Finnish IRL
sisu - a woman in a reflective work jacket pushing a bicycle up a slushy hill into driving sleet, a plain Finnish apartment block behind her

sisu

/ˈsisu/

Extraordinary perseverance. The noun is the export. Finns reach for a different form of it

Quick answer

Sisu is extraordinary perseverance: carrying on past the point where a person would normally stop.

  • Finns reach for the adjective far more often than the noun. Sisukas jätkä, a gutsy bloke, is ordinary talk; the noun is what the export version runs on.
  • The first systematic study of the concept, based on more than a thousand responses, describes it as a reserve of energy accessed beyond one's preconceived limits, not as everyday determination.

What sisu is

Sisu is what gets someone through the part that should have stopped them. Not motivation, not enthusiasm, and not a good attitude - it starts where those have already run out.

The word is old, related to sisus, a person's insides, and the sense is close to that: something you have in you rather than something you decide.

The academic work on it is recent and Finnish. A study at Aalto University analysed over a thousand responses and characterised sisu as extraordinary perseverance, the ability to go past preconceived limits by reaching stored-up energy, and noted the phenomenon itself is universal even if the word is Finnish.

sisu at a glance

What it is Perseverance past the limit
What it is not Everyday determination
Studied at Aalto University
Responses analysed Over 1,000
The adjective Sisukas, a compliment
Root Sisus, the insides

How Finns actually use sisu

Mostly as an adjective. Sisukas is the living, everyday form - said about a person who kept going, a team that would not fold, a child who refused to give up on something. The bare noun sisu turns up far less often in conversation than a foreigner would guess from how much is written about it.

When the noun is used it is often lightly ironic, precisely because Finns know how the word has been marketed. Sisu is also a brand of pastilles and a make of truck, which does not help the mystique.

The concept is real and Finns recognise it. The reverence around it abroad is not something Finns share, and the word is far better known outside Finland than it is used inside it.

sisu in a sentence

  • Sisukas jätkä, ei luovuttanu kertaakaan. Stubborn sod - he never gave up once.
  • Kyllä siinä sisua piti olla. That must have taken some sisu.
  • Ei tää oo sisua, tää on jääräpäisyyttä. This isn't sisu, this is pigheadedness.
sisu - an older man swimming a slow steady breaststroke in a cold grey Finnish lake, a towel waiting on the rocks
This is the version that gets photographed. The card above is the everyday kind.

sisu in a conversation

Se käveli kotiin kahenkymmenen kilometrin päästä.
Sisukas ihminen.
Vai tyhmä.
Niitä on vaikee erottaa.

The mistake everyone makes with sisu

Treating it as a philosophy of life. It is a word for a quality, not a system, and Finns did not receive it as guidance.

Translating it as "grit". Grit in the psychological sense is sustained effort toward a long-term goal; sisu is what happens at the point of overwhelm. They overlap and they are not the same thing.

Reaching for the noun. Sillä on sisua is fine, but sisukas is the form that actually turns up in conversation.

Questions people ask about sisu

What does sisu mean?

Extraordinary perseverance - continuing past the point where a person would normally stop. It is related to sisus, the insides.

Is sisu the same as grit?

Not quite. Grit describes sustained effort toward a long-term goal. Sisu describes what happens at the point of overwhelm, when your resources are already gone.

Do Finns actually use the word sisu?

They use the adjective sisukas far more than the noun. The noun is better known outside Finland than inside it, and Finns are aware of that.

Is sisu always a good thing?

No. The research is explicit that carrying on past your limits has costs, and Finns will happily point out that sisu and pigheadedness are hard to tell apart.

Where does the word sisu come from?

From sisus, meaning the insides or the interior of something - what a person has in them.

Is sisu a bad word?

Safe. The risk is sounding like a tourism campaign rather than a person.

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
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
myötähäpeä - a woman in a bar watching something off to the side with both hands half over her face, unable to look away
myötähäpeä One word for the feeling that makes you cover your eyes at a wedding speech
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
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

Sources for sisu

  1. Embodied fortitude: an introduction to the Finnish construct of sisu Emilia Lahti, International Journal of Wellbeing - The first systematic study of sisu, based on over a thousand responses; defines it as extraordinary perseverance beyond one's preconceived limits.
  2. What the Finnish concept of sisu can offer the world Aalto University - The university's own summary of the research, including the point that the phenomenon is universal even though the word is Finnish.
  3. Sisu - Finland's official emoji thisisFINLAND, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland - How the state itself presents the word abroad - useful context for how the word travelled.
  4. Kielitoimiston sanakirja: sisu, sisukas Kotimaisten kielten keskus
  5. Journal awards Emilia Lahti's sisu study as article of the year Aalto University - The reception of the study inside the field, and confirmation it was the first systematic one.

Published Updated

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