Finnish IRL

Puhekieli, the one people speak

Finnish is taught in kirjakieli, the written standard, and almost nobody speaks it. What people say is puhekieli. Both are standard Finnish. Here is the spoken form beside the written one for every word on this site, and the regular changes that produce them.

The nine changes

Puhekieli looks like chaos for about a month and then stops, because almost all of it is these nine. Learn the change and you have predicted the next fifty words it applies to.

  1. The pronouns shorten

    minä becomes mä, sinä becomes sä, and the whole family follows: minun to mun, minulla to mulla. hän becomes se and he becomes ne, so a person takes the same pronoun as a chair does.

    mäsämunsenemulla on

  2. olla loses its l

    olen to oon, olet to oot, ei ole to ei oo. It is the most common verb in the language, so this one change accounts for a large share of what sounds unfamiliar.

    oonei oo

  3. The question particle wears down to -ks

    onko becomes onks. Then the pronoun stops being a separate word and attaches to the verb: menetkö sinä arrives as meetsä. A spoken question often has no recognisable question marker left in it at all.

    onks

  4. A we-sentence goes passive

    menemme becomes mennään. Finnish speech uses the passive for the first person plural almost without exception, which is why the textbook -mme ending is rare to actually hear.

    mennään

  5. The negative verb stops agreeing

    he eivät tule becomes ne ei tuu, emme mene becomes me ei mennä. The singular ei covers every person, and the negation swallows the pronoun after it: en minä runs together as emmä.

    ei

  6. d between two vowels drops out

    tiedän becomes tiiän, meidän becomes meiän. The middle of the word goes missing, which is the change most likely to make a familiar word unrecognisable.

    en tiiä

  7. -nen endings lose their middle

    punainen becomes punanen, semmoinen becomes semmonen. It applies to a whole class of adjectives at once, so it is worth recognising as a shape rather than word by word.

    punanensemmonen

  8. The past participle drops its final t

    ollut becomes ollu, ymmärtänyt becomes ymmärtäny. The sentence is a syllable shorter than the spelling suggests, in every past-tense negative.

    ei oo

  9. Common verbs contract

    tulen becomes tuun, menen becomes meen, tarvitsee becomes tarvii. The verbs that contract are the verbs used most, which is unhelpful when starting out and stops mattering quickly.

    meen

The pairs

23 words that exist in both forms. The left column is what a course taught you; the right is what arrives in the room.

Written (kirjakieli) Said (puhekieli) What it means
anteeksi anteeks Sorry. Excuse me. Pardon?
ei ole ei oo There isn't. It isn't. We don't have it.
ei tarvitse ei tartte No need. You don't have to. Don't bother.
ei kun eiku No wait. I mean. Scratch that.
en tiedä en tiiä I don't know.
katso kato Look. And, half the time, nothing at all.
katsotaan katotaan We'll see. Let's see. Let's have a look.
menen meen I go. I'm going. I'm off.
menemme mennään Let's go. We go. We're going.
minulla on mulla on I have.
minun mun My. Mine.
minä mä I. Me.
minä tykkään sinusta mä tykkään susta I like you.
he ne They. Those.
niin nii Yeah. Right. Mm. Go on.
niin kuin niinku Like. As. You know.
onko onks Is there? Is it? Do you have?
olen oon I am.
punainen punanen Red.
hän se It. And, in spoken Finnish, he or she.
semmoinen semmonen That kind of. Like that.
sinä sä You (singular).
käymälä vessa Toilet. Loo.

Every change, word by word

99 changes recorded across 21 words. Each one was written down on a word page, and each generalises well beyond the word it came from.

ei

Written Spoken What changed
emme mene me ei mennä Person agreement gives way. The plural emme is replaced by me plus the bare ei, and the main verb moves to the passive.
he eivät tule ne ei tuu The third person plural goes the same way, and he becomes ne in the same breath.
en minä tiedä emmä tiiä The negative verb swallows the pronoun behind it: en minä runs together as emmä, et sinä as etsä.
älä mene älä mee The imperative has its own negative verb, älä, and it shortens the verb after it like everything else does.

ei oo

Written Spoken What changed
ei ole ei oo The l drops out of olla in speech, the same loss that gives oon and oot.
en ole en oo The negative goes with it, and with the pronoun attached it becomes emmä oo.
emme ole me ei oo The negative verb stops agreeing for person, so the singular ei covers the plural.
ei ollut ei ollu The final t of the past participle drops, as it does across the tense.
eivät ole ne ei oo Third person plural collapses on both the pronoun and the negative verb.

ei tartte

Written Spoken What changed
ei tarvitse ei tartte The middle of the verb collapses. Ei tarvii is the other spoken form and is equally common.
tarvitsee tarvii The affirmative contracts the same way, though this verb prefers the negative.
sinun ei tarvitse sun ei tartte The genitive person contracts along with everything else.
ei tarvinnut ei tarvinnu Past participle loses its final t.
katsotaan katotaan The same appetite for dropping a consonant cluster in a long common verb.

eiku

Written Spoken What changed
ei kun eiku Two words fuse into one and the final n goes.
niin kuin niinku The same fusion on the other high-frequency pair, and the source of the filler.
että et The commonest conjunction in the language, worn down to two letters.
sitten sit Final syllable gone: sitten, sitte, sit.
kun ku Final n drops, which is what lets it glue onto the word in front.

en tiiä

Written Spoken What changed
en tiedä en tiiä Nothing is dropped. Speech never had the written d; the letter is a standardisers' convention.
meidän meiän The same gap in the same place, in the possessive.
yhden yhen And in the numeral, which is where learners first notice it.
tehdä tehä The infinitive of one of the most common verbs in the language.
en tiedä emmä tiiä Then the pronoun attaches to the negative verb and three words become two.

kato

Written Spoken What changed
katso kato The ts cluster collapses. It is the same cluster behind metsä and itse.
katsotaan katotaan Same verb, the passive that carries the wait-and-see meaning.
metsä mettä The same cluster in a noun, and here the outcome is regional: mettä in the west, mehtä in Savo, metsä in Helsinki.
itse itte Same cluster, doubled this time, and general across the country including Helsinki.

meen

Written Spoken What changed
menen meen The middle syllable drops out of the first person singular.
menet meet Same contraction, second person.
menevät menee The third person plural flattens into the singular form.
tulen tuun The same shape on the other high-frequency movement verb.
panen paan Identical contraction. Bare panna is commonly heard in its sexual sense, so Finns say laittaa or pistää for putting something somewhere. It stays neutral in fixed phrases like panna merkille.
menemme mennään The first person plural leaves the paradigm and the passive takes the job.

mennään

Written Spoken What changed
menemme mennään The first person plural hands its job to the passive.
olemme ollaan Same swap on the most common verb in the language.
otamme otetaan And on every other verb. Learn the pattern once.
menimme me mentiin The past tense goes the same way, which is the half most learners never meet.
emme mene me ei mennä And the negative, where the negative verb also stops agreeing.

mulla on

Written Spoken What changed
minulla on mulla on The pronoun contracts. The case ending and the verb stay exactly as they were.
sinulla on sulla on Same change, second person.
hänellä on sillä on Speech swaps the pronoun for the demonstrative and keeps the adessive.
minulla ei ole mulla ei oo The negative loses the l of ole, the same reduction that gives oon.
heillä on niillä on The plural goes the same way as the singular.

mun

Written Spoken What changed
minun mun The first syllable goes and the pronoun becomes unstressed.
sinun sun Same change, second person.
hänen sen Not a contraction at all. Speech swaps in a different word, the demonstrative.
meidän meiän The d drops out between vowels, as it does across spoken Finnish.
minun kirjani mun kirja The pronoun shortens and the possessive suffix on the noun disappears with it.

mä

Written Spoken What changed
minä mä The first syllable goes and the pronoun becomes unstressed.
minun mun My. The whole family shortens the same way.
minulla mulla I have, from the adessive. Mulla on is the possession sentence.
minut mut Me, as an object.
minua mua Me, partitive. Mua väsyttää, I'm tired.

ne

Written Spoken What changed
he ne A different word entirely, not a contraction. The demonstrative takes over.
he ovat ne on The plural verb ending goes and the singular form stands in.
he ovat lähteneet ne on lähteny Two losses in one clause: the plural verb and the plural participle ending.
heidän niiden The possessive follows the pronoun. Niitten is equally common.
heille niille Every case form is rebuilt on the demonstrative stem.

nii

Written Spoken What changed
niin nii Final n drops in relaxed speech.
sitten sit The same direction, taken further: sitten to sitte to sit, and the last syllable goes altogether.
punainen punanen A different reduction in the same direction: unstressed syllables lose material.

niinku

Written Spoken What changed
niin kuin niinku Two words fuse and the final n drops.
niinku niiku In fast speech it wears down again, and the k can go with it.
tuota tota The other big Finnish filler, shortened the same way.
ei kun eiku The repair particle, built by the same fusion.

onks

Written Spoken What changed
onko onks The question clitic -ko wears down to -ks.
menetkö sinä meetsä Verb contracts, clitic shortens, pronoun sticks to the back. Two words become one.
tuletko sinä tuutsä Same assembly, different verb.
tiedätkö sinä tiiätsä The d between vowels goes too, which is why the middle of the word vanishes.
meneekö meneeks A front-vowel verb takes -kö in writing and still lands on -ks in speech. Vowel harmony stops being audible here.

oon

Written Spoken What changed
olen oon The l drops out of the first person singular.
olet oot Second person the same, and it usually arrives fused: ootsä.
olemme ollaan The first person plural goes over to the passive.
ovat on Third person plural flattens into the singular: ne on.
en ole en oo The negative goes the same way, and fuses further into emmä oo.

punanen

Written Spoken What changed
punainen punanen The -inen suffix loses its i.
valkoinen valkonen Same rule, and it holds across the whole class.
keltainen keltanen Same rule, and it holds right across the class.
punaisen punasen The inflected forms follow the base: punasen, punasta, punaset.

se

Written Spoken What changed
hän se Not a contraction. Speech uses a different word, the demonstrative.
he ne The plural does the same, and takes a singular verb with it: ne on.
hänen sen The possessive is rebuilt on the demonstrative stem.
hänellä sillä And the adessive: sillä on auto, she has a car.
hänet sen The object form, where written Finnish has a dedicated shape and speech does not.

semmonen

Written Spoken What changed
semmoinen semmonen The -inen ending loses its i. It happens to the whole class.
sellainen sellanen Same rule, applied to the neutral twin of this word.
tämmöinen tämmönen This kind, here. Its neutral written twin is tällainen.
tuommoinen tommonen That kind, over there and visible. Neutral twin: tuollainen.
semmoisen semmosen The inflected forms follow the base down: semmosen, semmosta, semmoset.

sä

Written Spoken What changed
sinä sä The first syllable goes. The regional forms sie and sää belong to the same slot.
sinun sun Your. Sun kirja, your book.
sinulla sulla You have, from the adessive: onks sulla.
sinut sut You, as an object.
menetkö sinä meetsä In a question the pronoun stops being a word and sticks to the back of the verb.

vessa

Written Spoken What changed
käymälä vessa Not a sound change. The official word and the everyday word are unrelated, which makes this the widest book-to-speech gap in the vocabulary.
WC vee-see The sign is read out as the two letter names, and the room itself is a vessa.
wc-tila vessa Floor plans and estate agents keep the wc- prefix. Nobody says it out loud.
käymälässä vessassa Both take ordinary case endings, so only the stem has to change.

How to use this page

If you have just heard something and cannot place it, work right to left: find the spoken form, read across to the written one, and it is usually a word you already know. If you want the reasoning rather than the list, the article on where the changes actually land is the long version, and the glossary is the same corpus in A-Ö order.

Nothing here is slang and nothing here is wrong Finnish. It is the same language with the everyday surface on, which is the surface it is spoken in.

About puhekieli

What is the difference between puhekieli and kirjakieli?

Kirjakieli is written standard Finnish - the form in textbooks, news copy and official letters. Puhekieli is what people say out loud. Both are ordinary Finnish and neither is slang or an error. The problem for a learner is that courses teach the first one and conversations happen in the second, so a B1 certificate does not reliably survive a tram.

Is puhekieli the same as slang?

No. Slang is vocabulary - kimppa, duuni, skidi - and it changes by decade and by city. Puhekieli is the regular set of sound changes that standard Finnish goes through when it is spoken, and it applies to the whole language at once. Every Finn uses puhekieli; not every Finn uses Helsinki slang.

Should I learn puhekieli or kirjakieli first?

You do not have to choose, because they are the same grammar with different surfaces. What helps is knowing which one you are looking at. Reading a spoken form as a mistake, or writing a spoken form into an official letter, are the two errors this table exists to prevent.

Do these changes work everywhere in Finland?

The ones on this page are general - they hold in Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Oulu alike. Regional forms sit on top of them: mä is the Helsinki and general spoken form, mää is Turku and Tampere, and further north and east the pronouns change again. Where a word on this site is regional rather than general, its page says so.

Will Finns mind if I speak kirjakieli?

Nobody is offended by it. It does sound noticeably formal, a bit like speaking in full written sentences in English, and it tends to mark you as someone who learned from a book rather than from people. The larger practical issue is the other direction: kirjakieli is easy to say and hard to hear, and understanding is what actually breaks down.

Where do these pairs come from?

Every row is taken from a word page on this site, each of which carries its own sources. There are 23 pairs and 99 documented changes here so far, and the table grows with the corpus - a new word every morning.

More questions →