rajaton (rajattomia)

rajaton–

MEANING:

Adjective: Boundless, limitless, unlimited.

The word rajaton appears in today’s example sign in its partitive plural form, rajattomia. (See rajaton declined here.)

The adjective rajaton is also the name of a popular Finnish singing group, Rajaton.

DERIVED FROM:

Rajaton comes from raja, a noun that means ”boundary.” Adding the suffix –ton makes raja into an adjective which describes something that has a ”lack of boundary.” The suffix -ton in Finnish functions similarly to ”-less” or ”-free” in English.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Let’s translate the whole sign.

Liikuvuus is a noun formed from liikkuva +‎ the suffix –uus and means ”mobility.” (Liikkuva is the present participle of liikkua, a verb which means ”to move” or ”to stir.”)

Ratkaisuja is the partitive plural of ratkaisu, which means solution. (See ratkaisu declined here.)

The whole phrase, Rajattomia Liikuvuusratkaisuja translates as ”Unlimited mobility solutions.”

tutkija

tutkija –

MEANING:

Noun: Researcher, examiner, investigator.

In our example from a Finnish baby instruction pamphlet, ”Pieni tutkija” means ”little investigator.”

DERIVED FROM:

Tutkija comes from tutkia, a verb meaning ”to examine” or ”to investigate.” It’s formed by taking the verb root, tutki-, and adding the -ja suffix to make it into a noun.

tippaleipä

tippaleipä –

MEANING:

Compound noun: Funnel cake.  (Literally, ”drip bread” or ”drop bread,” which refer to how it’s made. But most Finns would probably not translate it, they would just use the Finnish word.)

Tippaleipä is a Finnish food eaten around vappu (May 1st)  made by dripping cake batter into hot oil through a pastry bag or funnel. It’s often covered with powdered sugar and served with a lemon-flavored mead called sima.

DERIVED FROM:

Tippaleipä comes from tippa, meaning drip or drop and leipä, meaning bread.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Cooking Finland has a recipe in English if you’d like to try and make it.

hinaus

hinaus –

MEANING:

Noun: towing.

DERIVED FROM:

The related verb is hinata, which means ”to tow.”   Hinaus is an example of a noun formed from a verb by adding the deverbal suffix -us to the verb stem creating a noun describing an action or event.  (-us is used with back vowels, -ys is used with verb stems containing front vowels.)

Other examples: kuvata (“to describe”) → kuvaus (“description”), or pakata (“to pack”) → pakkaus (“package”).

löydä (löytää)

löydä –

MEANING:

Verb: Discover, find.

Löydä appears here as the second-person singular imperative present of löytää. (See löytää conjugated here.)

In our sign, the phrase ”Löydä Helsingin aarteet!” translates as ”Discover the treasures of Helsinki!”

EXTRA CREDIT:

The other words in the phrase …

Aarteet is the accusative plural of aarre, meaning ”treasure.” (See aarre declined here. Note the ”rr” to ”rt” consonant gradation change!)

Helsingin is the genitive of Helsinki, and means ”of Helsinki” or ”Helsinki’s.”

EVEN MORE:

”Poikkea putiikissa” means ”drop by a boutique.”

Poikkea comes from the verb poiketa, meaning ”to depart,” ”differ” or ”drop by.” It appears here in the imperative present with the inessive form of putiiki, meaning boutique.

The whole sign is part of an advertising campaign to get people to visit participating small shops.

nousukausi

nousukausi –

MEANING:

Compound noun: upswing.

DERIVED FROM:

Nousukausi comes from nousu, a noun meaning an ”increase” or ”rise.” (Nousu is related to the verb nousta, meaning ”to rise.”)

And from kausi, a noun meaning ”age” or ”period.”  (In the context of TV, kausi can also mean ”season.”)

Together, nousu + kausi mean something like ”rise period” literally, but figuratively this is known as an ”upswing.”

EXTRA CREDIT:

From our example advertisement, we see this band is called Nousukausi, and they have their debut album coming out on Warner Music Finland on May 17th called ”Taivaspalat.” Taivaspalat means ”Pieces of Heaven” and comes from taivas, meaning ”heaven” or ”sky.” Palat is the nominative plural of pala, meaning ”cut” or ”piece.”

You can listen to the track ”Vähitellen olet poissa” (”Little by little you’re gone”)  from Nousukausi on Youtube here.

Nousukausi is also the name of a 2003 Finnish black comedy film.

Autolla pihaan ajo kielletty

Autolla pihaan ajo kielletty –

MEANING:

Phrase: Driving by car into the courtyard is prohibited.

Signs like this are often posted on the gates leading to the courtyards behind apartment buildings.

Let’s translate each word of the phrase.

1. Autolla is the adessive singular of the noun auto, meaning car. (See auto declined here.)  One use of adessive case is to indicate ”by use of” or ”with” something.  In our sign it means ”by car.”
2. Pihaan is the illative singular of the noun piha, which means ”yard” or ”courtyard.” (See piha declined here.)  Illative case is used when ”into” or ”to” would be used in English. In this case pihaan means either ”into” or ”to the courtyard.” In our example, we know it’s ”courtyard” instead of ”yard” because of where the sign is located.
3. Ajo is a noun which means ”driving,” and it appears here in the nominative singular.
4. Kielletty is the passive past participle of kieltää, which means ”to forbid” or ”to prohibit.” In this case it means ”is prohibited.”

uutuus

uutuus –

MEANING:

Noun: Newness, novelty.

Huippu is a noun often added to other nouns to indicate they they are the ”top” one, so our example sign from the clothing department reads ”The top novelty from Italy!” or maybe ”The top new thing from Italy!”

DERIVED FROM:

Uutuus comes from the adjective uusi, meaning ”new,” ”fresh” or ”novel” plus the suffix -uus. 

The suffix –uus/-us or -yys/-ys can be used with most adjectives to create nouns meaning something that has that quality.

Forming these nouns can be tricky because their formation is affected by consonant gradation and whether or not the adjective stem ends in a vowel. Read the rules here.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Other examples of this type of noun are kaunis (“beautiful”) → kauneus (“beauty”), punainen (“red”) → punaisuus (”redness”), or pieni (”small”) → pienuus (”smallness”).

takuu

takuu –

MEANING:

Noun: Guarantee, warranty.

In our example sign are 3 compound nouns using takuu. Hintatakuu (”price guarantee”), tuoreustakuu (”freshness guarantee”) and laatutakuu (”quality guarantee”).

See takuu declined here.

DERIVED FROM:

Takuu is formed from the verb taata, which means “to guarantee,” by adding the suffix –uu to the verb stem to make it into a noun. Ending in -ata, taata is a type 4 verb and its stem needs to  be changed from weak to strong grade in order to add a suffix, so the verb stem is tak–.

kunnossapitotyö

kunnossapitotyö –

MEANING:

Compound noun: Maintenance work.

DERIVED FROM:

Kunnossapitotyö is a compound word formed from the noun kunnossapito, meaning ”maintenance” and the noun työ meaning ”work.”

EXTRA CREDIT:

In our example sign, siirtokehotus is another compound word meaning ”move order” made from siirto meaning ”move” or ”transfer” and kehotus meaning ”request” or ”order.”

Voimassa is an adverb meaning ”in effect,” and kello tells what time.