Syllable division

Syllable division is a very important part of Finnish grammar as it makes it easier to realize where the consonant gradations in Finnish come from.

There are two different kinds of syllables found in Finnish. A syllable ending in a vowel is an open syllable and one ending in a consonant is called a closed syllable. These show up after syllable division has occured, according to the 4 different ways a Finnish word can be divided.

The dividing line can go between :

  1. a vowel and a single consonant (~V-CV):

    2. ky-lä
    Lii-sa
    sei-nä
     
  2. between two consonants (~VC-CV):

    3. Mat-ti
    met-sä
    ih-me
    kyl-lä
     
  3. between the second and third consonant in a 3-consonant cluster (~VCC-CV):

    4. Tans-ka
    kart-ta
    munk-ki
     
  4. between two vowels that are not considered a diphthong or a long vowel (~V-V):

    5. rus-ke-a
    ra-di-o
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