Finnish: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) [Hardcover]

Fred Karlsson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415207045 | ISBN-13: 978-0415207041 | Publication Date: October 5, 1999 | Edition: New edition

A reference guide to the most important aspects of Finnish as it is used by native speakers today, this is the ideal reference source both for those studying Finnish independently and in classroom situations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Finnish: An Essential Grammar is an intelligent and effective introduction to standard Finnish... . A learner using any kind of approach for learning Finnish will also find it useful as a reference grammar. - Scandanavica

'The somewhat daunting task facing students of Finnish has been vastly simplified by Fred Karlsson's notably practical and supremely competent survey and guide. It amply merits a place in reference and lending libraries alike.' - Languages and Literature 14/1 [2000] 18-29

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Finnish, Swedish

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; New edition edition (October 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415207045
• ISBN-13: 978-0415207041
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,233,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Finnish

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Finnish reference grammar, August 21, 2003

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finnish: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

This book is a comprehensive, yet concise reference grammar of Finnish. Karlsson starts with a brief overview of history, then turns to pronunciation and sound alternations. Following these topics, he presents the general nominal declensions and the conjugation of verbs. He then delves into much deeper detail with the case system and the verb systems, followed by the comparison of adjectives and word formation. He closes the main text with an extremely useful chapter on the colloquial spoken language, in which he explains which rules discussed above were only theoretical, and what people actually say.

This book has pictures of intonation patterns, nominal declension charts in all 15 cases in both the singular and plural, and a handy appendix of complete verb declensions. Important grammatical rules are printed in eye-catching boxes, while key grammatical endings are printed in bold in the numerous examples. I've found this book to be tremendously useful at all stages of my development in Finnish language skills. I read it intensively when I was first studying the language, and I continually turn to it for reference today, although I can now speak Finnish fairly fluently. If you want to learn Finnish or learn about Finnish, you need this book.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the ultimate Finnish grammar., August 30, 2000

By 

Lee V. Douglas (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finnish: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Hardcover)

This book was written in Swedish for people who must use Finnish in Finland correctly. It is SO GOOD that it has been translated into English and for a long time sold for $89.00 in a paperback edition on cheap paper that began yellowing almost immediately. I bought this expensive, low-quality edition and have never regretted it. My only negative thought was that it might fall apart before I do. Now Routledge has eased that fear by publishing the book on better paper and for a (slightly) lower price.

It is not for beginners. It is for those who have sweated over the complexities of Finnish morphology and sound changes and STILL have doubts. Karlsson's understanding of Finnish structure is so perfect and his ability to explain it so skillful that he has produced a reference work that transfess that clarity of view to the student.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable reference for learners of Finnish, December 7, 2000

By 

M. S. Green (Anchorage, AK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finnish: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

Finnish is an agglutinative language -- that is, words are inflected or conjugated through "gluing" new endings, each of which has adds its own meaning, to basic word forms. Among this volume's most valuable features is the chapter entitled "A survey of word structure," which describes exactly and understandably how these endings are added to basic forms, and in what order. Most "learning Finnish" courses are designed to transmit this knowledge... eventually -- but few if any (none that I've found) explain the basic logic of Finnish words so straightforwardly, and where it ought to be explained: at the beginning. It's cleared up a lot of my confusion -- now I've got a solid structure into which I can fit everything else I've got to learn about declension and conjugation. The rest of the book is just as magnificent at explaining the complexities of Finnish grammar intelligently and intelligibly, with scads of examples and numerous tables. It's clear to me: if you want to learn Finnish, get a good basic course text, a decent Finnish-English-Finnish dictionary -- and this book.