huvitella

MEANING:

Verb (type 3): to have fun, to amuse.

DERIVED FROM:

Huvitella comes from huvi, a noun that means ”amusement” or ”pleasure.”

Huvi is part of many compound words in Finnish, including huvipuisto (”amusement park”), huviajelu (”joyride”), and huviretki (”pleasure trip,” ”junket,” ”picnic”).

EXTRA CREDIT:

There is a bit of a play on words in this advertisement for the Särkänniemi amusement park. ”Kaikkea mitä huvitella voi” literally means something like ”Everything one can have fun (with).” There is a common phrase in Finnish, ”Kaikkea mitä kuvitella voi,” that means ”Everything one could imagine.” Here, instead of kuvitella, which means ”to imagine” we see huvitella.

Let’s translate the other words in the slogan:

Kaikkea is partitive of kaikki, which means ”everything,” ”everyone” or ”all.”

Mitä is an inflected form of mikä, a pronoun that means ”that” or ”what.”

Voi is the 3rd person singular of voida, here meaning ”one could.”

haukotella (haukotus)

haukotella

MEANING:

Verb: To yawn

See haukotella conjugated here.

RELATED WORDS:

haukotus – (noun) ”yawn”
haukotuttaa – (verb) ”to feel like yawning,” or ”to make a yawn.”
haukkoa – (verb) ”to take large mouthfuls” as in the expression ”haukkoa henkeään” (“to gasp for breath”).
haukata (verb) “to take a bite”

tuuletin

tuuletin –

MEANING:

Noun: fan (device.)

DERIVED FROM:

Tuuletin comes from the verb tuulettaa, which means ”to air,” ”to ventilate,” or ”to fan.”

A related word is the noun tuuletus, which means ”ventilation.”

EXTRA CREDIT:

You will likely see the following types of fans advertised:

Pylvästuuletin – Column fan.
Lattiatuuletin – Floor fan.
Pöytätuuletin – Table fan.
Kattotuuletin – Ceiling fan.

riippumatto

riippumatto –

MEANING:

Compound word: hammock.

DERIVED FROM:

Riippumatto comes from riippu– (“hanging”) +‎ matto (“mat”).

Riippu comes from riippua, a verb which means ”to hang,” ”to dangle,” or ”to be suspended (from)”. In a somewhat different meaning, riippua also means ”to depend.”

Another word made with riippu- is riippuliito (”hang gliding”).

Also words about dependency like riippuvainen (”dependent” or ”addicted”) and riippuvuus (”addiction”) come from riippua. And riippumaton is an adjective that means ”independent.”

A similar looking and sounding word to riippumatto is riippumatta, an adverb which means ”regardless.”

EXTRA CREDIT:

On our example sign, Nanne is the company that sells this hammock. Let’s translate their slogan, ”Oikea tapa rentoutua,” or ”the right way to relax.”

Oikea means ”right” or ”correct.”

Tapa is a noun that means ”custom,” ”habit,” ”manner” or ”way.”

Rentoutua means ”to relax.”

tärkeitä muistoja

tärkeitä muistoja

MEANING:

Phrase: important memories.

Tärkeitä is the partitive plural form of tärkeä, an adjective that means ”important.” (Erittäin tärkeä means ”very important” or ”crucial.”)

Muistoja is the partitive plural form of muisto, a noun that means ”memory,” ”recollection” or ”keepsake.”

DERIVED FROM:

Muisto comes from the verb muistaa, a verb which means ”to remember,” ”to recall” or ”to recollect.”

Mitä vielä odotat?

Mitä vielä odotat?

MEANING:

Phrase: What are you (still) waiting for?

Mitä is the partitive form of mikä, an interrogative pronoun that means ”what.” In this phrase, mitä is used to make the phrase into a question.

Vielä is an adverb that means ”even,” ”still” or ”yet.” (In our example, vielä may just be used for emphasis and could possibly be dropped when translating into English.)

Odotat is the second-person singular present form of odottaa. Odottaa means ”await,” ”expect” or ”wait for,” and has many more meanings so check the sanakirja.org entry for more. (See odottaa conjugated here.)

EXTRA CREDIT:

Other common phrases made with mitä:

Mitä sinä teet? – What are you doing?
mitä kello on? – What time is it?
Mitä kuuluu? – How are you?
Mitä ihmettä? = What on Earth?
Mitä hittoa? = What the Devil?
Mitä helvettiä? = What the hell?

kulua (kuluu)

kulua

MEANING:

Verb: Many meanings. See the sanakirja.org entry for more. The main meanings are as below.

(e.g. of clothes) to wear (out/thin/down),
(of money) to get spent, go, (of food) get eaten/consumed
(of time) to go by, pass by, pass off

Kulua appears in our example, aika kuluu in the third-person singular present form. (See kulua conjugated here.)

NOTE: Be careful not to confuse kulua with kuulua, which is a different verb. Kuulua is the verb that appears in the common phrase Mitä kuuluu? (”How are you doing?”)

In our example, aika means ”time,” so the best translation of the phrase ”aika kuluu” might be ”time passes” or ”time goes by.”

EXTRA CREDIT:

Hanki is the second-person singular imperative of hankkia, a verb that means ”to get.”

Eläkevakuutus is a compound word that means ”pension insurance.” It is made from eläke (”pension”) plus vakuutus, (”insurance.”)

The phrase means ”Get OP-pension insurance.” (OP is a Finnish cooperative bank.)

Nukuitko hyvin?

Nukuitko hyvin?

MEANING:

Phrase: Did you sleep well?

Nukuitko is the second-person singular past form of the verb nukkua + the ending –ko, used to turn any word into a question. (Without the -ko, the phrase ”Nukuit hyvin” means ”You slept well.”)

See nukkua conjugated here.

Hyvin is an adverb meaning ”well.” It can also mean ”very.” The comparative of hyvin is paremmin (”better”), and the superlative is parhaiten (”best”).

maustamaton

maustamaton –

MEANING:

Adjective: unflavored, natural, unspiced.

DERIVED FROM:

Maustamaton comes from maustaa, a verb that means ”to season,” ”to spice,” ”to flavor” or ”to salt” plus the suffix‎ –maton, used to form negative participles. (See mausta conjugated here.)

The suffix -maton can be broken down further into the deverbal suffix –ma, which is appended to the first-person singular present form without the suffix -n. Then the additional suffix –ton is added to indicate a lack of something, -ton being similar to the suffix ”-less” suffix in English.

Other examples of words made with the suffix -maton:

olla (“to be”) > olematon (“nonexistent”)
syödä (“to eat”) > syömätön (“uneaten”)
naida (”to marry”) > naimaton (”unmarried”)

See still more words suffixed with –maton here.

EXTRA CREDIT:

In our example photo, kivennäisvesi means ”mineral water,” ”selzer water” or ”sparkling water.” (If you are looking for the carbonated water in a Finnish grocery store, this is the one you want.)

Suolaton means ”saltless” or ”salt-free.”

juhannusheila

juhannusheila –

MEANING:

Compound word: midsummer sweetheart (or midsummer date/boyfriend/girlfriend, etc.)

The compound word appears in our example in the partitive singular, juhannusheilaa since it receives the action of the verb hemmottele.

DERIVED FROM:

Juhannus is Midsummer, occurring around June 21st, one of the biggest holidays of the year in Finland.

Heila means sweetheart, boyfriend, girlfriend or date. (See heila declined here.)

Other words you often see combined with juhannus are juhannussauna (”midsummer sauna”), juhannussää (”midsummer weather”), and juhannusliikenne (”midsummer traffic”).

EXTRA CREDIT:

Hemmottele is the imperative singular of the verb hemmotella, which means ”to coddle,” ”pamper,” ”spoil” or ”indulge.” (See hemmotella conjugated here.)

The newspaper page includes recipes you can make to ”spoil your midsummer sweetheart.”