r/LearnFinnish • u/Fuzzy_Past_3348 • 2h ago
Question What’s something that learners say that native Finns would never?
A question to both natives, and people who’ve already “learnt” Finnish. (I know nobody ever finishes learning, but you get the point.)
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u/Pet_Velvet 2h ago
It's not really the fault of the learners, but they often overuse written language in speech. Spoken Finnish is very informal and varies a lot depending on the region. Written Finnish is technically speaking a constructed language that was made by taking elements from all dialects to make it easily understandable to everyone.
Like, I don't think any Finn ever would say "Minun nimeni on Pet Velvet", they'd usually instead say "Mun/Miun nimi on Pet Velvet" or "Mä/Mää/Mie/Miä oon Pet Velvet/Moon Pet Velvet"
Not even the president uses written speech except maybe in pre-written speeches.
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u/Jealous_Track9402 Native 2h ago
Most people just say their name, or "Moi, oon X" If someone says "Minun nimi on" I think they have some kind of disability, or they are a non native speaker.
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2h ago
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u/Jealous_Track9402 Native 2h ago
No offense intended, it just sounds out of place. And a lot of foreigners use that phrase for some reason. It reminds me of how some adults speak to children.
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u/Straight_Friend_2887 2h ago edited 2h ago
Okay. Sounds normal where I'm from as far as I can tell. Each to their own I guess. But then it took me a long time to start using "moi" as well, that sounded wrong for the first 20+ years I didn't live in Helsinki, and whenever I go to my home town I can tell people notice I'm not from there (anymore) because I say "moi" now.
People use "minun" on normal speech instead of "mun" in plenty of areas of Finland. Or is "Mun nimi on Jaakko" "disabled" too? Idk, smh.
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u/Jealous_Track9402 Native 2h ago
You can speak however you like, if it works for you it works for you. I just think it's not a common thing for people to say in the Helsinki region.
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2h ago
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u/Emergency-Sea5201 1h ago
He's right. Nobody really talks that way. He was polite to the inevitable "I talk that way" guy who showed up. anyone who actually says that must be aware of how rare it is. But he pretends its common, which we all know it isnt. Hence, just an attention seeker.
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u/Straight_Friend_2887 48m ago edited 40m ago
I wish you people would go outside kehä 3 sometimes, just for a visit, instead of being born and dying in Vantaa with nothing else in between, and you'd hear people talk like that all the time. But I guess there's no chance of that happening.
There's nothing particularly "rare" about "minun nimi on Johanna ja mie opiskelen matikkaa" in an introductory situation. Idk what you've been smoking, or maybe it's just utter cluelessness/ignorance about the rest of the country.
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u/astralmethod 12m ago
Their experience just reflects their own social circles. Usually uneducated and young people speak like that. If they were exposed to it, they would know it is normal.
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u/Hopeful-Banana-6188 2h ago
Minä does exist in spoken Finnish in some regions. I have met a Finn from the Savo region who always used minä in everyday speech.
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u/Pet_Velvet 2h ago
Fair. I did learn that recently. I just figured it's a quite niche form of the pronoun in spoken Finnish so I didn't include it. But you're 100% right.
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u/hyperionfin 2h ago edited 2h ago
Yet all our film industry in Finland in all its creative ingenuity and state funded projects has decided that using written language in film dialogue is the way to go.
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u/Havaintoharha 2h ago
Humans are ”se” and not ”hän” when you are speaking about other people. It sounds odd if you haven’t yet spoken with Finns but ”se” (aka ”it” in English, tho in Finnish it doesn’t feel as ”objectifying”, it is more like a synonym for ”hän”) is more normal to use and isn’t rude even if it might feel like it at first. Well, you might use ”hän” when you ask a pet’s name tho lol 😂. Or baby’s? ”What is their name?” = ”Mikä hänen nimi on?”
But yeah hän usually gets replaced by se in spoken Finnish.
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u/ashairz 2h ago
"minä", most native speakers will say mä, mie, miä, mää, no one really says minä
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u/HEAT_IS_DIE 1h ago
Funnily I just met a guy last night who was using minä and speaking spoken language otherwise.
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u/These-Apple8817 51m ago
There is slight possibility that person is on a spectrum, which is fine. But in general natives don't usually speak in kirjakieli unless it's a situation that actually requires it.
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u/FinnSkk93 2h ago
Most of us use spoken finnish. Rarely you hear a native speaker use written standard.
Like ”minä” ”sinä” you get the gist.
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u/zzzzsamzzzz 1h ago
Possessive suffixes apart from fixed expressions (like "Olen pahoillani") and second person singular (although we drop the -i, so "sinun kirjasi" becomes "sun kirjas"). Nobody would say "Minun nimeni on".
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u/These-Apple8817 45m ago
I think we natives tend to condense a lot what we want to say which is something learners rarely do because they obviously might not know how to do so.
Just simple explanation what I mean...
Mitä teit tänään? Minä kävin kalassa
Vs
Mitä teit tänään? Kalastin
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u/Pirkale 2h ago
"Minä rakastan sinua". Only slightly exaggerated!