Why snow is wonderful

Snow (lumi) might be seen as an inconvenience for some, but we love it here in Finland!

Not only is it excellent as a mirror for the moon, illuminating your surroundings on the darker nights, it’s also a great provider of amusement for children and adults alike. From making snowmen (lumiukkoja), snow angels (lumienkeleitä), and all manner of things, it’s also great for sledding (kelkkailu), skiing (hiihto) and snowboarding (lumilautailu).

Also, its more compressed, and refrozen cousin ice (jää) is the canvas of figure skaters (taitoluistelijat) and a playground for ice skating (luistelu) or ice hockey (jääkiekko) enthusiasts. You might recall that Finland’s Lions (Leijonat) won the ice hockey world championship (maailmanmestaruuskilpailu) last year for the 3rd time, after previous triumphs in 1995 and 2011.

They say “rakkaalle lapselle on monta nimitystä” (there are many names for a beloved child), and that is certainly true of the Finnish peoples’ relationship with snow.

In English, we share some such as:

• snowflake (lumihiutale)
• sleet (räntä)
• slush (loska)
• frost (huurre)
• rime (kuura)
• hail (rakeita)
• stalagmite (tippukivipylväs)
• stalactite (tippukivipuikkko)

But there are also many more, very specific words.
 
↓ Keep reading below ↓

 

Sohjo is like slush only wetter. There’s a wetter stage of slush beyond that called vesihyhmä (literally water slush) too. We are also covering regional dialects with a variety of words for slush, söltsy is another one!

Another interesting word is kirsi, which is a female name but also a word to describe soil frost.

I could go on but you can check the references for more if I’ve piqued your interest. The list is exclusively in Finnish for now.

 

If you’re also interested in learning Finnish medical vocabulary and the communication skills required to work in healthcare here in Finland, we have language courses that are perfect for you. Not only do they cover the vocabulary and grammar you need to pass the YKI language proficiency test, but our courses are also designed to prepare you for your profession with additional information about regulations and exercises with dialogue created to better prepare you for your duties. Find out more here.

 

The writer of the blog post:

Ross Uren

References:
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luettelo_lunta_tarkoittavista_suomen_kielen_sanoista