Due to the history of Finland and its neighbours, and the relatively small number of Finns, the term Finnish can cause confusion:

• It can indicate nationality of the Finns, usually acquired by birth in Finland
• It can indicate ethnicity, see Finnic, Ethnic Finn and Sweden-Finns
• It can also indicate citizenship of the Finns; or a similar belonging to the state of Finland
• It can indicate the mother tongue of a speaker, see Finnish language and Sweden-Finns (often in contrast to Finns speaking Swedish as their mother tongue, see Finland-Swedish and Finland's language strife)
• It can indicate the Finnish language itself, and often the closely related varieties spoken in Finland's neighbourhood, see Finno-Ugric languages: Veps, Izhorian, Ingrian, Karelian, Meänkieli