onnettomuus

 onnettomuus

MEANING:

Noun: Accident, crash, disaster, wretchedness, misfortune, etc. (For more meanings check sanakirja.org.)

DERIVED FROM:

Onnettomuus is a noun derived from the adjective onneton (”unhappy”) +‎ the suffix –(u)us (front vowel harmony variant –(y)ys) which is used to create nouns from adjectives.  Onneton in turn comes from the noun onni (”happiness”) plus the –ton suffix used to create an adjective indicating a lack of happiness. So you might say onnettomuus is a noun that comes from an adjective that was created from noun

EXTRA CREDIT:

Here are some compound words you often see with onnettomuus.

• Auto-onnettomuus – auto accident. (You also hear kolari, as we featured some days ago.)
• ydinvoimalaonnettomuus – nuclear power station accident (or just ydinonnettomuus)
• Junaonnettomuus – train accident
• Kaivosonnettomuus – mining accident
• Lento-onnettomuus – aircraft accident
• Öljyonnettomuus – oil accident

suihkulähde

 suihkulähde

MEANING:

Noun: fountain.

DERIVED FROM:

Suihkulähde is a compound term made from suihku (a noun meaning ”shower,” ”jet” or ”spray”) +‎ lähde (a noun meaning ”spring,” ”source” or ”origin”). Lähde comes from the verb lähteä (“to leave”).

EXTRA CREDIT:

One synonym for suihkulähde is suihkukaivo. (Kaivo means ”well.”)

kiire (kiirettä)

 kiire

MEANING:

Noun: hurry, haste, rush, hustle.

Kiire appears in our example in the partitive singular.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Let’s translate the headline (from the latest Töölöläinen newspaper talking about the Kamppi Chapel of Silence), Keskellä kaupungin kiirettä, or ”In the middle of the city rush.”

Keskellä is a postposition which means ”in the middle of.” Keskellä takes the genitive.

Kaupungin is the genitive singular of kaupunki, which means ”city.”

erä

 erä

MEANING:

Noun: batch, lot, installment, subdivision in many sports contests, etc. (Erä has many meanings, so see the sanakirja.org entry for more.)

The word erä is frequently seen in advertisements where (like in today’s example photo) it refers to batches of items a store may have on sale for a specified period of time.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Let’s translate the whole sign, ”Erä kierrätyslaukkuja -50%,” or ”Batch of recycled bags -50%.”

Kierrätys means recycling.

Laukkuja is partitive plural of laukku, which means either a soft bag or a hard case.

As a compound word, kierrätyslaukkuja here means ”recycled bags.” (It might also mean ”recycling bags,” but we know from the context that it means the former.)

Another note about erä: When erä appears as a modifier in compound terms, it signifies ”wilds,” ”wilderness” or ”hunting.”  (We had that usage of erä on this blog a while ago.)

Examples of erä as a modifier:  erämaa (“wilderness”), erämies (“hunter, hiker”), eränkävijä (“hunter, hiker”), eräpuukko (“hunting knife”), eräopas (“wilderness guide”)

kolari

 kolari

MEANING:

Noun: crash or collision. especially an automobile accident (autokolari)

RELATED TERM:

A related verb is kolaroida, which means ”to crash.” (We featured this verb before.)

EXTRA CREDIT:

On the news you also often hear the term auto-onnettomuus, which means ”auto accident.”

A very minor traffic accident might be called peltikolari, or ”a fender bender.”

A big pile up of cars would be ketjukolari or literally ”chain collision”

ajaa partansa

 ajaa partansa

MEANING:

Phrase: to shave (the face)

DERIVED FROM:

Ajaa partansa comes from ajaa (“to cut”) + parta (“beard”) + the possessive suffix. It means ”to shave” or ”to have a shave.”

Here, ajaa is the same verb that also means ”to drive.” But ajaa has many possible meanings including ”to herd,” ”to pursue,” ”to advocate,” ”to operate” and ”to shave” or ”cut” as in today’s example.

EXTRA CREDIT:

This same meaning of ajaa is seen in the phrase ajaa nurmikko, which means to cut grass or cut the lawn.

puhaltaa

 puhaltaa

MEANING:

Verb (type 1): to blow, to sound, to play, to blow on, etc.

When referring to wind instruments (known as puhallin), puhaltaa refers to sounding or playing them.

(See puhaltaa fully conjugated here.)

EXTRA CREDIT:

Let’s use puhaltaa in a sentence: Tyttö puhaltaa kynttilät, or ”The girl blows out the candles.”

Tyttö means ”girl.”

Puhaltaa is the 3rd person singular of puhaltaa. (Same as the infinitive form with this verb.)

Kynttilät is the plural of kynttilä, meaning candle. In this sentence kynttilät is in the nominative plural.

avaimenperä

 avaimenperä

MEANING:

Compound noun: key fob, fob, key chain.

DERIVED FROM:

Avaimenperä is a compound term formed from avaimen (genitive of avain, which means ”key”) +‎ perä (which has many meanings, including ”tail end” and ”butt”, but in this compound word it takes on the meaning of ”fob.”)

(Perä is an interesting word with many derived terms which is worth it’s own look here.)

EXTRA CREDIT:

You also infrequently hear avainketju, which means ”fob.” (Ketju on its own means ”chain” or ”necklace.”)

pedata sänky

 pedata sänky

MEANING:

Phrase: to make the bed.

DERIVED FROM:

Pedata is a type 4 verb meaning ”to make the bed” or sometimes colloquially ”to give something a chance.” (See pedata fully conjugated here.)

Sänky means ”bed.”

EXTRA CREDIT:

You will also hear sijata vuode, which also means ”to make the bed.”

Some colloquial terms for bed you may hear:

• peti – bed
• punkka – also means bunk or berth (like on a ship)

nojatuoli

 nojatuoli

MEANING:

Noun: armchair, easy chair

DERIVED FROM:

Nojatuoli is a compound term that comes from the noun noja (”support” or ”rest”) + tuoli (”chair”).

Related to noja is the verb nojata, which means ”to lean” or ”to rest (on or against)”.

EXTRA CREDIT:

• Käsinoja is the arm of an arm chair or an ”armrest.”
• Nojatua is a verb with a similar meaning to nojata. It also means ”to lean” or ”to lean oneself on.”