Understanding Capitalization and Punctuation in Finnish

Capitalization Rules in Finnish

In Finnish, capitalization is used similarly to English in several ways, but it also has its unique rules that learners should be aware of. Understanding when to capitalize a word can greatly improve your writing and comprehension.

Proper Nouns and Names

Proper nouns, such as people's names, city names, and brand names, are capitalized in Finnish. For example, 'Helsinki' and 'Nokia' both start with a capital letter.

Days and Months

Unlike in English, the names of days and months in Finnish start with lowercase letters. For instance, 'maanantai' for Monday and 'tammikuu' for January.

Titles and Headings

In titles and headings, only the first word and any proper nouns are capitalized. For example, 'Suomen kesä' (Finnish Summer).

Punctuation in Finnish

Punctuation in Finnish closely resembles English punctuation with a few distinct differences. Knowing these differences will help you write more naturally.

Commas and Colons

Commas in Finnish are used similarly to English, but they can appear more frequently, especially in subordinate clauses. Colons are often used in place of a comma when introducing a quote or similar content.

Quotation Marks

Finnish uses lower and upper quotation marks („ "), similar to German style, rather than the English " ".

Other Marks

Exclamation and question marks are used as expected. However, the ellipsis is used for unfinished thoughts but contains only three periods (…). Unlike English, there's no space before exclamation or question marks.

Hyphenation

Hyphens are used to connect words in certain fixed expressions or compound words. For instance, 'sanomalehti' (newspaper) is a compound without a hyphen, but 'yli-ikäinen' (overaged) requires one.