Informal Pronunciation of Finnish Numbers

The informal pronunciation of Finnish words often varies considerably from the formal one. In spoken Finnish, words are often shortened. This can be illustrated with the Finnish numbers. The numbers from one to ten are as follows:

yksi

kaksi

kolme

neljä

viisi

kuusi

seitsemän

kahdeksan

yhdeksän

kymmenen

In informal Finnish, these numbers can be pronounced as follows:

yks (apocope)

kaks (apocope)

kolme

neljä

viis (apocope)

kuus (apocope)

seittemän (assimilation)

kaheksan (consonant reduction)/kadeksan (consonant reduction)

yheksän (consonant reduction) ydeksän (consonant reduction)

kymmenen

In spoken Finnish apocope is a common phonological process. Other processes which can be observed are assimilation and consonant reduction. The pronunciation of the Finnish numbers eight and nine can vary. As the numbers illustrate, colloquial Finnish is quite different from formal Finnish.