Finnish Language Characteristics

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Variant Forms of Words
In Finnish, as in English, the forms of some words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who—whose—whom or marry—marries—married, are examples of words in English with variant forms.

As you read Finnish records, be aware that the endings of most words vary with usage. One word in Finnish often translates into English as two or more words. For example, talo (house) changes to talossa (in the house).

Plurals
Finnish indicates the plural of a word in two ways:
 * 1) "T" is added to nouns that have no other endings. For example, tal o  (house) becomes talo t  (houses).
 * 2) "I" is added if the noun has another ending. For example, talossa (in the house) becomes talo i ssa (in the houses).

Possessives
In addition to or instead of using words like my and theirs, Finnish adds endings to words to show possession. If a word already has another ending on it, the possessive ending appears at the end of the word. For example, see how possessives change the words talo (house) and talossa (in the house):
 * his house -  hänen talo nsa 
 * in his house -  hänen talossa nsa 

See Table 1 for a more complete description of possessives.

Prepositions and Postpositions
In English, words like in, on, with, before, and after are prepositions. They come before the noun in sentence and show direction, location, or time, or introduce an object. For example, Depending on the various grammar rules, Finnish prepositions may appear in one of three ways:
 * in the house
 * on the desk
 * with the meal
 * to the car
 * at the table
 * 1) Before the noun.  Ennen sotaa (before the war).
 * 2) After the noun (in this case, it is called a postposition). Sodan jälkeen  (after the war).
 * 3) Added to the noun. Helsinki becomes Helsinki in  (into Helsinki).

Table 2 contains other examples.

Word endings
Endings are also added to words for other grammatical purposes. See Tables 1 and 3 for other examples.

Spelling Changes
When an ending is added to a word, the consonants within that word may also change. Consider the following examples: