Here is my collection of "rektio" in Finnish (i.e. the correct forms needed depending on the verb / the meaning wanted).
Often people look for the most efficient or effective way to study a language - and a common solution is to learn the most frequently used words first (which of course, I do recommend). I wanted to add to that a few more comments and specific things to prioritise and learn relatively early on.
1. Numbers, Times and dates
I think everyone knows to learn numbers first, but maybe times and dates don't get prioritised. Make sure to learn how to say and especially understand dates and times. This is very important if you intend to make phone calls in Finnish (for example if you intend to call the hairdresser or doctor yourself and schedule the appointment).
I could already speak Finnish well and have quite complicated conversations, before I was able to make a phone call and schedule an appointment, because I could not understand times, days and even just numbers. This is ESPECIALLY tricky in Finnish because numbers, times and dates are still conjugated into the various different forms. If you want to say "19th July 2019" in Finnish you could say...
yhdeksästoista heinäkuuta kaksituhattayhdeksäntoista
mutta you may equally hear on the phone
yhdeksästoista seitsematta kaksituhattayhdeksäntoista
This is obviously because heinäkuu (July) is the seventh month (= seitsematta), mutta it's very easy to get tripped up if you've never heard this form because and the person the phone uses it.
After debating for a long time as to why numbers, dates and times were SO hard.... I eventually realised the reason was when I read in Finnish I naturally read the number in English (cleverly avoiding learning these at all). The only way to go is to write out how to say numbers to start to learn them, such as
10 – 50 (kymmenen viiva viisikymmentä) millisekuntia
Käytettiin 1,5 (yhden ja puolen) metrin korkeutta
80 (kahdeksankymmentä)-luvun lopulla
He täyttivät kyselyn 9 (kahdeksasta) koulusta
It may look stupid, but if you stop and read aloud what is in the brackets, you slowly start to learn how to say numbers in different forms.
2. Key phrases you need in every day life
I think on the hilarious things about learning language at language classes is how you end up learning words like "kuivaushuone" (drying room) and "heijastin" (reflector) before you can have anything remotely resembling a conversation. This doesn't really matter because you will need to learn kuivaushuone and heijastin at some point anyway, but for your own mental health it feels nicer to be able to make genuine small talk with other humans (and just say reflector in English when you need that word).
Here are some example of those kind of phrases [the spoken version in brackets]:
Miten menee? = How's it going? {Correct answer: "Hyvin menee." or "Minulla menee hyvin."}
Mitä kuuluu? = How are you? {Correct answer: " Hyvää" or "Hyvää minulle kuuluu."}
Minusta tuntuu... [Musta tuntuu] = I feel...
Ilman muuta. = Definitely. / Without a doubt.
Kannattaa. = You totally should (i.e. it'd be good to do).
Käykö sinulle? [Käykö sulle?] = Does it work for you?
Meni vähän överiksi [Meni vähän överiks] = It went a bit overboard.
Onko kaikki hyvin? [Onks kaikki hyvin?] = Is everything okay?
En ole varma. [En oo varma.] - I'm not sure.
Voisitko toistaa? - Could you repeat?
Minusta... = In my opinion
Minun mielestäni [Mun mielestäni] = In my opinion
En voi sanoa. - I can't say.
Vaikeaa sanoa. - Hard to say.
En minä tiedä. [En mä tiiä.] = I don't know. (By saying 'minä', it's like: I don't know)
Ehdottomasti [Ehottomasti]. = Absolutely.
Nimenomaan. = Precisely.
Täytyy mennä. = Gotta go.
Minun pitäisi mennä. [Mun pitäisi mennä.] - I better go.
Olen samaa mieltä. = I agree. (I am of the same opinion).
Hyvin tehty. = Well done.
Huomiseen. = Until tomorrow.
Tosi outoa. = Very weird.
Niin noloa. = So embarrassing.
Kamala! = Horrible!
Kuulostaa kivalta / kamalta / hyvältä. = Sounds nice / horrible / good.
Otetaanko puhelu? = Should we call?
Mene pois. = Go away.
Tule tanne. / Tulkaa tanne. = Come here.
Tämä on hätätilanne. = This is an emergency.
Ole kiltisti [Oo kiltisti] = Be nice/good. Play nicely.
Ole hyvä. = You're welcome.
Voi voi. = Oh dear.
Voi harmi. = Oh, that's a pity.
Älä viitsi. - Come on.
3. How to pronounce English (and other language) loanwords in Finnish
When I started learning Finnish I had the very naive idea that I didn't need to study words that come from English into Finnish, because I would just naturally know what they mean. This is occasionally true, but definitely not that whole story - because 1) the pronunciation is different and if you are like me you'll have to practice to get rid of the English pronunciation and 2) the meaning can also be different.
For example "tyyppi" mean something like "kaveri" (friend) or "ihminen" (human), not so much "'type" as you would assume from English. It's common to hear: "Joo hän on kiva tyyppi" (Yeah he's a nice guy).
Also don't forget very basic word will usually pronounce in the Finnish way, such as: delete --> de-le-te
This may just be for me, but some words I tend to pronounce incorrectly (i.e. as if they were in English) are:
projekti - project
korreloida - to correlate
musiikki (note two i's and one u) - music
muusikko (note two u's and one i) - musician
To comfort you here I will also note that Finns don't necessary like to pronounce these kind of words either, at least from what I've heard Finns have trouble with "foreign" sounds: d, g, b, z
This makes these kind of words harder for them....
olympialaiset
budjetti
absurdi
absorboida
modernisoida
rekrytoida
