Reviews of the first edition: ' Finnish: An Essential Grammar is an intelligent and effective introduction to standard Finnish. A learner using any kind of approach for learning Finnish will also find it useful as a reference grammar. - Scandanavica 'The somewhat daunting task facing students of Finnish has been vastly simplified by Fred Karlsson's notably practical and supremely competent survey and guide. It amply merits a place in reference and lending libraries alike.' - Languages and Literature 14/1 [2000] 18-29 This second edition of Finnish: An Essential Grammar is grounded in fundamental insights of modern linguistics and incorporates some of the latest achievements in the description of written and spoken Finnish. It gives not only a systematic account of the structures of the written language, but also features the characteristics of present day colloquial Finnish. No prior knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader and grammatical rules are clearly explained without jargon. Features include: · pronunciation guide, including the tendencies in present-day colloquial Finnish · thorough descriptions of morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure) · clear rules and an abundance of concrete examples · inflection tables · subject index · internet addresses to online software for grammatical analysis of Finnish This is the ideal reference source both for those studying Finnish independently and for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types.

Fred Karlsson is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Helsinki.