Descriptions of the vocabulary

The main reference to the vocabulary of standard modern Finnish is the official dictionary Kielitoimiston sanakirja, which has about 100,000 headwords. The vocabulary of the language is much larger, however. The dictionary does not contain many common derivations of words, and it contains just a sample of compound words. In particular,

• For every verb (except the negation verb), a noun for the corresponding action or being can be formed using the suffix minen, e.g. paisuminen (swelling) from paisua (to swell). Such derivations do not normally appear as headwords.
• For most verbs, other nouns for action or being can be formed using different suffixes, e.g. paisunta from paisua, lannoitus (fertilization) from lannoittaa (to fertilize). The suffixes vary by verb, and they have other meanings too, e.g. producing names the result of an action. Such derivations are often, but not always, described under a separate headword. (In an older dictionary, Nykysuomen sanakirja, derivations of this class were usually mentioned systematically under the headword for the verb.)
• For most adjectives and many nouns, comparative and superlative adjectives can be formed, e.g. vanhempi (older) and vanhin from vanha (old). They do not appear as headwords, but for adjectives, they are mentioned under the headword for the base word.
• For most adjectives and some nouns, a noun expressing the corresponding property can be formed using the suffix Us or UUs (depending on the base word), e.g. mustuus (blackness) from musta (black). Only a limited number of them appear as headwords.
• For adjectives, an adverb of mode can be formed using the sti suffix, e.g. pahasti (badly) from paha (bad) .

Since Finnish has rich word inflexion, which is partly different for different words, Finnish dictionaries generally show some information of inflection. Kielitoimiston sanakirja shows it with an inflection type number, which is an index to a Table of inflectional types. However, this information is not given for compound words; you are expected to understand that e.g. työaika (working time) is a compound of työ and aika and to see the headword aika for the inflection. (For some compounds, the inflection type is specified as 51, meaning that both parts of it are inflected, or as 50, 51, meaning that the first part may or may not be inflected.) If a word has consonant gradation, the inflection type is followed by an asterisk (*) and a letter that indicates the gradation type. For example, the headword “lento^1*J” says that the inflection type is 1, which is the simplest of all, and that there is consonant gradation of type J, which is nt : nn. This is sufficient for forming the nominative plural lennot (flights). Such things are explained in more detail in the dictionary itself, in part How to read the dictionary. (Such explanations and the user interface of the dictionary can be set to Finnish, English, or Swedish using one of the buttons FI, EN, SV in the upper left corner of pages.)