Driving in Finland is easy and slightly strange. The roads are empty, the surfaces are good, nobody hurries — and then there are rules that exist almost nowhere else, like the legal obligation to report a collision with a reindeer.
Below: renting, filling up, reading the signs, and what to say when something goes wrong. The transport vocabulary has the nouns; this is what you actually say out loud.
Renting a Car
I'd like to rent a car.
Haluaisin vuokrata auton.
For three days.
Kolmeksi päiväksi.
Do you have an automatic?
Onko teillä automaattia?
Is insurance included?
Kuuluuko vakuutus hintaan?
Is there a mileage limit?
Onko kilometrirajaa?
Where do I return it?
Mihin palautan sen?
Here's my driving licence.
Tässä on ajokorttini.
Does it have winter tyres?
Onko siinä talvirenkaat?
Practice these words
Haluaisin vuokrata auton.
Good to know: onko teillä…? is the same all-purpose "do you have" you use in shops and at a hotel desk, and it comes from the minulla on construction. Most Finnish rentals are manual, so ask about an automatic when you book rather than at the counter.
Check the excess: Finnish rental excess is often high, and animal collisions are common enough that vakuutus is worth reading properly before you sign.
Filling Up and Charging
Where's the nearest petrol station?
Missä on lähin huoltoasema?
Fill it up, please.
Täyteen, kiitos.
Which pump?
Mikä pumppu?
petrol
bensa
diesel
diesel
I need to charge the car.
Minun pitää ladata auto.
charging station
latausasema
Is there a toilet?
Onko täällä vessaa?
Practice these words
Missä on lähin huoltoasema?
At the pump: most Finnish petrol stations are unstaffed and card-only, especially outside towns. The screen talks to you in Finnish, Swedish and usually English — täyteen ("full") is the word on it.
Finnish Road Signs and What They Mean
Beware of elk
Varo hirviä
Beware of reindeer
Varo poroja
Roadworks
Tietyö
Detour
Kiertotie
No entry
Ajo kielletty
One way
Yksisuuntainen
Speed camera
Nopeusvalvonta
Slippery road
Liukas tie
No parking
Pysäköinti kielletty
Road closed
Tie suljettu
Practice these words
Varo hirviä
One word to recognise: kielletty means "forbidden." Whatever comes before it is the thing you can't do, and that pattern covers most prohibition signs in the country.
Parking
Where can I park?
Mihin voin pysäköidä?
Is parking free?
Onko pysäköinti ilmaista?
How long can I stay?
Kuinka kauan voin olla?
parking disc
pysäköintikiekko
multi-storey car park
parkkihalli
parking fine
pysäköintivirhemaksu
Practice these words
Mihin voin pysäköidä?
Watch out: the pysäköintikiekko is a blue cardboard disc you set to your arrival time and leave on the dashboard. Free spaces with a time limit require one, rental cars usually have one in the glovebox, and not displaying it is a fine. This catches almost every visitor exactly once.
Breakdowns and Accidents
The car won't start.
Auto ei käynnisty.
I have a flat tyre.
Rengas on puhki.
I've run out of petrol.
Bensa loppui.
I've had an accident.
Minulle sattui onnettomuus.
Nobody is hurt.
Kukaan ei loukkaantunut.
Call the police.
Soittakaa poliisille.
Call an ambulance.
Soittakaa ambulanssi.
I hit an elk.
Törmäsin hirveen.
Practice these words
Auto ei käynnisty.
Three phrases, most problems: ei käynnisty, ei toimi, loppui — won't start, doesn't work, ran out. All built on the negative verb.
Elk, Headlights and Winter Tyres
Hitting an animal has to be reported. If you collide with an elk, reindeer or deer, you must call the emergency number 112 — even if the animal runs off and your car is undamaged. It isn't an insurance formality: it's so an injured animal can be tracked and dealt with. Collisions are commonest at dusk in autumn, and the varo hirviä signs mark the stretches where they happen.
Headlights stay on, always. Dipped beams are required around the clock, all year, in bright sunshine included. Modern cars handle it automatically; older rentals may not, and driving without them is a fine.
Winter tyres are a legal requirement in the cold months, and in practice from whenever conditions demand it — which can mean October in the north. A car picked up in winter will have them, but confirm it. The vocabulary that goes with the season is in snow, ice and winter words, and iljanne — black ice — is the one to learn first.
A last oddity: Finnish speeding fines are calculated from the driver's income, which produces the occasional headline about a motorway offence costing tens of thousands of euros. The practical effect is that Finns drive at the limit rather than above it, and a foreign car sitting five over stands out.