# double vowels



## nederlandsk

Hey everyone, 
I have two questions about the Finnish language.

1) With double vowels, such as in the word B_aa_ri,do you say "Bah-ree" or "Buh-uh-ree"? Is it one continuous sound, or is it two sounds (because like in the word "ku_kk_a" you have to say the two k's seperately)?

2) Are diphthongs, such as äi, is it one continuous sound, or two different sounds?

Thanks!


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## Ilmo

Hello Nederlandsk
1) A double vowel is always pronounced as one continuous sound, that is most often a bit longer than a similar sound in other languages. Note that the word is never hyphenated between the two vowels. But when pronouncing the word "baari", note, that in the second syllable the vowel is quite short (I would pronounce in English the syllable "ree" with a long vowel sound, I think you should pronounce it like "ry" in the word "merry", etc. The double consonant is different, because in "kukka" the two k-sounds belong to different syllables.
2) The Finnish diphtong is always a continuous sound. Note that the vowels that make the diphtong must belong to the same syllable. For instance in the word "vaieta" (=keep silence) "ai" is a diphtong but "ie" is not, though of course it is a diphtong in the word "tietyö" (roadwork), one of the most beautiful sounding words of my mother tongue. Or is it "hääyöaie" (intention for the wedding night), a word with 7 vowels and only one consonant.


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## nederlandsk

Hei Hyvää päivää! Mitä kuuluu? 

Thanks for the tips! I'm trying to learn Finnish and its been quite difficult for me! This is how the book says I would introduce myself:

Hei, olen Michael Ramirez.
Olen meksikolainen.
Puhun Englantier, Saksaa, Espanjaa ja vahan (sp?) Ruotsi (sp?).


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## scandia

Hi,
I'm also learning Finnish- thanks for the information, as I also wasn't sure how to pronounce the Finnish diphtongs. Nederlandsk- what book are you learning from? I'm learning from Tertu Lerney's "Teach Yourself Finnish".


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## nederlandsk

Scandia- I'm learning from the same book I wish I had a different book because Tertu Leney isn't too clear on pronounciation!


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## Ilmo

nederlandsk said:


> Hei Hyvää päivää! Mitä kuuluu?
> 
> Thanks for the tips! I'm trying to learn Finnish and its been quite difficult for me! This is how the book says I would introduce myself:
> 
> Hei, olen Michael Ramirez.
> Olen meksikolainen.
> Puhun Englantier, Saksaa, Espanjaa ja vahan (sp?) Ruotsi (sp?).


 
Excellent, Michael!
Only a few minor errors.
No capital letters in the names of languages, nor nationalities. Only the names of countries are written with capital letters.
Puhun englanti*a -* the ending of partitive is -a, -ä, -ta or -tä.
Naturalmente *vähän *instead of "vahan", but I guess you have problems with the keyboard.
...ruotsi*a* - also the partitive case here.
And instead of "Olen Michael Ramirez" - which is quite correct - you could say "Nimeni on Michael Ramirez".
I'm going to write a PM to you as soon as possible.
Terveisin
Ilmo


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