Finnish Grammar

FINNISH GRAMMAR by CLEMENS NIEMI. PREFACE: In preparing this book my aim has not been to write a complete Finnish grammar. I have sought to present only the fundamental principles in the briefest possible way necessary for the study of the Finnish language. The student should thoroughly master the sound values of each letter before taking any advanced steps. In doing so he is able to acquire accuracy in pronunci ation. It should be remembered that Finnish, as its cognate Finno-Ugric languages, is an agglutinative language., that is to say, the words are formed of roots by adding certain suffices or endings to the stem. In this process of appending, the changes of letters for euphony or harmony occur. The rules for these changes should be carefully observed in connection with each lesson as they come. Each lesson consists of a statement of grammatical principles, a vocabulary, exercises, and in some cases, a brief reading lesson. The vocabulary at the head of the lesson will help the student to understand the sen tences which follow. The exercises have been devel oped in such a way that each lesson brings out the grammatical principles at hand. The rules of syntax as well as grammatical questions have been scattered throughout a long series of lessons for the purpose of leading the student gradually to a thorough understand ing of the rules. The case-endings and the use of the cases are particularly emphasized, as they form a very difficult and essential part in the study of the Finnish language. The reading lessons are so arranged as to give an early acquaintance with real Finnish, and they continually add new - words to the students vocabulary. Fully aware of many defects, I hope that this book, the only Finnish grammar of its kind in English, will be of some aid to the learner of the Finnish language. CLEMENS NIEML. Contents include: Lesson Page, Introduction 7 14 I Nominative Case 15 16 II Accusative and Genitive Cases 17 19 HI The Verb 19 22 IV Essive and Partitive Cases 23 25 V Reading-Lesson 26 27 VI Potential nad Conditional Moods 27 30 VH TransJiative and Inessive Cases 30 32 VH3I Imperative Active, Infinitives, anld Participles 32 35 DC Elative and Illative Cases 36 38 X The Auxiliary erb Olla, to be 38 41 XOO Adessive and Ablative Cases 42 44 xXM Allative and Abe ssive Cases 44 47 XQDH Oomitative and Instructive Cases 47 51 XIV Reading-Lesson 51 53 XV Method of Expressing-the Auxiliary to have 53 56 XVI legation 56 59 XVEI Personal and Possessive Pronouns 5 613 XVIH Compound Tenses 63 6.6 XIX Reading. Lesson 67 69 XX Passive Voice 69 73 XXI Method of Expressing-Future Time 74 77 XXH Comparison of Adjectives 78 81 XXDQn Interrogation 8184 XXOV Demonstrative and Relative Pronouns 84 87 XXV Reflexive and Indefinite Pronouns 87- 91 XXVI Cardinal Numbers-91- 95 XXVII Ordinal Numbers 95 99 XXVIII Compound Noun 99 102 XXIX Attribute, Appositive, and Adverb 102 105 XXX Prepositions and Postpositions 105- 109 XXXI Conjunctions and Interjections 109- 112 Derivation o f Stufostantives a-n d Adjec tives 113- 115 Rules of Syntax 115- 139 Tables of Declension 139- 155 Tables of Conjugation 155- 173 Formation of Verb Stems 173- 174 Alphabetical Last of Verbs 174-178 Finnish-English Vocabulary 179- 191 English-Finnish. Voca-bulary 192- 205 Index 206-207