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As in any language, the spoken version(s) of Finnish vary, sometimes markedly, from the written form. Some of these variations are due to speakers' inexactitude, but some aspects of spoken Finnish have different grammatical properties from written Finnish. There are also a number of grammatical forms which are used in written Finnish, but only very rarely in spoken. For example, there are a number of constructions using participles which are usually rendered analytically in speech.
Since the stress in Finnish always falls on the first syllable of the word, the ends of words greater than one syllable tend to erode. This is frequently by the loss of a final vowel, or assimilation of a final vowel with a preceding vowel:
The personal pronouns 'minä' and 'sinä' are shortened in informal speech:
Poems and some old texts also use 'mä' & 'sä'.
The third person pronouns 'hän', 'he' are commonly used in spoken language only in Southwestern Finland, and increasingly rarely also there. Elsewhere they are usually replaced by their non-personal equivalents - note that there is no pejorative sense in talking about people as 'it', unlike in English.
Numerals 1-10 in colloquial spoken Finnish:
Numbers 1-10 are not only used in counting, they also have their own names which can be different from the numerals used in counting. Numbers that have longer names are often shortened in speech. This may be problematic for foreigner to understand, if she/he has learned words by book:
As noted in the Finnish grammar page, the passive form is normally used in speech for first-person plural. This happens in all tenses, and also for the conditional:
'me olemme olleet lomalla' = 'we have been on holiday' -> 'me on oltu lomalla', 'me ollaan oltu lomalla'
In the latter case the 'me' is obligatory, whereas it is not in the 'proper' case since the verb's inflection indicates the person and number. However, 'ollaan oltu lomalla' may be used for example when being asked 'Where have you been?'='Missä te olette olleet?', yet this is very spoken language, and should not be used in written text.
The third-person singular form of the present tense is often used after 'ne' in place of the plural form. The full present-tense paradigm of 'puhua' = 'to speak' in everyday speech is:
In everyday speech, the '-ko/kö' suffix is reduced and, as subject pronouns usually immediately follow, they are ofted fused with the form:
'olenko minä hengissä?' = 'am I alive?' -> 'oonksmä hengissä?'
'puhutko sinä englantia?' = 'do you (sg.) speak English?' -> 'puhutsä englantii?' or 'puhuksä englantii?'
'tuliko hän jo?' = 'did he/she come yet?' -> 'tulikse jo?' (via 'tuliko se jo?')
'tekeekö Pekka jotain järkevääkin?' = 'does Pekka do something that makes sense, too?' -> 'tekeeks Pekka jotain järkevääki?'
'haluammeko me nyt lähteä?' = 'do we want to go now?' -> 'halutaanksme ny lähtee?' (via 'halutaanko me nyt lähteä?')
'odotatteko te tässä hetken?' = 'would you (pl.) wait here for a moment?' -> 'ootattekste täs hetken?'
'sanoivatko he jotain?' = 'did they say something?' -> 'sanoksne jotain?' (via 'sanoiko ne jotain?')
Note that all forms have the sound 's' between the '-ko/kö' suffix and the subject clitic. This has presumably spread from the singular second and third persons, where the clitics begin with an 's', cf. 'puhut(k)-sä' and 'tulik-se' above.