Tips to Learn Finnish Words

Have you ever struggled to learn a new word – only to forget it a few minutes later? You’re not alone! Remembering new vocabulary can be challenging, especially if you’re learning a language that is very different from any other language you already know.

My tip is to make associations!

The trick is to find associations that work for you. They don’t have to make sense to anyone else. In fact, the funnier, stranger or more unusual your story is, the easier it can get to remember!

I like to make up stories, connect words to words I know, or even mix with other languages, or think about what a word sounds like. Here are three examples to show you how you can use these tricks to learn Finnish verbs.

1. Make up a story to remember a word

The Finnish verb pinota means “to pile up”. The word is similar to the English word, so that is not so hard to remember. BUT how to inflect this verb?

Think of Pinocchio! Imagine the wooden boy collecting sticks and piling them up into a tall, A-shaped pile. This is, because you need to add an extra a in present tense.

Pinocchio pinoaa. – Pinocchio is making a pile. forms an A.

Now imagine Pinocchio climbing on top of the pile (remember the extra A!). The pile holds! He has succeeded! First he piled, he was successful, remember the letter S for past tense.

Pinocchio pinosi! – Pinocchio piled up.

The story helps you remember not only the verb pinota, but also its forms pinoaa (present tense) and pinosi (past tense).

And perhaps you’ll remember the word even better if you imagine Pinocchio balancing on top of that A-shaped enormous pile of Sticks! 😄

2. Connect a word to another word, even a completely different one

The Finnish verb vasaroida means “to hammer”. A hammer is called vasara in Finnish.

How can you remember that?

Think of the English word hazardous. Hammering can be hazardous, especially if you’re not careful with your fingers! Can you hear a little connection between hazardous and vasaroida?

Imagine yourself hammering away and thinking:

Minä vasaroin! — I’m hammering!

hazardous . . vasaroida.. And to be sure you remember the v-sound in Finnish, think of:
Watch out for your thumb! 😄

Minä vasaroin! – I’m hammering. (Hazardous + Watch out! 😄 )

The words don’t have to sound exactly alike. You just need to find a connection that helps YOU remember.

3. What does a word sound like?

Sometimes, the sound of a word can give you a clue. Remember, that the association can be your personal. I have one example here:

The Finnish verb heittää means “to throw”.

Imagine throwing a javelin. You take a deep breath, prepare to throw, pull your arm back and inhale: “Heyyyyy…”

Then you throw the javelin with all your strength and shout: “…..Taaaah!”

“Hey-taah!”

Doesn’t that sound a little like heittää? 😄

Next time you need the Finnish word for “to throw”, you might remember the sound of your imaginary javelin throw!

Find associations that work for you

These are just three examples of how you can use associations to learn Finnish vocabulary. You can invent stories, connect words across languages, or use sounds and images to create your own memory tricks.

You might find a connection that makes perfect sense to you but sounds completely ridiculous to someone else. That’s fine! The point is not to create a clever story for other people. The point is to find a way to help yourself remember.

Would you like more tips for learning Finnish?

If you’d like to learn more Finnish verbs and practise using them in real sentences, take a look at my course  Opi uusia verbejä!

You’ll learn new verbs and practise using them, so you can build your vocabulary and become more confident in Finnish.

All Pictures are from Papunet Kuvapankki. Papunet Kuvapankki is free and publicly accessible image collection containing approximately 39,000 images.