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Nationalities in Finnish – Minkämaalainen Sinä Olet
Nationalities in Finnish – Minkämaalainen Sinä Olet
Nationalities in Finnish – Minkämaalainen Sinä Olet
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One of the very first things students of any language usually learn to say is what nationality they are. The
nationalities in Finnish will have the ending -lainen for this. In Finnish, the name of the country is always
with a capital (e.g. Suomi, Portugali). The language is written without a capital (suomi, portugali), as is a
citizen of the country (suomalainen, portugalilainen).
Table of Contents
2. Exceptional Cases
1. Minor changes
2. Special Case: The United States
If you want to say someone is a resident of a continent or a city, you do the exact same thing:
The word suomalainen can be both a noun (Olen suomalainen. “I’m a Finn.”) and an adjective (Syön
suomalaista ruokaa. “I eat Finnish food.”).
Below, you can also find a couple of examples of how vowel harmony works with nationalities in Finnish.
You can find the explanation of this phenomenon on our vowel harmony page.
Viro → virolainen
Saksa → saksalainen
Jyväskylä → jyväskyläläinen
Härmälä → härmäläläinen
Sveitsi → sveitsiläinen
Tsekki → tsekkiläinen
2. Exceptional Cases
Some countries will undergo a minor change when you add the ending -lainen to them.
Suomi → suomalainen
Ruotsi → ruotsalainen
Venäjä → venäläinen
In Finnish, the name of the country is always with a capital (e.g. Belgia, Suomi). The language is written
without a capital (e.g. hollanti, suomen kieli), as is a citizen of the country (e.g. belgialainen, suomalainen).
The United States has multiple names in Finnish, all of which has a -lainen form:
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15 COMMENTS
Majid
0 Reply
Reply to Majid
1 Reply
Majid
Kiitos sinusta ⚘
0 Reply
Mustafa Abdirahman
0 Reply
3 Reply
Abhi
Kiitos
0 Reply
Siddharth
shouldn’t it be Helsingilainen keeping in with consonant gradation? Also, is there any difference in the usage
of Eesti vs. Viro?
0 Reply
Reply to Siddharth
No, the -lainen suffix is added to the strong form of the word (tsekkiläinen, hollantilainen). Viro is
more common, the more Finnish version. Eesti and eestiläinen are closer to the Estonian language
(in Estonian it’s “eestlane“)
1 Reply
Finnish Learner
What is the difference between saying minkämaalainen sina olet and mistä sinä olet kotoisin?
0 Reply
Inge (admin) Admin
Usually they’re the same: “What nationality are you?” vs. “Where are you from originally?”.
Generally you will get the same answer but someone might have a different nationality than the
country they’re from in some cases.
1 Reply
Vo Tuan Tu
Hello.
I see that when talking about Where are you from, they add sta-stä to the name of the country such as Suomi
–> Suomesta, Ranska –> Ranskasta. But why Venäjä is added ltä to become Venäjältä?
Thanks
0 Reply
Reply to Vo Tuan Tu
It depends on the place in question. Venäjä will always become Venäjällä, Venäjältä, Venäjälle in
the missä, mistä and mihin forms.
You will find this happen with both countries and cities. There are no clear rules for which cases
are used, it all depends on the place in question. You can read more about this here:
https://uusikielemme.fi/finnish-grammar/finnish-cases/location-cases/missa-asut-tampereella-vai-
helsingissa
1 Reply
Justine
olen Filippiiniläinen.
1 Reply
Oluchi
0 Reply
Rahed
0 Reply
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