Handbook of Finnish, 2nd edition, section 5 Vocabulary:

Family relationship and relationship by marriage

Family relationships are a good example of different scopes of words mentioned in the previous section. Such differences may cause difficult problems in translation in situations that lack sufficient context.

The English word “uncle” must be translated as eno, if it means “mother’s brother”, and setä, when it means “father’s brother”. Similarly, the words “nephew” and “niece” cannot be translated without knowing the relation more exactly. For example, in early translations of Donald Duck, Aku Ankka in Finnish, Hewey, Dewey, and Louie—Tupu, Hupu, and Lupu—were called Donald’s veljenpojat, even though this means “brother’s sons” and they are actually Donald’s sister’s sons.

Family relationships

The systems of words for relationship by birth are partly different in Finnish and in English. Both languages use simple words for the very basic relationships, but they have different approach to referring to grandchildren, nephews, etc. The following table shows the correspondences in standard languages. As in most languages, there are many colloquial or dialectal words especially for the basic relationships, e.g. äitee, äiskä, mutsi for äiti (mother).

English word	Finnish word	Notes
parent	vanhempi : vanhemman	Also an adjective meaning “older” (see below).
mother	äiti : äidin	Old synonyms emä and emo now in specialized usage.
father	isä : isän
child	lapsi : lapsen
daughter	tytär : tyttären
son	poika : pojan	The Finnish word also means “boy”.
grandparent	isovanhempi : isovanhemman
grandmother	isoäiti : isoäidin	Also mummo or mummu or mummi, but not in formal style. For maternal and paternal grandmother, Finnish often uses äidinäiti and isänäiti.
grandfather	isoisä : isoisän	Also ukki or vaari, but not in formal style. For maternal and paternal grandmother, Finnish often uses äidinäiti and isänäiti.
grandchild	lapsenlapsi : lapsenlapsen
grandson	tyttärenpoika / pojanpoika	Finnish is unavoidably more specific: it has different words for daughter’s son and son’s son.
granddaughter	tyttärentytär / pojantytär	Finnish has different words for daughter’s daughter and son’s daughter.
aunt	täti : tädin	Also used to refer to a woman in general; see note after the table.
uncle	eno : enon/ setä : sedän	Finnish has different words for mother’s brother, eno, and father’s brother, setä. However, eno may also refer to the spouse of mother’s sister. See also note after the table about generalized usage.
sibling	sisarus : sisaruksen	Sometimes sisares : sisareksen. Mostly in plural, sisarukset ∼ sisarekset.
sister	sisar : sisaren	Colloquially also sisko : siskon.
brother	veli : veljen	Colloquially also velipoika : velipojan.
niece	sisarentytär / veljentytär	Finnish has different words for sister’s daughter and brother’s daughter.
nephew	sisarenpoika / veljenpoika	Finnish has different words for sister’s son and brother’s son.
cousin	serkku : serkun	The old synonym orpana is not used in modern language.
second cousin	pikkuserkku
third cousin	sokeriserkku	Rarely used; may also refer to more remote relatives. Nowadays kolmas serkku is sometimes used, imitating the English expression.
great grandparent	isoisovanhempi	Usually a more specific expression like isoäidin isä is used instead.
great grandmother	isoisoäiti	Also isomummo, but not in formal language. Usually a more a specific expression is used instead.
great grandfather	isoisoisä	Also isovaari or isopappa, but not in formal language, and these words may also refer to grandfather. Usually a more a specific expression is used instead.
great grandchild	lapsenlapsenlapsi	Often a more specific expression like tyttärenpojan lapsi is used instead.

The word täti is also used by children and by adults talking to a child, to refer generally to a woman who is essentially older than the child, without implying any family relationship. Similarly, setä is used generally about older men in such a sense.

The Finnish word vanhempi is used mostly in plural in this meaning, vanhemmat : vanhempien (parents). When referring to one parent only, the word for mother or father is used or, when necessary, an expression like äiti tai isä (mother or father) is normally used. When the word “parent” is used metaphorically, as in “parent node” (in a tree-like data structure), Finnish normally uses isä, e.g. isäsolmu.

For stepmother, stepfather, stepsister, and stepbrother Finnish uses äitipuoli, isäpuoli, sisarpuoli, and velipuoli, where the latter component is inflected puoli : puolen. The words sisarpuoli and velipuoli are also used for half sister and half brother, respectively.

Marriage

In a marriage, avioliitto in Finnish, the general word for spouse is puoliso, but it is mostly used in formal language only. Usually the words vaimo (wife) and aviomies or mies (husband) are used. Normally mies is used, but since it also means “man”, it is sometimes prefixed with avio for clarity. Several colloquial words, with varying tones, are in use, e.g. eukko, akka, and muija for wife and ukko for husband.

A married couple can be called using the plural form puolisot or the singular noun pariskunta or aviopari, of which the latter is more formal.

Relationship by marriage

In English, relationship by marriage (affinity) is expressed systematically using words like “mother-in-law”, based on the word for a relationship by birth. Finnish has simple words for each basic relationship, such as anoppi. They are listed in the following table.

English word	Finnish word	Notes
parent-in-law	appivanhempi : appivanhemman	Mostly used in plural, appivanhemmat.
mother-in-law	anoppi : anopin
father-in-law	appi : apen	Colloquially often appiukko : appiukon.
daughter-in-law	miniä : miniän
son-in-law	vävy : vävyn	Colloquially also vävypoika : vävypojan.
sister-in-law	käly : kälyn
brother-in-law	lanko : langon	Colloquially also lankomies : lankomiehen.

These words, especially käly and lanko, are nowadays often replaced by analytic expressions, e.g. miehen veli or vaimon veli or sisaren mies instead of lanko.

In old poetry, nato : nadon is sometimes used for husband’s sister and kyty : kydyn husband’s brother.

Common-law marriage

The word avoliitto (as opposite to avioliitto “marriage”) is generally used to denote a marriage-like but unofficial relationship between a woman and a man. The closest English equivalent is “common-law marriage”. In the Finnish legal system, avoliitto has some of the legal implications of a marriage, especially if the couple has children.

Marriage-related terms such as vaimo and anoppi are often used about relations based on common-law marriage. They may be prefixed with avo, e.g. avovaimo (common-law wife) is often used, whereas avoanoppi (mother of common-law wife) may sound humoristic or colloquial. A couple living in common-law marriage is usually called avopari.

Since common-law marriage is by definition unofficial, there are no strict rules for applying this concept.

Next part: False friends in Finnish and English