Basic Finnish 1 (Finnish Language for Beginners) 19.9.-5.12.2023

1. Practice greetings

2. Greeting informally

When acquitances meet, they often say:
Moi!, Terve! or Hei! Hi!

When acquitances depart, they often say:
Moi, moi! or Hei, hei! Bye, bye!

3. Spoken language greetings

In these videos Niklas and Johanna are greeting and introducing themselves. They use colloquial personal pronoun forms.

First person: mä (minä), mun (minun)
Second person: sä (sinä), sun (sinun), sulle (sinulle)

They also use spoken language greetings, such as Kiva nähä and Ihan jees.

Niklas: Moi! Mä oon Niklas. Hi! I am Niklas.
Johanna: Hei, mun nimi on Johanna. Hello, my name is Johanna.

Johanna: Niklas! Moi! Niklas! Hi!
Niklas: No moi. Kiva nähä. Miten menee? Hi! Nice to see you. What's up?
Johanna: Ihan OK. Entä sulla? Mitä sulle kuuluu? Quite alright. What about you? How are you?
Niklas: Ihan jees. I'm quite OK.

Johanna: No heippa ja hyvää viikonloppua! Well bye bye and have a nice weekend!
Niklas: Kiitos samoin. Nähään! You too, thanks. See you!
Johanna: Joo, nähää.Yeah, see you!

4. Greeting formally

More formal way to greet is to say:

Hyvää huomenta! Good morning!
Huomenta! Morning!

Hyvää päivää! Hello! Good day!
Päivää! Hello! Good day!

Hyvää iltaa! Good evening!
Iltaa! Evening!

Good morning!

5. What is the most common greeting in Finnish?

Watch the video Miten tervehdit? How do you greet? where people tell how they normally greet.

QUIZLET: Practice greetings with flash cards.