Questions

One real Finnish word a day, explained in English. 49 words so far, 23 of them with the textbook form shown beside the spoken one, plus 6 situations, 22 articles and a set of quizzes. Free, no account.

The ordinary spoken register of Finnish, as distinct from kirjakieli, the written standard. It is not slang and not incorrect - it has its own consistent grammar, and essentially every Finn uses it in conversation.

The written standard: forms, contracts, news, textbooks, the YKI exam. It is what you were almost certainly taught, and it is genuinely useful - it is simply not what people say out loud.

Because the two registers differ by more than an accent. Different pronouns, different verb endings, and whole grammatical constructions swapped out - the passive standing in for "we", the question particle dropped. It is a systematic gap, not a gap in your ability.

The spoken pronouns and the verb olla: mä, sä, se, me, te, ne, oon, oot, on, ollaan. About a dozen forms, present in nearly every sentence you will overhear.

No. Everything is explained in English, and the first thing the site can give you is understanding rather than production - which in Finland is the more useful of the two, because people switch to English the moment you hesitate.

No. No grammar drills, no practice exams, no claims about pass rates. The site covers the comprehension side of the language, which is a real part of that test and not the whole of it. For the writing and grammar sections you want a proper course.

No. Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are Germanic and closely related to each other. Finnish is Finno-Ugric - closest to Estonian, then distantly Hungarian - and shares almost no vocabulary with its neighbours.

It has a reputation it half deserves. The cases and the consonant gradation are genuinely a lot of work. The spelling is completely regular, the stress is always on the first syllable, and there is no grammatical gender - all of which are easier than most European languages.

Slugs fold ä to a and ö to o, because a URL with a percent-encoded diaeresis is unshareable. The displayed word never folds - Kärkkäinen is a name and Karkkainen is a typo.

Yes, all of it. Every word page, situation, quiz and article, with no login and no paywall, and the newsletter is free too.

Partly. AI helps with research and a first draft; then it gets rewritten, checked against real usage and against Kotus, and drafts that read like a translation engine get binned rather than patched. Native speakers send corrections and those go straight in.

Email moi@finnishirl.com. Corrections from native speakers are the most useful mail this site gets, and they go into the pages rather than into a backlog.

Daily. The day rolls over at 06:00 Helsinki time and the site rebuilds itself each morning after that, so a new word is up before most people are at a desk. Nothing is ever removed, so the archive only grows.

Quote a sentence or two with a link, freely. The illustrations are the site's own artwork and are not licensed for reuse. Third-party photos carry their own credit and licence in the caption.