Finnish IRL

Spoken Finnish, word by word

Every Finnish word broken down here, newest first. 23 of the 49 carry the textbook form beside the spoken one. Tap any card for the meaning, real examples, and where in Finland it belongs.

All words

anteeks - a young man squeezing past an older woman in a narrow Finnish supermarket aisle with one hand slightly raised, melting snow tracked across the floor
anteeks written anteeksi The most-used politeness word in the country, and the final letter falls off
duuni - a man in a reflective work jacket waiting early at a snowy Finnish tram stop with a thermos, a lit tram coming through the blue pre-dawn
duuni Fine in the office, wrong in the application
ei hassumpaa - two men standing by a barbecue at a Finnish summer cottage, one giving the smallest possible shrug of contentment, a lake behind them
ei hassumpaa "Nothing more foolish" is how a Finn tells you things are going well
ei oo - a shop assistant and a customer both shrugging in front of a half-empty shelf in a Finnish supermarket
ei oo written ei ole The sentence a shop assistant says to you, in the shape they say it
ei tartte - an older woman waving away a young man's offer to carry her shopping bag on a wet autumn pavement in Finland
ei tartte written ei tarvitse Reach for someone's bag in Finland and this is what you get
ei - an older man shaking his head once at a charity collector outside a Finnish shop doorway, already moving past
ei Finnish says no with a verb, and it conjugates
eiku - a woman at a Finnish bakery counter already pointing at a second pastry, the assistant's hand hovering over the first
eiku written ei kun One word for taking back the last thing you said
en jaksa - a man slumped at a Finnish kitchen table in front of a laptop under warm lamplight, rain on the dark window behind him
en jaksa Not laziness and not refusal, and Finland accepts it as a reason
en tiiä - an older man on a Finnish park bench shrugging at a question with both hands on his walking stick, yellow leaves around him
en tiiä written en tiedä The most useful thing you can say badly
ihan sama - a young man at a kitchen table lifting one shoulder at his partner's mother without looking up from his phone, rain on the window
ihan sama "Whatever" - and it lands harder than the translation suggests
ihan - an older woman tasting from a pot at a Finnish kitchen stove under warm lamplight, rain on the window
ihan It strengthens and it weakens, and the word does not tell you which
joo joo - a young man pulling his boots on in a Finnish hallway, answering his mother behind him without turning round
joo joo Say yes twice and you have stopped agreeing
joo - a young woman on a Finnish bus with her phone to her ear, agreeing without much energy, a snowy street through the window
joo The everyday yes, and kyllä is not its posher twin
just joo - a man hearing out his daughter's explanation across a Finnish kitchen table without looking up from his newspaper, pale evening light in the window
just joo Two words that tell you the other person is not buying it
kaamos - a woman walking a dog along a snowy road at midday under the deep blue sky of the Finnish polar night, a street lamp already lit
kaamos Not "dark winter", and the distinction is one Finns will correct you on
kalsarikännit - a man in a knitted cardigan and underwear in an armchair with a beer, thawing spring fields through the window
kalsarikännit Trousers off, curtains shut, nowhere to be
kato - a woman nudging an older friend and pointing across a sunlit Finnish street
kato written katso It means look, until it stops meaning anything
katotaan - a woman in an office doorway waiting on an answer while the man at his desk keeps his eyes on the screen and lifts one hand in a vague maybe
katotaan written katsotaan Nothing is a plan here until someone names a time
käy - two friends agreeing on a plan at a Finnish street corner and starting to separate, one already walking backwards through wet yellow leaves
käy Käyks kuudelt? - Käy. That is the whole negotiation
Kela - a man sitting alone in a row of plastic chairs in a Kela waiting room holding a paper queue ticket, snow through the glass door
Kela The letter arrives before you have worked out who sent it
kiitos - a waitress setting a beer down for an older man on a summer lake terrace
kiitos Finnish has no word for please, and this is what fills the gap
kippis - two women touching beer glasses across a table on a Finnish summer terrace, a lake and birches behind them in the late evening light
kippis The glass goes over your shoulder before the shot goes down
löyly - a man on a sauna bench tipping a ladle of water onto the hot stones while the younger man beside him braces
löyly The word meant soul for four thousand years before it meant steam
mä tykkään susta - a couple sitting side by side on a jetty in the Finnish summer night, bare feet over the water, not looking at each other
mä tykkään susta written minä tykkään sinusta The sentence that does the work "I love you" does in English

How to use this page

49 words, newest first. Browsing is the point here - if you already know which word you are chasing, the glossary is the same set arranged A-Ö and you will get there faster.

If you are starting out, go to spoken Finnish first. Those are the cards where the word you were taught and the word you will hear are different, and they are the highest return on effort on the whole site, because the changes are regular - learn the rule once and it applies to the next fifty words you meet.

Every page runs the same blocks in the same order for its type, so once you have read one you know where to look. The section people skip is the region note, which is a mistake: it is what stands between you and using a perfectly correct Helsinki word three hundred kilometres north of Helsinki.

Learning Finnish - common questions

How many Finnish words are on this site?

49 so far, and one more tomorrow morning. Each one is a full page rather than a dictionary line - the spoken form, the written form, what it means, how Finns actually use it, examples, a dialogue and an FAQ. Nothing gets taken down, so the archive only grows.

What is on each word page?

A quick answer at the top, then the written-versus-spoken contrast where there is one, what the word means, how Finns use it, the mistake foreigners reliably make, examples in both languages, a dialogue and an FAQ. Long, yes - but the goal is that you leave knowing when to use it, and that never fits in one line.

What is the difference between puhekieli, slang and a sanonta?

Puhekieli is the spoken form of ordinary standard words - mä for minä. Slang is separate vocabulary with no standard equivalent, like duuni for työ. A sanonta is a fixed phrase whose meaning does not add up from its parts, like ei hassumpaa. Every word is tagged, mostly so you know whether you can vary the wording or have to say it exactly as it is.

Which Finnish words should I learn first?

The spoken pronouns and the verb "to be": mä, sä, se, me, te, ne, and oon, oot, on. They are in almost every sentence you will overhear, and they are the ones your course definitely taught you differently.

Is spoken Finnish the same everywhere in Finland?

No, and the differences are audible immediately. Mä versus mie in the east, moro in Tampere, the Turku vowels. It rarely blocks comprehension, but it is a live social signal, so every card here names the region it belongs to rather than letting a Helsinki word pass as national.

Do Finns write in puhekieli?

Constantly, in messages and chat and social media. Anything official, printed or edited stays in kirjakieli. That split is why you can end up reading a language you have never heard and hearing one you have never read.

Should I learn kirjakieli or puhekieli?

Both, and you will almost certainly meet the written one first. It is what every form, contract and news bulletin uses, and what the YKI test grades. Add the spoken forms as soon as you can, because they are what you will actually hear.

How do I stop Finns switching to English on me?

Ask them directly. It works far more often than people expect - Finns switch out of helpfulness rather than impatience, and they just need permission to keep going. What does not work is apologising for your Finnish first, which reads as a request to switch.

How do you decide which words to add?

Frequency, mostly. A word earns a page if you would realistically hear it within a few weeks of living here, or if it is one learners reliably get wrong in an interesting way. Regional curiosities come later; words that only exist in listicles about Finnish do not come at all.

Is it worth learning Finnish if everyone speaks English?

Depends what you want. Getting by needs no Finnish at all. Following the room does - the coffee break, the group chat, the joke at the table. That is the half this site is built around, and it is the half that decides whether living here feels like living here.

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