Finnish Language - sa国际传媒 /category/finnish-language/ Nordic translation specialists Thu, 06 Jul 2023 09:10:52 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 Swearing in the Nordic languages /swearing-in-the-nordic-languages/ Wed, 16 Jun 2021 12:40:10 +0000 /?p=32941 Warning: As you may expect, this article contains uncensored swearing which some readers may find offensive. Have you ever wondered if the people of the Nordic countries swear? Finland and Denmark take turns being the happiest country in the world, and Iceland, Norway and Sweden are not far behind on the same metric. So, do ...

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]]> Warning: As you may expect, this article contains uncensored swearing which some readers may find offensive.

Have you ever wondered if the people of the Nordic countries swear? Finland and Denmark take turns being the happiest country in the world, and Iceland, Norway and Sweden are not far behind on the same metric.

So, do Nordic people even have reason to curse? If you ask them, the answer would probably be: of course! Across the Nordic countries, swearing is a widespread practice, from teenagers to jaunty grandmothers. Even younger children are known to throw in a swearword once in a while (sometimes under their breath, depending on the proximity of their parents).

If you鈥檙e curious about this perhaps controversial language practice as performed in the Nordic countries, then this article is for you. Read on to get an idea of the nature of profanity in this part of the world, as well as specific examples of swearwords from each country.

So, hva faen are you waiting for? Have fun learning a bit about Nordic foul language!

The nature of Nordic swearing

As in other parts of the world, swearing in the Nordic countries is often done to let off steam. For instance, when you鈥檙e angry with someone, you want to express annoyance at something, or you seek to (mentally) relieve the pain of stubbing your toe (we鈥檝e all been there!).

Just like swearing in other languages, swearwords in the Nordic languages reference things that are taboo in the local culture. However, swearing in the Nordic countries does seem to differ from swearing in the UK or the US, for example, in two particular areas: the perceived offensiveness of swearing and the themes of the swearwords.

Perceived offensiveness of swearing in the Nordic countries

Studies on the perceived offensiveness of swearing in English-speaking countries as well as the Nordic countries have been conducted and compared. The results suggest that Nordic people swear more freely than their English-speaking counterparts.

In general, Nordic people have a laissez-faire attitude towards swearing, and to many, swearing is an integral part of their everyday language. Whilst many in the UK share the same attitude, Nordic people often go further, swearing in contexts even Brits would find unacceptable.

To many Nordic people, swearing is an integral part of everyday language.

This laid-back relationship with bad words is evident when watching TV for instance. Even when guests on Nordic TV shows are instructed not to swear while on air, some just can鈥檛 help doing so 鈥 and the swearwords themselves aren鈥檛 censored or bleeped out.

Although Nordic people tend to swear more freely, swearing is not considered good form. Given that swearing is a rather informal use of language, there are of course certain situations in which it would be inappropriate to do so.

At a job interview, for example, you鈥檇 probably be better off keeping the swearing to a minimum 鈥 or just refrain from doing it at all. That way you don鈥檛 risk coming across as unprofessional.

However, if your potential employer is blown away by your wit, skills and vision, you might just get the job anyway.

Themes of Nordic swearwords

Some of the themes present in English-language swearing also exist in the Nordic languages.

Religion as a theme, or the incorporation of God, the devil or hell when swearing, is a prime example of this. In Sweden, for instance, many people use the swear word fan, which literally means 鈥榯he devil鈥, as an exclamation for when something goes wrong.

You can also swear by 鈥榟ell鈥 in all five Nordic languages. In Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish, you would exclaim Helvetti!, 贬别濒惫铆迟颈!, Helvete! and Helvete!, respectively, whilst you would say For helvede! in Danish.

One theme that is not present in English-language swearing today is that of diseases. In Danish, this theme contains swearwords with reference to serious illnesses such as cancer.

Kraftedeme is an example of this as it is a contraction of Kr忙ften 忙de mig, which translates into 鈥榤ay cancer eat me鈥. This swearword acts as an oath: a curse that is used to strengthen a statement and underline the seriousness of the speaker. For example, Det er kraftedeme ikke i orden!, means 鈥楾his is not okay 鈥 may cancer eat me if it is okay!鈥.

Another theme that is exclusive to the Nordic languages as compared to English is numbers. In Sweden, you can exclaim Sjutton! or Attans! when something doesn鈥檛 go according to plan. Meaning 鈥榮eventeen鈥 and 鈥榚ighteen鈥 respectively, these words are technically classified as euphemisms in Swedish, which makes them very unloaded and safe to use in any situation.

Danish has a similar euphemism 鈥 For syv sytten!, literally meaning 鈥楩or seven seventeen!鈥 鈥 which is used in a similar way to its Swedish counterparts.

The influence of English on Nordic swearing

Like other societies, the Nordic countries are heavily influenced by American culture in the form of TV, films, music and, as a consequence of this, language use.

In Denmark, code-switching (the act of alternating between languages in the same conversation) is not unheard of, especially within the younger generations. The occasional 鈥榣iterally鈥, 鈥榟onestly鈥, 鈥榮orry鈥 or even typical English syntax often enter the conversation.

This English-inspired language use has also found its way into swearing across the Nordic languages.

The Nordic countries and their swearing are heavily influenced by American culture and English-language use.

Apart from swearwords originating from Nordic languages, the use of 鈥榝uck鈥 and 鈥榝ucking鈥 can be heard and seen in each of the Nordic countries 鈥 鈥榮hit鈥 has also been adopted by many Nordic people. Both four-letter words are used in much the same way as they are in the English-speaking countries, i.e. when something goes wrong.

In Danish, for instance, you could say Fuck, jeg har glemt mine n酶gler!, meaning 鈥楩uck, I forgot my keys!鈥. You could easily use 鈥榮hit鈥 instead of 鈥榝uck鈥 in this example 鈥 the swearwords are interchangeable in most situations.

Just like in English, the swearword 鈥榝ucking鈥 is used descriptively to emphasise a negative attitude the speaker has towards someone or something. In Danish, Han er en fucking idiot! means 鈥楬e is a fucking idiot!鈥.

The perceived offensiveness of English swearwords amongst Nordic people compared to Americans or Brits has been debated, as it seems that the aforementioned four-letter specimens don鈥檛 have the same impact when used in the Nordic countries.

It could be that the theme of sex is just not as taboo as in the English-speaking countries鈥 or maybe swearing in a foreign language doesn鈥檛 feel as bad as in your mother tongue.

In any case, 鈥榝uck鈥 and 鈥榮hit鈥 have become an integral part of the Nordic vocabulary of swearwords. So much so that certain countries have developed their own spellings of 鈥榝uck鈥 and 鈥榝ucking鈥. Icelanders, for instance, spell the words fokk and fokking, respectively, whilst the Norwegians often spell 鈥榝uck鈥 either fakk or 蹿酶办办.

Swearwords from each Nordic country

Are you curious to learn some bad language from each of the Nordic countries? Below is a list of the most common or remarkable swearwords from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Denmark

Swearword Literal meaning Description
Kraftedeme 鈥楳ay cancer eat me鈥 An oath used to underline a statement, e.g. Det er kraftedeme ikke i orden, meaning 鈥楾his is not fucking okay鈥. It鈥檚 one of the most loaded Danish swearwords.
Fanden 鈥楾he devil鈥 An exclamation with variations (for fanden). Fand(e)me is an example of fanden being used as an oath, meaning 鈥楳ay the devil eat me鈥.
Helvede 鈥楬别濒濒鈥 Exclamation with variations (for helvede). It can also be used to describe a situation: Det er et helvede means 鈥業t鈥檚 like hell鈥.
Lort 鈥楽丑颈迟鈥 An exclamation that can also be used to describe an object that the speaker dislikes, e.g. Jeg hader den lortetelefon, meaning 鈥業 hate that shitty telephone鈥.
Sgu 鈥楽o help me God鈥 An oath used to underline a statement, e.g. Det gik sgu godt, meaning 鈥楾hat went damn well鈥. Sgu is very mild, and it has been debated whether the word is still classified as a swearword.

Finland

Swearword Literal meaning Description
Perkele 鈥楾he devil鈥 An exclamation with variations: Voi perkele, meaning 鈥極h the devil鈥; and Perkeleen perkele, meaning 鈥楾he devil of the devil鈥. It鈥檚 used much like 鈥楪oddamnit鈥 in English.
Helvetti 鈥楬别濒濒鈥 An exclamation with variations: Voi helvetti, meaning 鈥極h hell鈥; and Helvetin helvetti, meaning 鈥楬ell of hell鈥. You can also say Helvetin kuustoista, meaning 鈥楬ell’s sixteen鈥.
Saatana 鈥楽补迟补苍鈥 Exclamation. Another version is Voi saatana, meaning 鈥極h satan鈥. You can say On t盲盲 saatanallinen t测枚maa, which literally means 鈥楾his is a satanic construction yard鈥, or more colloquially 鈥楾his is such a pain in the arse鈥.
Perse 鈥楢谤蝉别鈥 An exclamation with variations: Voi perse, meaning 鈥極h arse鈥, and Perseen perse, meaning 鈥楢rse of the arse鈥. You can also say Perseen suti, meaning 鈥楾he brush of the arse鈥 when something goes really wrong.
Paskiainen 鈥楽丑颈迟丑别补诲鈥 A form of name-calling used in the same way as 鈥楽on of a bitch鈥 in English. Another version is Senkin paskiainen, meaning 鈥榊ou shithead鈥.

Iceland

Swearword Literal meaning Description
Andskotans 鈥楾he devil鈥檚鈥 Used descriptively prefacing another swearword, e.g. andskotans fl贸n, meaning 鈥榯he devil鈥檚 idiot鈥. Another version is andskotinn sj谩lfur, meaning 鈥榯he devil himself鈥, which is used to describe a person.
顿箩枚蹿耻濒蝉颈苍蝉 鈥楾he devil鈥檚鈥 Used descriptively prefacing another swearword, e.g. dj枚fulsins gunga, meaning 鈥榯he devil鈥檚 coward鈥.
贬别濒惫铆迟颈 鈥楬别濒濒鈥 An exclamation that can be combined with other swearwords, such as fokking helv铆ti. Another version is the curse far冒u til helv铆tis, which means 鈥榞o to hell鈥.
Rassgat 鈥楢谤蝉别丑辞濒别鈥 Used in multiple curses, e.g. far冒u 铆 rassgat, which means something along the lines of 鈥榗rawl up your own arsehole鈥. Can also be used for expressing endearment. Hva冒 镁煤 ert miki冒 rassgat!, which means 鈥楢ren鈥檛 you a little arsehole!鈥, is perfectly fine to say to your lovely little niece or nephew, for example.
Haltu kjafti 鈥楬old your mouth鈥 Used in the same way as 鈥榮hut up鈥 in English. Haltu 谩 ketti literally means 鈥榟old the cat鈥, and is a euphemism for haltu kjafti.

Norway

Swearword Literal meaning Description
Faen 鈥楾he devil鈥 Exclamation. Fy faen is a stronger and very common version of the word.
闯忙惫别濒 鈥楾he devil鈥 A form of name-calling used in the same way as 鈥榊ou fucker鈥 in English. 闯忙惫濒补 is the adjective version, e.g. Din j忙vla idiot, which means 鈥榊ou devilish idiot鈥.
Drittsekk 鈥楽丑颈迟产补驳鈥 A very common form of name-calling that can be compared to 鈥榮cumbag鈥 in English.
Skitt 鈥楽丑颈迟鈥 An exclamation that is often used when faen is too loaded, for example when expressing indifference to a minor incident.
Fakk deg 鈥楩uck you鈥 An insult used in the same way as its English counterpart. It can also be used sarcastically/playfully. This is an example of how 鈥榝uck鈥 can be used with a Norwegian spelling.

Sweden

Swearword Literal meaning Description
Fan 鈥楾he devil鈥 A very common exclamation that has almost lost its offensiveness. It can also be used as Fy fan to show disgust.
Satan 鈥楽补迟补苍鈥 Exclamation. It鈥檚 also used with 辞肠办蝉氓 in the expression Satan 辞肠办蝉氓! in the same sense as 鈥楩uck!鈥.
闯盲惫濒补谤 鈥楧别惫颈濒颈蝉丑鈥 Very commonly used as an exclamation (闯盲惫濒补谤 辞肠办蝉氓!) and description (din j盲vla idiot, meaning 鈥榶ou devilish idiot鈥).
Helvete 鈥楬别濒濒鈥 Exclamation. Another version is the expression Helvete 辞肠办蝉氓!, which literally means 鈥楬ell also!鈥.
Attans 鈥楨颈驳丑迟别别苍鈥 An exclamation used much like 鈥楧amn!鈥. As a euphemism, it is not technically a swearword, and is very unloaded.

Now that you know more about the controversial linguistic practice of swearing in the Nordic languages, you鈥檒l be able to show off what you鈥檝e learnt. Nordic people tend to have a great sense of humour and they鈥檒l probably enjoy hearing a foreigner swear like a native!

Just remember to keep the swearing to informal situations 鈥 Sandberg takes no responsibility for any lost job opportunities due to foul language!

Christina Bjerggaard is a Danish translator at Sandberg. She wrote her master鈥檚 thesis on the translation of swearwords from English to Danish and, with her additional research for this article, is now our in-house profanity expert!

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]]> Waffling about the weather /waffling-about-the-weather/ Thu, 16 Jan 2020 15:48:54 +0000 /?p=22384 You鈥檒l have almost certainly heard the old falsehood that the Inuit have hundreds or perhaps even thousands of words for snow. This stems from a misunderstanding of the grammar of Eskimo languages such as Greenlandic and Inuktitut, which are based on agglutination, or the idea of sticking bits of words together. What this falsehood relies ...

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You鈥檒l have almost certainly heard the old falsehood that the . This stems from a misunderstanding of the grammar of Eskimo languages such as Greenlandic and Inuktitut, which are based on , or the idea of sticking bits of words together.

What this falsehood relies on is the idea that different cultures have different ways of expressing phenomena specific to their lived experience 鈥 it might be logical to many Europeans, for example, that the Inuit have developed a highly descriptive, nuanced vocabulary to describe the snowy environment in which they live.

In linguistics this is known as , or the Sapir鈥揥horf hypothesis, and is interpreted by many as 鈥測ou can鈥檛 understand something you don鈥檛 have the words to describe鈥. This overly literal interpretation is not generally accepted by linguists 鈥 but we鈥檙e getting bogged down in a discussion of theory here.

While linguistic relativity is a bit of a controversial subject, what we can say for certain is that different languages have evolved different ways of describing the weather, and that some languages offer more shades of nuance than others. In this article, we鈥檒l take a look at some of the more succinct and idiosyncratic weather words in a few Nordic languages.

Icelandic

The rich spectrum of weather words in Icelandic reflects the highly changeable and often dramatic weather conditions experienced on this North Atlantic island. Exposed as it is to chilly Arctic gusts and northerly breezes from the Mexican Gulf, conditions are often dramatic and are rarely stable for long.

In the depths of winter, you鈥檙e likely to experience or 鈥渄rift runner鈥, a kind of dry, drifting snow, along with a 蹿箩煤办 or , a particularly blustery, heavy snowstorm. A mere blizzard might be described as a . Once it鈥檚 hit the ground, you can describe it simply as , although you can opt for the more poetic or . As it starts to warm up, sleety snow falls as听 and, once on the ground,听 (also the word for a slushy ice drink). If you鈥檙e particularly unlucky, this will freeze into overnight: smooth, very slippery ice that鈥檚 almost impossible to walk on.

In spring and summer, you鈥檙e more likely to encounter a , or rain shower. A not uncommon occurrence is the , a sudden outburst of cold, rain and snow in what was otherwise a perfectly pleasant week of spring weather. Ever present in all seasons is the relentless , a strong, dry wind that upsets dustbins and tourists alike 鈥 and requires you moisturise constantly.

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Norwegian

Norway stretches across 24 degrees of latitude and faces out onto the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Its long coastline and rugged, mountainous terrain mean that the country is 惫忙谤产颈迟迟, or 鈥渨eather-bitten鈥, by a wide range of conditions, words for which are preserved in the many dialects of Norwegian.

滨苍听听so-called 鈥渄irty鈥 weather 鈥 i.e. when it鈥檚 cold and slightly wet and windy 鈥 is described as 驳苍忙蝉颈. 滨苍听听in southeastern Norway, if it鈥檚 snowy and blustery outside and you鈥檙e best off staying indoors, then you鈥檙e experiencing 产耻惫忙谤 or 鈥渟hack weather鈥 (this is similar to the Icelandic听听or 鈥渨indow weather鈥, i.e. weather that鈥檚 best enjoyed on the inside of a window). 滨苍听, a snowstorm is known as 诲谤别惫惫忙谤 or 鈥渄riving weather鈥, referring to the motion of the snow (compare Icelandic 诲谤铆蹿补). In standard Norwegian, this might be known as a 蝉苍酶蹿辞办办 or 鈥渟now blow鈥, fokk coming from the verb fyke 鈥渢o drift, blow鈥.

Continuing the snowy theme, in听听in the south, fine-grained snow is known as fygl. Up in Rana in the north of the country, slushy snow is known as 蝉酶谤辫补. In the west, snow that doesn鈥檛 settle is called 迟辞谤谤办箩酶惫颈苍驳.听In northern , there鈥檚 even a specific verb for sinking into 鈥渞otten鈥 snow, such as that which forms underneath a tree in late winter: vadetruge. Then there鈥檚 perhaps the funnest of all: kram. This is snow that鈥檚 easy to pack together and is perfect for building snowmen or making snowballs.

There are also dozens of words for icy or slippery conditions, including 丑氓濒办别 or 丑酶濒办别 (compare Icelandic 丑谩濒办补),听蹿耻产补濒濒蹿酶谤别, 驳濒补谤丑氓濒办补, glerunden, hault, h氓lt, klakkf酶re and speilblankt. A particularly interesting example is 蝉惫颈办丑氓濒迟, or 鈥渄eceptively slippery鈥, which refers to invisible ice such as black ice.

A final favourite of one of our in-house Norwegian translators is 听or the 鈥渃ake thaw鈥. This refers to a period of mild weather around Christmas, which folk belief credits to the increased use of ovens during that time for all the Christmas baking.

In the case of Norwegian, it should be noted that the abundance of weather-related words has more to do with the relative lack of standardisation in the language and acceptance of dialectal variations rather than a vocabulary that concisely expresses subtle differences between types of snow, for example.

Finnish

Most parts of Finland experience heavy snowfall in the winter due to its continental location. Straightforward snow is called, quite simply, lumi. However, big, fluffy snowflakes are not an uncommon occurrence. There are a few different words for these, all metaphorical, such as 迟颈蝉办颈谤盲迟颈迟 鈥渄颈蝉丑肠濒辞迟丑蝉鈥, karvalakit 鈥渇ur hats鈥 and vaipat 鈥渘appies鈥. Finnish also has its equivalent of the Norwegian kram 鈥 that perfect builder鈥檚 snow 鈥 or nuoska.

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We鈥檝e seen that although we can count many words relating to the weather in the languages we鈥檝e looked at, it鈥檚 not the case that they all pertain to unique conditions that English lacks the words to describe. What we can say, however, is that many of them nail a precise meaning in a concise way, whereas we might simply need a few more words to get the same meaning across.

This boils down to the essence of translation: the meanings of words across languages don鈥檛 always correspond 1:1 and often terms overlap awkwardly. Which for us linguists is a good thing, as it shows precisely why we鈥檙e needed.

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]]> Looking in on Finland /looking-in-on-finland/ Tue, 11 Sep 2018 19:54:45 +0000 /?p=16297 A brief visit to my native Finland last week included a day at #KIELI2018, the annual conference of Finnish Language Service Providers (SKY). It was my pleasure to contribute as a speaker, but I was also interested in hearing about the challenges and opportunities of Finnish language companies. The event brought together 90 translation and ...

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]]> A brief visit to my native Finland last week included a day at #KIELI2018, the annual conference of Finnish Language Service Providers (SKY). It was my pleasure to contribute as a speaker, but I was also interested in hearing about the challenges and opportunities of Finnish language companies.

The event brought together 90 translation and interpreting professionals from Finnish companies, peer organisations and academic translator training programmes. Since most of the speakers used English, this national conference was also attended by half a dozen translation industry representatives from neighbouring countries.

Keynote speaker Konstantin Dranch from Nimdzi Insights presented a report on the Finnish language services market. As a market research and consultancy organisation, Nimdzi believes that many of the translation industry鈥檚 challenges stem from the fact that not everybody has access to the same quality and quantity of information. We all require better insight into this industry 鈥 and that is exactly where Konstantin comes in.

Nimdzi estimates the addressable LSP opportunity in the Finnish market to be EUR 120鈥170 million, allowing for around EUR 50 million for work that is duplicated in the supply chain. It is a sizeable opportunity 鈥 half of what is spent on outsourced language services in Russia and a quarter of what is spent in France. Not bad, considering the population of Finland is less than 10 per cent of those countries. Even local regional comparisons favour Finland. The Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) combined have a similar population and foreign trade volume as Finland, but the Finnish translation market is nearly twice the size of theirs.

There are over 1,300 registered language service providers in Finland, but the top 50 control 62 per cent of the revenue. We heard brief status updates from five domestic players. Lingsoft is investing in AI and capitalising on the business opportunities it creates. AAC Global discussed the impact of large multinational MLVs operating in the Finnish market and competing with local service providers. Delingua reported that with their translation business in good order, they will now switch their focus to interpreting. Transfluent continues to work skilfully with investors, seemingly burning their money but definitely not wasting it, as they put it. Semantix wants LSPs to climb up the value chain and come to clients鈥 attention much earlier in the global communication process.

Everyone agreed that public sector procurement has a major impact on the market in Finland, contributing at least 40 per cent of the total opportunity. And if upcoming tenders put huge price pressure on providers, this will not only end up affecting professionals in the translation and interpreting industry, but also end users of the services covered by these public contracts.

The Global Gender Gap report by the World Economic Forum ranks Finland as the third most gender-equal country in the world after Iceland and Norway. Though Finnish law requires equal pay for equal work, the Statistics Finland figures show that in this land of gender equality, women still receive 83 cents for euro received by men. It was therefore good to hear Nimdzi report that the monthly pay gap for linguists in the private sector in Finland is only 7 per cent. The world-wide language services gender pay gap reported by Common Sense Advisory in 2017 was 19 per cent.

SKY did well in extending their event invitation to freelance translators and academic partners. This kind of inclusive approach is worth exploring further in the coming years. The Finnish translation and interpreting community is relatively small 鈥 I was delighted to meet an ex-colleague I had not seen in 20 years 鈥 and will certainly stand behind any effort to raise the profile of their important work.

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]]> 5 facts about the Finnish language /5-facts-about-the-finnish-language/ Wed, 11 Jul 2018 09:42:26 +0000 /?p=11851 The Finnish language has a reputation for being, shall we say, challenging for foreigners to learn (some would claim impossible). Yet those who defy this reputation and decide to study Finnish soon discover its beautiful and harmonic qualities 鈥 and the logic in its sometimes complicated grammar. Many people assume that Finnish is closely related ...

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The Finnish language has a reputation for being, shall we say, challenging for foreigners to learn (some would claim impossible). Yet those who defy this reputation and decide to study Finnish soon discover its beautiful and harmonic qualities 鈥 and the logic in its sometimes complicated grammar.

Many people assume that Finnish is closely related to either Swedish or Russian, as Sweden and Russia are both important neighbouring countries. However, that is not the case. Swedish and Russian are both Indo-European languages, whereas Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family of languages.

The Finno-Ugric language family also includes Estonian, S谩mi and Hungarian 鈥 not to mention a number of languages spoken in the Russian Federation, like Karelian and Mari.

There are approximately five million people who speak Finnish. Most Finnish speakers live in Finland, though some live in Sweden, Estonia, Norway, Russia and North America.

Finnish is one of the two official languages in Finland (the other being Swedish) and one of the official languages of the European Union. It also has minority language status in Sweden.

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1. Finnish is gender neutral

Finnish does not have grammatical gender, like some European languages, so there鈥檚 no need to remember whether table is masculine or feminine, for example.

In addition to this, there鈥檚 no need to create a separate gender-neutral pronoun in Finnish 鈥 since it already exists. What鈥檚 more, it鈥檚 the only option: in Finnish the third person singular pronoun (usually he or she in English) is 丑盲苍 and can be used to refer to a person of any gender. None of the other pronouns are gender-specific either 鈥 at least in this respect, Finnish learners have it easy!

2. There is no future tense in Finnish

The future tense does not exist in Finnish; you just use the present tense. This is a lot more practical than it might sound: if there鈥檚 any chance of confusion, you simply add words like varmaan (鈥減robably鈥) or kohta (鈥渟辞辞苍鈥), huomenna (鈥渢omorrow鈥) or kun leh尘盲t lent盲v盲t (鈥渨hen cows fly鈥 鈥 Finnish goes for cows over pigs in this case) to specify that the action is (or is not) happening in the future. Or you can use a verb like aikoa (鈥渢o intend鈥) if you want to be crystal clear.

3. East versus West

Finnish has several mutually intelligible dialects that are broadly divided into two groups: Western and Eastern. The dialects differ in vocabulary and intonation, but there are some differences in the grammar and morphology, too.

One thing that a Finnish learner will notice quickly is the fact that different dialects have different pronouns: 鈥淚鈥 can be 尘盲 (Helsinki), 尘盲盲 (Tampere), 尘苍盲盲 (Rauma), mie (Kuopio) or 尘颈盲 (Kotka) 鈥 and in standard Finnish, it鈥檚 尘颈苍盲.

4. Finnish is pronounced like it鈥檚 written

Finnish has very regular pronunciation; usually, there is almost 100% correspondence between letters and sounds. However, some sounds are difficult for Finnish learners to pronounce. When learning the Finnish language, these are a few things you need to know about letters and sounds:

  • Finnish has eight vowels: a, o, u, e, i, 盲, 枚 and y.
  • Vowels are pronounced as written, as are most consonants.
  • Words are always stressed on the first syllable. However, the stress does not make the syllable long.
  • Vowels and consonants can be short (written with one letter) or long (written with two letters). The length of a consonant or a vowel may be change the meaning of the word. For example, lakki (鈥渃ap鈥) has a long k and laki (鈥渓aw鈥) has a short one.
  • Like other Finno-Ugric languages, Finnish has vowel harmony (you cannot have back and front vowels in the same word).

5. Finnish has 18 diphthongs

Finnish has a great many diphthongs or gliding vowels (two adjacent vowels in the same syllable). Some of these are fairly common in other languages, like ai in aika (鈥渢ime鈥) or oi in poika (鈥渂oy鈥), others may initially feel like a punishment for deciding to learn such a peculiar language, like 盲测 [忙丧] in t盲测si (鈥渇ull鈥) or 测枚 [y酶摊] in s测枚d盲 (鈥渢o eat鈥).

One example of a Finnish diphthong is in the name of the language itself: suomi (鈥淔innish鈥). Another one is in the one word of Finnish you already definitely know: sauna. You just need to pronounce it with a Finnish accent: /’s蓱un蓱/.

Nordic dialect map

Learn about the languages and dialects of the entire Nordic region with our interactive map.

Nordic dialect map

Learn about the languages and dialects of the entire Nordic region with our interactive map.

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