Games and Traditions

Basics of Finnish language

This blog post is about what to call your new family members after the wedding. And no, it's not filled with pejoratives and curse words :D In Finnish we have our own words for in-laws, so instead of saying mother-in-law etc. we have a specific word for it. So this post is completely untranslatable. So, instead, I'll teach you some random words in Finnish! While random, they were chosen as they describe our culture quite well.

Anoppi, mother-in law
We'll use this in a sentence later

My mom, i.e. Eerikki's future anoppi

Appi, father-in-law
We'll use this in a sentence too

Random word no. 1 kalsarikännit
When you get drunk in your underpants, or sweatpants work too, alone at home. Quite common, even more popular during coronavirus.

Käly, sister-in-law
As conjugations would be too difficult at this point of your Finnish studies, let's make some Finglish sentences. I had kalsarikännit the other night and drunk dialed my käly.

50% of Eerikki's future kälys

Lanko brother-in-law Suoveri
we'll get back to this one

Miniä, daughter-in-law
We'll return to this one too

Second random Finnish word: onnellinen
This is one of my favorite Finnish words. I don't know if many other languages have it but I haven't found one in English that would mean the same thing. It would probably get translated to happy or content. But it's more than that, it's like being happy with everything in that moment, a sort of feeling of peace, that everything is well in your life.

Vävy son-in-law
I am so onnellinen that my daughter is getting married to Eerikki. My future vävy is such an amazing guy.

A few more words to help us form a few more sentences: morkkis. It means an emotional hangover. If the day after you've been drinking you're feeling kind of low and regret everything you did, even if there's no real reason for it, you have morkkis. I have such a bad morkkis, I bet my lanko hates me for spilling my drink all over him.

Next word to learn is avantouinti. This means swimming in cold water. Preferably you make a hole in a frozen lake, get in for a quick plunge and then head to sauna. In a sentence: Me and my anoppi love to go for avantouinti every winter. She says it's her favorite tradition with her miniä.

Final random word: äitiyspakkaus. This is something that as far as I know, is only done in Finland. With every baby you get, you get a box of free baby stuff with clothes, diapers and other necessities for the baby. In a sentence: My appi helped me carry my äitiyspakkaus from the post office.

So, was this useful? Probably not! But I hope it was fun :D

Onnellinen Eerikki

Stay safe!

Lähteet: Wikipedia and Yle

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