---
title: "myötähäpeä"
translation: "Second-hand embarrassment."
type: "word"
category: "standard"
url: "https://finnishirl.com/words/myotahapea"
canonical: "https://finnishirl.com/words/myotahapea"
published: "2026-10-01"
updated: "2026-10-01"
author: "Andrey the Nomad"
site: "Finnish IRL"
license: "https://finnishirl.com/terms#ip"
---

# myötähäpeä
URL: https://finnishirl.com/words/myotahapea
Translation: Second-hand embarrassment.
Pronunciation: /ˈmyøtæˌhæpeæ/
Category: standard
Archetypes: reaction
Region: Finland
Register: neutral, everyday
Literal meaning: "Along-shame" - myötä, along with, plus häpeä, shame.
Tone and safety: Safe. It describes your own feeling, not a judgement on the other person - though it implies one.
Published: 2026-10-01

Quick answer:
- Myötähäpeä is embarrassment felt on behalf of someone else - watching a speech go wrong and wanting to leave the room.
- It is built from myötä, along with, and häpeä, shame, on the same pattern as myötätunto, sympathy.
- English does have equivalents - vicarious embarrassment, and now cringe, so treat this as a neatly compact word rather than an untranslatable one.

What it means:
- Myötähäpeä is the physical discomfort of watching someone embarrass themselves. It is not amusement and not contempt: the feeling is that their exposure has landed on you.
- The construction is transparent and productive. Myötä means along with, and it forms a small family: myötätunto is sympathy, myötäelää is to empathise. Myötähäpeä is the same shape applied to shame.

How Finns use it:
- As a noun about a situation: tuli ihan myötähäpeä, "it gave me second-hand cringe".
- About performance and public speaking above all - a speech, a pitch, karaoke, a comedy set that is not working.
- In a country where being conspicuous is generally avoided, watching someone fail at being conspicuous has a particular force. The word gets used a lot, and it is worth understanding as the flip side of a broader preference for not drawing attention to yourself.

Tone and safety:
- There is no rudeness in the word, though there is a judgement inside it: saying you felt myötähäpeä says the other person embarrassed themselves.
- Said about a friend, to their face, it is a tease. Said about a stranger, it is a description. Said about your host's speech, in earshot, it is not kind.

Common mistake:
- Repeating the claim that this feeling has no name in English. It does - vicarious embarrassment is the older term, cringe the newer one, and German has Fremdscham. What Finnish has is a compact, everyday word for it.
- Reaching for häpeä on its own. That is plain shame, your own, and it is a heavier word.

Examples:
- Tuli ihan myötähäpeä. - I felt so embarrassed for them.
- En jaksanu kattoo, niin kova myötähäpeä. - I couldn't watch, the second-hand cringe was too much.
- Se puhe oli puhdasta myötähäpeää. - That speech was pure second-hand cringe.

Mini dialogue:
A: Ootsä kattonu sen puheen?
B: Oon. Myötähäpeä iski heti.
A: Nii mullekin.
B: Voi ei.

FAQ:
Q: What does myötähäpeä mean?
A: Embarrassment felt on someone else's behalf - the discomfort of watching another person embarrass themselves.

Q: What is myötähäpeä made of?
A: Myötä, meaning along with, plus häpeä, shame. The same myötä appears in myötätunto, sympathy.

Q: Is myötähäpeä untranslatable?
A: No. English has vicarious embarrassment and, more recently, cringe; German has Fremdscham. Finnish just has a short everyday word for it.

Q: Is it rude to say you felt myötähäpeä?
A: It contains a judgement - it says the other person embarrassed themselves - so it depends who hears it. About a friend it is a tease; in the speaker's earshot it is unkind.

Q: What is the difference between häpeä and myötähäpeä?
A: Häpeä is your own shame and is a heavier word. Myötähäpeä is felt on behalf of someone else.

Related words: en-jaksa, sisu, kalsarikannit, joo, joo-joo, just-joo, no, no-niin, ihan

Sources:
- Kielitoimiston sanakirja: myötähäpeä, myötätunto, häpeä (Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://www.kielitoimistonsanakirja.fi/#/myötähäpeä
- Kielitoimiston ohjepankki (Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://kielitoimistonohjepankki.fi/
- Kotus dictionaries (Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://en.kotus.fi/dictionaries/
- VISK § 797 - what dialogue particles are (Iso suomen kielioppi, Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://kaino.kotus.fi/visk/sisallys.php?p=797
- Kotus - Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://en.kotus.fi/