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Finnish: a Logical Language?

8.6.2010 0:01 Mary Nurminen

There are some things in the Finnish language which just make no sense to us foreigners. Here are some examples.

The name of a town can be in the singular, until you're actually in it, in which case it becomes plural. Kauniainen. Kauniaisissa.

The difference between a wife, which you went through an engagement, ceremony, and party with 50 of your most unfavorite relatives to get, just so that it would all be legal and she'd be your wife under the law and God; and a common-law wife, which simply asked you to move in with her, is only 1 small letter. Aviovaimo. Avovaimo.

2 sentences, which are the exact opposite of each other, mean the same thing. Sano muuta. Älä muuta sano.

The difference between total success and great loss is one small letter: Menestys. Menetys.

Although they're very different, some words sound very similar to us foreigners. Even now, after 20-some years in this country, I still have to stop my car and think when I'm driving out of a parking garage and I'm faced with two signs pointing in different directions: Ylös -- -- Ulos.

2 words which seem to have the same root end up being very different.

One of them is to value and the other is to judge: Arvostaa. Arvostella.

You can actually say yes no or no yes. Both of these mean no: No kyllä ei. Ei ole näin. Ei kyllä ole näin.

Even if there's only 1 kid in a family, they always make it sound like the Dad has more than that: Meidän iskä.

You have a whole big country, but only one small part of it is considered to be the real Finland.

Varsinais-Suomi. What is all the rest, then?

You use the past tense to emphasize the fact that you mean the present tense. And not just the present tense, if you meant that you would simply use present.

But this means the very, right-this-minute present, which you get by using the past.

Nyt mentiin!

Mary Nurminen pähkäilee suomen kielen ja suomalais-psyykkeen kiemuroita.

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