8 facts about Finnish language that blow my mind

After more than 10 months of learning, the struggle is still real! 😊

1. Hard to understand for the rest of the world. Finnish is part of the Finno-Ugric languages, which basically means that if a Finn talks, nobody in the world (and in other planets, too) would understand or at least catch some words! For this reason, when I started understanding and speaking a little bit, I suddenly felt like I was part of a privileged elite, The Finnish-Speakers 😂. When I went back to my home country last summer, I was so proud of showing my Finnish skills to my friends: I was sending voice messages to my Finnish friends just to catch Italians’ attention (I’m the worst, I know). And they were like “damn, you’re so good in Finnish” (disclaimer: the content of the voice message was something like “Hello, I am in the square”, literally four words).

2. Some words are too similar to each other. If you want to meet your Finnish friend, you’ll tell him “tapaan sinut”. With two A, because “tapan sinut” means that you’ll kill your friend. Not nice. Remember to pronounce double vowels, if you want to meet instead of kill someone!

3. Slang is widely used (and makes things even more difficult) Every language has its own slang words and expressions. However, spoken Finnish almost looks like a totally different language from written Finnish. At first, it’s just a big mess (at least has been for me, haha): why do you guys have to say “mul on” instead of “minulla on” [I have]? Are you lazy or something?! Well, it’s just something you get used to after some time.

4. There are more exceptions than actual rules (I guess?) I study the rules on the book. I do the exercises. I ask my teacher or my friends if I have any doubts. And soooo many times I’ve been told “oh, actually this word doesn’t follow the rule!”. Man, that’s frustrating!

5. Sometimes, however, it’s kind of easy. If you want to learn Finnish, don’t lose your hopes though! Let’s face it, there’s also some easy rules and easy words. For example, for words borrowed from English, you just have to add an -i at the end: this way, bus becomes bussi and melon becomes meloni. Easy, right?

6. There's no genders. During one of my first Finnish classes, while studying the pronouns, I discovered that hän means both he and she. I automatically asked my teacher if there’s a way to figure out if it’s referring to a woman or a man. Her answer was iconic: “Oh, simply you don’t. We support equality with our grammar, too!”. Being used to Italian and French language, where every single word is either masculine or feminine, having no genders was, linguistically speaking, kind of weird to me. However, it makes sense, it makes total sense.

7. Some words don’t even require a translation. Yesterday evening, a friend called me. At some point, we were talking about a nice bakery we’ve been to in France. And I realized I was craving a pulla. Finnish friends, how would you describe a pulla to a foreigner? It’s not a bun, it’s not a croissant, it’s a state of mind. Last week, I was translating a text and ran into the word tunturi. I checked the sanakirja [the dictionary], and it said “mountain”. I checked Google Translate, and it said “hill”. I asked some friends, and they said, “well yeah it’s kind of a hill but not a hill, something in between a hill and a mountain”. Turns out, tunturi is the “technical” name for a special kind of mountain in Lapland. I still have no idea about what a tunturi is exactly, hope to go soon to Lapland and figure out with my own eyes 😊 Oh, and another word without translation is sisu. Sisu, according to Wikipedia, is “a Finnish concept described as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience, and hardiness”. Strong feelings, eh? Can you even find an appropriate translation? I think it’s impossible. Finns are so proud of this word, and they carry with pride this quality. And I think it’s beautiful 💙 .

8. There’s no musicality, but there’s musicality. Okay, hard to explain this one. When I started speaking Finnish (just a little bit) with my friends, they were making fun of me because I was adding my Italian intonation to the language. They told me “forget about musicality: be more Finnish, be darker and deeper while talking!”. Despite missing musicality, I must say that Finnish language suits just perfectly in music; this remains for me one of the unsolved mysteries of suomenkieli [Finnish language].

“Isä, olen täällä maailman toisella puolen / Äiti, älä pelkää, kyllä pidän itsestä huolen, ja laulan” “Dad, I'm here on the other side of the world / Mom, don't be afraid, I'll take care of myself, singing” [Haloo Helsinki! - Maailman Toisella Puolen]

- Mike

PS: Hei Finns! We need your help!

As Christmas is finally getting closer, we are starting to plan the Christmas blog post for #allthewayupnorth. It would be great if you could help me and fill in this survey and forward it to your family and friends! Kiitos! Click here for the survey!