Finnish IRL

Greetings

How Finns open and close a conversation, and how much the choice tells you about where you are standing.

4 words

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
moi - a woman at a Finnish supermarket checkout giving the smallest possible nod to the man stepping into the queue behind her
moi Say it once and it is hello, say it twice and you are leaving
puhutko englantia - a young woman asking a halting question at a lit Finnish kiosk window in the snow, and getting the answer back without a pause
puhutko englantia The answer is yes, and that is the whole problem

Moi, hei, terve, moro, päivää. Which one you get is a small map of the country and of the relationship, and doubling any of them turns it into a goodbye.

There is no formal "you" doing the work here the way there is in most European languages, so the greeting carries the whole register. That is a lot of weight for one syllable.

Common questions

What is the most common Finnish greeting?

Hei nationally, moi across the south and centre and as the Helsinki default. Terve runs east and around Oulu; moro is Tampere. All of them are ordinary and none of them is rude.

How do you say goodbye in Finnish?

Double the greeting: moi moi, hei hei. Also näkemiin for something more formal, and nähdään - "we'll see each other" - between people who expect to.

Should I say hyvää päivää or moi?

Päivää for a first meeting in an official setting or with someone much older. Moi for essentially everything else. Answering with whatever you were given is the reliable strategy.

More questions →