Aakkoset

Aakkoset is the Finnish term for the alphabet, the set of letters used to write a language. In common usage it refers to the Finnish alphabet, a 29-letter Latin-based system used in Finnish orthography.

The Finnish alphabet consists of the letters A–Z plus three additional characters: Å, Ä, and Ö. The standard order is A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö. In practice, the core letters for native Finnish words are A–Z, with Ä and Ö as distinct vowels; Å occurs mainly in Swedish loanwords and personal names. The letters Q, W, X, and Z are relatively rare in native vocabulary and appear mainly in foreign terms and proper names.

Aakkoset serve as the fundamental building blocks of written Finnish, enabling a one-to-one or near-phonemic correspondence between sounds and letters in many contexts. The alphabet underpins spelling conventions, such as vowel harmony and inflection endings, and governs word formation, pronunciation guides, and dictionary organization. In daily use, the letters are taught to children as the first step in literacy, and they remain essential in education, publishing, and digital text processing.

In modern use, the Finnish alphabet is encoded in standard character sets (such as Unicode) to support correct representation of ä, ö, and å in software, keyboards, and online communication.