Finnish keeps two registers further apart than English does: everyday spoken puhekieli and standard written yleiskieli differ not just in a few slang words but in pronouns, verb endings, and — the subject of this page — which discourse markers you are allowed to use. The same "connective" job can call for completely different words depending on whether you are chatting or composing an essay. This page draws the boundary for the whole marker group, sorting the words into three bins — spoken-only, written/formal, and both — so you never drop a filler into a cover letter or a stiff connector into a text message.
The key idea to hold onto: the split is register, not meaning. Most of these markers have a counterpart in the other register that does the same semantic job. "Then" is sit in speech, sitten in the neutral middle, and tämän jälkeen in formal prose — one meaning, three registers. Learning the mapping is what lets you shift gears cleanly.
Spoken-only: the fillers and clips
These belong to the mouth and never to standard writing. The pure hesitation fillers — tota ("um"), niinku ("like"), sillee ("sort of") — plus the chatty response particles and clipped forms — joo ("yeah"), sit ("then"), no ("well"), nonii / no niin ("okay then") — are all (spoken — puhekieli). The fillers get full treatment on tota, niinku, sillee.
No niin, siis mä niinku aattelin, että voitas mennä leffaan.
Okay so, like, I was thinking we could go to the movies. (spoken; aattelin = ajattelin, voitas = voitaisiin, leffa = elokuva)
Mä olin tota, vähän myöhässä.
I was, um, a bit late. (spoken — tota holds the floor; it has no place in writing)
Written/formal: the heavy connectors
The other extreme is a set of connectors that sound natural in essays, reports, news and official email but stiff and pompous in casual chat: kuitenkin ("however"), näin ollen ("thus, therefore"), siten ("thus, in that way"), and toisaalta ("on the other hand"). These are the backbone of written argument.
Suunnitelma oli hyvä. Aikataulu oli kuitenkin liian tiukka.
The plan was good. The schedule was, however, too tight. (neutral–formal)
Näin ollen voidaan todeta, että tulokset ovat luotettavia.
Thus it can be concluded that the results are reliable. (academic register)
Toisaalta se on kallis, toisaalta se kestää vuosia.
On the one hand it's expensive, on the other it lasts for years. (formal/neutral)
Hän perusteli väitteensä huolellisesti ja siten vakuutti kuulijat.
He argued his claim carefully and thus convinced the audience. (formal)
The straddlers: at home in both
A few markers cross the line comfortably. eli ("i.e., in other words") and nimittäin ("you see, namely") work in both speech and writing — eli is in fact the standard written way to say "i.e.", and nimittäin is welcome in a report. siis ("so, I mean") straddles too, though its exasperated Siis mitä?! is purely spoken. See siis and eli and nimittäin.
Kokous siirrettiin. Puheenjohtaja oli nimittäin estynyt.
The meeting was moved. The chair was, as it happens, unavailable. (nimittäin — fine in formal writing)
Hän on väitöskirjatutkija, eli tekee tohtorintutkintoa.
She's a doctoral researcher, i.e. doing a PhD. (eli works in speech and writing alike)
The register ladder: one meaning, three gears
Because the split is register rather than meaning, most spoken markers have a neutral and a formal counterpart. This is the table to internalise — read across each row and you see the same idea climbing from casual speech to formal prose.
| Spoken (puhekieli) | Neutral (yleiskieli) | Formal / written | Job |
|---|---|---|---|
| sit | sitten | tämän jälkeen, sen jälkeen | "then, next" |
| mut | mutta | kuitenkin | "but / however" |
| ja sit | ja sitten | minkä jälkeen, edelleen | "and then" |
| niinku | tavallaan | ikään kuin | hedge, "sort of / as if" |
| no / tota / öö | — | — | opener / filler (no written form) |
The same sentence, climbed up the ladder, shows the shift in action:
Mä kävin kaupassa, ja sit mä menin kotiin.
I went to the shop, and then I went home. (spoken)
Kävin kaupassa ja sitten menin kotiin.
I went to the shop and then went home. (neutral/standard)
Kävin kaupassa, minkä jälkeen palasin kotiin.
I went to the shop, after which I returned home. (formal/written)
Notice the bottom-left cell of the table: the pure fillers no, tota, öö have no written counterpart at all. You do not "translate" them into formal prose — you simply delete them and let the sentence stand. A filler marks hesitation, and hesitation has no place on the page.
Common Mistakes
❌ (in an essay) Mielestäni tämä tulos on niinku hyvä.
Wrong register — the filler niinku never belongs in writing.
✅ Mielestäni tämä tulos on hyvä.
In my opinion this result is good. (delete the filler in writing)
❌ (in a report) Tulokset kerättiin, ja sit ne analysoitiin.
Wrong — sit is a spoken clip; standard prose keeps sitten or uses minkä jälkeen.
✅ Tulokset kerättiin, minkä jälkeen ne analysoitiin.
The results were collected, after which they were analysed.
❌ (texting a friend) Näin ollen en valitettavasti pääse tulemaan.
Far too formal for a text — näin ollen is bookish and sounds absurd in a chat.
✅ Sori, mä en pääsekään tulee.
Sorry, turns out I can't come. (casual register for a casual channel)
❌ Näin olen voidaan todeta, että…
Meaning trap — näin olen means 'thus I am'; the connector 'therefore' is näin ollen (with double l, the instructive of olla).
✅ Näin ollen voidaan todeta, että…
Thus it can be concluded that… (näin ollen = 'therefore')
The mistake underneath all four is register mixing — reaching for the right meaning in the wrong gear. Before you use a marker, ask which channel you are in: a chat, an email, an essay. Casual speech wants no, tota, sit, mut, niinku; formal writing wants kuitenkin, näin ollen, toisaalta, minkä jälkeen; and a small honest middle (eli, nimittäin, siis) goes anywhere. For the broader picture of how the two registers differ, see the spoken Finnish overview.
Key Takeaways
- The marker inventory splits by register, not meaning: spoken-only, written/formal, and both.
- Spoken-only: tota, niinku, sillee, joo, sit, no, nonii — fillers and clips; keep them out of writing.
- Written/formal: kuitenkin, näin ollen, siten, toisaalta — the backbone of essays; stiff in chat.
- Both: eli, nimittäin, and mostly siis — the honest middle that goes anywhere.
- Learn the ladder: sit → sitten → tämän jälkeen; mut → mutta → kuitenkin. Same idea, three gears.
- Pure fillers (no, tota, öö) have no written counterpart — you delete them, you don't translate them.
Now practice Finnish
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Start learning Finnish→Related Topics
- Fillers: tota, niinku, silleeB1 — The spoken-only hesitation fillers — tota ('um'), niinku ('like'), sillee ('sort of') and öö ('uh') — how to use them naturally, and why they must never touch formal writing.
- Markers in StorytellingC1 — How discourse markers structure a spoken Finnish story: openers (no, no niin), sequencers (sitten, ja sitten, ensin), continuers (niin, ja), reformulators (siis, eli) and closers (no niin, ja sillä selvä) — with an annotated anecdote.
- Spoken Finnish (puhekieli): An OverviewA2 — Everyday spoken Finnish (puhekieli) differs systematically from the written standard (yleiskieli): reduced pronouns, se/ne for people, the passive as 'we', verb contractions and a clipped conditional — a rule-governed register, not sloppy speech.
- Standard Finnish (yleiskieli/kirjakieli)B1 — Yleiskieli is the neutral written and formal-spoken standard this whole guide teaches by default — full pronouns, complete agreement endings, hän/he for people, and full case and verb morphology — the counterpart to everyday puhekieli.
- Discourse Markers: An OverviewB1 — A map of the little Finnish words — no, niin, joo, siis, tota, niinku, kuitenkin — that organize conversation, sorted by function, with each marker deferred to its own page.