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aboutfinnish: Various updates
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rkdarst committed Sep 26, 2017
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Expand Up @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ actually a great help in learning it: there actually are some rules
that make things make sense.

The downside to this is the standard Finnish (Kirjakieli=standard
finnish, "book language") is not what anyone speaks. It is only used
Finnish, "book language") is not what anyone speaks. It is only used
in somewhat official contexts: formal TV programs, children's shows,
official speeches, language courses, etc. So, even after studying
Finnish for a long time, you may try but be unable to understand what
Expand All @@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ puhekieli(=spoke Finnish, "spoken language") to stay aware of some of
the spoken words, even before you get to it in your courses which
unfortunately usually comes very late.

Finnish is a very syntethic language, not an analytic language like
Finnish is a very synthetic language, not an analytic language like
English. This means that words change, inflect, and combine very
much. In Finnish, this is basically how *all* words are formed. In
English, it is easy to tell what a word is: everything that is
Expand All @@ -43,11 +43,13 @@ later chapter.
Because of this, it takes some effort to be able to separate the words
(things separated by spaces) into the basic components that you learn
about. When listening, this is even harder because of the way that
Finnish flows together.
Finnish flows together. Recommendation: when studying Finnish, put
lines between the base words and suffixes. This will help you to
mentally break things down into the components.

People also use this to make fun of Finnish: "oh, there are so many
words": `ex1`_, `ex2`_, `ex3`_, and so on. But this is missing the
point: Finnish is syntethic, and the concept of these being different
point: Finnish is synthetic, and the concept of these being different
words isn't quite right. They are a base modified by different stems,
the equivalent of different words in other languages. You can't
evaluate Finnish by the criteria of other languages. Instead, you
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