Finnish IRL

Names for people

Kaveri, mimmi, jätkä, skidi, muija. What Finns call each other, and how much closeness each one claims.

4 words

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
ne - an older couple on an apartment balcony looking down at neighbours in the courtyard below, yellow autumn leaves around them
ne written he Finland advertised its pronoun on billboards abroad. At home it says this one
sauna - a man in a towel sitting with a beer outside a small wood-fired Finnish sauna, steam off his shoulders and deep snow all round
sauna More saunas than cars, and one rule everyone actually enforces
se - two women talking by a bar table, one tipping her chin towards someone off to the side while she talks about them
se written hän Finns call people "it", and no course will tell you

Almost none of these translate cleanly, because the word is not describing the person - it is describing your standing with them. Kaveri is a friend, but calling someone kaveri claims the friendship, and claiming it early is heard.

Several are also Stadin slangi, the Helsinki layer built out of Swedish and Russian loans, and they do not automatically travel. So these pages spend their space on who says it to whom, the warm reading against the sharp one, and where in the country it belongs.

Understand far more of these than you use

Names for people are the most relationship-sensitive vocabulary in any language, and Finnish adds a second axis on top: a lot of this set is regional in a way the speakers themselves do not always notice. Stadin slangi words feel like plain Finnish in Helsinki and land as distinctly Helsinki everywhere else.

Some of these also run on a two-sided switch, warm inside a group and pointed from outside it. The dictionary gloss is frequently accurate and completely useless, because the whole meaning sits in who is speaking.

So the safe approach to the category is asymmetric. Recognising what somebody has just called you, and whether it was affectionate, is immediately useful. Using the words yourself should lag well behind that, and should follow the other person rather than lead them.

Common questions

What is Stadin slangi?

The Helsinki city slang, built in working-class neighbourhoods where Finnish, Swedish and Russian met. It gave the language skidi, kundi, snaijata and a few hundred more. Widely understood; distinctly Helsinki when you use it elsewhere.

Can I call a Finnish colleague kaveri?

Once they have used it about you, comfortably. Before that it claims a closeness that has not been established. Following is safe here; leading reads as assuming.

Is there a formal "you" in Finnish?

Technically, teitittely, and in practice almost never. Finns use sinä with strangers, colleagues, shop staff and usually their boss. Being addressed formally can even feel like being called old.

Which words for people should a foreigner avoid?

Anything about appearance or origin, and the sharper end of the male-coded slang. Finns use several of those among themselves with the context that makes them survivable; a foreigner has none of it.

More questions →