Proofreading Finnish

If you are a non-native Finnish speaker and are proofreading a Finnish text (comparing it to the original to see if everything has been translated, if the numbers are correct, etc.) the following information might be of help.

- Finnish is not an Indo-European language like the Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic) and most of the other languages spoken in Europe. It belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of languages together with Estonian, Hungarian and many minor languages spoken in Russia.

 - In Finnish, the decimal point is a comma. For example: 9,95 euro (in English 9.95 euro). When writing numbers that include thousands, most often (in a normal text) a space is to mark thousands: in Finnish: 1 000  (in English: 1,000), 35 300 (in English: 35,300) etc.

- in Finnish, there is indeed a space between a number and the percent sign (%). For example: 0,9 % (in English 0.9%) This applies also to medical texts such as SPCs and PILs (I have even asked the confirmation of this rule from the Finnish National Agency for Medicines, which publishes SPCs and PILs on its website).

- in Finnish a word (a noun, a verb, an adjective etc) may have hundreds of different forms because instead of prepositions (on, at, for, from etc.), endings are attached to the end of the word. Often the word changes in the middle, too, and sometimes even in the beginning. Examples:  yö = night, yöllä = at the night, viime yönä = last night, öisin = at nights. Kaupunki - a city, kaupunkiin = to the city, kaupungissa = in the city, kaupungeissa = in the cities. 

Fred Karlsson, Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Helsinki, has published a list of all the different forms of the word "kauppa" (a shop); this everyday word has indeed 2,253 different forms: http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~fkarlsso/genkau2.html (thanks to Satu W. for this link!)

So if you don't know Finnish but want to pick a word from a Finnish text and put it elsewhere in the same text, you might want to check first that it has the correct endings...

-  the plural marker (mostly -i-) is inside of the word, not in the end, except in the basic form, called nominative (then it is -t and and in the end of the word). Examples: kirja = a book, kirjat = (the) books, kirjassa = in a book, kirjoissa = in (the) books, kirjassamme = in our book, kirjoissamme = in our books.

- there are no gender differences nor articles in Finnish. The undefinite and definite aspects are expressed by other means, such as word order or case endings. Kadulla on auto = There is a car on the street. Auto on kadulla = The car is on the street. "Hän" (he, she) refers to both males and females.

 - numbers from 1 to 10 in Finnish: yksi, kaksi, kolme, neljä, viisi, kuusi, seitsemän, kahdeksan, yhdeksän, kymmenen (N.B. The numbers change form as well. Examples: in one way = yhdellä tavalla, after six o'clock = kello kuuden jälkeen.)

- weekdays in Finnish: maanantai, tiistai, keskiviikko, torstai, perjantai, lauantai, sunnuntai (on Monday = maanantaina). Abbreviations: ma, ti, ke, to, pe, la, su.

- months in Finnish: tammikuu, helmikuu, maaliskuu, huhtikuu, toukokuu, kesäkuu, heinäkuu, elokuu, syyskuu, lokakuu, marraskuu, joulukuu (in December = joulukuussa, on 6th December = 6. joulukuuta). Abbreviations: leave out the "-kuu" part of the word.