linguaholic Posted February 1, 2014 Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 Most of the language spoken in Europe are somehow related to each other and do, therefore, belong to the same Indo-European family of languages. The Finnish language is quite exceptional, as it belongs to the Finno-Ugrian language family, just like Estonian and Hungarian. Therefore, the Finnish language differs greatly in structure and vocabulary from most of the other languages spoken in Europe. However, this does not necessarily mean that Finnish is harder to learn than other European languages, it is just different and has its own peculiarities.Now, I would like to explain some of the characteristics/differences of the Finnish language in comparison to other (european) languages:Finnish has no articles and does NOT differentiate between gendersIn the Finnish language, there are no articles, so unlike in German for instance, where you differentiate between the masculine, feminine and neutral gender (Der, Die, Das), Finnish has no grammatical gender.Some examples (German, English, Finnish):Das Auto // The car, a car // Finnish: autoGerman: Er, Sie // English: he, she // Finnish: hänGerman: Der Löffel // English: the spoon, a spoon // Finnish: lusikkaGerman: Die Gabel // English: a fork, the fork // Finnish: haarukkaGerman: das Messer // English: a knife, the knife // Finnish: veitsiFinnish largely depends on postpositions, not on prepositionsEnglish: in a, the car // auto+ssaEnglish: in my car // auto + ssa + niEnglish: in (the) cars // auto + i + ssaEnglish: you speak // puhu + tEnglish: do you speak // puhu + t + koEnglish: you spoke // puhu + i + tSome more postpositions (postpositions in Finnish are in bold): English: with Lisa // Liisan kansaa English: after Lisa // Liisan jälkeenEnglish: in front of Lisa // Lisan edessäEnglish: behind Lisa // Lisan takanaAnd finally also a couple of prepositions (comparable to English prepositions):English: without Lisa // ilman LiisanEnglish: before Lisa // ennen LiisaPlease note that most of those explanations and examples are taken from the book: "From start to Finnish" from 2003, written by Leila White. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mats Norberg Posted September 8, 2018 Report Share Posted September 8, 2018 There's partitive after ilman and ennen. ilman Liisaa. ennen Liisaa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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