One interesting thing about Finnish is the names of the months. Contrary to almost any other European language they are not related to the old Roman calendar, but instead use old terms, describing the farming year in Finland.
❄️ Tammikuu (Core Moon) - January: Tammi means oak, but in some dialects also means heart or core, which is the root of this name. This is the middle – or core – of winter in Finland.
Helmikuu (Pearl Moon) - February: Helmi means pearl, and the name comes from icy pearls frozen to twigs and branches you can often see glinting in the sunlight in this month.
Maaliskuu (Ground Moon) - March: Maa is the ground, maallinen means earthy. This is the month where normally snow melts for the first time, and the bare ground with no vegetation on it yet is visible.
Huhtikuu (Clearing Moon) - April: Huhta is cleared woodland. In this month, woodland was burned and cleared to make space for new fields.
Toukokuu (Planting Moon) - May: Touko is the seed and planting time, which obviously happens in May.
Kesäkuu (Summer Moon) - June: Kesä means summer, June is the first month of summer in Finland, and also the midsummer month. Therefore, it is more likely, that this name comes from “kesanto”, which is fallow ground. In June, fallow fields are ploughed for the first time.
Heinäkuu (Hay Moon) - July: Heinä is hay, and July is the month when the hay is cut and brought in.
Elokuu (Harvest Moon) - August: Elo means life, but is also an old word for crop, and this is the harvest month.
Syyskuu (Autumn Moon) - September: Syys is a poetic word for autumn, and this is the first month of autumn.
Lokakuu (Mud Moon) - October: Loka means mud – in October it rains and snows a lot, creating muddy ground.
Marraskuu (Death Moon) - November: Marras is an archaic word for dead (we can even find a connection to Latin here: mors!) or the soul of a dead person. Obviously, nothing grows in November, the trees are bare, plants have died down.
Joulukuu (Yule Moon) - December: Joulu now is Christmas, but goes back much further than that, to the pre-Christian Yule feast. In Finland, the feast was not renamed to a more “Christian” sounding name, but instead one feast has just replaced the other without a name change.
There are two kinds of objects in Finnish, partitiiviobjektitandtotaaliobjektit
partitive objects occur if the sentence is negative, irresultative, after numbers other than 1, if the word is an ainesana or if you are talking about an undecided amount of something they are, as the name says, in partitive (either singular or plural)
totaaliobjektit occur if you are talking about a specific thing rather than the thing in general (luen kirjettä vs luen kirjeen - i read any letter vs i read the letter (in one sitting)) totaaliobjektit can either look like the genetiivi yksikkö or like the nominatiivi monikko, and pronouns take a certain form if they are a totaaliobjekti (the akkusatiivi)
Some prepositions alwaystake the partitiivi following them. Some of them are
monta
pari
vähän
puoli
paljon
ennen
NOTE: The difference between monta and paljon is that paljon can occur with both ainesanat andother words, whereas monta can neveroccur with ainesanat. So you can say paljon ruokaa (ruoka = ainesana) and paljon omenoita, but you cannot say monta ruokaa, only monta omenaa, which is the same as paljon omenoita. So monta + partitive singular is the same as paljon + partitive plural
Ainesanat are, easily explained, words that cannot be counted or arent usually counted. My Finnish teacher called them substance words, because they describe a substance rather than the single parts of which said substance is made up of
examples would be hiekka (sand), ruoka (food), maito (milk), and also things like omena (apple).
the difference between, for example, paljon omenaa and paljon omenoita is that in the first sentence, you treat apple as a substance (eg. there is a lot of apple in the cake), and in the second you treat apples as countable pieces (eg. i have to buy a lot of apples)
some words are only ever ainesanat, whereas others can be both ainesanat and totaaliobjektit. generally, if you wouldn’t count the thing you are referring to you use partitive singular, as the word is an ainesana then
The partitive occurs after numbers (that arent 1), after negative sentences, after certain words, after so called ainesanat, if the amount is undeterminedand if an action is irresultative.
NOTE 2: The partitive can be formed with either the nominative form or the stemof the word, you have to learn it with each word
NOTE 3: There are some negative sentences which do nottake the partitive (words that don’t follow in partitive after possessive constructions: nälkä, jano, kiire, kuuma, kylmä, hiki, hyvä/huono olo)
Here the infinitive marker is -ta/-tä, if the vowel before the marker is an i. The t stays, but is followed by -se- and the personal ending.
häiritä
häiritsen - häiritsemme
häiritset - häiritsette
häiritsee - häiritsevät
tarvita
tarvitsen - tarvitsemme
tarvitset - tarvitsette
tarvitsee - tarvitsevat
lukita
lukitsen - lukitsemme
lukitset - lukitsette
lukitsee - lukitsevat
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
Here the infinitive marker is -ta/-tä, if the vowel in front is any vowel other than i. The t is removed, thus resulting in two vowels following after each other. The personal ending is added after both vowels
tavata
tapaan - tapaamme
tapaat - tapaatte
tapaa - tapaavat
juoruta
juoruan - juoruamme
juoruat - juoruatte
juoruaa - juoruavat
hypätä
hyppään - hyppäämme
hyppäät - hyppäätte
hyppää- hyppäävät
määrätä
määrään - määräämme
määräät- määräätte
määrää - hyppäävät
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
ends in KK+a/ä, K+a/ä is the infinitive marker, meaning that the first K belongs to the stem; to form the present tense, K+a/ä is removed and an e is added after the stem and then the personal endingfollows
mennä
menen - menemme
menet - menette
menee - menevät
kävellä
kävelen - kävelemme
kävelet - kävelette
kävelee - kävelevät
urheilla
urheilen - urheilemme
urheilet - urheilette
urheilee - urheilevat
purra
puren - puremme
puret - purette
puree - purevat
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
NOTE 2: K stands for consonant, thus KK stands for two of the same consonant following after each other
with tehdä/nähdä, which belong to verbityyppi 2, the forms are built slightly differently. for one, the h disappears, and for two, the 3rd ps. singular/plural are in strong form (seeastevaihtelu), and they dotake the -V ending. other than that, though, they are conjugated like the rest of group 2 verbs
tehdä
teen - teemme
teet - teette
tekee - tekevät
nähdä
näen - näemme
näet - näette
näkee - näkevät
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
ends in -da/-dä, which is the infinitive marker; the infinitive marker disappears and instead the personal ending is added (see here)
example:
syödä
syön - syömme
syöt - syötte
syö - syövät
löydä
löyn - löymme
löyt - löytte
löy - löyvät
saada
saan - saamme
saat - saatte
saa - saavat
voida
voin - voimme
voit - voitte
voi - voivat
NOTE:I am leaving out hän (3.ps. sg) and he (3.ps. pl) here, but in written/spoken Finnish there needs to be a subject going with the third person (both singular & plural)
NOTE 2: in this group of verbs, the ending -V is notadded to the 3rd ps. singular, except for in tehdäandnähdä, which are formed slightly differently than the rest (see here)
in Finnish, intonation doesn’t (necessarily) change when a sentence is a question from the way it is intonated when the sentence is a statement. Instead, Finnish has a small particle expressing uncertainty, a -ko/-kö suffix.
It is mainly used to mark a question as such,
(example: Voit auttaa minua - You can help me
Voitko auttaa minua - Can you help me?)
but can also be used to mark uncertainty in other sentences.
(example: Kysyin, voitko auttaa minua - I asked ifyou can help me; literally: I asked, can you help me?)
NOTEthat if a question is asked with -ko/-kö you do notneed the personal pronoun in the 3rd person singular/plural in the reply, eg. Voivatko he auttaa minua? Voivat.
BUT if a question word (1,2,3,4) is used you doneed the 3rd person pronoun, eg. Miten se tarkoittaa? Setarkoittaa x
Kumpi means which of both, and can be found in singular and plural. As with the other question words it can be declinated into almost all cases to fit the meaning of the sentence.
Kumpi - Kummat(Nominatiivi)
Kumman - Kumpien(Genetiivi)
Kumpaa - Kumpia(Partitiivi)
Kummassa - Kummissa (Inessiivi)
Kummasta - Kummista(Elatiivi)
Kumpaan - Kumpiin(Illatiivi)
Kummalla - Kummilla(Adessiivi)
Kummalta - Kummilta(Ablatiivi)
Kummalle - Kummille(Allatiivi)
Kumpana - Kumpina(Essiivi)
Kummaksi - Kummiksi(Translatiivi)
NOTE: I am not sure if there is also an Abessiivi or an Instruktiivi form of kumpi, please do tell!
NOTE 2: Kumpi shows the same flexion as the comparativeof adjectives!
NOTE 3: kumpi in singular is which of both when it is about singular concepts, and in plural forms when it is about concepts which include only two groups of things, but the group includes several. an example my finnish friend gave me:
kumpi hevonen? this- or this- as opposed to these- or these- - kummat hevoset?
In Finnish, we don’t “I’ll go out even if it rained cats and dogs”, we rarely use the old saying “Menen ulos vaikka sataisi ämmiä äkeet selässä” which literally means “I’ll go out even if it rained bitches/hags with harrows on their backs”.
Yes, it does sound like salmon snake to a modern speaker, but etymologically it’s something completely different: it’s an old loan from Old Swedish, floghdrake, that means a flying snake. Finns couldn’t pronounce the many consonants at the beginning of the word, so it changed in their mouths into lohi that sounds quite similar and happens to mean salmon. Käärme is a direct translation of the word drake, snake.
I’ve made a couple of posts about this, and will continue to do so as long as I see these translations going around. This is why language is so interesting.
We Finns have such a natural and healthy attitude towards our sexuality.
Häpeä = Shame
Hävetä = To be ashamed
Häpy = Vulva
Häpykumpu = Mons veneris
Häpy- = (as a prefix) Pubic
Häpykarvoitus = Pubic hair
So it actually sounds very much like mons veneris is “shame hill”, and häpykarvoitus is “shame hair” covering the genitals.
In old, biblical language “häpy” is used to describe genital area on both women and men. Usually the reason for mentioning häpy, is that the häpy should be covered somehow, or the people were ashamed, because their häpy was showing.
When used today in a sentence (and it is, every now and then), the word “häpy” gives the expression that the speaker thinks that more describing words for genital area would be vulgar in the context. And that actually the person using the word “häpy” has such high moral and decency, that he/she was actually not looking right at the shameful area, so the whole issue of genitals is only pointed at in a very, very vague manner.
“Hänellä ei ole mitään häpyä” = “He/she is has no shame whatsoever” (but the actual word here is vulva, or maybe genital area in general). This is a bit hazy for me, but seems to prove the point that genitals and shame go hand in hand in our language. Perhaps the phrase means, that one has no pubic hair whatsoever to cover the indecency of the genitals. This phrase is used when someone is outrageous and insensitive towards other people, usually when someone is greedy, not humble enough or just impolite. It rarely has anything to do with sexuality, but it expresses a very strong negative opinion on someones behavior.
Do you know Monty Python’s The Knights Who Say Ni?
Did you know that when you end your phase with “Ni!” or “Nih!” in Finnish you basically say “I do what I want and I really don’t care about your opinion” eg
“This is my day, I can wear whatever I want! Nih!” - Antti Tuisku
![IN [LANGUAGE] WE DON'T SAY ...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/avatar_84ac7e4b41dc_30.png){kind=avatar}
