REACTING TO FUNNY LITERAL FINNISH TRANSLATIONS

From lohikäärme to rintaliivit - lets explore some literal Finnish translations!

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F.A.Q.
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• How old are you? •
32

• How tall are you? •
6ft 3 (or 192 cm)

• Where do you live? •
Helsinki, Finland

• What camera gear do you use in this video?•
Canon EOS R (body)
Canon EF 16-35 f4 L IS
Rode Video Mic Pro+

• What program do you edit with? •
Adobe Premiere Pro CC

[KalleZz_]

To be fair, no one in finland really calls the dice "arpakuutio", we usually call it "noppa"

[The_Jzoli]

As a native speaker these are so fun to watch, since you don't really think about these normally.

[Massuli]

"Very warm. The heat situation, very warm" absolutely killed me because that is exactly what Finnish people sound like when we speak English. I feel very seen

[matikkavideot]

It would be fun to hear next time about the differense between compound words: hammasrauta vs rautahammas, huonekasvi vs kasvihuone, viinipullo vs pulloviini, koeajo vs ajokoe, silmälasi vs lasisilmä... It would be fun to hear your guesses about these words' meanings!

[-Chiel]

Awesome job translating the words and deducting the meaning! Especially the backwards deduction with hammasraudat was very impressive and showed that you have developed your Finnish skills very far already. It was awesome that you showed your thinking process, it made me appreciate the language learning even more. It would be really fun to watch another video like this.

[BassSpiikkeri]

Well, as requested, an attempt at the explanation for the Finnish word "lohikäärme" relating to a flying and fire-breathing mythological lizard. Apologies in advance, this might prove to be quite a heavy comment to read.

The first part of the word is actually a loan or an alteration/variation of an Old Swedish word 'flogh', literally translating to 'flying' (compare for example, the word 'flyga'; it has the same origin). Originally, it was 'louhi' in Finnish (meaning 'fire' and/or 'lightning'). In other words, it has nothing to do with the word for 'salmon', it has merely developed into a homophome - a word that sounds identical.
The Old Swedish word for dragon is 'draki' (in current Swedish form 'drake'; the history of this goes back to Old Norse and Middle Low German, all the way to a Proto-West Germanic stem). And in the word for dragon (Old Swedish: 'floghdraki', lit. 'flying snake') it was replaced in Finnish with the word meaning 'snake' which was 'käärme'. Thus 'lohikäärme' was born.

[slajkuupper]

Finland: Is mentioned anywhere

Finns: *Whomst has awakened the ancient one*

[maitoraviste]

I was just laughing to the finnish word for raccoon like couple days ago 😂 Raccoon = pesukarhu = washbear.

[smallfan]

Exhaust = pakokaasu = escape gas
Nightingale = satakieli = hundred tongue

[watchcharmedagain]

One of the things I'm constantly impressed by when it comes to your Finnish skills is that you've gotten so good at telling words apart. Like, for example, if you see the word "tammikuu", you know "tammi" is one word and "kuu" is another. So it's not something silly like "Tam Mikuu". I know our long words can be a bit challenging, but looks like you've learned to handle them fairly easily. I love these videos, very interesting and entertaining to watch!

[jokumukamikalie]

7:54 Fun fact: As a finn when someone runs through the months, I never hear them pronounce the "kuu". It's always tammi, helmi, maalis... etc. You don't mention it even on the last one, even if you run through all 12 of them.

[markusairola]

In Norwegian, the word for buttercup (smørblomst) does directly translate into butter flower in English. Growing up bilingual Norwegian and Finnish, for the longest time I thought voikukka also meant buttercup in Finnish; I was very confused when I eventually found out. Norwegian also has a lot of these literal words, a particular favourite of mine being the word for bat — flaggermus — which literally translates into "flappy mouse".

[nrttu]

A few more off the top of my head:
Projector = videotykki = video cannon
Space bar = välilyönti = gap hit
Trimmer = partakone = beard machine
Vacuum cleaner = pölynimuri = dust sucker
Finnish is awesome, and I'd be really frustrated trying to learn it as a second language...

[NinjaBee]

To be fair 'sieni' translates also to sponge, not just mushroom.

[ELeonko]

Kuukausi means "moon season" and it's literal because different phases of moon last a month (hence the months end in "-kuu")

[thepikachin]

My favorite Finnish compounds would definitely be these two:
Flatulence = Ilmavaiva = Air nuisance
Perineum = Väliliha = Middle meat
And I love the fact that "ilmavaiva" is just one letter away from "ilmalaiva", an airship (also a literal translation) or a blimp.

I also recently realized that the Finnish word for butler, hovimestari, would translate as "court master", which brings to mind something completely different.

Also the Finnish word for month is kuukausi, or moon period. In the actual month names you omit the "kausi".

[Fritha]

The months in Finnish are indeed poetic, I love how we have completely different words for them than most other European languages.
Helmikuu, kesäkuu, heinäkuu, elokuu, syyskuu, lokakuu, joulukuu... Always wondered where 'helmikuu' got it's name, does it come from the snow glistering like pearls or something? Weird, hahah, but that's my favourite Finnish name for a month.

[HelsinkiHelsingfors]

Few Finns think this as two words, but: ”Maailma” = maa + ilma = ground + air, meaning the world or globe

[adex]

Also a good one is:
Lentävä lautanen
="Flying plate"
= ufo

[VannyVanesca]

Kuu in a month like tammikuu stands for kuukausi, which would literally translate to something like season of The moon(aka The amount of The Time it takes for The moon to travel around The earth)