Jänistää is basically same as to chicken out.

The "hyppiä seinille" is at least in my area, used quite exactly like you said it. Never heard anybody use that to say someone's offended.

"Tätä nyt ei osaa Erkkikään"= "Not even Erkki can do this" meaning that even if Erkki can't do it, no one can.

”Olla pihkassa” also means to have crush on someone

Heittää lusikka nurkkaan means to die!! Not to give up. It originates from olden times when people lived in cottages and everyone had their own spoon that they stored on the wall. Then when a person died the spoon was thrown away. (I used to study folklore studies :D)

"sataa kuin Esterin perseestä" => "it's raining like from Ester's arse" Meaning: it's raining super heavily.

Pähkinä purtavaksi is more like a quiz type of a thing to think about, or a mystery, not how you like dem appuls

I have only heard "hyppiä seinille" as a saying when someone is energetic

Levisi kuin jokisen eväät has always meant that something got out of control, for where i live at least.

"Hyppiä seinille" is used also to say someone is restless..

"pähkinä purtavaksi" means more like "theres a mystery for you to solve"

”Vettä tulee kuin Esterin perseestä” To rain heavily

i think a better translation for "olla pihkassa" is "to have a crush on someone". atleast that's the way it's used here.

"Eteenpäin sanoi mummo lumessa" IS definitely my favorite one

"Etiäppäin, sanoi mummo lumessa" is a bit like my favorite saying: "Leuka rintaan, ja kohti uusia pettymyksiä" ;)

When regarding to Finnish idioms, Dave is quite often "ulkona kuin lumiukko - outside like a snowman".

Finnish saying "Lukea tiilenpäitä" (to read brick-ends) means "to be in prison".

There can be various interpretations and uses of these idioms so the offered translation isn't always something that every finn agrees on.

There's other alternatives for "not having all moomins in the valley". You can also say "Ei kaikki inkkarit kanootissa" - "not having all the Indians in the canoe" "Ei penaalin terävin kynä" - "not the sharpest pencil in the pencil case" "Ei kaikki natsit bunkkerissa" - "not having all the nazis in the bunker" Or, you can also say "hissi ei mene ylös asti" - "the elevator doesn't go all the way up" My favourite saying is "Isäsi ei ole lasimestari", meaning "Your dad isn't a glass maker". This is something you say to someone who is standing in front of you so you can't see anything. I suppose the idea is that a glass maker's kid would be see-through

"To open wordly chest", come from Kalevala, it really means sharing the treasure of wisdom. It is quite archaic saying.

I've seen in finnish website when one person got very offended in comments, sometimes someone shares a pic of a medicine description telling to put one drop on every nostril daily glued on a package of peas. Savage

I love these videos. For some reason rabbits are symbols of cowardice in finnnish idioms. Like Jänistää (eng equivalent Chicken Out) and Pupu pöksyssä, which means to have a bunny in your trousers. That means you're scared. I also love the idiom "Maalata piruja seinille." (To paint devils/imps on the walls). That means you're saying something bad will happen and people here don't like that, since saying it out loud is more likely to make it come true. "Mä tuun reputtamaan sen testin!" "Älä maalaa piruja seinille." "I will fail the test!" "Don't paint imps on the walls."

There's it's own saying for the "We're screwed" saying (which was your guess for the "olla pihkassa") and it's "olla kusessa" = "to be in piss". So yeah, if we finns are screwed, we're in more unpleasant substance than resin :D

Here I am commenting on an old video but: It's kinda fun to see how some of these idioms have different meanings to people from different places. For example, to me the "Heittää lusikka nurkkaan" means to die. And "Hyppiä seinille" isn't to get offended but rather to be anxious about something or to be restless or really angry.

"Levisi kuin Jokisen eväät" is definitely my favourite. I'm proud of my last name.

"Hyppiä seinille" means "to become restless" in my opinion.

Based on the other comments people have really different ideas of what "hyppiä seinille" means. I've always thought it means being agitated and sort of acting out because you're too nervous? I don't quite know how to explain it, but something along those lines.

I really love these videos! Even I, a born Finn, don’t know all the idioms. I think your explanations are sometimes better than the original ones, too 😂 Also, I have to congratulate you on your pronunciation. It’s gotten a lot better, I think you’re doing great. Keep it up! (And congrats on the baby as well!)

4:37 we have saying in Hungarian, it's "enyveskezű" which means "someone with gluey hands" and it also means thief. So it's similar to both Finnish and English.

These videos are so funny. Kiitos! 👏 Can't wait for part 3!!!

"Hyppiä seinille'". For me it most often means "being nervous and restless" like waiting for something and not being able to wait calmly. It _could_ also mean getting really annoyed and angry and being agitated because of it.

Se koira älähtää, johon kalikka kalahtaa. It's the dog that barks which gets hit by a stick (a small piece of wood is what kalikka means but I can't get it in my mind in english). Explanation: when there is a group one in which has done something and they are asked who did it, it is usually the first one to say "it wasn't me" who did it. A bit long explanation but I can't say it better!

In my town we have a saying: "Älä ny siihen synnytä!" which translates correctly to "Don't give birth right there!" and we use that saying, when someone is getting angry to one another and usually starts raising voice mid-sentence..

Gotta say my favorites are ”lepakoita vintillä” = has bats in the attic (not right in the head) and good old ”pyörii kuin siat vatukossa” = roll around like pigs in the raspberry bush (when some folks are just milling about)

Cat should cover all the descriptions with really long cover strips to throw you off. :D

Don't know if this has already been there but there is also a saying "lähteä käpälämäkeen" ("to leave for paw hill") meaning "to flee". Funnily enough there apparently is an area called Käpälämäki in Oulu...

These videos are really interesting even for native Finnish speakers, since they get you thinking how you would say those things in English. Also the comments have educated me that not all sayings have same meaning all around Finland and also where the sayings come from.

Kun on lusikalla annettu, ei voi kauhalla vaatia. If someone's been given by a spoon, can't demand them by a ladle. Not to demand more than they can handle. Not to have higher expectations than one's abilities allow.

Maybe "went pear shaped" is a good English equivalent of the gingerbread one?

I'm not very pleased with the translations. Some of them aren't broad enough (for example "jump on the walls" doesn't usually even mean "to get offended") or they are slightly wrong (heittää lusikka nurkkaan = to die)

Never actually heard an end to that "Moni kakku päältä kaunis" for me it ends there. But that "Olla pihkassa" that's Pine resin and it's very sticky, if you haven't already got some stuck on your finger in mökki, next time stick it on some resin and you immediately get that saying. English saying "to be glued to someone" same idea, but Finnish saying is way less creepy :D Well Finnish saying translation close to that would be "olla kuin paita ja peppu" "to be like a shirt and a butt" aka inseparable.

I think "vetää herne nenään" comes from that when you get offended or pissed off you inhale strongly with your nose. And it's so strong that it draws pea from your plate. Evolved one is "draw your pea soup into one's nose". (pea soup is very traditional Finnish food)

My favorite saying is "Äijän syöp' joka lomalla". It is directly translated "One eats a man during every break" but my great aunt meant that birds eat a lot of seeds from bird feeder always when they had time. She spoke northern Savo dialect (similar to Viänänen from TV show/advent calendar Tonttu Toljanteri) but unfortunately we didn't record it when she lived.

I'm finnish and I like these vids mostly to see how Well you can speak finnish

IMO, the translation for "olla pihkassa" is inaccurate. It means to have a crush on someone, not just general fondness. I'm fond of my mom, but would never tell my mom that I'm "pihkassa" with her. Same goes for "hyppiä seinille" - your guess was actually correct! I've never heard or seen "hyppiä seinille" used to mean getting offended, it's always meant being hyper or energetic or, sometimes, going a little crazy. As for Jokinen and Ellu, who those people were is now lost to history.

Tuhannen pillun päreiksi Means something along theys lines "to brake in many fine peaces" or "to brake so bad its unfixable"

The last one about having a foxtail in your armpit has to do with old folklore. The Fox is often considered a trickster among animals (similar to the role of the Coyote, the Spider or the Monkey in other cultures). In essence, one would be hiding their fox-like appearance, so as not to have one's plans found out.

Only Dave could make 3 episodes about a book that thin ;) Loved it, though.

Tuo kirja olisi parempi jos siinä annettaisiin jotain kontekstia sanonnoille. Varsinkin kun katsoo tätä videota ja aikaisempaa niin tuntuu että saattaisi ymmärtää ehkä paremmin noita ja oppia jopa käyttämään helpommin jos osaisi heti yhdistää tilanteeseen.

You were right about bouncing off the walls, it's just being riled up in general, due to anger or excess energy or whatever. Here is a nice one for you, another option for "olla pihkassa" = "olla lätkässä" = be head over heels for someone I think both must be describing flies getting trapped, either in that sticky tree goo or by getting swatted with a kärpäslätkä (fly slapper). So basically, you're stuck or hung up on someone 😁

I've never heard "ketunhäntä kainalossa", but in Swedish there's an idiom "ha en räv bakom örat" (to have a fox behind your ear) which has the same meaning.

We also have another saying for giving up which is "Heittää kirves kaivoon" = to throw the axe in the well

It's funny how similar swiss and finnish sayings can be... - for "thief" we use the term "Langfinger/ lange Finger haben" - "longfingers/ to have long fingers" - To throw the spoon into the corner, we use the term "Die Flinte ins Korn werfen" - "to throw the gun into the cornfield" - They aren't quite right in the head, we use the term "Er/Sie hat nicht alle Tassen im Schrank" - "He/She has not all cups in the cupboard"

Also, regarding this Käpälämäki thing another saying referring to cowardice (or rather lack of it) is "Ei tässä olla arkalasta kotoisin" ("We are not from arkala") meaning the speaker does not consider him/herself to be a coward. And yes, there is actually a place called Arkala in Finland...

''Tulla maitojunalla kotiin'' = To come home by a milktrain = To return home after an unsuccessful venture (usually careerwise)

"Sour", said a fox about rowan berries. "Happamia" , sanoi kettu pihlajanmarjoista. A person is jealous because someone has something she wants, so she says it's bad to feel better about it. (Like "his car is really ugly" although she actually wants it).

Hyvää yötä sano mummo ko silimät puhkes. - Good night said the granny when her eyes popped. Konstit on monet sano mummo ko kissalla pöytää pyyhki. - Means are many said the granny when wiping the table with the cat. These are my two ultimate favorites!

More of these please. These and your weird (but genius) things in finnish homes videos are by far my favorite videos from you. Its weirdly entertaining to us when foreigners are entertained by things (in this case sayings) that are every day life for us, things that we even take for granted.

Dave I absolutely love these videos, please do the part 3!

"Heittää pyyhkeen kehään" is to give up too (that's straight up the same as to throw the towel)

I love how calming your voice is, I could listen to it for hours.

"Hyppiä seinille" is mostly used to basically call someone restless. I'd say you were completely right with the "lots of energy" theory. You know, there might be a kid who has to sit down quietly at some important event or something, when they have lots of energy and not feel like doing so, you'd be using that saying. But it's a bit of a weird one, cause it can also mean to feel sort of agitated in an aggressive way. I'd never say it means "to get offended", but I can see where they're coming from. Say someone insults you, you might become really agitated and say something insulting back or at least want to. So yeah, I'd say a better way to translate it would've been "to be restless / to be agitated". Also, "mennä pipariksi" actually means for something "to turn into gingerbread biscuits", not "go to gingerbread biscuits" like the book is saying. You could also say "mennä plörinäksi" to mean the same thing, which is kind of a funny saying, cause "plörinä" is basically an onomatopoeia for the sound of farts, so it's basically like saying "go down the shitter" in English. :P

"Heittää lusikka nurkkaan" is not "to give up"! It means "to die"!

I love to watch videos like this, because yes I use all of these idioms (mostly because my parents are pretty old and they use them too) and i have never thought the real meaning of sentences. It's also funny to read comments and see how differently phrases are used around finland

Kääntää kelkkansa = to box the compass, to flip-flop. To make a policy reversal. If you think about it, changing one's mind is easy, but to turn the sled means you've adopted a new direction and it implies a calculated and final decision.

subbed and rang the bell just to know when part 3 comes out!

Lähti kuin talonmies/mummo märältä peltikatolta - Went like a janitor/granny from a wet roof. Pretty much to disappear or leave very fast.

Whaaat... Hyppiä seinille to me is like: I'm going crazy over here! Like so upset, angry or waiting eagerly for an answer that you jump on walls.

Actually your Finnish pronunciation is quite good. My students who have English as a first language have sometimes huge problems distinguishing between u and y (which you do well). The cause of this problem is the English u (as in "moon") which is almost a y in Finnish ears and language.

Make a part 3. I am really enjoying this as a finnish person.

would be awesome to see a part 3 of this series, i'm sure a lot of people agree with me :) this is so fun to watch

This is so much fun! 😁 I am amazed about how many sayings you know in English!

Here are couple of my favourite sayings, which have actually been used at my work in speeches to groups of Finns and non-Finnish speaking people. 😁 Not giving the meanings just yet. ”Mennä perse edellä puuhun.” - ”To climb arse first to a tree.” ”Juosten kustu.” - ”Peed while running.”

There's a really old timey idiom which is my favourite "Vintillä olisi leipää mutta lapset söivät portaat" which would translate to "There's bread in the attic but children ate the stairs". I guess it''s pretty self explanatory though: There's an attainable goal but somebody has made it impossible to achieve by making a bad mistake or decision.

I'm from Finland and my opinion is that you said the words pretty well!

"vahinko ei tule kello kaulassa" = "accidents don't happen when you have a bell around your neck" "täynnä kuin Turusen pyssy" = "full, like Turunen's shotgun" try guessing them! :D

Where is part 3? I just started to watch your series and I'm hooked. I've one saying: "Viedä saunan taakse" / "take behind the sauna" (I quess that is in book or maybe not so I won't spoil it, but it isn't nice one)

''Harmittaa (kun jäi väliin), mutta ei harmita onneks'' -Niilo22 describes that how hard is to tell your feelings as a finn

”Hyppiä seinille” is actually having too much energy

I say "yes please" for part 3! As a Finn, these are fun to watch :D

These are the best! Why to leave still some to part 3? Your pronunciation is very correct nowadays, but you missed an s: "laaksossa" (Muumit laaksossa, you said muumit laakossa). In whole video you made only one mistake, great job!

Jänistää - to rabbit. In English you say 'to chicken out' (US says, at least). Scaredy cat is in Finnish jänishousu 'rabbit pants'. The rabbit is quite an easily scared animal. And more originally European than a cat - or even chicken.

You should definitely make a video about reacting to some of the Vain Elämää songs!

we need the rest of the book please !!

I think the Mummo one has always been so great and wholesome

We need part 3!

These videos are the best!

Who else likes how when he gets it wrong because he doesn’t understand the English idiom he used, he still gives himself a point.

I see that "get offended " and im thinking more like first : Vetää herne nenään = Is where you are offended but you take it ( "and suck it in", and leave ) second: Hyppiä seinille = Is more of an action, or soemthing very near action ( Fight-responce )

That "Moni kakku..." is from Kalevala's 33rd poem, the full verse is: "Moni on kakku päältä kaunis, kuorelta kovin sileä, vaan on silkkoa sisässä, akanoita alla kuoren." It is said by Kullervo who is (correctly) suspicious of the bread he was given by Ilmarinen's wife. There's also a famous painting of that scene by Akseli Gallen-Kallela: "Kullervo's Curse" (1899). Sadly I don't have the best translation (by the blind American-English Eino Friberg), so here's John Martin's translation: "Many loaves are fine to look on, On the outside seem delicious, On the inside, chaff and tan-bark!".

Thanks Dave! This is one of the best series ever 🥴

Continue please!

Yeeey more of these!

"suksi kuuseen" - ski in/to a spruce When you wanna tell someone to go away "päästä pälkähästä" - get off skis (rough translation) Basically like (barely) getting out of a tough situation

New mic hype, good luck with baby to both of you. :)

My ex-teacher used to always say to me "no nyt sulla on tavarat levällä kun Jokisen eväät" (basically your stuff is everywhere) because my lastname is Jokinen. Cant even hear that idiom without thinking about *all* the times he said that to me

I watched these videos some years ago and even as a Finnish person I feel like I've forgotten some of these that I used to know :D

"Se meni pipariksi." -- "It went tits up."

Your Finnish is so cute, it always makes me smile!

2:30 You nearly nailed that. You really have improved Dave.