Learn Hardcore Finnish: Puhekieli on minusta helppo. - In my opinion spoken Finnish is easy.

minusta
- Very common, everyday, neutral.
- Literally “from me,” but in practice: “I think / in my opinion.”
- Puhekieli on minusta helppo.
minun mielestäni
- Slightly longer, a bit more explicit.
- Literally “in my opinion” (mieli = mind).
- Feels a little more careful or emphatic.
- Minun mielestäni puhekieli on helppo.
mielestäni
- Short, also very common; literally “in my mind/opinion.”
- Often used in writing or slightly more formal speech, but fine in everyday Finnish too.
- Mielestäni puhekieli on helppo.

In this sentence you could use any of them, with no real change in basic meaning:

Puhekieli on minusta helppo.
Puhekieli on minun mielestäni helppo.
Puhekieli on mielestäni helppo.

The difference is mainly style and emphasis, not grammar.

Can I say “Puhekieli on minulle helppo” instead of “minusta”? What’s the difference?

You can say “Puhekieli on minulle helppo”, and it’s grammatically correct, but the meaning shifts slightly:

minusta = “I think, in my opinion”
→ focuses on your judgment / opinion
minulle = “for me, to me” (allative case)
→ focuses more on your experience / personal ease or difficulty

So:

Puhekieli on minusta helppo.
≈ “In my opinion, colloquial Finnish is easy.” (a judgment)
Puhekieli on minulle helppo.
≈ “Colloquial Finnish is easy for me.” (for me personally, it’s not difficult)

In many contexts these overlap, but grammatically:

minusta = who holds the opinion
minulle = who experiences it as easy or difficult

Why is it helppo and not helppoa here?

The short answer: helppo is in the nominative because it’s a predicative adjective agreeing with the subject.

Structure:

Puhekieli (subject, nominative singular)
on
helppo (predicative adjective, nominative singular to agree with puhekieli)

When you have a simple “X is Y” sentence with a countable, specific thing as the subject, the predicative adjective is normally in nominative:

Auto on kallis. – The car is expensive.
Tämä kirja on hyvä. – This book is good.
Puhekieli on helppo. – Colloquial Finnish is easy.

Partitive helppoa can also appear in Finnish, but typically when:

the statement is about something non‑countable, partial, or ongoing, or
you’re expressing something like “it feels easy/difficult” (minulle on helppoa… type constructions), or
you’re “softening” the statement in colloquial speech.

So in this particular structure, helppo is the expected, “textbook” form.

Could I say “Puhekieli on minusta helppoa”?

In standard written Finnish, “Puhekieli on minusta helppoa” sounds unusual or wrong to most native speakers. The normal standard form is:

Puhekieli on minusta helppo.

However, in colloquial speech, people sometimes use partitive adjectives (helppoa) in ways that slightly differ from the strict standard rules, often to:

make the statement softer or less absolute, or
match a more “feeling-based” or “partial” idea.

You might hear something like:

Puhekieli on musta helppoo. (fully colloquial: musta for minusta, helppoo for helppoa)

But if you’re aiming for correct standard Finnish, you should use:

Puhekieli on minusta helppo.

Is the word order “Puhekieli on minusta helppo” fixed, or can it change?

The word order is flexible. All of these are possible:

Puhekieli on minusta helppo.
– Neutral: “Colloquial Finnish is, in my opinion, easy.”
Minusta puhekieli on helppo.
– Very common; slightly more emphasis on “minusta” (“I think …”).
Puhekieli on helppo minusta.
– Possible, but sounds a bit marked or poetic/expressive.

Finnish allows quite a lot of freedom in word order because grammatical roles are shown by endings, not position.
Word order mainly changes emphasis and information structure, not basic meaning.

If you’re unsure, “Minusta puhekieli on helppo” is a very natural everyday version.

Can I leave minusta out and just say “Puhekieli on helppo”?

Yes. That’s a perfectly correct sentence:

Puhekieli on helppo.
→ “Colloquial Finnish is easy.”

But the nuance changes:

With minusta (Puhekieli on minusta helppo):
→ It’s clearly your opinion. You’re not claiming this is an objective fact for everyone.
Without minusta (Puhekieli on helppo):
→ Sounds more like a general statement about colloquial Finnish. Depending on context, it can feel a bit absolute, as if you’re saying it’s just true that it’s easy.

In conversation, Finns often add minusta / mun mielestä etc. to “soften” statements and mark them clearly as personal opinions.

What exactly does puhekieli mean here? Is it just “spoken language”?

Puhekieli is more specific than just “spoken language”.

puhuttu kieli = literally “spoken language” (any language that is spoken rather than written)
puhekieli = the informal, colloquial variety of Finnish that people actually use in everyday speech

So in this sentence:

Puhekieli on minusta helppo.
→ “Colloquial Finnish is easy, in my opinion.”

It usually implies a contrast with kirjakieli (“standard written language”):

kirjakieli = formal, standard written Finnish (used in books, news, formal writing)
puhekieli = informal speech, contractions, slangy forms, dropped endings, etc.

So the sentence is really about colloquial Finnish vs. standard written Finnish, not “spoken languages” in general.

Why do we need on here? Can I say “Puhekieli minusta helppo”?

You must include on. The verb olla (“to be”) is normally required in present‑tense Finnish copula sentences.

Correct:

Puhekieli on minusta helppo. – “Colloquial Finnish is, in my opinion, easy.”

Incorrect:

✗ Puhekieli minusta helppo.

Finnish does allow dropping on in some very specific contexts (e.g. short answers, some existential sentences), but not in a normal full sentence like this. Think of on as necessary just like “is” in English.

Which word is the subject in this sentence, and which word describes it?

The subject is:

Puhekieli (“colloquial Finnish / spoken language” in the specific Finnish sense)

The word that describes the subject is:

helppo (“easy”) – a predicative adjective, which tells us a property of the subject.

So the basic core of the sentence is:

Puhekieli on helppo.
– “Colloquial Finnish is easy.”

Then minusta just adds “in my opinion.”

How would this sentence typically look in real colloquial Finnish?

In actual everyday puhekieli, Finns might say:

Puhekieli on musta helppoo.

Changes:

minusta → musta
- Unstressed ni drops: minusta → musta (very common spoken reduction)
helppo → helppoo
- Adjective in partitive form in speech; this is common in colloquial usage, even when standard grammar would use nominative.

So we have three styles:

Formal/standard:
Puhekieli on minusta helppo.
Neutral everyday (still standard enough):
Minusta puhekieli on helppo.
Informal spoken:
Puhekieli on musta helppoo.

They all express essentially the same idea; the difference is register (formality/colloquialness).