Introductory Finnish - Self-study

Vowel Combinations

Finnish has lots of sounds made by combining two vowels (au, iu, ou etc.). Each vowel in the combination is pronounced in the same way it is as a single vowel.

sauna

viulu (violin)

koulu (school)

Vowel Harmony

Finnish has a vowel harmony, which means that a non-compound word can only contain front vowels ä, ö, y or back vowels a, o, u.
The vowels e and i can mix with all other vowels. If they are the only vowels in the word e.g. tie (cf. English street),
they behave like front vowels. Because of the vowel harmony most endings have two variants, both carrying the same meaning, e.g.

baari+ssa (in a/the bar)

työ+ssä (at work)

hylly+llä (on a/the shelf)

tuoli+lla (on a/the chair)

tie+llä (on the street)