An adverb is part of speech that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs usually answer such questions as “How?” “Where?” “When?” or “To what degree?”

We can divide the Finnish adverbs in four groups: 1) -sti expresses the manner in which something is done. You can create it by adding the ending -sti to the stem of most adjectives.

fast, quickly nopea > nopea- > nopeasti

slowly hidas > hitaa- > hitaasti

beautifully kaunis > kaunii- > kauniisti

precisely, exactly tarkka > tarka- > tarkasti

usually, ordinarily tavallinen > tavallise- > tavallisesti

But there are a few common adverbs marked with -in

good > well hyvä > hyvin

right, correct > correctly oikea > oikein

wrong > wrongly, incorrectly väärä > väärin

2) The second group of adverbs tells where something is done and therefore follows the entering, residing, and exiting forms of locative cases.

Residing Entering Exiting

below alhaalla alhaalle alhaalta

up ylhäällä ylhäälle ylhäältä

in front of edessä eteen edestä

far away kaukana kauas kaukaa

on the right oikealla oikealle oikealta

on the left vasemmalla vasemmalle vasemmalta

outdoors, outside ulkona ulos ulkoa

away, absent poissa pois -

3) The third group of adverbs tells us the time when something is happening and they do not inflect.

early aikaisin

late myöhään

now nyt

always aina

often, frequently usein

seldom, rarely harvoin

sometimes joskus

once kerran

eilen yesterday

today tänään

tomorrow huomenna

at once heti

soon pian

soon, in a moment kohta