OT: Trying to learn Finnish

[limini]

Her is a big list of hockey words

 

[Ihmeilja]

Is there anyone, who could learn me to speak the language they speak in Rauma?

 

[Arto Kilponen]

Is there anyone, who could learn me to speak the language they speak in Rauma?

Remove the first vowel of each word and you're close.



Anyway, to the OP: I'm trying to coach my wife (she's an immigrant) to speak Finnish and I have noticed quite a lot of things that are important to understand as early as possible. One of such things is that pronouncing Finnish is extremely easy - as soon as you know how to pronounce each letter. Each letter is pronounced and they are pronounced exactly same way each time. There is very few exceptions like doubling some consonants (for example, pea soup is spelled "hernekeitto" but pronounced "hernekkeitto"). Even in those rare cases in the worst case you sound a bit funny, but 100% surely everyone understands what you are saying.


Also, Finnish is a hard language, even for Finns. I run daily into cases where I have absolutely no idea how it is in correct Finnish - sure, everyone understands my Finnish, but for example, how does "The team of Jokerit" go in Finnish "Jokerien joukkue"? "Jokereiden joukkue"? "Jokereitten joukkue"? Is some of them wrong? Why?

 

[anx]

Also, Finnish is a hard language, even for Finns. I run daily into cases where I have absolutely no idea how it is in correct Finnish - sure, everyone understands my Finnish, but for example, how does "The team of Jokerit" go in Finnish "Jokerien joukkue"? "Jokereiden joukkue"? "Jokereitten joukkue"? Is some of them wrong? Why?

Had to check this up and seems they are all correct and used. The "-den" and "-tten" are essentially the same thing but to my ear "-den" is the more official sounding one and I'd use it if I was writing a book or reading the news on TV. The "-tten" sounds like dialect to me and I think it's mostly used when speaking - not so much in writing. Personally I use "-den" exclusively.

The "-ien" suffix then again is the same thing as "-den" and "-tten" but used with the words where the other two doesn't work I don't know the grammar behind this and too lazy to find out but words like "Viinit", "Viinien" (Wines) or "Sukat", "Sukkien" (Socks) only works with the "-ien" suffix and on the other hand words like "Tietokoneet", "Tietokoneiden/-tten" (Computers) or "Lentokoneet", "Lentokoneiden-/-tten" (Airplanes) only works with the "-den" or "-tten" suffix.

As said I don't know the grammar rules for this. I'd guess "Jokerit" is a rarity since all those suffixes sounds correct on it, at least to my ear

 

[PJM]

As said I don't know the grammar rules for this. I'd guess "Jokerit" is a rarity since all those suffixes sounds correct on it, at least to my ear

Actually not so rare. There are five different ways to form the plural genetive case, and the traditional example, for which all apply, is word 'omena' (apple). Among the names of the SM-liiga teams Tappara has all these five forms grammatically correct: Tapparien, Tapparojen, Tapparoiden, Tapparoitten, Tapparain.

The rule that determines which forms apply for different words has something to do with the type of syllables and letters the word has, but I for sure don't know how it goes. I'm sure it is explained in advanced (and perhaps also Finnish for foreigners) grammar books. However, I don't recall that there would have been anything on this subject in my schoolbooks. It has been over 20 years, but I doubt they have anything even today. The names and usage of the cases were certainly teached, but not how to compose the correct forms. I guess this is something that the native speakers know inherently even though we formally cannot write out the rule.