Learn Finnish

Start at the alphabet

The Finnish on-ramp is written by hand, not generated, and it is 482 cards long. Every card is spoken in a recorded Finnish voice, and what you get right is scheduled for review rather than shown again at random.

• 29letters
• 10digits
• 23pronunciation rules
• 300core words
• 60everyday phrases
• 60sentences

Three of the pronunciation cards, exactly as the course teaches them:

• Suomi — one letter, one sound — always. Finnish spelling has no exceptions, nothing silent and nothing that changes with its neighbours, so a word is said exactly as it is written and written exactly as it is saidHelsinki — Helsinki, the capital of Finland
• kysymys — stress falls on the FIRST syllable of every word, without exception — however long the word, however many endings you glue on, the beat never moves. A lighter secondary beat lands on the third syllablekirjasto — library
• a, o, u — ä, ö, y — e, i — the eight vowels sit in three groups: BACK (a, o, u), FRONT (ä, ö, y) and NEUTRAL (e, i). A back vowel and a front vowel never share a word; e and i go with either. This is vowel harmony, and it decides the shape of every ending you will ever addkylä — village

Then material that does not run out

Once you are reading, the level is the point. The Text Generator writes Finnish at the CEFR level, length, topic and format you ask for, so the step up is a setting rather than a new book. Speaking scores you word by word as you read aloud. The Conversation Partner talks back. The Translator explains a sentence instead of replacing it, and the Corrector marks what you wrote and says why.

Above the on-ramp sits the Path — a station map from A1 to C2 with grammar, vocabulary and checkpoint stations — and Words & Notes, where everything you save comes back on a spaced-repetition schedule in seven quiz styles.

What Finnish actually costs a beginner

Stress is always on the first syllable, however long the word, which is the easy half. Vowel harmony is not: the eight vowels split into back a, o, u, front ä, ö, y and neutral e, i; a back and a front vowel never share a word; and the group decides the shape of every ending you will ever attach. Since Finnish does nearly all of its grammar with endings, harmony is not a detail but the gate to the whole system. Length matters too, in vowels and consonants alike — tuli, tuuli and tulli are three words — and length is a thing to hear, so it is on the audio.