Orthography

There are two things to remember when writing Finnish: initial letters and compound words.

Initial letter

Capital initial letter is used in:

• the beginning of a sentence
• peoples names: Pekka, Anna, Virtanen, Make, John Smith
• names of the places: Helsinki, Kempele, Tokio, Amerikka
• names of the companies and such: Nokia, Otava, Kone

Unlike in many other languages, a small initial letter is used in

• names of the languages: suomi, ruotsi, arabia
• names of the days and months: tammikuu, helmikuu, maanantai, tiistai
• names of the goverment officials: verovirasto (Internal Revenue Office), eduskunta (Parliament), opetusministeriö (Ministry of Education)
• common compound words: ranskanleipä (baguette, 'French bread'), karjalanpiirakka (Karelian pie)

Together or separately?

There are lots of compound words in Finnish. Quite often you have two words in English, while only one in Finnish. That makes the words often very long and difficult to read, especially, when the long words have endings, too. Basic rule: coherent consepts are a single word. Together: työpaikka (workplace), puutalo (wooden house), rautatie (railway), perunasalaatti (potato salad). Separately: raskas työ (heavy work), punainen talo (red house), opiskelijan kirja (student's book).

Together:

Some words are never separated:

• *epä ->epäeettinen (unethical)
• *ihmis -> ihmiskunta (humankind)
• *upo -> upouusi (brand new)
• *nais -> naiskuski (woman driver)

Words ending -inen are written together

• aikamoinen ('one of a kind'), huonotapainen (bad mannered), ensikertalainen (fist-timer), viisikerroksinen (five-story), moniosainen (multi part), hyvännäköinen (good looking), itseriittoinen (self-sufficient)

Separately:

Languages

• suomen kieli, ruotsin kieli

Professions academic degrees and titles:

• englannin opettaja (english teacher), filosofian maisteri (Master of Arts)

Some words are always separately:

• aika (quite), eri (other), kelpo (decent), pikku (little), tosi (really), viime (last)

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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