This thoroughly revised third 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 a systematic account of the structures of the written language and offers increased attention to the key 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 of this new edition 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, from both written and colloquial Finnish

• updated vocabulary in the examples

• an effective new scheme for detecting the morphological structure of any word form

• subject index.

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.

'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

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