Notational conventions in Finnish

General

There are rules of written language that govern various general and specialized notations, such as abbreviations, notations of quantities, and formats of bulleted lists. For many of them, there are international standards, but the standards are often not followed in practice, and national conventions and even national standards may differ from them.

This section describes the most common notational conventions in Finnish, in alphabetic order by topic. The presentation does not cover issues where there is no significant difference between international standards, rules for English, and rules for Finnish. Additional information is available in Finnish in the online guide Nykyajan kielenopas, by the author of this book.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations used in Finnish can be classified as follows:

• Common abbreviations, which are widely used and recognized by practically all literate speakers of Finnish: esim. = esimerkiksi (for example), huom. = huomautus ∼ huomaa (remark; please note), mm. = muun muassa, s.o. = se on (that is), ym. = ynnä muut (and other), tms. = tai muuta sellaista (or things like that), v. = vuonna (in the year), yms. = ynnä muuta sellaista (and things like that). Even these abbreviations are avoided in the most formal prose, in fiction, and often in journalistic style. In informal language, some common abbreviations are occasionally pronounced as words and possibly written without a period (esim, huom, yms), making them truncated words.
• Other general abbreviations, defined in principle in abbreviation glossaries such as Lyhenneluettelo by the Institute for the Languages of Finland. Most of them cannot be expected to be generally known, but some of them can be expected to be known to some group of readers. They normally end with a period, e.g. agrol. for agrologi, and they have most often been formed the same way as temporary abbreviations. In this book, the appendix-like chapter Abbreviations lists frequently used general abbreviations (and some other abbreviations).
• Temporary abbreviations of words, formed by breaking a word between a consonant and a vowel and appending a period. For example, opettaja could be abbreviated as op. or as opett., though the latter saves just two characters. Such abbreviations often need some context or an explicit definition to be understandable.
• Encyclopedic abbreviations, consisting of the first letter of a word or phrase and a period. For example, in an article with the title algoritmi, the abbreviation a. would be used to denote the title word, in one encyclopedic style.
• Initialisms, formed from initial letters of words, e.g. EU for Euroopan unioni. These are traditionally written in all upper case, without a period. However, abbreviations that are used as common names rather than proper names are increasingly written in lower case, e.g. alv = ALV = arvonlisävero, and this is accepted practice.
• Foreign abbreviations, adopted as such from another language, such as NHL. They are mostly pronounced using the Finnish names for letters, e.g. [än hoo äl]. For a few abbreviations, foreign pronunciation is in use, e.g. [bii bii sii] for BBC; for some, like CIA and FBI, the practice varies.
• Internationally standardized symbols, such as “m” for meter and “Pt” for plutonium. These are usually called abbreviations, though they are best classified as identifiers. They are read either using the corresponding Finnish names, like metri (or metriä) and plutonium, or in some contexts by naming the letters (e.g. “Pt” as pee tee).

Abbreviations and their use vary by time, since they are mainly used for expressions that are repeated often, and this may depend on changes in the society. The same abbreviation may have different meanings in different areas of life and at different times. Dictionaries generally make heavy use of abbreviations, including usage where the meanings are specialized; e.g. s. may stand for substantive (noun) and not any of the common meanings.

For example, the abbreviations for political parties reflect name changes. For abbreviations at present, consult the recommendation Puolueiden nimet ja lyhenteet. Currently kd. (often written kd without period) refers to Christian Democrats; from 1940s to 1980s, it stood for kansandemokraatit, a left-wing party.

An abbreviation mostly stands for one form of a word only, usually the basic form. (Exceptionally, the abbreviation v. stands for both vuonna and vuosi.) If the grammatical context requires another form, the suffix needs to be written and separated from the abbreviation with a colon “:”, e.g. EU:ssa = Euroopan unionissa, except when the abbreviation as such is a pronounced word (see below). An identifier of a unit stands for both the basic form and the partitive, e.g. 1 m = yksi metri, 5 m = viisi metriä; for other case forms, the suffix is written, e.g. 1 m:ssä = yhdessä metrissä.

The use of a period at the end of abbreviations has been debated a lot, but the rules have remained essentially the same for a long time:

• An abbreviation usually ends with a period, if it has been formed by omitting letters from the end of a word, e.g. s. = sivu, prof. = professori. However, in dictionaries, abbreviations are often written in italic without a period, e.g. “hoopo (ark) stupid”, where ark = arkikieltä = colloquialism.
• If both parts of a compound word have been abbreviated by omitting trailing letters, a period is used at the end of each abbreviated part, e.g. lastent.op. = lastentarhanopettaja.
• Initialisms are written without a period, e.g. PRH = Patentti- ja rekisterihallitus.
• However, some common abbreviations such as jne. = ja niin edelleen are written with a period. They are written in lowercase and spelled out in reading, as opposite to e.g. abbreviations of organisation names, which are mostly read by letters, e.g. PRH [pee är hoo]. However, in informal language, even abbreviations like jne. may be pronounced by letters: jii änn ee.
• Symbols of units never have a period, whether the unit is internationally standardized or not, e.g. m = metri, prk = purkki (can). The same applies to other standardized symbols, which are identifiers rather than abbreviations, e.g. U = uraani (uranium).

In the armed forces, abbreviations are written without periods, e.g. kers for kersantti (sergeant) instead of kers. as used in standard Finnish.

When a person’s given names are abbreviated, only the first letter of each word is included. However, if the name starts with a consonant cluster, all consonants in it are included (e.g. Fredrik is abbreviated as Fr.). Spaces are left after each abbreviation, e.g. J. K. Paasikivi, although a thin space may be used instead of a normal space. It is common to violate this rule (e.g. J.K.Paasikivi) due to the influence of English.

In addition to abbreviations proper, there are words that are abbreviations by origin but used in any way as a normal word, such as “radar” in English. Some of them, being originally initialisms, are often written in all upper case, e.g. NATO, but normal spelling like Nato is also accepted and increasingly common. If such a word is inflected, the suffixes are written in lower case (except in all-uppercase text of course), e.g. NATOssa ∼ Natossa.

An abbreviation can be read in three ways:

• By spelling it out, e.g. RUK [reserviupseerikoulu]. This of course requires that you know what it stands for and are sure of it.
• By reading the letters, e.g. RUK [ärr uu koo].
• By pronouncing it as a word, e.g. RUK [ruk]. This is of course possible only for abbreviations that can reasonably be read so.

The intended reading affects the inflection. For example, the illative of RUK is written and pronounced in one of the following ways:

• RUK:uun [reserviupseerikouluun]. This looks rather formal and maybe even odd.
• RUK:hon [ärr uu koohon]. This is suitable for both formal and informal texts.
• RUKiin [rukkiin]. This looks colloquial.

An abbreviation that is read as a word (not as expanded or by saying the letters) can be regarded as an acronym word. Such words may become common, normal words so that their origin is no longer relevant or even known to many people. This applies even stronger to abbreviations turned to words e.g. by appending a letter (like turning the abbreviation alv to the colloquial word alvi).

Comparison of quantities

An expression like “five times as big as” has a direct structural counterpart in Finnish: viisi kertaa niin suuri kuin. However, it is much more common to say viisi kertaa suurempi kuin (literally: five times greater than). This expression is well understood and unambiguous, even though there is an opinion that regularly pops up claiming that it is illogical and wrong. A cautious author may avoid it for this reason.

Similarly, viisi kertaa pienempi kuin means the same as viisi kertaa niin pieni kuin (five times as small as), i.e. 80% smaller, or 20% of the size.

Percentage comparisons like 300 % suurempi (300% larger) have the same meaning in both languages. However, in most styles, it is better to write neljä kertaa suurempi than to use percentages.

Real ambiguities have arisen with expressions like puolet suurempi (literally: half bigger). Originally, this means the same as kaksi kertaa suurempi, i.e. twice as big. In modern language, however, it can also mean the same as 50 % suurempi (50% bigger). Thus, this type of expression is best avoided, especially since in many contexts, both interpretations are possible.

Centuries and decades

In Finnish, centuries are usually expressed using notations like 1900-luku (20th century) and 2000-luku (21st century). Expressions like 20. vuosisata are possible, too, but mostly used with small numerals only, e.g. 5. vuosisata = 400-luku (5th century); for the first century, this type of expression, 1. vuosisata, is the only possibility.

Decades are expressed using notations like 1960-luku or, shorter, 60-luku (1960s). This makes expressions like 1900-luku and 2000-luku ambiguous in principle.

Dates

Many date notations have been used in Finnish, but nowadays only the following are in common use and recommended:

• 15.2.2016 (short all-numeric notation day.month.year)
• 15. helmikuuta 2016 (longer, with month name)

In the short notation, no spaces are used, though small added spacing (such as hair spaces in typographic sense) is permitted. Some publications still use spaces (15. 2. 2016). When reading aloud, the day and month number are read as ordinal numerals, and the latter in the partitive, e.g. viidestoista toista kaksituhatta kuusitoista. For clarity, the month number (especially if it is 2) can also be read as month name, e.g. saying helmikuuta instead of toista.

The longer notation has normal spaces between its three parts. It is read like the short notation, just using the month name, which appears here in the partitive: viidestoista helmikuuta kaksituhatta kuusitoista.

The month names are compound words with kuu (month; moon) as the second part: tammikuu, helmikuu, maaliskuu, huhtikuu, toukokuu, kesäkuu, heinäkuu, elokuu, syyskuu, lokakuu, marraskuu, joulukuu. There are no reasonable abbreviations for them in text; using e.g. tammik. is possible, but rather useless. In computer-generated texts, months may appear as tammi, helmi etc., but this is inadequate, except in calendars.

Both the short and the long notation are written without leading zeros. They can both be used without the year number. The short notation retains both periods (e.g. 15.2.).

The year-month-day notation as defined in the international standard ISO 8601, e.g. 2016-02-15, is used to some extent, but it is not accepted by Finnish language authorities for use in texts. Even multilingual documents published in Finland often use the 15.2.2016 notation.

It is not uncommon to see other date notations displayed by computer software that has been localized improperly. For example, HelMet, the online system of public libraries in the Helsinki area, uses partly the 15-02-16 notation (with year as the last component), partly the 15-02-2016 notation.

Durations of time

A duration of time is expressed using a number and a unit of time, possibly followed by another expressions of the same kind, e.g. kaksi vuotta ja viisi kuukautta (two years and five months). The word ja is sometimes omitted. General rules for noun forms used with numerals are applied, so the unit of time is normally in the partitive (except when the number is 1).

Abbreviations or identifiers are often used for units of time when numbers are written with digits, e.g. 2 v 5 kk (always without periods). The following table summarizes the notations used. The Finnish word is shown in nominative and partitive. When both an abbreviation and an identifier are shown, the abbreviation is recommended by language authorities.

There is no official abbreviation for millions of years (“My” in English), but in geology, “Ma” is sometimes used.

For relatively short durations, notations similar to those for times of the day are often used when compactness is needed, e.g. in sports results. For example, instead of 2 min 30,5 s, one can write 2.30,5 (recommended) or 2:30,5 (commonly used). Such notations are usually read by pronouncing just the numbers and the comma, e.g. kaksi kolmekymmentä pilkku viisi.

Footnote references

When footnotes are used, they are usually numbered, either consecutively through a document or a chapter or within a page. The numbers are used as superscripts to refer to footnotes. When only one or a few footnotes appear per page, the asterisk “*” may alternatively be used, repeating it when necessary, using “**” to refer to the second footnote.

It is relatively common to use a right parenthesis, without any matching left parenthesis, after a footnote reference, e.g. xxx²⁾ instead of xxx². Language authorities do no recommend such usage.

The practice of using symbols *, †, ‡, §, **, †† in this order as footnote references is outdated in Finnish and tends to cause confusion if used.

Lists

Bulleted lists and numbered lists are used much as in English, with the following differences:

• The recommended list marker in unnumbered lists is the en dash “–” (called ranskalainen viiva, the French dash, in this context), not the bullet “•”. However, bullet characters or decorative symbolss are generally used in office documents, presentation graphics, etc.
• In a numbered list, the number is followed by closing parenthesis rather than a period, e.g. “1)” instead of “1.”, though there is no strict rule on this.
• If a list is part of a sentence that starts before it, the last item of the list should be terminated by a period (unlike in English).

Example:

Suomessa elää kolme joutsenlajia:
– laulujoutsen
– kyhmyjoutsen
– pikkujoutsen.

Written as a numbered list, the list would be as follows:

Suomessa elää kolme joutsenlajia:
1) laulujoutsen
2) kyhmyjoutsen
3) pikkujoutsen.

A numbered list could also be written as an inline list with the same structure but with commas between the items. The last comma can be replaced by the word ja.

Suomessa elää kolme joutsenlajia: 1) laulujoutsen, 2) kyhmyjoutsen,
3) pikkujoutsen.

It is nowadays common to deviate from these principles, largely because popular word processors and other tools generate different presentations by default.

Mathematical expressions

Mathematical notations are generally meant to be language-independent, but in practice there are some cultural differences in writing them. On the other hand, much of the variation depends on adherence to standards and tradition rather than language differences.

Finnish practices differ from practices in English texts in a few ways:

• Numbers are written using a comma as decimal separator and a space as a thousands separator, e.g. 4 200,5 instead of 4,200.5.
• Spaces are often omitted around the operators “⋅” (multiplication dot) and “×” (multiplication sign), if the operands are short, e.g. 320×240. A national standard (SFS 4175) allows this, but an international standard requires spaces: 320 × 240.
• The so-called division sign “÷” is never used to denote division. In some usage (in commercial contexts) it denotes subtraction.
• The book MAOL-taulukot and its precedessors as well as its e-book verson MAOL-digitaulukot have been very influential due to use at schools. They contain several notations of their own, favoring e.g. an italic letter with overline (ā) for vectors, instead of international standard notations like boldface italic (a).

Mathematical notations as they are used in Finnish text are described in detail in the book Matemaattisten merkintöjen kirjoittaminen, by the author of this book. The corresponding book in English, Writing mathematical expressions, focuses on standards and on practices in texts in English.

Monetary quantities

A monetary quantity is expressed using a number, a space, and a currency designator. The designator can be a name, a currency symbol, a currency code, or a currency abbreviation. Examples: 42 euroa = 42 € = 42 EUR = 42 e and 42 Ruotsin kruunua = 42 kr = 42 SEK = (42 Swedish crowns). In text, the currency name is preferred, but a currency symbol can be used in tables and other contexts for brevity. The international currency codes like EUR should be used only in international banking business and other contexts where several currencies appear, but it is also used otherwise.

The currency symbols used in Finnish are €, $, and £, very rarely others like ¥.

The currency abbreviations used are kr = kruunu (crown, for currencies of Nordic countries), doll = dollari (dollar, rarely used), rpl = rupla (rubel), fr = frangi (franc), e = euro, snt = sentti (eurocent), mk = markka (mark, former currency of Finland), and p = penni (one 100th of mark). The abbreviation e is presented as secondary in recommendations, but many publications use it instead of €, perhaps for typographic reasons.

According to official recommendations, sentti (eurocent) can be abbreviated snt or c. Such abbreviations are used in some special contexts like phone charge rates, e.g. puhelut 7 snt/min, and energy rates, e.g. energia 4,73 c/kWh. Otherwise, small amounts are expressed using the word sentti, e.g. 60 senttiä, or as euros, e.g. 0,60 € rather than 60 snt or 60 c.

If decimals are used in monetary notations, there are always two digits to the right of the decimal point, e.g. 42,50 €, though nonstandard notations like 42,5 € are not rare. An en dash is often used instead of two zeros, e.g. 42,– € = 42,00 €. Often the dash is interpreted as meaning a currency notation, so that e.g. 42,– is used alone.

An expression like 42,50 € can be read as neljäkymmentäkaksi euroa viisikymmentä senttiä, but usually the currency names are omitted: neljäkymmentäkaksi viisikymmentä.

There is no accepted abbreviation for thousands of euros, but t€, k€, tEUR, kEUR are sometimes used. In standard language, one must write e.g. 100 000 €. For millions of euros, M€ is accepted, though not all regard it as good style. See also Notations for large numbers.

Numbers

Chapter Numerals describes how numbers are written using words or digits. The differences from English practice when using digits can be summarized as follows:

• The comma is used as the decimal separator, e.g. 3,14 (in English: 3.14).
• Groups of digits are separated by spaces, not commas, e.g. 25 000 (in English: 25,000).
• In ordinal numerals, the digits are followed either by a period or by a colon and a suffix, e.g. 7. or 7:s (7th), which is read as seitsemäs.
• When required by the grammatical context, a numeral written with digits is followed by a colon and a case suffix (or a combination of an ordinal suffix and a case suffix), e.g. Määrä pieneni 28:sta 24:ään (The amount was decreased from 28 to 24).

Physical quantities and units

For physical quantities, the metric system and, more generally, the SI system of units is used. The main exception is that in information technology, the inch is used to express some sizes. In aviation, the foot is used, following international practice.

According to SI principles, a number and an identifier are separated with a nonbreaking space, e.g. “42 m”. In engineering, this rule is often violated, e.g. “42m”.

Note: in this subsection, Finnish expressions appear in quotes, not in italic as otherwise in this book. The reason is that according to SI principles, SI unit symbols must never appear in italic.

The principle also applies to percentages, e.g. “15 %” instead of the English “15%”.

International identifiers are generally used for units and prefixes. For example, even though the word for centimeter is written senttimetri, its symbol is “cm”; the old abbreviation “sm” fell into disuse decades ago.

However, Finnish language authorities recommend that Finnish abbreviations be used instead of international symbols for two units:

• for the hour, Finnish tunti, the abbreviation “t” instead of international “h”
• for the metric ton (1,000 kg), Finnish tonni, the abbreviation “tn” instead of international “t”.

On the other hand, national standards mandate the use of international symbols for these, too. In practice, you can see both systems in use, e.g. “50 km/t” and “50 km/h”.

When needed by the context, a case suffix is appended to the unit symbol, using a colon as separator, e.g. “5 m:iin asti”. In engineering, it is common to ignore this rule and write e.g. “5 m asti”, though it is still meant to be read “viiteen metriin asti”.

According to international standards, the symbol for liter is either lowercase “l” or uppercase “L”. The latter is often used in the US for clarity. In Finland, “l” has traditionally been used, but “L” is nowadays also common, e.g. “1 L” instead of “1 l”.

When expressing temperatures, it is common to use the degree sign “°”, e.g. “20°”, implying the Celsius (centigrade) scale. A space is not used in such expressions. However, the SI symbol for degree Celsius is “°C”. When using it, it is separated from the number with a space, e.g. “20 °C”. If the unit is written in letters, the formally correct way is “20 celsiusastetta”, but “20 astetta” is much more common.

Identifiers of quantities are written in italic, when international standards are applied, as is common in Finnish practice. The identifiers are conventional and should therefore remain invariant in translation. They are largely based on English (or Latin) words, e.g. V for voltage, which is jännite in Finnish. Subscripts used for them are written in normal (non-italic) style, unless they themselves denote quantities. For example, effective voltage, tehollinen jännite in Finnish, is written V_eff, i.e. with the symbol V and “eff” as subscript. Here “eff” should be regarded as international and conventional and kept as-is, though the practice has been inconsistent.

Percentages

The per cent sign “%” is preceded by a space in Finnish, though this rule is often violated due to the influence of English. The sign is read prosentti and inflected according to the rules for nouns associated with numerals, e.g. “10 %” = kymmenen prosenttia, “5 %:ssa” = viidessä prosentissa (in five per cent).

A colloquial form of prosentti is prossa. The word pinna is even more colloquial; it also means “point” (e.g. when counting points in a game).

According to language rules, the per cent sign should be used only after a number written in digits. However, it is often used in abbreviations like til.-% = tilavuusprosentti; the abbreviation til.pros. would be correct.

Postal addresses

The following exemplifies a Finnish postal address, including recipient name on the first line:

The postal rules recommend that the municipality name be written in all uppercase. It must be preceded by a five-digit postal code and a space.

Numbering of floors assigns number one to ground floor, which is thus ensimmäinen kerros, usually abbreviated 1. krs in addresses.

Quotations

Quotations are marked with symmetric quotation marks or with formatting, such as indentation of a long quotation. Within quoted text, omissions are indicated with two en dashes “– –” with spaces around and between, though it is nowadays common to imitate the English practice of using the ellipsis “…”. Content added for clarification is placed in brackets “[” and “]”, whether added as pure insertions or to replace content in the original. Changes of the case of letters are normally not indicated, except in some modern usage imitating English practices.

The following example is an actual text taken as such from a law:

Tämän luvun säännökset eivät koske maassa olevien kuivien risujen, maahan pudonneiden käpyjen tai pähkinöiden taikka luonnonvaraisten marjojen, sienten, kukkien tai, jäkälää ja sammalta lukuun ottamatta, muiden sellaisten luonnon­tuotteiden keräämistä toisen maalta.

The following illustrates how a part of this law text might be quoted, with some omissions and a change to make it clearer in a particular context:

Marjojen poiminta kuuluu jokamiehen oikeuksiin. Rikoslain 28. luvun 14. §:n mukaan ”tämän luvun [’Varkaudesta, kavalluksesta ja luvattomasta käytöstä’] säännökset eivät koske – – luonnonvaraisten marjojen – – keräämistä toisen maalta”.

In the example above, the changes are that the title of the chapter has been inserted to give context and some items have been removed to focus on the topic being discussed.

Ranges

To express a range like “from 5 to 10”, there are several ways in Finnish:

• Spelling out the end points and using the elative and illative case, e.g. viidestä kymmeneen.
• Expressing the same using digits and indicating the inflection of numbers, e.g. 5:stä 10:een. This is relatively rare and clumsy.
• Writing the numbers with digits and using an en dash between them, e.g. 5–10. This can be read as above, viidestä seitsemään, though now it is also accepted to read them viisi viiva seitsemän, pronouncing the numbers in base form and the dash as viiva.
• As above, but using the ellipsis instead of a dash, e.g. 5…10. This has been common in science and engineering, and it is now accepted in general language, too, though perhaps not suitable for formal style.
• Using the preposition à [aa], a loanword from French: 5 à 10, read as viisi aa kymmenen. This is convenient, but not very common.

Special characters

The use of the following characters may differ from English practice:

• * asterisk, used (in addition to many other uses) before a year or date to refer to the birth of a person, e.g. *9.2.1952. Normally no space is used, and the asterisk can be read syntynyt or syntyi (was born) in this context.
• ✓ check mark, traditionally used to mark errors as väärin-merkki at school and other contexts. It is now widely recognized as a tick mark due to use in online forms and other technical contexts.
• ❌︎ cross mark, traditionally used to select an option in a form on paper; called e.g. ruksi or rasti in such usage. Probably not generally recognized as meaning “wrong” or “delete”, unless crossing over something and in red.
• † dagger, used almost exclusively before a year or date to refer to the death of a person, e.g. †19.2.1856. Normally no space is used, and the character can be read kuollut or kuoli (died) in this context.
• ÷ division sign, normally not used in Finnish; use “/” for division instead. In specialized usage, this character is used, but for subtraction, not division!
• & ampersand, used in standard language mainly as part of a name or when listing e.g. authors of a book. Less officially, used in menus and other contexts instead of the word ja (and). Read as ja or, more often, as the Latin word et.
• # number sign, traditionally not used in Finnish, but now in some use due to influence of English, e.g. vihollinen #1 (enemy #1), more properly expressed as vihollinen numero 1 or even better pahin vihollinen (worst enemy).
• ® registered sign and ™ trade mark sign, used as in English, but written after the inflected form of a trade mark, e.g. Windowsissa™ (in Windows™).
• § section sign, used together with a number written with digits, to refer to a section of law or clause of a contract or minutes. It is used either as in 9. § (read: yhdeksäs pykälä) or as in § 9 (pykälä yhdeksän), though 9 § without a period is very common in legal contexts; see section Ordinal numbers written with digits. The paragraph sign ¶ is not used in Finnish.

Several characters (about 1,000 in number) have Finnish names assigned to them in a recommendation by SFS, the Finnish standards institute: Eurooppalaisen merkistön merkkien suomenkieliset nimet. The list can be useful, but note that it was composed primarily to define Finnish equivalents to the formal Unicode names, and they are partly too theoretical for normal use. There is a more extensive collection of names by the author of this book: Kirjoitus­merkkien suomen­kielisiä nimiä.

Telephone numbers

The official recommendation was to write telephone numbers as defined in the international recommendation ITU-T E.123, but in 2008 it was decided that the area code is never put in parentheses, e.g. (09) 888 2675 was changed to 09 888 2675. This reflected the decrease in the use of landline phones and simplified the structure. The recommended format now consists of

• the “+” prefix followed by country code (358 for Finland) and a space, when using the international notation
• the operator code such as 040 or 050 or the area code such as 09 (for the Helsinki area), with the leading “0” omitted in the international notation
• a space
• the subscriber code, in groups of 3 or 4 digits, with spaces as separators; usually 3 + 3, 3 + 4, 4 + 4, or 3 + 3 + 3 grouping is used.

Examples: 050 5500 168 in national notation, +358 50 5500 168 in international notation.

Thus, hyphens or parentheses should not be used. In practice, there is still considerable variation in the writing of phone numbers.

In the EU administration, rules for all languages mandate that phone numbers be written in international notation and with no space except after the country code, e.g. +358 505500168.

Time of the day

In formal prose, the time of the day is normally expressed as follows:

• 24-hour clock is used.
• A period is used between hours and minutes (and between minutes and seconds), e.g. 9.45. However, instead of a period, which is the accepted separator, a colon is used very often, e.g. 9:45. One reason to this is that when a period is used, confusion with a date notation is sometimes possible (e.g. when an expression like 12.10. appears without sufficient context).
• Leading zeros are normally not used for hours. They may sometimes be used for clarity, i.e. in an attempt to make it clearer what 23–07 refers to.
• The time notation is usually preceded by the word kello or its abbreviation klo, except in tables and other contexts where it is clear that a time of the day is presented.

Such notations are usually read by pronouncing hours and minutes (and seconds) separately, but with no word between them, e.g. 9.45 as yhdeksän neljäkymmentäviisi. However, leading zeros in minutes (and seconds) are read, too, e.g. 12.05 is read kaksitoista nolla viisi and 15.00 as viisitoista nolla nolla, unless it is read just as viisitoista.

Notations like 9.45 are also used for durations of time.

It is increasingly common to use the forms described above in speech, too, since they correspond to the kind of digital display of times that people are now used to. However, an older system is still in common use, in speech and in many styles of writing:

• 12-hour clock is used.
• The designation of AM or PM is usually left implicit, but when needed, it can be expressed using words like yöllä (at night), aamulla (in the morning), aamupäivällä (before noon), iltapäivällä (in the afternoon), or illalla (in the evening), e.g. kello kahdeksalta illalla (8 PM).
• Noon is often indicated by the word puoleltapäivin and midnight by puoleltaöin. These are not normally taken as exact indications of time, unless preceded by the word tasan.
• The word kello is often used before the time denotation for clarity.
• The hours are expressed using the ablative case of the numeral, e.g. viideltä (at 5). Nowadays the nominative, the basic form, is also common, though colloquial, but then the word kello is needed, e.g. kello viisi. The word tasan can be used before the expression, e.g. tasan viideltä, to emphasize that exact hour is meant, as we say “5 o’clock sharp”.
• Times exactly between sharp hours are expressed using the word puoli followed a numeral indicating the next full hour, e.g. puoli kuudelta ∼ puoli kuusi (half past five).
• Other times are expressed as relative to the nearest full hour using expressions like the following:
  • kymmentä yli viiden ∼ viisi (ten past five)
  • kymmentä vaille viiden ∼ viisi (ten to five)
• In expressions as the above, the first numeral is either in the partitive as in the examples or in the nominative, e.g. kymmenen yli viiden. It may also be replaced by a fuller expression that explicitly mentions the word for minutes, e.g. kymmenen minuuttia yli viiden.
• In colloquial style, the word vartti (a quarter) is mostly used for 15 minutes, e.g. vartin ∼ varttia yli viiden (a quarter past five) and varttia vaille kuusi (a quarter to six).

The following table shows examples of formal numeric designations of time, using 24-hour clock, and corresponding common informal verbal designations. There are no strict rules for using e.g. yöllä vs. aamuyöllä. Specifiers written in parentheses are seldom needed and used.

Years

A year is normally mentioned using the word vuosi : vuoden, e.g. vuosi 1984 (year 1984). When specifying the year of an event in text, the special consonant-stem essive form vuonna (as opposite to the more regular vuotena) is used: vuonna 1984 (in 1984). By convention, the abbreviation v. can be used for vuonna, e.g. v. 1984. In some newspaper style, the year number is used alone, e.g. Yhtiö perustettiin 1984 instead of the more normal Yhtiö perustettiin vuonna 1984 (The company was founded in 1984).

Year numbers are mostly read like other numbers, e.g. tuhat yhdeksän­sataa­kahdeksan­kymmentä­neljä. However, it can also be read so that hundreds are used like a unit: yhdeksäntoista­sataa kahdeksan­kymmentä­neljä, corresponding to “nineteen hundreds eighty-four), though this may sound old-fashioned.

For eras, the old abbreviations used for AD and BC are jKr. and eKr., read as jälkeen Kristuksen syntymän and ennen Kristuksen syntymää or, more often, shorter as jälkeen Kristuksen and ennen Kristusta. The newer abbreviations, corresponding to CE and BCE, are jaa. = jälkeen ajanlaskun alun and eaa. = ennen ajanlaskun alkua. They are accepted alternatives. Official recommendations do not specify whether jKr. and eKr. or jaa. and eaa. are preferred. All these notations are written after the year number, e.g. 1984 eKr. or 1984 eaa.