Kaksoiskirjaimet, double letters

In Finnish almost any letter can either stand alone, as in kana, tulin.
 Or it can be doubled, like N in kanna, U and I in tuuliin.

The single letters and double letters are pronounced very differently. It's important to pronounce (and write) them right, because it changes the meaning of the word.

Tapaan sinut, means I will meet you, but:
Tapan sinut, means I will kill you. So be careful.

The basic rule is, that a single letter lasts for a normal amount of time, and a double letter lasts for double the time. 
That's why the double letters are called 'long' because they last for a longer time. And that's the only difference. The single a and double aa, are pronounced exactly the same, with the mouth and tongue in the exact same position, but the double aa just lasts for a longer time. Same with the single n and double nn.

With the letters P K and T, it's harder to keep the sound in your mouth for double the time. You do it so, that for example with double pp, you first close your mouth as if to start saying the letter p, but you stop there, for a while, with your mouth in the 'p' position, and then after waiting you finally let the p sound come out. With the single p there would be no waiting with your mouth closed.

When you say double tt, you start saying the letter t, and then stop with the tip of your tongue touching the top part of your mouth, stay there, wait for a while, (quiet) and then let the t sound come out.

Same with double kk. You stop right before making the k sound, and wait for a while.

Kivi stone, kiivi kiwi fruit
Tule come, tuulee it's windy
Katu street, kaatuu falls over
Värin of a color, väärin wrong
Tuli fire, tulli customs
Satua fairy tale, sattua to hurt
Laki law, lakki cap
Tipua chick, tippua to drop
Etc.

What about two different vowels after each other? Like AI, YÖ, IE, OU? The combinations of two letters are always pronounced like this: first you pronounce the sound of the first letter, then you pronounce the sound of the second letter. Those two sound after one another, is how you pronounce the two letter after one another.

Like this :
the AI, consists of A, which has the sound of A in father, and I, which has the sound of E in me.
So:
first pronounce the A(father)sound, after that, the I(me)sound: together you should have something that sounds like the word Eye in English.

So now we should be finished with the learning to read and write part. Just keep in mind the three basic rules of Finnish spelling:
1. A letter is always pronounced the same way, with one sound.
2. A combination of letters is pronounced so, that you first pronounce the sound of the first letter, then the sound of the next letter, then the sound of the next letter etc.
3. A double letter is pronounced like a single letter, except that it lasts double the time.

Vokaalit

Now for the difficult part: the vowels.

In Finnish there are 9 vowels, AEIOUYÄÖ.

With the consonants we already learned I, which is pronounced a lot like the name of the letter E in English. But in Finnish, the letter E is always pronounced like 'eh'  the E in get or less.

Ne like ne in net.
Me like me in met
Le, le in let.
Se, like in set.
Ve, like in vet
He, like in help.
Je, yellow.
De, deck.
Re
Ke, in sketch
Te in step
Pe in spell
Be in bet
Fe in festival.
Ge in get

Easy, right?

Now the letters A O and U.

A is pronounced like the a in father or palm

O is pronounced like the o in british ball, or the o in force without the r sound, or like the first sound after n in american no.

U is pronounced like the oo in room.

The letters Ä, Ö and Y are pronounced like A O and U, except with the tongue in front, just behind the teeth, like when you say the name of the letter E in English.

How to say Y: first say U, like the oo in room, with rounded lips. Keep your lips in the same position, but move your tongue in the front, just behind the teeth, where it is when you pronounce the name of the letter E in English.

With Ö, start with your lips in the position of when you say O, with Ä, they should be in the position where they are when you say A.

The Finnish alphabet

Learn To read Finnish:

 Let's start with the alphabet. Finnish alphabet has 29 letters:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZÅÄÖ, three more letters than the English one.
The three extra letters are Å, Ä, and Ö. In Finnish, the letter Å is called 'the Swedish O' and it's not really used, except in Swedish names. Ä and Ö are, unlike in English, used a lot in Finnish.

Finnish is very easy to learn to read, because usually there is only one way to read a letter. Finnish spelling is very phonetic. There are exceptions though, but let's not talk about them now.

Let's start with the letter I. It's always pronounced a lot like the E in the English word me.

The letters B, F,  L, M, N, and V are pronounced mostly the same in English and Finnish.
That means:
Bi is pronounced like the word be in English.
Fi is a lot like fee.
Li is a lot like lee
Mi, a lot like me.
Vi, like the name of the letter V.

The letters G, H, S, X are next:

G is pronounced like the g in get or go (not like the g in cage or gene.)
Gi is pronounced a lot like gee in the word geek.

H is pronounced like the H in heat.
Hi, is pronounced like hee in heel.

S is pronounced like S in miss or case (not like the S in cheese or toes)
Si, a lot like see.

X is pronounced like X in the name of the letter.
Xi , like xi in taxi.

Then the letters J, P, K, T, which are probably the most difficult of the consonants:
J is pronounced like y in yellow.
Ji, a bit like yi in yiddish.

P is NOT pronounced like the P in pink. It's pronounced like the P in spin, without the aspiration (breathing out)

Same with T and K.
T is pronounced like T in stick, not like T in tick.
K is pronounced like K in skin, not like K in kin.

Pi, is pronounced like pee in speed.
Ti, like tee in steel
Ki, like ki in ski

Then we are almost finished with the consonants.
We are left with CDQRWZ.

C, q, w, z are letters that only appear in loanwords, where they are usually pronounced like in the original language.
D is pronounced much like the English D.
R is the only sound, for which there is no similar sound in English. It's pronounced much like the Spanish R but with the tongue further back in the mouth.

Then there is ng. NG is pronounced like ng in sing, not like ng in finger.

So now practice: Ni mi li vi bi fi gi hi si ji pi ki ti di ri

Sinä ja minä, you and I

Learn a bit Finnish:

Minä : I
The word for I in Finnish is minä. 
Mi- pronounced like me, nä, pronounced like na in nap

Ja : and
The word for and in Finnish is ja
Ja is pronounced like ya in yard

So the name of this cartoon book:
Veera ja minä means Veera and I. 

In Finnish, I love you is very easy: it's
Minä rakastan sinua

I'll introduce some more books: this one is about a Swedish football player :
Minä, Zlatan Ibrahimovic ,
I, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Next let's learn the verb to be, olla:
Olla : to be 
Just like in English, there are different forms of it. For 'I' the form is olen
I am : minä olen

The name of this book about the youngest ever Nobel prize laureate.
 Minä olen Malala, is then translated as I am Malala

There is apparently even a magazine called
Minä olen , which just means I am.

The name of the book,
Minä, adoptoitu, might be harder to understand: it's written by a woman who was adopted as a child, and the name of the book is I, adopted


Minä olen pomo: I am the boss

The next word we will learn is
Sinä : you
The word sinä, is only used when speaking to one person. For when you address several people, there is another word.

This 80's song by the popular Finnish band Dingo, is called:

Sinä ja minä

Which means you and I 

Then there is this hair salon with the same name:

Hiussalonki sinä ja minä, hair salon you and I 

Animalia, a Finnish Animal protection organization made this poster which says:

Minä en voi elää ilman turkkia - sinä voit, which means: I can not live without fur - you can

The verb olla - to be, has a form for the pronoun you, sinä, as well: olet

Sinä olet : you are

Sinä olet

There is also this nice blog , with the name : Sinä olet kaunis, which means, you are beautiful

And here's a song by the Finnish singer, Juha Tapio. The name of the song is 

Minä olen, sinä olet, which you should by now be able to translate yourself.

And here are all the words:

Ja : and

Minä : I

Sinä : you (singular)

Olla : to be

Minä olen : I am

Sinä olet : you are