It is pity that many foreigners and immigrants in Finland give up their trials to learn Finnish as soon as they notice that all Finns speak English to them. In addition, they may have experienced that Finns were not eager to teach Finnish. On the contrary they use the opportunity to practice their own skills of speaking English with a foreigner. We are so selfish! Or could the reason be such that we would feel that we could not manage it? Do we suppose that it would be a hard task? We had to learn a lot of grammatical terms about our natice language in school, and most adults don't remember them. However, some knowledge of the grammatical principles are needed as a basis if the pupil should learn much more than just some words and sayings.

The author of this book wanted to do something for our common good in the situation. She started composing a description of the Finnish as if she were writing a letter to her English speaking friend to encourage her to study Finnish. That is why this grammar book is written using the first-person pronouns. In 2003 she got her work translated into Finnish and into Russian for the first time. This book in your hands, is a translation of the latest Finnish version, 4th edition, Nov. 2012.

This book suits persons who can study alone. However, it is preferable to do it together with a Finn who is willing to teach Finnish to him or her and to try to do it with the help of this book. Actually, the content of this book is not much more than a refreshing repetition of what we should have learned about our native language in school. Please note that you need a good bilingual dictionary.