KitsumiFree basic Finnish words
A seven-page printable PDF for your first weeks of Finnish: the sounds, how words work, 220 everyday words and sentences to read aloud.
PDF · 7 pages · 253 KB · no sign-up · free to print and share
Next, meet these words in real videos: Kitsumi is free for Chrome and Firefox.
What's inside
- How Finnish soundsä, ö and y, double letters that change the word (tuli, tuuli, tulli), the rolled r, and stress that always sits on the first syllable.
- How words workNo gender and no the, endings in colour for in, from and into (talossa, talosta, taloon), vowel harmony in a small table, olla for each person, the not-verb en, et, ei, and spoken mä and sä.
- 220 words, then show wordsMoi, kiitos and ole hyvä, family with setä and eno, numbers up to kaksikymmentäyksi, ruisleipä, pulla and the sauna, places and verbs. Then joo, no niin, ihan sama and sisu, what to call people, and ten sentences to read before you check.
How to use it
- Read the sounds page aloud, one row at a time. Keep it next to you while you read the rest.
- Read the grammar page twice. You don't need to learn it, just to notice the endings and the a or ä in them.
- Learn five words a day. Cover the grey English on the last page, read each sentence aloud, then slide the paper down to check.
- Watch something in Finnish with Kitsumi and catch the words you know. Joo, no niin and kiitos turn up in every scene.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. It's a free PDF with no sign-up. Print it, keep it and share it.
Is Finnish hard to read?
No, it's one of the easiest. Finnish is read exactly as it's written, every letter is said, and stress is always on the first syllable. Once you know ä, ö, y and the double letters, you can read any word aloud.
Do I need to learn all the endings?
Not at first. The sheet shows the few you meet most, in colour: -ssa in, -sta from, -lla at. Spot them in subtitles and they soon feel normal.