Finnish Alphabet

Finnish is different – but NOT difficult! The structure and vocabulary of Finnish differ greatly from other languages spoken in Europe. All languages spoken in Europe are related to each other; they belong
to the same lndo-European family of languages. The Finnish language is a
member of the Finno-Ugrian language family (just like Estonian and Hungarian).

The letters B, C, F, G, Q, W, X, Z and Å are only used in names and foreign loanwords
The letter G appears in native Finnish words in combination with N as ng [ŋ]
C = [k] when it appears before A, O and U, and [s] when before E, I, Y, ä and ö
Stress always falls on the first syllable of words.
Vowels and consonants can be short (written with one letter), or long (written with two letters).
Finnish has a system of vowel harmony. There are three types of vowels: front vowels (ä, ö, y), back vowels (a, o, u) and neutral vowels (e, i). Front and back vowels cannot co-exist in the same word. Neutral vowels can be used with either of the two other types.

No articles, no gender

There are no articles in Finnish. The words have no grammatical gender, i.e.
there are no feminine, masculine or neuter words.

auto – a car, the car
lusikka – spoon
haarukka – fork
hän – she, he