# Another question for the board's overworked linguists: How is it that I can recognize written Finnish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2025, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101 "2025-06-25T02:47:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/101 "2026-04-07T16:33:06Z")
If you’re curious, any YouTube video featuring dashcam footage of car crashes or railroad crossing fails will include plenty of pictures of current era Russian stop signs. Most such vids are far more wacky than they are horrifying. Watching one isn’t setting you up to see blood and guts. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/102 "2026-04-07T16:54:00Z")
I’ve just been reading a magazine piece (about phrasebooks, as it happens) that tells me that Estonian has 14 case endings, no future tense, two different infinitives but one word for “he” and “she”, and something called the partitive plural. Makes Latin look like child’s play. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2026, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/103 "2026-04-08T21:56:36Z")
I took all the Finnish lessons Duolingo had to offer. It was so undersupplied, it barely got to the past tense at all - it included the past tense of _olla_ ‘to be’ in the very last lesson. I wanted to learn Estonian after that, but it wasn’t offered. Now I’m well along in Hungarian. I love Uralic. I was ecstatic when in a used bookstore I found _The Finno-Ugric Languages and Peoples_ by Hajdú Péter. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/104 "2026-05-16T19:46:10Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > At some point the ancestral Finns raided Wales and stole all their vowels, just leaving them with a crapton of Ys. “Vowels for the Welsh! Vowels for the Welsh! Vowels for the Welsh!” “Take some from the Irish. They don’t know how to use them anyway.” ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/105 "2026-05-16T22:13:00Z")
No, don’t give any more letters to the Welsh. They’ll just waste them, by creating names like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/106 "2026-05-17T10:39:03Z")
They should start an exchange program with the Hawaiians. There are probably a few spare vowels in _Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatah_ ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/107 "2026-05-17T12:10:52Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > They should start an exchange program with the Hawaiians. There are probably a few spare vowels in Nitpick: that’s actually a Maori name, being a hill in New Zealand. But all the Polynesian languages have a surfeit of vowels, so your point is well taken. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/108 "2026-05-17T14:41:36Z")
They _have_ vowels, just the Ieuans are hogging them all. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/109 "2026-05-17T15:21:00Z")
Everyone who wants more vowels should form a queue. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/110 "2026-05-22T22:57:41Z")
And donate them when strengths warrant it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101.md?page=5)