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

'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

• Preface List of abbreviations 1 Introduction 2 Pronunciation and sound structure 3 A survey of word structure 5 The declension of nominals 4 Two important sound alternations 5 The declension of nominals 6 The conjugation of verbs 7 Basic sentence structure 8 The partitive 9 The genitive, possessive suffixes and the accusative 10 The six local cases 11 Other cases 12 Numerals 13 Pronouns 114 Tenses 15 Moods 16 The passive 17 Infinitives 18 Participles 19 Comparison of adjectives 20 Other word classes 21 Word formation 22 The colloquial spoken language