I notice that there is only Intermediate 1 in the free version of Finnish. Do you get higher levels with Premium? I’d like to know before subscribing. Thanks
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I love the mini stories - well thought out - but there are only 14 of them. I consider these to be the “lessons”
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I do not know what’s available, but I would expect it’s the same with premium. With Swedish I have noticed that there are some books/short stories that aren’t included in the guided courses, but can’t say if there is content in Finnish that is beyond the levels offered. You can always import your material into lingq. From intermediate 2 up most useful content for lingq is in any case books and short stories. Should be possible to find enough content to make it worthwhile having lingq at least for some time. I could find Aleksis Kivi; Seitsemän veljestä online, which is one of the classics of Finnish literature. With a short skim I would say it’s appropriate to advanced 1/2, maybe more to 2 because it is written in a dialect quite a long time ago and quite a few words are either spelled differently to the norm or are in disuse. Would think it’s still worthwhile to read at that level as Finnish tends to have a lot of regional variation. I added a link to that below. One thing that might help is to open a topic asking for recommendations of content that other Finnish students have used. I’m a native speaker and haven’t read that much in Finnish to remember what to look for. Frans Emil Sillanpää is another author whose content might be available online for free, just can’t find any right now. Won Nobel prize in literature in 1939.
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Thanks Jessie. I already have heaps of content, including a lot of the stuff LingQ has, but the mini stories are the best for me. If they go beyond the initial 14, I will subscribe. There are supposed to be 60 for each language, right?
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Even up to Intermediate 1 in the Finnish Library you will find hundreds of thousands of words to learn. The Course by Lotta (150+ lessons) and the adventure Vlog by Max Pinomaa really helped me achieve a good base. Also, last I heard… There may be some more Finnish mini stories coming.
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Thanks, mate. I used to speak Finnish many many years go (self-taught) when I lived in Helsinki for 3 years. Then I forgot most of it when I moved away and didn’t keep it up, so I am resuscitating it. It holds zero fears for me. I have heaps of materials at home and have gone right through the Kuulosta hyvältä and Supisuomea series on Youtube (also available in better video quality through Yle Areena online). I just love the mini stories because they use all the case endings. Hoping a lot more are added. Thanks for responding.
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Sounds like you’re from Australia, mate?!
Those are some good courses, I remember struggling hard at the beginning with Supisuomea (If I remember no subs, or no translation). It seems quite introductory and out of time now.
I had a print out of this list on my wall for the longest time too. There are plenty of cases, combinations and colloquialism’s missing that i’ve found along the way.
Finnish Cases
Finnish has 15 grammatical cases:
Nominative: the basic form of the noun, used for the subject of a sentence.
No specific suffix is added in this case.
Genitive: indicates possession, corresponds to the English "of" or " 's."
Suffix: -n, -en, -jen, -in, -den
Partitive: used to express partial or indefinite quantity.
Suffix: -a, -ä, -ta, -tä
Accusative: used to indicate the direct object of a verb.
Suffix: -n (identical to the genitive suffix)
Essive: expresses a state or condition, often translated as "as" or "being."
Suffix: -na, -nä
Translative: indicates a change in state or transformation, often translated as "into" or "to become."
Suffix: -ksi
Inessive: expresses location inside something or within a place, often translated as "in" or "inside."
Suffix: -ssa, -ssä
Elative: indicates movement out of something, often translated as "out of" or "from."
Suffix: -sta, -stä
Illative: expresses movement into something, often translated as "into" or "to."
Suffix: -an, -än, -oon, -ön, -een
Adessive: indicates location on or at something, often translated as "on" or "at."
Suffix: -lla, -llä
Ablative: shows movement away from something, often translated as "from" or "off."
Suffix: -lta, -ltä
Allative: expresses movement towards something, often translated as "to" or "onto."
Suffix: -lle
Abessive: indicates absence or lack of something, often translated as "without."
Suffix: -tta, -ttä
Comitative: expresses accompaniment, often translated as "with" or "together with."
Suffix: -ne (+ possessive suffix)
Instructive: used to indicate the means or instrument by which something is done, often translated as "by" or "using."
Suffix: -n (plural only)
Common prefixes and suffixes in Finnish:
epä-: prefix meaning "non-" or "un-"; e.g., epäonnistua (to fail)
-ja, -jä: suffix meaning "-er" or "-or"; e.g., opettaja (teacher)
-la, -lä: suffix forming place names or indicating an abundance of something; e.g., kahvila (café)
-minen: suffix forming nouns from verbs, often indicating an action; e.g., lukeminen (reading)
-va, -vä: suffix forming adjectives from nouns, often indicating a characteristic; e.g., kivinen (rocky)
-ton, -tön: suffix meaning "without" or "lacking"; e.g., koditon (homeless)
-llinen, -llisen: suffix forming adjectives, often related to possession or characteristics; e.g., kaunis (beautiful), kauniillinen (possessing beauty)
-kas, -käs: suffix forming adjectives from nouns, often indicating a characteristic or tendency; e.g., ahne (greedy), ahnekas (greedy person)
-os, -ös: suffix forming nouns from verbs, indicating a result or outcome; e.g., putoaminen (falling), putoamos (the result of falling)
-tar, -tär: suffix forming female counterparts of nouns; e.g., opettaja (teacher), opettajatar (female teacher)
-sto, -stö: suffix forming collective nouns, often related to a group or a collection; e.g., kukkasto (a collection of flowers)
-kko, -kkö: suffix forming interrogative adverbs or pronouns; e.g., mihin (where), mihinkö (where to?)
-in: suffix forming adjectives from nouns, often indicating origin or belonging; e.g., suomalainen (Finnish)
-ista, -istä: suffix forming nouns from other nouns or adjectives, indicating someone who practices or is a follower of something; e.g., feministi (feminist)
-is, -ys: suffix forming adjectives from nouns, often indicating a characteristic or quality; e.g., terve (healthy), terveellinen (healthful)
If you like YLE Areena you should check out the lingq video overlay I created for it. Free for Finnish learners. You just need a PC
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Thanks, R. I will check out the Yle Areena/lingQ video. Some of the old stuff is really dated but much of it still holds up. I still have my Finnish for Foreigners 1, 2, 3 by Maija-Hellikki Aaltio. They still stand up. I even have a copy of the Bible in Finnish, even though I’m not religious!
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I’m surprised they only have 14 mini stories for Finnish. I mean, I hear they have all 60 for Welsh which hasn’t even been launched on LingQ yet. And all 60 for Icelandic. So, we are losing in this contest as well.
I can see some (not many) for more advanced levels, although such texts should be easier to come by and import.
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LingQ has existed for more than 10 years and did not always have the same policies about adding new languages. Going forward, there are standard requirements to get a language onto the platform (60 Mini Stories with High Quality Audio, Grammar Guide, News Sources, etc.), but those requirements aren´t being applied to remove languages that were added years ago.