Characteristics of common spoken Finnish

By its nature, spoken language varies more than written language. Yet, there are char­ac­ter­is­tic characteristic features of spoken Finnish that distinguish it from standard written language. Most of the features described in the sequel have been part of common spoken language for decades at least in the Helsinki area. The language of that area is generally used in mass media, and it has affected spoken language in other areas, too, so that it can even be called common (or “standard”) spoken Finnish.

In the following descriptions of common spoken language, the arrow “→” points from the standard written form to a common spoken form. Many of the phenomena mentioned here are described in more detail elsewhere in this book.

Pronunciation of voiced stops

Voiced stops g and b (and to some extent d) are pronounced as k and p (and t), e.g. agentti → akentti. This is perhaps not a par­tic­u­lar­ly colloquial feature: it is common even when reading aloud text written in standard language.

Shorter forms of words and suffixes

In the second syllable, a diphthong ending with i loses the i. Examples: kirjoittaa → kirjottaa, punainen → punanen, sanoi → sano. This takes place rather systematically, except in plural forms (e.g. in taloille) and in past tense forms where the i is not final (e.g. sanoin). The exceptions are understandable, since in such forms the loss of the i would make plural form the same as singular and past tense form the same as present tense. A diphthong in the third or later syllable is retained, e.g. vasaroida.

An a or ä appearing after another short vowel is usually lost as follows:

• Usually a short a or ä is lost and the preceding vowel becomes long. E.g. korkea → korkee, taloa → taloo, poikia → poikii. However, this does not happen after the first vowel of a word (e.g. in the word pian) or when the a or ä belongs to the stem of a noun (e.g. asia), except hopea → hopee, häpeä → häpee.
• However, before the conditional suffix isi, the a or ä is just lost, with no lengthening effect, and a diphthong is created, e.g. ha.lu.ai.si → ha.luis (the dots indicate syllable boundaries here).
• A long aa or ää is lost or ä is lost and the preceding vowel becomes long in the indicative present tense 3rd person singular forms, e.g. haluaa → haluu.
• Partitive forms such as korkeaa are replaced by forms like korkeeta. This is not based on the standard partitive form; instead, the spoken-language partitive is formed from the spoken base form korkee, which requires the ta suffix due to the long vowel.

Final vowels are often lost, typically in the 2nd person singular possessive suffix si (e.g. talosi → talos), in the isi ending of the conditional mood (e.g. tulisi → tulis), and in the ksi ending (e.g. suureksi → suureks, yksi → yks). In past tense forms ending with si, the i is often lost (e.g. huusi → huus). The adessive, elative, and ablative suffixes may lose their final vowel (e.g. pihasta → pihast, pihalla → pihal, pihalta → pihalt), but this is more of a dialect feature than common spoken language feature, except for contractions when followed by a word that begins with a vowel, e.g. minulla on → mullon (mull on), tästä ei → tästei (täst ei).

Final consonants are often assimilated to the same as the next consonant or lost (before a vowel or a pause); this is actually boundary gemination. This is rather regular in basic forms of past participles, ending with t (e.g. sanonut mitään → sanonum mitään, En ollut! → En ollu!) and common in the suffixes kin, kaan, kään, han, hän (e.g. onkin totta → onkit totta).

The inessive suffix ssa or ssä is usually shortened to ss (e.g. missä → miss). The double ss here indicates that when followed by a word starting with a vowel, a double consonant is pronounced, with legato, e.g. miss on is pronounced misson. When writing spoken language, a spelling like mis is often used.

The pronouns minä and sinä are shortened so that in is lost (e.g. minä → mä, minun → mun, sinä → sä).

The pronoun forms tämä, tämän, and nämä are shortened to tää, tän, and nää.

The pronoun tuo changes: tuo → toi, tuon → ton, tuota → tota etc., nuo → noi.

The verb stems tule-, mene-, and pane- appear as simplified to tuu-, mee-, and paa- in many forms (e.g. tulen→ tuun, menet → meet, pane^x → paa^x). The consonant combination äe in forms of nähdä is simplified to ää (e.g. näet → näät). The stem ole- of olla is often contracted to oo- in some forms (e.g. olen → oon). The form on may even be reduced to o and en to e, especially when used as a single-word answer.

Many forms of the verb tarvita : tarvitsen (to need) appear as irregularly changed, e.g. tarvin, tarviin or tartten instead of tarvitsen.

Simplified infinitives

The illative form of the III infinitive is often simplified, e.g. puhumaan → puhuun, olemaan → oleen, katsomaan → katsoon ∼ kattoon. This is not just a shortened form, since the suffix of the infinitive, mA, is missing, and the illative suffix is appended directly to the verb stem (like puhu-) and thus often takes a different form (like un versus an in the standard form).

This does not apply to verbs with a stem of one syllable, e.g. vie|dä : vie|mään.

The simplified form may lack its final n or have it assimilated, e.g. Tuuk kattoo (standard: Tule katsomaan), Se alko puhuum mulle (standard: Hän alkoi puhua minulle).

Shortened numerals

Numerals are often shortened, even strongly, e.g. neljäkymmentäviisi → nelkytviis. Cardinal numerals generally lose the final i: yks, kaks, viis, kuus. The word kymmentä in compound numerals is often shortened to kytä or kyt. Especially when referring to money, miljoona is often shortened to milli.

In counting, even stronger shortening is common, e.g. yy, kaa, koo, nee, vii, kuu. Counting may then continue with seittemän, kaheksan, yheksän, kymmenen, yytoi, kaatoi,…

Instead of the ordinal numerals ensimmäinen and toinen, the words eka and toka (with no gradation: eka : ekan etc.) are common in speech.

Variation in the interrogative suffix kO

The interrogative suffix ko or kö is often replaced by ks (e.g. onko → onks), and a t before it omitted (e.g. sanotko → sanoks, oletko → ooks). The suffix may also be omitted when the personal pronoun sä follows, e.g. oletko → oot sä (or ootsä), so that a question differs from a statement (sä oot) only by word order.

Grammatical features

Personal pronouns are used as the subject even in the 1st and 2nd person (e.g. sanon → mä sanon, voitte → te voitte).

Genitives of personal pronouns are used instead of possessive suffixes (e.g. autoni → mun auto) or sometimes in addition to them (e.g. mun autoni).

The 4th person forms are used for verbs instead of 1st person plural (e.g. tiedämme → me tiedetään).

Instead of 3rd person plural forms of verbs, singular forms are used (e.g. pojat sanoivat → pojat sanoi or pojat sano).

The pronoun se is used instead of the personal pronoun hän (e.g. Hän kertoi minulle → Se kerto mulle and hänen kirjansa → sen kirja). Similarly, ne is used instead of he.

Spoken forms of common words

The descriptions of pronouns (e.g. minä, tämä) in this book show their common spoken forms, too (e.g., mä, tää). There have been various other remarks on spoken forms as well, such as the contracted forms of some verbs (tuun instead of tulen etc.) and numerals. The following table shows a collection of common small words that often have a different, typically shorter form in speech. These forms are not accepted in official verbal pre­sen­ta­tions, but they are normal otherwise.

Some pairs of words may be read as one word, e.g. ihan kuin → ihanku^x (just like), niin kuin → niinku^x (“such as”; often used as a fill word), tuota noin → totanoin ∼ totanoi (fill word), mutta kun → mutku^x.

The word mitä (what) can be shortened to tä, but mostly just when used alone, Tä? This is similar to using the interjection Häh?, i.e. a way to ask someone to repeat or explain what he just said. A more polite expression for this is Anteeksi kuinka?