What makes Finnish so different from other European languages?
Well, for one thing, the vocabulary is different. Languages in the Indo-European family have all have a common source, the ancient Indo-European language. For all of their differences, there are many words called cognates that sound similar, and these similarities provide some familiar points of reference that make it easier for speakers of one language to learn another. In Finnish, there are fewer cognates, in spite of the fact that the Finns have borrowed extensively from other languages such as Swedish and to a lesser extent Russian. The uniqueness of Finnish grammar and Finnish pronunciation also mean that when Finnish does borrow words from other languages, the Finnish versions end up sounding completely different. Another unique characteristic of the Finnish language that can make it intimidating to non-Finnish speakers is the extent to which Finnish relies on suffixes to change the meanings of root words. English uses prepositions to express the relationship of one noun in a sen
