Finnish Graded Readers for Your Students

Create level-matched Finnish texts with line-by-line support and full vocabulary control.

Using graded readers gives your students accessible Finnish texts that match what you cover in lessons. You can introduce written Finnish alongside spoken forms early on, helping learners build confidence from their very first readings. Explore the live preview to generate beginner texts and see how line-by-line glossing supports your teaching.

Camilla lentoasemalla

Camilla on Helsinki-Vantaan lentoasemalla.

Camilla is at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

Lentoasema on iso ja kiireinen.

The airport is big and busy.

Camilla kävelee isolle taululle.

Camilla walks to the big board.

Hän etsii oikeaa lentoa.

She looks for the right flight.

Lento menee Rovaniemelle.

The flight goes to Rovaniemi.

Lento on valitettavasti myöhässä.

The flight is unfortunately late.

Camilla on vähän väsynyt.

Camilla is a little tired.

Hän odottaa pitkän ajan.

She waits a long time.

Lähistöllä on mukava kahvila.

Nearby there is a nice cafe.

Camilla kävelee nopeasti kahvilaan.

Camilla walks quickly to the cafe.

Hän ostaa kahvin ja korvapuustin.

She buys a coffee and a cinnamon roll.

Camilla: Yksi iso kahvi, kiitos.

One large coffee, please.

Camilla: Ja yksi korvapuusti, kiitos.

And one cinnamon roll, please.

Myyjä antaa kahvin ja korvapuustin.

The seller gives the coffee and the cinnamon roll.

Myyjä: Ole hyvä.

Here you go.

Camilla maksaa ja kiittää.

Camilla pays and says thank you.

Kuuma kahvi on erittäin hyvää.

The hot coffee is very good.

Makea korvapuusti on todella herkullinen.

The sweet cinnamon roll is really delicious.

Camilla syö ja juo hitaasti.

Camilla eats and drinks slowly.

Sitten hän katsoo ympärilleen.

Then she looks around.

Vieressä on kaunis Muumi-kauppa.

Next to her is a beautiful Moomin shop.

Camilla katsoo kauppaa iloisesti.

Camilla looks at the shop happily.

Kaupassa on pehmeä valkoinen Muumipeikko.

In the shop is a soft white Moomintroll.

Hän katsoo lelua pitkän ajan.

She looks at the toy for a long time.

Yhtäkkiä taululla on uusi teksti.

Suddenly there is a new text on the board.

Lento Rovaniemelle on vihdoin valmis.

The flight to Rovaniemi is finally ready.

Camilla ottaa ison laukun.

Camilla takes the big bag.

Hän on hyvin iloinen.

She is very happy.

Camilla menee oikealle portille.

Camilla goes to the right gate.

Ihmiset odottavat portilla hiljaa.

People are waiting quietly at the gate.

Nyt matka pohjoiseen alkaa.

Now the journey to the north begins.

Key Facts About the Finnish Language

Speakers

About 5 million native speakers: roughly 4.75 million in Finland (2023) and 200,000–250,000 in Sweden (2022).1

Did you know?

Everyday spoken Finnish (puhekieli) differs noticeably from the written standard: minä olen (“I am”) is usually said mä oon, and olemme (“we are”) becomes me ollaan.2

The main challenge

Fifteen noun cases whose endings are regular, but consonant gradation changes the stem (katu “street” → kadulla “on the street”) and vowel harmony picks the ending's vowel (-ssa or -ssä).3

CEFR exams

Where students struggle

  • Partitive or total object: an ongoing or habitual action takes the partitive (juon kahvia, “I drink coffee”), while a completed one takes the accusative (näin koirat, “I saw the dogs”).3

Teaching notes

  • Introduce everyday spoken forms alongside the written standard from A1, as the A1 textbook Suomen mestari 1 does in its revised edition, so that learners who read minä also recognise mä.4

Sources

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colloquial_Finnish
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_grammar
  4. https://finnlectura.fi/en/products/finnish-as-a-second-language/suomen-mestari/uudistettu-suomen-mestari-1/

About the Finnish language

Language familyUralic → Finnic1
SpeakersAbout 5 million native speakers: roughly 4.75 million in Finland (2023) and 200,000–250,000 in Sweden (2022), with smaller communities in Russian Karelia and North America.1
Primary scriptLatin alphabet, including ä and ö, with a largely phonemic spelling1
Word order & typologySVO as the neutral order, with freer order to mark emphasis. Agglutinative, with fifteen noun cases, consonant gradation and no grammatical gender: hän means both “he” and “she”.2,1
Official statusOfficial in Finland alongside Swedish, and an official language of the European Union since 1995; an official minority language in Sweden and a recognised minority language in the Republic of Karelia (Russia).1,3
  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_grammar
  3. https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/languages_en

Finnish reading proficiency benchmarks (CEFR & YKI)

Stichos levelApproximate framework equivalentReader profile
A0Pre-A1Early Beginner
A1CEFR A1 / YKI 1Beginner
A2CEFR A2 / YKI 2Elementary
B1CEFR B1 / YKI 3Intermediate
B2CEFR B2 / YKI 4Upper Intermediate

The Finnish National Agency for Education publishes YKI grades 1 to 6 as corresponding to CEFR A1 to C2. The YKI test has no grade below 1, so A0 is shown as Pre-A1. The column is a rough guide to reading level, not an official equivalence for Stichos texts.

Reference corpora

Finnish word-frequency work counts base forms (lemmas), because case endings, possessive suffixes and clitics give one word many written forms.1

  • A Frequency Dictionary of Finnish: Pauli Saukkonen and colleagues (Suomen kielen taajuussanasto, 1979) list about 10,000 of the most common Finnish words, alphabetically and by frequency, drawn from 1960s fiction and non-fiction, 1967 newspapers and magazines, and 1968–69 radio programmes. In every text type the three most frequent words are olla, ja and se.1
  • The Language Bank of Finland: Kielipankki, coordinated by the FIN-CLARIN consortium of Finnish universities and research organisations with CSC, offers text and speech corpora with search and analysis tools, free for researchers and students.2
  • Register: Stichos writes Finnish readers in standard written Finnish (kirjakieli) at every level rather than colloquial spoken Finnish (puhekieli), and uses informal address (sinuttelu) unless a formal exchange is intended.
  1. https://kotus.fi/sanakirjat/muita-sanakirjoja/taajuussanakirjat/
  2. https://www.kielipankki.fi/language-bank/

Readability design principles

Finnish readability work runs from an early doctoral study of magazine articles to a national checklist for Easy Finnish.1,2

  • Wiio’s formulas: Osmo A. Wiio’s 1968 University of Tampere doctoral study, Readability, Comprehension and Readership, tested readability measures on Finnish magazine articles and related them to readership.2
  • Easy Finnish Indicator: The Finnish Centre for Easy Language (Selkokeskus) scores whether a factual text qualifies as Easy Finnish (selkokieli). Version 2.0 (2022) has 96 criteria in four groups: the text as a whole, words, language structures, and layout and illustrations.1
  • Stichos: Stichos sets difficulty with level-by-level grammar rules and sentence-length limits rather than a single readability score.
  1. https://selkokeskus.fi/in-english/easy-finnish/the-easy-finnish-indicator-2-0/
  2. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2262466W/Readability_comprehension_and_readership

Script & grammar scaffolding

  • Tenses and moods: A0 and A1 stay in the present (preesens), and plans are told in the present too (Huomenna tapaamme, “we’ll meet tomorrow”). A2 adds the past (imperfekti) and the perfect (perfekti). B1 brings the pluperfect, the conditional (konditionaali) and the passive. The potential mood (potentiaali) waits until C1.
  • The partitive: At every level the object of an ongoing action takes the partitive, as in Anna juo kahvia (“Anna drinks coffee”), and a number above one takes the partitive singular: kaksi omenaa (“two apples”).
  • Subjects: First- and second-person subjects may be dropped because the verb ending shows the person, but third-person subjects (hän, he, se, ne) are always written out.
  • Commands: At A0, commands appear only in fixed formulas such as Ole hyvä (“here you are”). A1 allows five informal ones: katso, tule, ota, odota and istu. The negative imperative arrives at A2.

Related academic & framework resources

Frequently Asked Questions

What is available to try right now?
You can try a free live story at the A0 or A1 level right on this page, complete with tap-to-translate words and line-by-line translations in your language. By joining the Reading List, you also receive 3 sample stories as a PDF without creating an account.
Which levels will be available when Educator Studio launches?
At launch, Educator Studio covers every level from A0 through B2, letting you choose topics and control grammar tenses to fit what your class has learned.
How do I share stories with my students?
At launch, you can share any story you generate by creating a web link, with no limit on how many share links you can make. You can also print reading sheets as PDFs with line-by-line translations and a full glossary.
Do my students need to create an account to read?
No, your students can open any shared story link directly in their browser without making an account. They are invited to create a free account if they want to save their words and stories, but it is never required.
How does audio pronunciation work for students?
At launch, students reading a shared story can tap any word to hear a standard computer voice pronounce it. If you add the Premium Audio add-on at launch, you get natural-sounding voices, full story narration with different voices for dialogue speakers, and MP3 exports.
Are the AI-generated stories fully accurate?
Stories are written by AI and automatically checked against the grammar and vocabulary rules of the selected level. Because the check is automated rather than done by a human editor, occasional slips can occur, so you should review each text before sharing it.
Can I use Finnish stories with students who do not speak English?
Yes, explanations and line-by-line translations can be set to any of Stichos's 40 supported languages. This allows your students to read using their own native language without needing English in between.
How should I handle the difference between written and spoken Finnish in early readings?
Finnish has roughly 5 million native speakers, and everyday spoken Finnish (puhekieli) differs noticeably from standard written forms, such as mä oon instead of minä olen. Introducing these spoken forms alongside written texts from A1 helps students recognize everyday speech early in their studies.

Learning Finnish yourself? Try the learner reader →

Free Language Reading Samples for Tutors · Stichos