Swedutch

gorilla vuorilla = gorilla in the mountains

gorilla vuorilla = gorilla with (fabric) lining

gorillavuorilla = in the mountains where the gorillas live

gorillavuorilla = lined with gorilla fur

based on this list (thank you @chiara-klara-claire for tagging me to translate it and my apologies for the huge delay!)

De crèche (-s); het kinderdagverblijf (-ven) - the crèche De denkbeeldige vriend (-en) - the imaginary friend Het kind (-eren) - the child De kindertijd (no plural) - the childhood De klasgenoot (-noten) - the class mate Het kleurpotlood - the colored pencil De kleuterschool (-scholen) - the kindergarten De knuffelbeer (-beren); de knuffel - the teddy bear; the cuddly toy Het kruippakje (-s) - the romper suit De lolly (-’s); BE de lekstok (-ken) - the lollipop De melktand (-en) - the baby tooth De pamper (-s) - the diaper De pap (no plural) - the pap De school (scholen) - the school De schooluitstap (-pen) - the school trip Het slaapliedje (-s) - the lullaby De slab (-ben) NL; de bavet (-ten) BE - the bib Het speelgoed (no plural, collective noun); het speeltje (-s)  - the toy De speeltuin (-en) - the playground Het spel (-en) - the game Het sprookje (-s) - the fairytale De tekenfilm (-s) - the cartoon (Het) tikkertje (no plural) - play tag Het tussendoortje (-s) - the snack De tut (-ten)* - the pacifier De vriend (-en) - the friend (m.) De vriendin (-nen) - the friend (f.) Het waskrijt (no plural)** - the grease pencil (Het) verstoppertje (no plural) - hide and seek De verzorgtafel (-s) - the changing table

Brabbelen (gebrabbeld) - to babble Kleuren (gekleurd) - to colour  Knutselen (geknutseld) - to do craft work Schilderen (geschilderd) - to paint Spelen (gespeeld) - to play Vertellen (verteld) - to tell

*often the diminutive, “tutje”, is used

@skyfern replied:

“epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän” The Finns steal all the letters, leave some for us will you XD 

We’re probably almost as bad as the Welsh and the Icelandic are. Compound words for the win! So here’s a few more oddities I’ll share, just because I can.

Words and phrases that just look funny to anyone

Hääyöaie - hää+yö+aie, “wedding-night-intent”, most vowels in a Finnish word compared to complete word length. Another version is hääyöaieuutinen, “wedding-night-intent-news” if you were to… tell someone the news that you intend to have a wedding night? There’s no logic, it just sounds funny. Lämpimämpi - lämmin+mpi, “warmer”, the word is bent according to the use of the comparative suffix -mpi, and in this case becomes a dumb chant of itself. Alavilla mailla hallanvaaraa - “Flatlands can expect a danger of night-frost”, can be heard in a weather forecast, once voted to be the most beautiful Finnish sentence. Vesihiisi sihisi hississä - “A water-spirit was hissing in an elevator”, a common tongue-twister.

Words that change meanings weirdly with a suffix

Hypätä - to jump / Hypellä - to casually keep jumping, just as an example Tappaa - to kill / Tapella - to fight/brawl/argue/fistfight, but grammatically “to casually keep killing” Hakata - to hit, to hammer, to chop / Hakkailla - to casually keep hitting/hammering/chopping (with a slightly different suffix), but in folk use and old euphemisms it means “to flirt”. Nauraa - to laugh / Naureskella - to keep laughing, but in common use “to mock” or “to sneer at”.

Odd homonyms

Kuusi palaa - thanks to the nature of how words are formed in Finnish, in this case kuusi can either mean “the number six”, “your moon”, “a spruce tree” or “six of [insert people, animals, objects]” while palaa can mean “to burn”, “to return” or “an amount of pieces”. So the sentence can either read as “your moon is burning/returning” or “the number six is burning/returning”, “the spruce is returning/on fire” or “the six of them are burning/returning” or just “six pieces” (of cake, of a puzzle…). With a bit of a stretch, if there was a conversation started by “what are you eating?” and the person somehow owned a moon, reply “kuusi palaa” could even translate to “a piece of your moon”.

Vihdoin vihdoin vihdoin - “Finally I whisked myself with a vihta”, in any order you wish to think of it. Vihdoin means “finally” but it also means to “vihtoa” in first person past tense, which is a verb made from the tool “vihta”, a birch-twig sauna thing.

Haavat - either “aspen trees” or “wounds”. Word conjugations for haapa (aspen) and haava (wound) look similar in plural form.

Verbs for having fun in different ways

For being such a stoic country, Finns actually have a lot of words for laughing! Most are onomatopoetic, as in many languages, so maybe they can give a hint to the pronunciation of some Finnish vowels.

Nauraa - to laugh Hekottaa - to laugh in a wide, loud, airy manner Hihittää - to giggle, maybe like when someone is hiding a crush Kikattaa - to giggle, but sounds a bit different, more open and child-like Käkättää - to cackle (not to be confused with kakattaa, “to feel like pooping”) Räkättää - to cackle harder, louder Höhöttää - to laugh in a neighing, snorting, low way Hohottaa - to laugh in a wide, low, loud way Hirnua - to laugh very loudly and nasally, also to neigh (like horses do) Hymistä - to hum, can also be to hum in a laughing/smiling way Hykertää - to chuckle, to laugh to themselves, to laugh in a humming way Kihertää - something between a chuckle and a giggle Tyrskähtää - to burst out a snorting laugh Tirskahtaa - to burst out a giggle Tirskua - to keep making those poorly restrained giggles Pärskähtää - to snort (also used for horses etc) Ulvoa (naurusta) - to howl with laughter (also used for dogs, wind etc.) Tikahtua (nauruun) - to be overcome with, to nearly choke, to lose voice over laughing, but in a good way

Sure 😂 I’ll do words and expressions.

De sigaar zijn - literal translation: to be the cigar - meaning: to be screwed/busted.

Binnenpretje (het) - literal translation: little inside fun - meaning: when you think of something funny and start to chuckle you have a binnenpretje.

Oelewapper (de) - dummy

Met samengeknepen billen zitten - literal translation: to sit with your butt cheeks squeezed together - meaning: to be very nervous

Klopt - literal translation: knocks - meaning: that’s right

Flierefluiter (de) - slacker

Zielepietje (het) - poor thing

Kjoet - slang spelling of cute

Billenkoek geven - literally: to give ass cookie - meaning: officially it means hitting children on their butt as a punishment, but nowadays it just means punishing a child in any way and it’s often said as a joke.

Prietpraat (de) - small talk, talking about nonsense

Aflebberen - to lick off; to kiss in a disgusting way

The Northerlands

summer night in Sweden

i alla fall - in any case, anyway

i alla led - end-to-end

i allmänhet - in general

i annat fall - otherwise, else

i fred - alone

i fråga om - about, with respect to, concerning

i första hand - importantly, first (of all)

i en handvänding - in no time

i hemlighet - secretly

i jämförelse med - compared to

i och för sig - in itself, assuredly, certainly

i och med - as a result

i regel - as a rule

i samband med - in relation to

i själ och hjärta - inwardly

i själva verket - in reality, actually

i stället - instead

i sänder - at a time, one by one

i varje fall - in any case, whether 

Hey you lovelies!

I noticed that a lot of people struggle with the word combinations “aan het” and “(om) te”, so I’ll try to explain them with examples 😊

“Aan het” is used for a continuous action that happens/happened at a certain moment in time. It’s always combined with a form of “to be”.

Examples:

Dat meisje is aan het leren in the bibliotheek. (That girl is studying in the library)

Wat ben je aan het doen? (What are you doing?)

Hij was gisteren aan het zeuren. (He was whining yesterday)

The struggle with “om te” is often that people don’t know when you can omit “om”. The general rule is that you can’t omit “om” when it’s used in the context of “in order to”. In other cases it’s a personal choice.

Examples:

Hij vindt het eng (om) hem mee uit te vragen. (He finds it scary to ask him out)

Ik vind het eng (om) dat tegen haar te zeggen. (It scares me to tell her that)

aina = always

usein = often

joskus = sometime

harvoin = seldom

kerran = once

taas, uudelleen = again

kerran vielä = one more time, once again

ei vielä = not yet

ei enälä = not any more

ei koskaan = never

ei koskaan enää = never again

nyt = now

nykyisin = nowadays

ennen = previously

nyttemmin = lately

äskettäin = recently

äsken = just now

pian, kohta = soon

heti = straight away, at once

tänään = today

huomenna = tomorrow

ylihuomenna = the day after tomorrow

eilen = yesterday

toissapäivänä = the day before yesterday

pari päivää sitten= a few days

parin päivän kuluttua = after a few days, a fee days later

koko päivän = all day

joka toinen päivä = every other day

sillä aikaa = during that time, meanwhile

tällä kertaa = this time, on this occasion

siihen aikaan = at that time

Names and meanings of the chess pieces in Europe.

snow and frost