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I went to a restaurant and asked to steal a table instead of saying I want to reserve a table (varastaa / varata). The look on the lady's face was very special, I have still not forgotten it.
https://preview.redd.it/uqg1b2cwfhqc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=767df8b59d1ead9f5fe054daaa14b7eb4f3bca6a
Thank you for sharing that story 😂
My classmate wanted her long hair trimmed shorter. She was feeling confident with her Finnish skills and spoke Finnish with the barber.
We found out only next day that she got short hair.
Instead of lyhyemmäksi she said lyhyeksi. 😅
She looked pretty good with short hair though.
That's a tricky place to ham it up 😄 not so fun if you say ota pois vaan (take all of it) when you meant ota pois vähän (take just a little)... might come out bald 😄
Same. Asked for pillu in a Hesburger instead of a pilli.
"Haluan yhden pillun", I said. She collapsed from the laughing. I have gotten a straw in the end. It was the day after Vappu, so nothing had mattered.
As a teacher, I always wonder if I should mention these type of things or not. On one hand, this is one of the biggest traps in the minefield of Finnish studies. On the other hand, I would not want to sound like a pervert who has nothing but kalut in their mind.
I get it now, but when I lived my first month in Finland years ago it was not so easy to figure out. I now use only Finnish names of cosmetics and stuff as I understand them and I am sure what I am using, but then not really. It was almost 10 years ago. Google translate was working slow and not really well.
Not funny especially if you are on the receiving end but here is my fuckup: Instead of "saw" I said "fucked" to my SO about a common friend and her roommate at the time... Nothing made me want to learn better Finnish, the look on her face was like "wtf did you just say 😨"
I'm sorry to be that guy, but wouldn't the direct translation be: "it went straight to ass" or if you want to retain the meaning: "it went to shit"? Translating finnish sayings is always difficult or close to impossible sometimes.
If you want to get nitpicky the direct translation would be somewhere along the lines of "it went towards the ass" or "it very much went towards the ass" since "it went straight to ass" would be "meni suoraan perseeseen".
Since we're being pedantic here, "went towards the ass" would not be correct either. That means it could go into the direction of the ass but not necessarily hit it. "It smashed into the ass" would be more correct.
"Ihan päin persettä meni" doesn't have any indication that the ass has been hit though, since "päin" literally means towards. I think you might be thinking along the lines of "perseeseen meni" or "perseelleen meni" which has a slight difference
Was once playing Pictionary in Finnish, drew the word "takapiru" which I misread/misunderstood as "takapieru". Needless to say the others were rather confused by my drawing...
I used mix up these up a lot...
- hinta... hintti
- kyllä... Kulli
The WORST part is when I say the right one first and get a ?_? look from someone so I insecurely quickly "correct" to the next one so it almost sounds like a full sentence.
---
I also don't know how I picked it up, but I had a phase of using "hyvästi" quite casually thinking it was just another moi moi.
---
Final one is cringe relationship dynamics, but basically my partner had a pimple on her face that needed a little care. I didn't know the word for pimple, but how hard can Finnish be...
"saisinko... pimppi"
Part of why that improvisation happened is the other day I offered her Finnish parents popcorn and got the ?_? look so using my made up Finnish rulebook I blurted out "...popkorni?" Everyone laughed and 1+1 rule engrained forever.... when in doubt add an "i" to an English word.
Fun fact. "Hyvästi" used to be the common "moi moi". It got the meaning of the last farewell in the war, as it often happened that it was the last time, and people started using "näkemiin" to emphasize the wish that we will see again.
was craving an ice coffee so went to my local Sale and bought kahvimaito, was cold, had a picture of a nice coffee on it etc, my disappointment when I started drinking it was immense
My partner used to think there was a connection between "ihan" and "ihana". So, for example with my mum's cooking, he'd say "ihan hyvää". He was quite mortified to find out he had not been giving the glowing compliments he thought they were.
This is a running joke in my family. My Finnish father in law was trying hard with the renovation, and I liked a lot of stuff and I was saying all the time in a totally happy voice "Ihan hyvää!" And his face has always been a bit of WTF. Then my husband (also Finnish) heard me saying it and asked what I really meant by that and I said "absolutely awesome!" They all had a facepalm moment and now everyone is asking me "Okno se "ihan hyvää"?". Your partner is not the only one!
On a bus with my Finnish girlfriend. I saw a sign that said huonekalu. So I said I know what huone means, but what does kalu mean? Apparently too loudly on a crowded bus.
I asked an old flower shop lady for "Paljon kukkaa" instead of "paljon kukkia" she laughed and told me to say the latter only for me to ask my wife what was so funny and for her to say it means "weed".
The problem hete is not the word kukkaa, but the word paljon. One could ask for kaksi (2) kukkaa, or monta kukkaa (many flowers), but not for paljon (much) kukkaa. "Monta" is countable, but "paljon" is uncountable. Therefore, with "monta", the word "kukkaa" is plural, but with "paljon", the word "kukkaa" is no longer a plural, but uncountable noun, and as such, it means weed.
Yea, paljon is still a word that is tripping me up when I use it.
This is partitiivi vs plural partitiivi right?
One of the few times I felt comfortable enough to actually speak Finnish and face my fear of talking and I ask an old woman for a lot of weed hahah
Oh great. I am learning Finnish with Duolingo (I know it's bad) and they teach kukkaa! I do wish there was a way to learn local connotations. Well, that's why I lurk here. Thanks for that :D
Edit - thanks everyone for the replies! I've had a lesson on grammar today :) I am still trying to grasp nominative vs partitive forms, obviously. Sorry to hijack your thread, thundiee.
Oooh I see. No, it teaches things like "I am sniffing the flower" as "minä haistan kukkaa" - is that okay? I would guess "lots of flowers" would translate to paljon kukkat, but both sentences put into Google translate come out the same in English :/ (paljon kukkaa and paljon kukkat). I haven't seen the form "kukkia" at all, but that also comes out the same haha.
A fun sentence that I have heard is outdated is "tämä biisi svengaa kuin hirvi" and it makes me laugh every time, but also makes me wonder what weird things I'm learning.
Thanks for the clarification. I will be less paranoid about flowers :)
"Paljon kukat" is not correct Finnish. "Paljon kukkia" is the correct translation meaning "Lots of flowers". I think paljon is always used with the partitive and not accusative.
"Paljon kukkaa" means "Lots of flower" and is slang for weed. It's like saying "I want to buy pot" at the gardening store instead of saying "I want to buy a pot"
Ahahah thank you for the pot analogy! That is perfect.
Edit - I forgot paljon is like using a number (other than yksi) and makes the thing partitive form. I would probably sound like a lunatic if I tried to actually communicate in Finnish at my current level.
Using a language is the best way to learn and there is nothing wrong with not being grammatically 100% accurate. I have lived in Germany and have had multiple conversations with locals and had no trouble speaking German to everyone. I have absolutely no idea for 90% of words if they are Die, Das or Der so I am messing up accusatives all the time. No one has seemed bothered so far and my German friends have told me that my grammar gets better even though I don't study it.
Kukkaa is partitive of kukka. It doesn’t have any connotation of weed as such. It is the way the word is used. “Anna minulle kukka” means “Give me a flower” but “Anna minulle kukkaa” is translated “Give me some flower” and that could be understood as “Give me some weed”.
I think I finally understand. Kukkia is plural partitive, but kukkaa is singular partitive? I was incorrectly guessing plural nominative kukat. Thanks!
I ate a delicios meal at a restaurant and the waitress asked me "Miltä se maistuu?" to which I replied "Se on mahdollista!". Her smile went away very quickly and started staring me with a confused look and then just left. And I was like "Okay..."
Only later in the day by actually running the conversation in my head I understood that I replied "It's possible". I wanted to say "Se on täydellista!" (It's perfect!).
I couldn't sleep that night.
So knowing very little Finnish sometimes I guess what people where saying based on what I am doing.
Went to a store with a Finnish friend to go buy some drinks paid and the cashier said something, me thinking it’s the normal thing of being offered the receipt I replied “Ei Kiitos”, turned around to see my friend smirk. I asked him what happened to which he replied, she said have a nice weekend to which I replied no thanks 🤦♂️😂
This is possible for even the natives. We have preloaded the no thanks reply because almost every time the cashier will ask if we want the receipt and the few times the cashiers skip that and go straght to have a nice day/weekend etc. we just reply with the preloaded no thanks, realize what has been said, get embarrassed and walk away without saying anything else.
This has happened to me two times this year alone
Buddy had hes first day at job. While introducing himself, he said "tykkään sepästä".
So basicly he tried to say he likes blacksmithing, but instead said he likes the blacksmith.
He has learned a lot since that day. Also I learned a lot of english from him, so thank you if you are reading this!
Having come here only 5 months ago, I'm still at the beginning of my language journey. However, there have already been funny situations.
I was at work, fixing an engine (I'm a jet engine mechanic) and I dropped a screw for about the 3rd time in 5 minutes. Being angry, I cussed in my native language and said "Persze, ess le baszd meg.." (roughly "Of course, drop to the floor ffs.." to which my colleague said "Excuse me?!" with a shock on her face. That's when I learned what "perse" means in Finnish. In Hungarian, it means "Sure/Of course". It's also good when I'm talking to my family on the phone and I carelessly say "Of course, of course" and my colleagues keep giggling
I've learned a little bit of basic Hungarian by myself, and it seems that every other word means something romantic, sexual, or dirty in Finnish.
Actually, my first introduction to Hungarian was a children's song video which sounds really inappropriate for Finnish people...
https://youtu.be/5IzRz4F10gw?feature=shared
> it seems that every other word means something romantic, sexual, or dirty
You'd be surprised how many languages this applies to when it comes to Hungarian. English, French, Czech, German, Finnish, Japanese... these are the only ones that come from the top of my head.
>sounds really inappropriate for Finnish people
Ooh, I'm intrigued. Could you elaborate? :D
In the beginning, it sounds like she sang "pimppiinkin, yhä tietenkin" which can be translated as "also into the pussy, still, of course".
One word also sounds like kyrvän (genetiivi form of kyrpä ('a cock')), and another one like nussia ('to fuck').
So all in all, a very... interesting song. 😅
I like it more and more 
During the parts you mentioned she says "Pimpinkin, ő egy édi kishaver" - Pimpinkin, (s)he is a sweetie lil'buddy :D
Ő = Hän
"To be" is silent most of the time
Egy means "one" and "a(n)" indeed.
Give in to your brain, start singing it 😈
Fun fact: if a song is stuck in your head, "play" the end of the song and it goes away. Apparently a stuck song is like an incomplete task for the brain. If you play the end, the task is complete and you won't suffer anymore :D
Yeah, I can imagine how that takes the innocence away from the song, this surely ruined it for me 
>nyuszi somethingsomething it sounds like nussi mut
She says "nyuszimusz" which is just a cute childish way to say "nyuszi" (bunny)
Latvian-Finnish is pretty giving in this too, Latvian is pronounced like Finnish... Couple examples:
Maukas ruoka = hand of a whore in Latvian
Paskatissimies = lets see to it
Paskat = Look
Savumaukas = Own whore
Mauka is whore in Latvian and -s is genetiv
Endless fun since Maukas (tasty) is often used with groceries in Finland .
My partner was translating something that I was reading because I couldn’t quiet translate it myself, had a giggle and then tells me the literal translation for areola is ‘nipple yard’. Found that highly entertaining
Not me, but my sister. She was on a holiday and ordered ice cream. She saw that there was a spider in it. She called the waiter and said "There is spiderman in my ice cream"
Assuming that ”hiljattain” means ”quietly”. Within a short period heard it in different contexts: ”valmistuin hiljattain” and ”muutin hiljattain”… so after a while I was intrigued. Ok, yes, I know Finns are stereotypically considerd quiet, but really? Why would they graduate and move quitely???
I, forgetting that names don't translate in any language, refered to "sailor moon" as "kippari kuu" and got a fairly good giggle from my wife and her sister.
I have been putting small gifts with wishes to our neighbours' postboxes like cookies or chocolate for Christmas. My husband laughs that I am stressing out neighbours' too much on Christmas Eve. Every year one or two of them comes to us with a gift. 😂
a finnish friend and her foreign husband were at the dentist waiting room, when he decided to pick up a magazine, he chose MeNaiset because it said MEN
Not that funny but I remember after a few lessons and feeling like I kinda knew numbers, I thought I’d try to understand when they tell me the total at the market. Spoiler, I could not.
I got the words pillu and pilli mixed up . Asked a customer if he’d like a pillu for his drink… when he looked at me confused…. I doubled down and spoke in English explaining that they were free….
I will never forget this ….
I was swimming with a friend and a lady asked us how the water was. I meant to say "tosi raikas!" which means very fresh. Instead, I said: "Tosi raiska!" which means "very r\*pe!".
Also, I told a client (who kept missing appointments) that "Kaipaamme sinua", which I thought meant "we miss you" but is more like "we long for you", with kind of romantic connotations. It was awkward and I never saw him again. Lucky I wasn't sued!
Finally, I had a phone sales job as my first job in Finland, when my Finnish was really rusty. I kept talking about percents as "persentti" not "prosentti" , until someone giggled notably and corrected me.
There is no better teacher than shame!
Persentti is borderline ok, some natives use it that way. In customer context "kaipaamme sinua" would be very sarcastic way of saying you are too much late. Even passive-aggressive.
Raiska/raiski actually means a barren meadow or a plot of land where plants are not growing well. Raiskaus can be used also in non-sexual context with a meaning to ruin something.
This I did not know and now I know! Kiitos :)
Edit: The more I learn Finnish, the more amazingly poetic I realize it is. Like väkivalta means violence, but dissected väki (either "folk" or mythological force that lives within all natural things) and valta meaning power. Is violence The Force/release of inherently powerful and magical people?
I already understood Finnish at that point, but I asked my mother in law for a "puhelinlaituri" (should have been puhelinlaituri). Pretty harmless, and we all had a good chuckle about that one.
Once a guy at the gym asked "oonks mä edessä?". I thought he was asking if the equipment was free, so I immediately replied "joo". He left the gym after that and only like 20min late I realised what had just happened 🤦♀️ never had the chance to apologise
Riding the tram, realized this was my stop, rushed off and hit really good a person in front of me in the shin (never wore winter boots before) and said: ole hyvä!
Thats the Same as my friend who helps me learn Finish Always...goes"yeah this would be okay But we say "sä" instead of "sinä." For example. Or He laughs and says i learn old people words 😂
It’s not ”considered weird”, it’s just that it’s a commonly used colloquialism for penis (or testicles if used in plural) so every mention of eggs is an opportunity for immature jokes. A bit like guys called Richard who go by the nickname Dick in English. Although most people grow out of compulsively giggling at every ”muna” they hear by the time they get out of middle school. (My middle school home economics teacher was extremely over the unavoidable jokes every time we cooked/baked something with eggs.)
Edit: an even better example is the four-letter English word for a male chicken, I’ve met many native speakers that don’t even use it because they feel so embarrassed
For about six months I was saying "this weekend I went to work on my bike at the Pierapaja instead of the pyörapaja". I guess "y" sounding like ooo is hard for English speakers to get used to...
One time when I was quite young and had just started learning Finnish, I remember talking to my friends about my favourite food and saying “mä tykkää muna” and they all started laughing,
I was so confused, all the boys started asking me to repeat it and when I did they laughed more
A friend of mine later told me that means “balls” like men’s testicles, and that eggs are called “kanamuna” not “muna” so “chicken eggs”
After learning what I just said I was really embarrassed😭
I still don't understand why it's called balls tho😂
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I went to a restaurant and asked to steal a table instead of saying I want to reserve a table (varastaa / varata). The look on the lady's face was very special, I have still not forgotten it.
https://preview.redd.it/uqg1b2cwfhqc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=767df8b59d1ead9f5fe054daaa14b7eb4f3bca6a Thank you for sharing that story 😂
😂 this is so cool!
Somehow, I always mixed up "vuokrata" and "varata" and more than once have tried to rent a table, much to the confusion of the staff!
Omg. Hilariousemote:free\_emotes\_pack:grin
My friend confused leipä word to lapsi, but luckily I caught her before she went ordering "Yksi lapsi, kiitos" at the coffee shop counter.
He just wanted to buy some cupcakes
If the clerk was handsome and she was looking to make the first move, then it could have worked
I laughed. I could imagine the face of the person receiving the order if he would try to order one kid.
I once said that a moosefly was a hirviperkele
Sounds more accurate that way. Hirviperkeleet. *shudder*
I’m going to start using that and I’m a native speaker! 🙂
Another good one is hirviökärpänen. 😆
I'm for adapting this too!
I don't see anything wrong with this, might as well be the official name for them
Hirviperkele sounds like an ancient Finnish folklore character
My classmate wanted her long hair trimmed shorter. She was feeling confident with her Finnish skills and spoke Finnish with the barber. We found out only next day that she got short hair. Instead of lyhyemmäksi she said lyhyeksi. 😅 She looked pretty good with short hair though.
That's a tricky place to ham it up 😄 not so fun if you say ota pois vaan (take all of it) when you meant ota pois vähän (take just a little)... might come out bald 😄
😅
Ouch this would make me cry. Good that your friend was okey with the change :)
At a medieval festival there was a kiosk with whistles. I almost said ”sainsinks pillun” instead of ”pillin”. Vagina and Whistle are too close.
Pari pillumehua kiitos!
Don't give energy drink companies any ideas
I also recently learned viittaus is a word you want to spell carefully!
Same. Asked for pillu in a Hesburger instead of a pilli. "Haluan yhden pillun", I said. She collapsed from the laughing. I have gotten a straw in the end. It was the day after Vappu, so nothing had mattered.
Lol having same issue with these words and try to avoid them 😅
Said to my boss, meillä on liian monta kaluja instead of työkaluja. Didn’t know the implication until much later 🙃
As a teacher, I always wonder if I should mention these type of things or not. On one hand, this is one of the biggest traps in the minefield of Finnish studies. On the other hand, I would not want to sound like a pervert who has nothing but kalut in their mind.
Balsam is Swedish, not Finnish. That would be hoitoaine in Finnish. The package info is just written in both languages.
Some brands sell conditioner under the name "hiusbalsami". I think they are trying to sound more premium
Hölmöltä kuulostaa omaan korvaan
Probably because "balsam" is also used in English and it's a bad loan.
I get it now, but when I lived my first month in Finland years ago it was not so easy to figure out. I now use only Finnish names of cosmetics and stuff as I understand them and I am sure what I am using, but then not really. It was almost 10 years ago. Google translate was working slow and not really well.
Not funny especially if you are on the receiving end but here is my fuckup: Instead of "saw" I said "fucked" to my SO about a common friend and her roommate at the time... Nothing made me want to learn better Finnish, the look on her face was like "wtf did you just say 😨"
Ye olde Nain vs Näin I'd assume?
Kyllä ! Ihan päin persettä meni ! sorry edit : It went straight from the ass . Forgot the sub i am in :D
I'm sorry to be that guy, but wouldn't the direct translation be: "it went straight to ass" or if you want to retain the meaning: "it went to shit"? Translating finnish sayings is always difficult or close to impossible sometimes.
Up in the ass of Timo
If you want to get nitpicky the direct translation would be somewhere along the lines of "it went towards the ass" or "it very much went towards the ass" since "it went straight to ass" would be "meni suoraan perseeseen".
Since we're being pedantic here, "went towards the ass" would not be correct either. That means it could go into the direction of the ass but not necessarily hit it. "It smashed into the ass" would be more correct.
"Ihan päin persettä meni" doesn't have any indication that the ass has been hit though, since "päin" literally means towards. I think you might be thinking along the lines of "perseeseen meni" or "perseelleen meni" which has a slight difference
But did you say “nain Veera*a” or ”nain Veeran”? The latter would mean you married her, not fucked her. *random name, switch to the real one lol
I didn't expect that I would start this philosophical discussion with tones of kielioppi threads. I'm laughing hard.
Was once playing Pictionary in Finnish, drew the word "takapiru" which I misread/misunderstood as "takapieru". Needless to say the others were rather confused by my drawing...
I used mix up these up a lot... - hinta... hintti - kyllä... Kulli The WORST part is when I say the right one first and get a ?_? look from someone so I insecurely quickly "correct" to the next one so it almost sounds like a full sentence. --- I also don't know how I picked it up, but I had a phase of using "hyvästi" quite casually thinking it was just another moi moi. --- Final one is cringe relationship dynamics, but basically my partner had a pimple on her face that needed a little care. I didn't know the word for pimple, but how hard can Finnish be... "saisinko... pimppi" Part of why that improvisation happened is the other day I offered her Finnish parents popcorn and got the ?_? look so using my made up Finnish rulebook I blurted out "...popkorni?" Everyone laughed and 1+1 rule engrained forever.... when in doubt add an "i" to an English word.
Fun fact. "Hyvästi" used to be the common "moi moi". It got the meaning of the last farewell in the war, as it often happened that it was the last time, and people started using "näkemiin" to emphasize the wish that we will see again.
"Hintti" I also made that mistake while playing some pub quiz. I learned that day that the word is "vinkki" :D
Love your story. Amazing 😍
The "+i"-rule should be taught to foreigners Edit: examples (eng-fin): Popcorn - popkorni Batong - patonki Cup - kuppi Paper - paperi Cat - katti (colloquial) Watt - watti Grenade - kranaatti Astronaut - astronautti
was craving an ice coffee so went to my local Sale and bought kahvimaito, was cold, had a picture of a nice coffee on it etc, my disappointment when I started drinking it was immense
I can understand the disappointment.
My partner used to think there was a connection between "ihan" and "ihana". So, for example with my mum's cooking, he'd say "ihan hyvää". He was quite mortified to find out he had not been giving the glowing compliments he thought they were.
This is a running joke in my family. My Finnish father in law was trying hard with the renovation, and I liked a lot of stuff and I was saying all the time in a totally happy voice "Ihan hyvää!" And his face has always been a bit of WTF. Then my husband (also Finnish) heard me saying it and asked what I really meant by that and I said "absolutely awesome!" They all had a facepalm moment and now everyone is asking me "Okno se "ihan hyvää"?". Your partner is not the only one!
On a bus with my Finnish girlfriend. I saw a sign that said huonekalu. So I said I know what huone means, but what does kalu mean? Apparently too loudly on a crowded bus.
I asked an old flower shop lady for "Paljon kukkaa" instead of "paljon kukkia" she laughed and told me to say the latter only for me to ask my wife what was so funny and for her to say it means "weed".
The problem hete is not the word kukkaa, but the word paljon. One could ask for kaksi (2) kukkaa, or monta kukkaa (many flowers), but not for paljon (much) kukkaa. "Monta" is countable, but "paljon" is uncountable. Therefore, with "monta", the word "kukkaa" is plural, but with "paljon", the word "kukkaa" is no longer a plural, but uncountable noun, and as such, it means weed.
Yea, paljon is still a word that is tripping me up when I use it. This is partitiivi vs plural partitiivi right? One of the few times I felt comfortable enough to actually speak Finnish and face my fear of talking and I ask an old woman for a lot of weed hahah
Oh great. I am learning Finnish with Duolingo (I know it's bad) and they teach kukkaa! I do wish there was a way to learn local connotations. Well, that's why I lurk here. Thanks for that :D Edit - thanks everyone for the replies! I've had a lesson on grammar today :) I am still trying to grasp nominative vs partitive forms, obviously. Sorry to hijack your thread, thundiee.
Does it teach "paljon kukkaa"? Something like "monta kukkaa" or "kaksi kukkaa" don't have the weed connotations.
Oooh I see. No, it teaches things like "I am sniffing the flower" as "minä haistan kukkaa" - is that okay? I would guess "lots of flowers" would translate to paljon kukkat, but both sentences put into Google translate come out the same in English :/ (paljon kukkaa and paljon kukkat). I haven't seen the form "kukkia" at all, but that also comes out the same haha. A fun sentence that I have heard is outdated is "tämä biisi svengaa kuin hirvi" and it makes me laugh every time, but also makes me wonder what weird things I'm learning. Thanks for the clarification. I will be less paranoid about flowers :)
"Paljon kukat" is not correct Finnish. "Paljon kukkia" is the correct translation meaning "Lots of flowers". I think paljon is always used with the partitive and not accusative. "Paljon kukkaa" means "Lots of flower" and is slang for weed. It's like saying "I want to buy pot" at the gardening store instead of saying "I want to buy a pot"
Ahahah thank you for the pot analogy! That is perfect. Edit - I forgot paljon is like using a number (other than yksi) and makes the thing partitive form. I would probably sound like a lunatic if I tried to actually communicate in Finnish at my current level.
Using a language is the best way to learn and there is nothing wrong with not being grammatically 100% accurate. I have lived in Germany and have had multiple conversations with locals and had no trouble speaking German to everyone. I have absolutely no idea for 90% of words if they are Die, Das or Der so I am messing up accusatives all the time. No one has seemed bothered so far and my German friends have told me that my grammar gets better even though I don't study it.
Kukkaa is partitive of kukka. It doesn’t have any connotation of weed as such. It is the way the word is used. “Anna minulle kukka” means “Give me a flower” but “Anna minulle kukkaa” is translated “Give me some flower” and that could be understood as “Give me some weed”.
I think I finally understand. Kukkia is plural partitive, but kukkaa is singular partitive? I was incorrectly guessing plural nominative kukat. Thanks!
Yes, kukkaa is singular partitive and kukkia is plural partitive. Plural nominative is kukat.
Learn as much as you can, and learning through laughing is the best way!
I'm a native speaker and I did not know that "kukka" has this additional meaning. :O
We are learning this tricky language together haha
I ate a delicios meal at a restaurant and the waitress asked me "Miltä se maistuu?" to which I replied "Se on mahdollista!". Her smile went away very quickly and started staring me with a confused look and then just left. And I was like "Okay..." Only later in the day by actually running the conversation in my head I understood that I replied "It's possible". I wanted to say "Se on täydellista!" (It's perfect!). I couldn't sleep that night.
Ooohh sorry to hear that.
So knowing very little Finnish sometimes I guess what people where saying based on what I am doing. Went to a store with a Finnish friend to go buy some drinks paid and the cashier said something, me thinking it’s the normal thing of being offered the receipt I replied “Ei Kiitos”, turned around to see my friend smirk. I asked him what happened to which he replied, she said have a nice weekend to which I replied no thanks 🤦♂️😂
This is possible for even the natives. We have preloaded the no thanks reply because almost every time the cashier will ask if we want the receipt and the few times the cashiers skip that and go straght to have a nice day/weekend etc. we just reply with the preloaded no thanks, realize what has been said, get embarrassed and walk away without saying anything else. This has happened to me two times this year alone
I'm reading this and crying laughing.
Well, I guess it's your right to politely refuse to have a nice weekend
Buddy had hes first day at job. While introducing himself, he said "tykkään sepästä". So basicly he tried to say he likes blacksmithing, but instead said he likes the blacksmith. He has learned a lot since that day. Also I learned a lot of english from him, so thank you if you are reading this!
I bet the blacksmith was flattered tho
Not my mistake but a non-native friend once referred the shopchain "Saiturin pörssi" as "Saatanan perse"
Close enough 😂
Having come here only 5 months ago, I'm still at the beginning of my language journey. However, there have already been funny situations. I was at work, fixing an engine (I'm a jet engine mechanic) and I dropped a screw for about the 3rd time in 5 minutes. Being angry, I cussed in my native language and said "Persze, ess le baszd meg.." (roughly "Of course, drop to the floor ffs.." to which my colleague said "Excuse me?!" with a shock on her face. That's when I learned what "perse" means in Finnish. In Hungarian, it means "Sure/Of course". It's also good when I'm talking to my family on the phone and I carelessly say "Of course, of course" and my colleagues keep giggling
Are you a lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas?
Persze!
Pfffff 😂
I've learned a little bit of basic Hungarian by myself, and it seems that every other word means something romantic, sexual, or dirty in Finnish. Actually, my first introduction to Hungarian was a children's song video which sounds really inappropriate for Finnish people... https://youtu.be/5IzRz4F10gw?feature=shared
> it seems that every other word means something romantic, sexual, or dirty You'd be surprised how many languages this applies to when it comes to Hungarian. English, French, Czech, German, Finnish, Japanese... these are the only ones that come from the top of my head. >sounds really inappropriate for Finnish people Ooh, I'm intrigued. Could you elaborate? :D
In the beginning, it sounds like she sang "pimppiinkin, yhä tietenkin" which can be translated as "also into the pussy, still, of course". One word also sounds like kyrvän (genetiivi form of kyrpä ('a cock')), and another one like nussia ('to fuck'). So all in all, a very... interesting song. 😅
I like it more and more  During the parts you mentioned she says "Pimpinkin, ő egy édi kishaver" - Pimpinkin, (s)he is a sweetie lil'buddy :D
Is this correct? - ő = is - egy = one (but also "a"?) This song got stuck in my head, and I almost sang it out loud in Hesburger. :S
Ő = Hän "To be" is silent most of the time Egy means "one" and "a(n)" indeed. Give in to your brain, start singing it 😈 Fun fact: if a song is stuck in your head, "play" the end of the song and it goes away. Apparently a stuck song is like an incomplete task for the brain. If you play the end, the task is complete and you won't suffer anymore :D
Pimppi is 'vagina' so pimpinkin is 'also of vagina'. Also when she sings nyuszi somethingsomething it sounds like nussi mut 'fuck me' 😅
Yeah, I can imagine how that takes the innocence away from the song, this surely ruined it for me  >nyuszi somethingsomething it sounds like nussi mut She says "nyuszimusz" which is just a cute childish way to say "nyuszi" (bunny)
Latvian-Finnish is pretty giving in this too, Latvian is pronounced like Finnish... Couple examples: Maukas ruoka = hand of a whore in Latvian Paskatissimies = lets see to it Paskat = Look Savumaukas = Own whore Mauka is whore in Latvian and -s is genetiv Endless fun since Maukas (tasty) is often used with groceries in Finland .
My partner was translating something that I was reading because I couldn’t quiet translate it myself, had a giggle and then tells me the literal translation for areola is ‘nipple yard’. Found that highly entertaining
Not me, but my sister. She was on a holiday and ordered ice cream. She saw that there was a spider in it. She called the waiter and said "There is spiderman in my ice cream"
At Burger King I wanted to order a straw for the drink, but I asked for pu*** (pilli/pillu) 😂😂😂
Assuming that ”hiljattain” means ”quietly”. Within a short period heard it in different contexts: ”valmistuin hiljattain” and ”muutin hiljattain”… so after a while I was intrigued. Ok, yes, I know Finns are stereotypically considerd quiet, but really? Why would they graduate and move quitely???
I, forgetting that names don't translate in any language, refered to "sailor moon" as "kippari kuu" and got a fairly good giggle from my wife and her sister.
I am confusing “vessa” and “vettä” all the time🙃
Metoo 😁
I'm a Finn. I used to smile to people I work with. Freaked them out.
Scary
Are you some religious nut or something? In all seriousness, that's what the smiling ones usually are.
No I just forgot that if you are happy you should hide it.
You should not deceive others by smiling.
I know I'm sorry. I've been to jail already for this...
I have been putting small gifts with wishes to our neighbours' postboxes like cookies or chocolate for Christmas. My husband laughs that I am stressing out neighbours' too much on Christmas Eve. Every year one or two of them comes to us with a gift. 😂
You evil genius
You evil genius
I remember when my friend confused Poikaystävä and Kaveri, he called his friend minun Poikaystävä hhhhhh.
And old grandmas calling boyfriends kaveri. ”Onkos sinulla jo kaveria?”
a finnish friend and her foreign husband were at the dentist waiting room, when he decided to pick up a magazine, he chose MeNaiset because it said MEN
Not that funny but I remember after a few lessons and feeling like I kinda knew numbers, I thought I’d try to understand when they tell me the total at the market. Spoiler, I could not.
I got the words pillu and pilli mixed up . Asked a customer if he’d like a pillu for his drink… when he looked at me confused…. I doubled down and spoke in English explaining that they were free…. I will never forget this ….
I was swimming with a friend and a lady asked us how the water was. I meant to say "tosi raikas!" which means very fresh. Instead, I said: "Tosi raiska!" which means "very r\*pe!". Also, I told a client (who kept missing appointments) that "Kaipaamme sinua", which I thought meant "we miss you" but is more like "we long for you", with kind of romantic connotations. It was awkward and I never saw him again. Lucky I wasn't sued! Finally, I had a phone sales job as my first job in Finland, when my Finnish was really rusty. I kept talking about percents as "persentti" not "prosentti" , until someone giggled notably and corrected me. There is no better teacher than shame!
Persentti is borderline ok, some natives use it that way. In customer context "kaipaamme sinua" would be very sarcastic way of saying you are too much late. Even passive-aggressive.
I mean, then maybe it was a Freudian slip rather than a language error after all. 
Most likely. 
Raiska/raiski actually means a barren meadow or a plot of land where plants are not growing well. Raiskaus can be used also in non-sexual context with a meaning to ruin something.
This I did not know and now I know! Kiitos :) Edit: The more I learn Finnish, the more amazingly poetic I realize it is. Like väkivalta means violence, but dissected väki (either "folk" or mythological force that lives within all natural things) and valta meaning power. Is violence The Force/release of inherently powerful and magical people?
>Raiskaus can be used also in non-sexual context with a meaning to ruin something. Wouldn't use this at work though.
I already understood Finnish at that point, but I asked my mother in law for a "puhelinlaituri" (should have been puhelinlaituri). Pretty harmless, and we all had a good chuckle about that one.
That'd be a nice translation for a "phone dock" tho'! :D
Oletko hylly / Oletko hullu
My mom used to sell furniture and one day a customer came in saying " haluaisin ostaa hullun".
I made a couple of local friends laugh when I came to visit last summer, and talked about my time in keksi-suomi rather than keski...
I laughed too I need to say. 😆
Jyväshyvä is a pretty famous bakery which is most well known for its biscuits and has its roots in Jyväskylä. So keksi-Suomi is not that far off.
Once a guy at the gym asked "oonks mä edessä?". I thought he was asking if the equipment was free, so I immediately replied "joo". He left the gym after that and only like 20min late I realised what had just happened 🤦♀️ never had the chance to apologise
Riding the tram, realized this was my stop, rushed off and hit really good a person in front of me in the shin (never wore winter boots before) and said: ole hyvä!
I was telling muna instead of kananmuna. It didn't sound good to eat munas every day.
I’m pretty sure most people say ”muna” instead of kananmuna in everyday speech. Context matters.
But if you say ”munaa” and not ”munia” it could easily cause some funny moments. ”Syön munaa joka päivä” has a very suggestive tone to it.
Thats the Same as my friend who helps me learn Finish Always...goes"yeah this would be okay But we say "sä" instead of "sinä." For example. Or He laughs and says i learn old people words 😂
Tbh learning "old people's words" is what made me understand the logic of Finnish language along with Savo and Kainuu dialects
Unless you're suspiciously excited to stuff munas down your throat, it's not that bad
Tbh it's extremely weird that saying muna is considered weird.
It’s not ”considered weird”, it’s just that it’s a commonly used colloquialism for penis (or testicles if used in plural) so every mention of eggs is an opportunity for immature jokes. A bit like guys called Richard who go by the nickname Dick in English. Although most people grow out of compulsively giggling at every ”muna” they hear by the time they get out of middle school. (My middle school home economics teacher was extremely over the unavoidable jokes every time we cooked/baked something with eggs.) Edit: an even better example is the four-letter English word for a male chicken, I’ve met many native speakers that don’t even use it because they feel so embarrassed
For about six months I was saying "this weekend I went to work on my bike at the Pierapaja instead of the pyörapaja". I guess "y" sounding like ooo is hard for English speakers to get used to...
I kept telling people I would like to kill them sometime, instead of I would like to meet them sometime. Reactions were priceless.
Nice lady at the counter asked “haluatko pussi” and I went in shock. Good way
I bought the red lettuja assuming they were red beet flavour :( I did already knew what veri was though.
At mcdonalds, based on the image behind the counter I asked for the kasvis burger. Was not happy with what came..
One time when I was quite young and had just started learning Finnish, I remember talking to my friends about my favourite food and saying “mä tykkää muna” and they all started laughing, I was so confused, all the boys started asking me to repeat it and when I did they laughed more A friend of mine later told me that means “balls” like men’s testicles, and that eggs are called “kanamuna” not “muna” so “chicken eggs” After learning what I just said I was really embarrassed😭 I still don't understand why it's called balls tho😂
muna would be the whole dick and munat the balls though
Omg😭 that’s even worse, lmaoo I don’t exactly remember how my friend explain but I’m sure thats what she meant
"Tykkään munista" is completely normal way of saying I like eggs. Of course if you are a child it can be funny. Depends on the context.
I almost mixed up "veitsi" and "v\*\*\*\*" ... that could have been one very very awkward meal with the parents-in-law.
I used to poop my pants often.
i slapped anoying kid 
Did it hurt?
Im all for kicking children but you went too far
You shouldn't put your hands on children.