Most of the world's countries keep their international names in Finnish: Italia, Kanada, Japani. Finland's neighbours don't. Germany is Saksa, Sweden is Ruotsi, Russia is Venäjä and Estonia is Viro — and not one of them resembles what the country calls itself.
Each is a name that reached Finnish centuries ago, usually from the first people Finns actually met, and it stuck for the whole country. The stories are at the bottom of the page. The vocabulary comes first.
Nordic and Baltic Countries
Finland
Suomi
Sweden
Ruotsi
Norway
Norja
Denmark
Tanska
Iceland
Islanti
Estonia
Viro
Latvia
Latvia
Lithuania
Liettua
Russia
Venäjä
Germany
Saksa
Poland
Puola
Practice these words
Suomi
The Rest of Europe
France
Ranska
Spain
Espanja
Italy
Italia
Portugal
Portugali
Greece
Kreikka
Hungary
Unkari
Austria
Itävalta
Switzerland
Sveitsi
the Netherlands
Alankomaat
Belgium
Belgia
England
Englanti
the United Kingdom
Iso-Britannia
Ireland
Irlanti
Ukraine
Ukraina
Czechia
Tšekki
Turkey
Turkki
Practice these words
Ranska
Translated, not borrowed: a few names are built from Finnish words. Itävalta is itä (east) + valta (realm) — a straight translation of German Österreich. Alankomaat is "the lowlands," like Nederland. In everyday speech most Finns say Hollanti for the Netherlands anyway.
England for everything: Englanti is England, and in casual speech Finns often use it for the whole UK too. Iso-Britannia — literally "Great Britain" — is the standard name in the news, and very official texts use Yhdistynyt kuningaskunta, "the United Kingdom."
Further Afield
the United States
Yhdysvallat
Canada
Kanada
Mexico
Meksiko
Brazil
Brasilia
China
Kiina
Japan
Japani
India
Intia
South Korea
Etelä-Korea
Thailand
Thaimaa
Australia
Australia
Egypt
Egypti
Practice these words
Yhdysvallat
Yhdysvallat is plural: it's "the united states" translated word for word, and it behaves as a plural — Yhdysvalloissa, "in the United States." The person is usually amerikkalainen, though news and official texts also say yhdysvaltalainen. Thaimaa is "Thai land," with the Finnish maa (country) on the end.
Nationalities and Languages
One ending makes almost every nationality: -lainen or -läinen, depending on the vowels in the word. And the language is usually just the country name in lower case.
| Country | Person | Language |
|---|---|---|
Suomi | suomalainen | suomi |
Ruotsi | ruotsalainen | ruotsi |
Norja | norjalainen | norja |
Viro | virolainen | viro |
Venäjä | venäläinen | venäjä |
Ukraina | ukrainalainen | ukraina |
Saksa | saksalainen | saksa |
Puola | puolalainen | puola |
Ranska | ranskalainen | ranska |
Espanja | espanjalainen | espanja |
Englanti | englantilainen | englanti |
Yhdysvallat | amerikkalainen | englanti |
Kiina | kiinalainen | kiina |
Japani | japanilainen | japani |
Only the country gets a capital: Suomi is the country, but suomi is the language and suomalainen is a Finn — both lower case, always. Writing Suomalainen in the middle of a sentence is an easy slip if your own language capitalises nationalities.
In a language: add -ksi to the word's stem, which often shifts slightly — suomi → suomeksi, "in Finnish"; englanti → englanniksi, "in English"; ruotsi → ruotsiksi; saksa → saksaksi. Miten tämä sanotaan suomeksi? is the question you'll use more than any other on this page.
Saying Where You're From
Which country are you from?
Mistä maasta olet?
I'm from Ukraine.
Olen Ukrainasta.
I'm Ukrainian.
Olen ukrainalainen.
Where were you born?
Missä olet syntynyt?
I was born in Poland.
Olen syntynyt Puolassa.
I moved to Finland five years ago.
Muutin Suomeen viisi vuotta sitten.
What languages do you speak?
Mitä kieliä puhut?
I speak three languages.
Puhun kolmea kieltä.
My native language is Ukrainian.
Äidinkieleni on ukraina.
Have you been to Sweden?
Oletko käynyt Ruotsissa?
I'm going to Estonia at the weekend.
Menen viikonloppuna Viroon.
How do you say this in Finnish?
Miten tämä sanotaan suomeksi?
Practice these words
Mistä maasta olet?
Äidinkieli is "mother's tongue": äidin (mother's) + kieli (tongue, language). The same word kieli means both the muscle and the language, exactly as in English "tongue." The basic introduction lines — your name, mistä olet kotoisin? and the rest — are in introducing yourself.
Where the Neighbours' Names Came From
Saksa comes from Old Saxon Sahso, a Saxon. Finland's early contact with the German-speaking world was by sea, across the Baltic, with the Low German traders of the north coast — so the first Germans Finns knew were Saxons, and the name spread to the whole country.
Ruotsi goes back to an Old Norse root for rowing, probably via a word for the oarsmen who crossed from the Swedish coast — the old name of the Roslagen coast north of Stockholm comes from the same root. A widely held theory traces the name Rus' to this same Finnic word, which would make Sweden's Finnish name and Russia's own name relatives.
Venäjä, meanwhile, has nothing to do with Rus' at all. It comes from a Germanic word for the Slavs, *winidaz — the same root as the Wends, the Slavic people of medieval eastern Germany.
Viro is named after a single region: Viru, in north-eastern Estonia, one of the regions on the north coast across the gulf from Finland. Estonians call their country Eesti, and Finns named the whole country after that stretch of coast.
The pattern holds for three of the four: Finnish named these countries not after what they called themselves, but after the first people Finns actually met, from the direction they came. Venäjä is the odd one — an outsider's label for the Slavs, borrowed ready-made from Germanic. The same story, told through ordinary words, is in loanwords and false friends.