English to Finnish Translator

Free English to Finnish translation, plus the Finnish grammar that trips up English speakers.

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What changes when you translate English to Finnish

Translating English into Finnish changes more than the words. Finnish is a Uralic language unrelated to Swedish or Russian, with about 15 grammatical cases, no articles, no grammatical gender, and long agglutinated word forms. Finnish expresses location, direction, and possession through case endings instead of prepositions, so single Finnish words often unpack into whole English phrases. A word-for-word tool gets the vocabulary right and these things wrong, which is why the translator above reads the whole sentence before it writes anything.

English and Finnish: key differences

English and Finnish diverge on word order, formality, subject pronouns, and articles. Each row below is a place where swapping words one for one produces the wrong Finnish sentence.

Feature	English	Finnish
Typical word order	subject–verb–object	subject–verb–object, with flexible order
Formality	no formal/informal distinction	informal and formal second person (sinä / te)
Subject pronouns	required	dropped in the first and second person
Articles	definite and indefinite	no articles

English to Finnish example sentences

Full sentences translated from English to Finnish:

English	Finnish
Could you show me your identification, please?	Voisitteko näyttää henkilötodistuksenne, kiitos? Formal service encounter with one customer · formal — Singular polite address uses a second-person-plural conditional verb and the possessive suffix -nne · Finnish general standard language; singular polite address
I've been waiting for the bus for twenty minutes.	Olen odottanut bussia kaksikymmentä minuuttia. Message explaining a delay · neutral — The ongoing, incomplete object bussia is partitive, and the duration is not introduced by an English-style preposition
Put the keys on the kitchen table, please.	Laita avaimet keittiön pöydälle, kiitos. Household instruction · informal — The allative ending on pöydälle encodes movement onto the table, while keittiön is genitive
We don't have any milk left.	Meillä ei ole enää maitoa. Everyday household update · neutral — Possession is expressed with the adessive meillä plus olla, and the mass noun is partitive in the negative possessive construction
Do you know whether Anna has already arrived?	Tiedätkö, onko Anna jo saapunut? Question about someone's arrival · neutral — The enclitic -ko marks both the direct question and its embedded yes-or-no clause
The report must be finished before the meeting.	Raportti on saatava valmiiksi ennen kokousta. Project requirement in professional writing · formal — The necessive on saatava construction states an obligation without inventing a personal agent
See you at the station at half past six!	Nähdään asemalla puoli seitsemältä! Casual message confirming a meeting · informal — Colloquial nähdään uses a passive form for shared action, and puoli seitsemältä denotes 6:30 · Widely used conversational Finnish

Common English to Finnish phrases

Everyday expressions translated from English to Finnish:

English	Finnish (Suomi)
Hello	Hei
Good night	Hyvää yötä
Thank you	Kiitos
Please	Ole hyvä
How are you?	Mitä kuuluu?
What is your name?	Mikä sinun nimesi on?
I love you	Minä rakastan sinua
Excuse me	Anteeksi
Where is the bathroom?	Missä on vessa?
Goodbye	Näkemiin

About the Finnish language

Finnish (Suomi) is spoken by about 5.5 million people across Finland. It belongs to the Uralic language family and is written in the Latin alphabet.

Native name: Suomi
Speakers: 5.5 million
Language family: Uralic
Writing system: the Latin alphabet
Word order: subject–verb–object, with flexible order

English to Finnish translation tips

This bundle defaults to Finnish general standard language (yleiskieli). The final example is explicitly conversational; regional dialect spellings are not mixed into the standard rows.
Finnish case endings often carry meanings expressed by English prepositions. Choose the case required by the verb and spatial relationship rather than mapping one English preposition mechanically.
Object case distinguishes such meanings as completed versus ongoing or unbounded action, and negation commonly requires the partitive. Review the whole event, not only the noun ending.
Finnish has no articles. Word order and context help distinguish established information from new information, so adding English a or the on the reverse page requires interpretation.
Ordinary contemporary service communication often uses singular sinä-address, while formal teitittely remains available. If teitittely is chosen, keep the plural verb and possessive suffix consistent.

English to Finnish translation FAQ

How accurate is AI English to Finnish translation?

The translator uses a modern AI language model that understands context, so English to Finnish results read more naturally than word-for-word tools. For legal, medical, or other high-stakes text, have a fluent speaker review the output.

How do you say hello in Finnish?

Hello in Finnish is Hei. The common-phrases table on this page lists more everyday Finnish expressions, such as Kiitos (thank you) and Näkemiin (goodbye).

How should English articles be translated into Finnish?

Finnish has no direct equivalents of a and the. Use context and natural Finnish word order, then restore the appropriate English article from the intended meaning when translating back.

Why does a Finnish object sometimes end in -a or -ä?

The partitive can mark an unbounded quantity, an ongoing event or an object under negation. Check whether the event is complete and bounded before choosing or removing that case.

Sources

The language facts and grammar notes on this page are checked against these references.

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