What do you think?
Rate this book
Finnish: An Essential Grammar
This thoroughly revised third edition of Finnish: An Essential Grammar is grounded in fundamental insights of modern linguistics and incorporates some of the latest achievements in the description of written and spoken Finnish. It gives a systematic account of the structures of the written language and offers increased attention to the key characteristics of present-day colloquial Finnish. No prior knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader and grammatical rules are clearly explained without jargon. Features of this new edition include: • pronunciation guide, including the tendencies in present-day colloquial Finnish • thorough descriptions of morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure) • clear rules and an abundance of concrete examples, from both written and colloquial Finnish • updated vocabulary in the examples • an effective new scheme for detecting the morphological structure of any word form • subject index. This is the ideal reference source both for those studying Finnish independently and for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 28, 2011
Fred Karlsson originally wrote this Finnish grammar for Swedish speakers, but after it was translated into English and published by Routledge in 1999, it has become one of the most popular companions for beginners in Finnish.
Karlsson's book has all the grammar that students need to know for the first 18 months or so of Finnish studies (assuming you're going at the pace of University of Helsinki's Finnish for foreigners classes). It's not a textbook -- you'll need something like Terttu Leney's TEACH YOURSELF FINNISH if learning on your own, or whatever your Finnish course assigns. However, Karlsson's book is a helpful reference for looking up all the dizzying paradigms of Finnish nouns and verbs, and for understanding the various, often subtle uses of cases.
Many beginners, especially those living outside of Finland, are unaware that Standard Finnish is essentially confined to writing, and the spoken language is vastly different in all aspects: phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. Karlsson does end his grammar with a brief description of the Helsinki variety of spoken Finnish, but the student will have to seek out other books to really understand spoken Finnish. For that purpose I'd recommend KATO HEI by Maarit Berg and Leena Silfverberg (Helsinki: Finn Lectura, 1997), but it requires a firm knowledge of basic Standard Finnish first.
Karlsson's book has all the grammar that students need to know for the first 18 months or so of Finnish studies (assuming you're going at the pace of University of Helsinki's Finnish for foreigners classes). It's not a textbook -- you'll need something like Terttu Leney's TEACH YOURSELF FINNISH if learning on your own, or whatever your Finnish course assigns. However, Karlsson's book is a helpful reference for looking up all the dizzying paradigms of Finnish nouns and verbs, and for understanding the various, often subtle uses of cases.
Many beginners, especially those living outside of Finland, are unaware that Standard Finnish is essentially confined to writing, and the spoken language is vastly different in all aspects: phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. Karlsson does end his grammar with a brief description of the Helsinki variety of spoken Finnish, but the student will have to seek out other books to really understand spoken Finnish. For that purpose I'd recommend KATO HEI by Maarit Berg and Leena Silfverberg (Helsinki: Finn Lectura, 1997), but it requires a firm knowledge of basic Standard Finnish first.
September 13, 2011
A must! I used to carry with me a dictionary and this book. Finnish grammar made simple as possible, of course you will need other books as you progress but this one is clear enough for those who are just starting and feeling overwhelmed by the beautiful complexity of this language.
June 9, 2012
It's not really a book to read from cover to cover, of course, but as a reference book it's both concise (in each article) and exhaustive (as a whole) -- at least as far as I can tell from having used it as a study aid for a couple of weeks now. It's already been invaluable in driving home just how difficult a language Finnish is to learn. (... challenge accepted.)
October 19, 2014
This book is exhaustive and written in plain language (minus the inescapable grammar terminology). I have referred to this book for 20+ years. It is a joy to go back to every single time.
Pay whatever it costs because the value far outweighs the price.
Pay whatever it costs because the value far outweighs the price.
July 24, 2011
Quintessential Finnish reference. Though guide to grammar including useful chapters on compound word formation and the spoken language, which is significantly different from the written language. A must-have reference.
August 6, 2017
Excellent comprehensive coverage of all aspects of Finnish grammar.
March 11, 2016
I wavered a lot over buying this book as it was fairly expensive, but I'm very glad I did, as it's a fantastic resource, in a lot of detail but easy to follow. I use various references for studying Finnish, but this is usually my first port of call (or second after Uusikielemme!) for grammar questions. Well worth the money!
Read
October 2, 2009Out of a handful of texts, this is easily the most useful aid to the Finnish language that I've found.
August 18, 2011
A useful grammar reference book written in English for those learning the Finnish Language.
April 13, 2017
Detailed and comprehensive.
If there's one problem with the kindle edition, it's that there are many tables of words that seem to be inserted as an image rather than text. They often have tiny print that doesn't expand when you change the font size. If you can't read it comfortably, you're going to need a magnifying glass.
This is not a book for learning to speak Finnish, but it is a good reference resource for explaining the many, many ways that Finnish works entirely differently from English.
If there's one problem with the kindle edition, it's that there are many tables of words that seem to be inserted as an image rather than text. They often have tiny print that doesn't expand when you change the font size. If you can't read it comfortably, you're going to need a magnifying glass.
This is not a book for learning to speak Finnish, but it is a good reference resource for explaining the many, many ways that Finnish works entirely differently from English.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews