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With human translators in Helsinki, Finland, get quality English to native Finnish language translation for legal, medical, retail and digital services. Find Finnish Translation WFH freelancers on April 17, 2025 who work remotely. Read less
Translating Finnish into English involves navigating through several linguistic and cultural differences. Here's how native translators are known to do Finnish-English translations, with detailed examples:
Vocabulary:
Direct Translation: Many common words have straightforward translations.
Example:
Finnish: "kirja" (book)
English: "book"
Cultural Concepts: Some Finnish words encapsulate cultural or environmental concepts not directly translatable.
Example:
Finnish: "sisu" - a concept of stoic determination, grit, and resilience, which might be explained rather than directly translated.
English: Often translated contextually as "grit" or "perseverance" with an explanation.
Loanwords: Finnish has borrowed some English words, especially in modern contexts like technology or business.
No Articles: Finnish does not use articles like "a", "an", or "the". Definiteness is usually inferred from context.
Example:
Finnish: "Kirja on pöydällä." (Book is on table.)
English: "The book is on the table." (Articles added in English)
Case System: Finnish has 15 grammatical cases, which change the ending of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals according to their role in the sentence.
This is a significant difference from English.
Nominative: "talo" (house)
Genitive: "talon" (of the house)
Partitive: "taloa" (some of the house or house in general)
Example:
Finnish: "Ostan talon." (I buy the house - accusative case.)
English: "I buy the house." (No case change, but context determines "the".)
Verb Conjugation: Finnish verbs conjugate for person, number, tense, mood, and voice, but there's no infinitive form ending in "-to" or "-te" as in English; instead, infinitives end in "-a" or "-ä".
Example:
Finnish: "luen" (I read), "luet" (you read - singular), "lukee" (he/she reads)
English: "I read", "you read", "he/she reads"
Negation: Finnish has a distinct negative verb, "ei", which is used with other verbs in negative sentences, unlike English where "not" is used.
Example:
Finnish: "En lue kirjaa." (I am not reading a book.)
English: "I am not reading a book."
Syntax:
Word Order: While Finnish typically follows Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order, the language's rich inflection allows for flexible word order to indicate emphasis or different nuances.
Example:
Finnish: "Kirja luin." (The book I read - for emphasis on the book.)
English: "I read the book." (Standard SVO)
Passive Voice: Finnish has an impersonal passive construction, which can be translated into English passive or as an active sentence with an unspecified subject.
Example:
Finnish: "Kirja luetaan." (The book is read - or one reads the book.)
English: "The book is read." or "One reads the book."
Idiomatic Expressions:
Translation of Idioms: Finnish idioms often require cultural or contextual explanation due to their specificity.
Example:
Finnish: "Panna pää pensaaseen" (literally "to put one's head in the bush") means to ignore or avoid a problem.
English: Might be translated as "to bury one's head in the sand."
Phonetics:
Vowel Harmony: Finnish has vowel harmony, where vowels within a word must belong to the same group (front or back). This doesn't affect translation directly but influences word formation and pronunciation.
Example:
Finnish: "kala" (fish) - all back vowels; "pieni" (small) - all front vowels.
Translating from Finnish to English requires capturing not only the literal meaning but also the nuances of the case system, the absence of articles, and cultural context. It often involves restructuring sentences to fit English grammar while maintaining the original meaning's essence.
