Title: Personal pronouns 1
Course: Viestintä ja vuorovaikutus toisella kotimaisella, suomi 2 op > Section: The Personal Pronouns and the Verbs Be and Have

Personal pronouns = persoonapronominit

First, let’s watch a video: Finnish Pronouns - Persoonapronominit | KatChats (youtube.com)

KIRJAKIELTÄ (= formal language)

Minä = I

Sinä = you (singular)

Hän = he or she

Me = we

Te  = you (plural)

He = they

PUHEKIELTÄ (= informal, spoken language)

 mä

 sä

 se

me

te

ne

As you can see, there are formal and informal forms of the pronouns. It is good to understand the informal forms (puhekieltä), as they are very common in spoken Finnish. However, nobody will think that it’s odd if you use the more formal forms (kirjakieltä). On the contrary, people will think you speak beautiful Finnish.

Please note especially the pronouns me (we) and he (they). These often are confusing to speakers of English, as they mean something different in English.

Take some time to practice these pronouns before we move on! Please read them out loud many times.

Olla-verbi (the verb to be)

First: let’s watch a very short video: ALKEET - Olla-verbi (youtube.com)

Minä olen     = I am

Sinä olet    = you are (singular)

Hän on    = he or she is

Me olemme    = we are

Te olette    = you are

He ovat    = they are

Please practice this olla-verbi very well, since once you know it well, conjugating other verbs in Finnish will feel much easier.