Handbook of Finnish, 2nd edition, section 29 Finnish grammar terms:

Notes on the table of Finnish grammar terms

The following table presents Finnish-language terms used in Finnish grammars, in Finnish alphabetic order.

Words designated as “old term” are synonyms for international words, e.g. alus = subjekti (subject). They were originally developed for use at school, but the Latin-based terms were always normal in linguistic literature. The old terms are rarely used nowadays and may even sound comic (e.g. alus normally means a vessel). However, you may still encounter them in language processing software and as used by Finnish language enthusiasts. Some terms have been indicated here as “dated”, because they are now rare in all contexts.


© 2015, 2025, 2026 Jukka K. Korpela, jukkakk@gmail.com. This book was last updated February 18, 2026.