plurals in Finnish, let's get into some advanced topics.
Plurals of Compound Words[edit | edit source]
When forming plurals for compound words in Finnish, you only add -t/-et to the last part of the word.
| Finnish | Pronunciation | English | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Esimerkkilause | esi-merk-ki-lau-se | Example sentence | Esimerkkilauseet | esi-merk-ki-lau-se-et | Example sentences |
| Aamiaiskattaus | aa-miais-kat-taus | Breakfast table setting | Aamiaiskattaukset | aa-miais-kat-tauk-set | Breakfast table settings |
Vowel Harmony[edit | edit source]
In Finnish, there is a "vowel harmony" system where the vowels in the suffix must match the vowels in the stem (the base word). This rule applies to words ending in vowels as well as to suffixes with vowels.
For example, take the word "koira" (dog) and the suffix -t. To maintain vowel harmony, you would add -t to the end of the word, creating "koirat" (dogs).
However, if the word ends in -nen, -si, or -ti, the vowel in the suffix depends on the vowel that appears before the last consonant of the stem. This can make forming plurals with these words more complicated, and they must be memorized individually.
For example:
| Word | Stem | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Näyttelijä | näyt-te-lij-æ | Näyttelijät | Sotilas | so-ti-læs | Sotilaat | Johtaja | joht-æ-ja | Johtajat |
Fun Fact: The Finnish word for "fun fact" is "hauska tosiasia"!
Examples in Context[edit | edit source]
To help you better understand how to use plurals in Finnish, here is a dialogue between two friends, Anna and Juha:
- Anna: Hei Juha, tykkäätkö sinä lukea kirjoja? (Hi Juha, do you like to read books?)
- Juha: Kyllä, mä rakastan kirjoja! (Yes, I love books!)
- Anna: Hienoa! Mulla on muutama kirja, jonka voin lainata sulle. (Great! I have a few books that I can lend you.)
- Juha: Kiitos paljon! Haluaisin lukea vähän enemmän suomalaisia kirjoja. (Thank you very much! I would like to read more Finnish books.)
- Anna: Millaisista kirjoista sä tykkäät? (What kind of books do you like?)
- Juha: No, romanttisista kirjoista ja scifikirjoista. (Well, romantic books and sci-fi books.)
- Anna: Ymmärrän. Mulla on yksi romanttinen kirja ja yksi scifikirja. (I understand. I have one romantic book and one sci-fi book.)
- Juha: Loistavaa! Voinko saada kummankin kirjan lainaksi? (Great! Can I borrow both books?)
As you can see, Anna and Juha use plural nouns to refer to books in their conversation.
Practice Exercise[edit | edit source]
To practice using plurals in Finnish, try to form plurals for the following words:
1. Kukka 2. Talo 3. Huoneisto (Apartment) 4. Kissa 5. Koti 6. Kynä (Pen)
When you're done, check your answers below:
1. Kukat 2. Talot 3. Huoneistot 4. Kissat 5. Kodit 6. Kynät
Well done! Keep practicing!
➡ If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments section below.
➡ Feel free to edit this wiki page if you think it can be improved. 😎
Sources[edit | edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Present Tense
- Prepositions
- Conditional Tense
- Give your Opinion
- Adjectives
- Past Tense
- How to Use Have
- Possessive Case in Finnish
- How to Use Be