Consonant gradation

The length of phoneme is important in Finnish, because it has distinctive function. For example : tuli - tuuli - tulli. (fire, wind, customs.)

One side of this phenomenon is the consonant gradiation, which means that length of plosives (k, p, t) vary. There's so called weak grade, and a strong grade.

This gradation applies both nouns and verbs.

Consonant gradation with nouns

Typically the gradation happens between nominative and genitive.

Basic gradation

Strong grade	Weak grade
kk/pp/tt	k/p/t
kukka pappi matto	kukan papin maton
k/p/t	-/v/d
käki käpy koti	käen kävyn kodin

Other gradations

Strong grade	Weak grade
mp	mm
lampi	lammen
nt/lt/rt	nn/ll/rr
santa kulta parta	sannan kullan parran
nk	ng
kenkä	kengän
k	v
suku	suvun
lk/rk/hk	lj/rj/hj
kärki	kärjen

Consonant gradation with verbs

Typically the gradation happens between infinitive and personal forms.

Basic gradation

Strong grade	Weak grade
kk/pp/tt	k/p/t
hukkua oppia sattua	hukun opin satun
k/p/t	-/v/d
tukea sopia sotia	tuen sovin sodin

Other gradations

Strong grade	Weak grade
mp	mm
lempiä	lemmin

Basic rule: strong grade is used in the syllable, which is open (ends with vowel), weak grade when syllable is closed (ends with consonant). Usually this means, that when you add an ending which closes the syllable (for example, the genetive ending, -n) you must use weak grade.

---

All topics

• Vowel harmony
• Consonant gradation
• Verbs in general
• Personal forms
• Tempus
• Infinitives
• Verb types
• Negation
• Participles
• Nomines in general
• Nominative, genitive, partitive
• Essive, translative, abessive
• Location cases
• Pronouns
• Subjects and objects
• Types of senteces
• Questions
• Modifiers
• Derivation
• Orthography