Finnish has grammatically nothing at all in common with other Scandinavian languages, or Russian (see also http://wikitravel.org/en/Finnish_phrasebook )
The basic Finnish alphabet consists of the following letters:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v y z ä ö
Additionally the letters š and ž appear in a small number of words borrowed from other languages š is pronounced like English sh and ž is pronounced like English s in treasure
The letter w also occurs infrequently in some proper names and is treated identically to v.
All vowels are single sounds (or "pure" vowels). Doubled letters are simply pronounced longer Word stress is always on the first syllable, the rest is just long strings of fairly monotone sounds
