Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Finnish is a difficult-to-learn Uralic language whose only relatives in
Europe are Estonian (closely) and Hungarian (distantly). Finland is officially
bilingual, and about 1 in 20 residents speaks Swedish as a first language.
You'll notice that Helsinki is called
Helsingfors
in Swedish. Helsinki's street
signs list places in both Finnish and Swedish. Nearly every educated young
person speaks effortless English—the language barrier is just a road turtle.
But to get you started, I've included a selection of Finnish survival phrases on
The only essential word needed for a quick visit is
kiitos
(KEE-
tohs)—that's “thank you,” and locals love to hear it.
Hei
(hey) means “hi” and
hei hei
(hey hey) means “goodbye.”
Kippis
(KIHP-pihs) is what you say be-
fore you down a shot of Finnish vodka or cloudberry liqueur
(lakka).
