Script guide › Latin
Estonian vs Finnish
Estonian and Finnish sit in the same corner of the writing-system map — Grafle's Latin group — and players mix them up constantly. Here's the fastest way to tell them apart.
The tell
Estonian's õ (tilde-o) is the tell — Finnish never uses it. Finnish words run longer with more doubled letters.
Side by side
Estonian
Kõik inimesed sünnivad vabadena ja võrdsetena.
Tere hommikust! Kõik on hästi, aitäh.
Kes teeb, see jõuab.
Estonian's own tells
- Looks Finnish, but õ (tilde-o) is the Estonian tell — Finnish never uses it.
On signs in:
- Estonia
Finnish
Kaikki ihmiset syntyvät vapaina ja tasavertaisina.
Hyvää huomenta, kuinka voit?
Ei kukaan ole seppä syntyessään.
Finnish's own tells
- Long words full of doubled letters (kk, pp, ää) and lots of ä.
- Almost never uses b, c, f or x — and no õ (that's Estonian).
On signs in:
- Finland