Study guide
Writing a short message. Openings, closings and wishes, each with an English equivalent and a note on when to use it.
Coloured endings mark three patterns, explained in Rakenteet. Each one answers the same question: what is this line doing?
Tags mark phrases for friends or formal use. The rest work with anyone.
Before you read
Pick what fits each line. Don’t look anything up. The answers, and what your mistakes say, come at the end.
Lähdetkö huomenna Lappiin?
Finnish usually ends the greeting with “!” where English uses a comma.
Hei Anna!
Hi Anna!
Moi Eki!friends
Hey Eki!
Hei works in any message, work email included. Moi is chattier.
Hyvä ystävä!
Dear friend!
Rakas ystävä!friends
My dear friend!
Hyvä (literally “good”) is the everyday “Dear”, and it works formally too: Hyvä asiakas means “Dear customer”. Rakas (“beloved”) is for people close to you.
Check
Työkaverille: Kiitos tiedosta.
A sign-off takes no comma. It sits on its own line, with your name on the line below.
Terveisin
Regards
Parhain terveisin
Best regards
Ystävällisin terveisinformal
Kind regards
Ystävällisin terveisin is the standard sign-off for formal email. Literally “with kindest greetings”.
Soitellaan!friends
Talk soon!
Literally “let’s call now and then”. It is friendly and vague, not a promise to actually call. The -el- of soitella is what makes it light and open-ended: “let’s call sometime” rather than “let’s call”.
Nähdään taas!
See you again!
Toivottavasti nähdään pian!
Hope to see you soon!
Nähdään! on its own is the everyday “See you!”
Palataan asiaan!
We’ll get back to this!
Palaillaan!friends
Talk later!
Palataan asiaan (literally “let’s return to the matter”) is how a work email says “I’ll get back to you on this”. Palata takes the illative: asia becomes asiaan. Palaillaan is the relaxed “catch you later”, with the same light -il- as soitellaan.
Hyvää jatkoa toivottaenformal
Wishing you all the best
Literally “wishing (you) a good continuation”. Hyvää jatkoa! on its own is a very common goodbye, in shops too.
Terveisiä perheellesi
Say hi to your family
Perheellesi is perhee-, the stem of perhe, plus -lle (“to”) and -si (“your”).
Check
Kaverille: Kiitos eilisestä, oli tosi kiva nähdä!
Almost every wish here is in the partitive. The patterns section explains why.
Voi hyvin!
Take care!
Literally “be well”, from voida hyvin.
Parane pian!
Get well soon!
Pikaista paranemista!
Speedy recovery!
The same wish twice: first an imperative verb, then a noun phrase in the partitive. The noun version suits a card or a colleague.
Hyvää matkaa!
Have a good trip!
Mukavaa lomaa!
Have a nice holiday!
Hyvää kesän jatkoa!
Enjoy the rest of the summer!
Literally “a good continuation of the summer”. Swap the season for the rest of the year: Hyvää syksyn jatkoa!
Työn iloa!
Enjoy your work!
Literally “joy of work”. You say it to someone starting a job or heading off to work. English has no neat equivalent.
Kaikkea hyvää sinulle!
All the best to you!
Onnea uuteen kotiin!
Good luck in your new home!
Onnea takes the illative, because the wish goes “into” the new thing. The same frame gives Onnea uuteen työhön! (“Good luck in your new job!”).
Onneksi olkoon syntymäpäivän johdosta!formal
Congratulations on your birthday!
Onneksi olkoon is literally “may it be for (your) happiness”, and X:n johdosta means “on the occasion of X”. With friends, say Hyvää syntymäpäivää! or Paljon onnea!
Tervetuloa toistekin!
Please come again!
Toiste (“another time”) + -kin (“too”). You’ll see it on shop doors and receipts.
Check
Kiitos yhteisistä vuosista. sinulle!
Patterns
Three endings explain most of the page, and one question picks between them: what is the line doing?
Every wish is the object of an unspoken Toivotan sinulle… (“I wish you…”). Luck, a good trip or a nice holiday has no fixed amount, so it takes the partitive. Everyday greetings follow the same frame: Hyvää huomenta, Hyvää päivää.
Toivotan sinulle hyvää matkaa.
Hyvä matka! in the nominative reads as a remark about a trip, not a wish for one.
In everyday Finnish the passive stands in for the me form, so me nähdään means “we’ll see each other”. On its own, as a suggestion, it means “let’s”. It is the same form as in Suomessa juodaan paljon kahvia (“People drink a lot of coffee in Finland”).
Ruoka on valmis! Syödään!
Passive preesens with no subject is the everyday “let’s”: Mennään! Aloitetaan!
This is the instructive case. Terveisin means “with greetings”, and adjectives agree with it: parhain, ystävällisin. Toivottaen is the verb version, meaning “while wishing”.
Näin sen omin silmin.
The case survives mostly in fixed phrases like this one and terveisin, so learn them whole instead of building your own.
The fourth answer is “nothing”: an address or a description wishes nothing, so it keeps the basic form. Hyvä Maria! calls Maria “dear”, and Hyvä matka! says the trip is good.
Examples
Two short messages built from phrases on this page.
To a friend
Moi Eki!
Kiitos eilisestä, oli tosi kiva nähdä. Hyvää matkaa ja mukavaa lomaa! Terveisiä perheellesi.
Soitellaan!
Anna
Hey Eki!
Thanks for yesterday, it was really nice to see you. Have a good trip and a nice holiday! Say hi to your family.
Talk soon!
Anna
To a colleague
Hyvä Maria!
Kiitos tiedosta. Palataan asiaan ensi viikolla.
Hyvää kesän jatkoa toivottaen
Anna Virtanen
Dear Maria,
Thanks for letting me know. We’ll get back to this next week.
Wishing you a lovely rest of the summer,
Anna Virtanen
Keep this
Retrieval
Ten mixed lines a round, missed ones first. Once you’ve got a line right twice, you type the phrase from the English instead of picking it.
Loading your history…
Production
Picking a phrase is easier than writing a message from nothing. Choose a prompt, write a short message, and Claude checks the phrases with the same two questions.
Spacing
Do a practice round today, then come back in two days. Missed items return first.
Each pattern has a page of its own, with every phrase and construction that uses it: Short message phrases, The partitive, The passive, The instructive.