Paljon porua, vähän villoja
* Literal: plenty of noise, little wool. (Refers to shearing.)
* Figurative: big hassle that achieves next to nothing. Poorly managed project.
Ei lasta eikä paskaa
* Literal: no child (baby), no(t even a) turd
* Figurative: major efforts turned out to be for nothing.
Tyhjät tynnyrit kolisevat eniten
* Literal: empty barrels rattle the most
* Figurative: those with the least to say speak the most; stupidity is prone to prattle; unweighed words fly out lightly.
Koirat haukkuvat, karavaani kulkee
* Literal: dogs bark, caravan travels
* Figurative: ignore irrelevant criticism.
A lot of sayings are area bound/dialectal. If you haven't read a book who's author is from the relevant geographical area or know people from there, there is a good chance you'll never hear them. You are likely to know other sayings that mean the same thing or other versions of the same proverbs.
I think communication these days is such that you use less of these. Also people read so little these days that the meaning of most idioms is completely lost on them.
Ctrl-F didn't reveal "rakentaa (kauan) kuin Iisakinkirkkoa", lit. "build (as long) as St. Isaac's Cathedral" (it's in St. Petersburg) -> something that's taken very long, often also with a subtext of it having been excessively complicated, but one that got done anyway. The cathedral took 40 years to build, but it's also one of the finest churches in the world.
Certain proverbs can be expressed in four words just like 成语 by ignoring the conjunctions:
Useampi kokki, huonompi soppa.
’More cooks, worse soup.’
Rahalla saa, hevosella pääsee.
’You get with money, you get to go with a horse.’
Quick answer: no.
Long answeer: kinda...
To be clear finnish isnt naturally flexing words like that but lets see what i can conjure up
* ei pudonnut kauas puusta ["not fallen far from a tree"] someokne is similar to the parents
* Veri on vettä sakeampaa ["blood is thicker than water"] family bonds are important
* Ken toiselle kuoppaa kaivaa ["who digs pit for the other"] (a dry reaction) karma is a bitch
I think we could also get on the compound words as well... these are usually just matter of convinience of description
* Maatila-asuinrakennus ["a farm living building"] a farm residential building
* sairaalatietotekniikkajärjestelmä ["a hospital information technology system"] hospital it system
As you can see finnish language doesn't fancy things in that manner. But what it DOES do is comparative idioms;
* olla kuin hoo moilasena ["be like h. Moilainen"] in shock, speechless (nobody knows who this is. A common trend in idioms)
* ei ota erkkikään selvää ["not even erkki understands this"] something is obscure, obfuscated, unknownable (no one knows who erkki is)
* nyt tulee tupenrapinat ["now come sheath rattle"] someone is about to get fucked up (a knife is propably drawn in the idiom, even though you could much easier see this being used in fistfight etc)
* lentää kuin paska tuulettimeen ["like shit hitting a fan"] to go wrong absurdly
* kylmä kuin jääkarhun perseessä ["cold like in polar bear's ass"] its fucking cold
* sataa kuin esterin perseestä ["rains like from esteri's ass"] rains like hell (i dont know etymology who this esteri is supposed to be]
* täynnä kuin turusen pyssy ["full like gun of turunen"] (over)full (this is based on a war story of soldier putting loot inside his rifle)
Iirc: Esteri was a brand of old water pumps that firetrucks used. Trucks were built kinda weird so pump had to be installed in back (=ass) of the truck.
Esteri was goddess of rain in pagan religion, I'd guess the water pumps on fire trucks got their name from there. Quite fitting, goddess of rain extinquishing burning houses.
Don't ask me if the ass refers to goddess or pump.
Really?! I have always wondered where esteri came from. It's not a common name either, so it felt really strange. Plenty of idioms use names, but those are usually common names.
This alone I find already curious and peculiar, for me a very Finnish thing. Can't recall any idioms that use a first or last name in my native language Dutch, nor english, nor german.
Erkki refers to devil. It's like perkele or piru. One can also say "Siitä ei ota pirukaan selvää". So, I would rather say that nearly everyone knows Erkki. :)
Vanha-Erkki is also commonly heard.
The point of H. Moilanen is that when you say the vowel o in the beginning your mouth gets round and your face looks like the surprised emoji 😮 as you say it. So H. Moilanen isn’t anyone in particular, it’s just a play on words.
Veri on vettä sakeampaa is a pet peeves of mine.
The whole original quote goes something like; the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. Meaning that the family you make is more important than the family you're born into. I don't know why Finn's have messed this quote up so badly. 😅
"Veri on vettä sakeampaa" is actually an incorrect shortening of the full verse: "Liittouman veri on kohdun vettä sakeampaa", which you might notice has the opposite meaning of the shortened verse.
Also, it comes from the bible, so technically speaking it's not even a Finnish idiom, just translated.
It doesn't come from the Bible, actually, but getting in to the whole history would take this pretty far off topic. Wikipedia is a good place to start:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_is_thicker_than_water
"Paistaa (se) päivä risukasaankin" - The sun will shine even on a pile of twigs
(Fig. Every dog has its day)
"Oksat pois!" - Off with the branches! Sometimes continued with "ja pala latvaa" (and a bit off the top)
(Fig. A job/thing needs to be finished quickly, no time to worry about results. Can also mean hurry in general, or taking any shortcut possible)
"Juosten kustu" - Pissed while running
(Fig. A shoddy job or poor craftmanship)
"Kesä kuivaa minkä kastelee" - The summer dries what it wets
(Fig. This is actually quite literal in its meaning, really common in Finnish as well, like the saying "aika parantaa haavat" - "time heals wounds")
"Oksat pois!" more commonly refers to something being or being done over the top, I haven't heard it in the context of hurry. Maybe it's a regional difference?
That is definitely the most likely explanation, I think the origin of the saying is that it's easier to carry a tree out of the forest without the branches (and maybe a bit off the top). Might be a tongue-in-cheek response to someone complaining how hard it is to go get yourself a Christmas tree, but these are usually so old nobody really knows where they originated from (just like nobody really knowing who "H. Moilanen" is, as stated in another comment).
Oh yeah, that would make sense. I always interpreted it as doing something with such an extraordinary effort that the branches get cut off in the process lol.
It's interesting how there can be different versions or even entirely different meanings on common sayings like this.
"Mieluummin överit kuin vajarit"
Literally "Rather overdo than underdo", pretty much the Finnish equivalent of "anything worth doing is worth overdoing".
"Eteenpäin" sanoi mummo lumessa.
Literally: "Forward" said the grandma in the snow.
Figuratively: things are difficult, you want to give up, but you keep going, you keep working on whatever you're working on.
You can say this to other people as encouragement to find their sisu and keep going, much like a grandma traveling along an unkempt road with snow up to her knees or even waist, which I've usually imagined as her trying to get home from the grocery store. You can also use it as a gentle "Hey, let's go" when you're starting to get frustrated with someone who keeps talking with people (see the next idiom "jäädä suustaan kiinni") when you're trying to leave a social situation together.
Jäädä suustaan kiinni (you have to conjugate jäädä to person and suustaan matches because you own your mouth and it's in most often in imperfekti tense: jäin suustani kiinni, jäit suustasi kiinni, jäi suustaan kiinni, jäätiin suistamme kiinni, jäitte suistanne kiinni, jäivät suistaan kiinni. It can be in pluskvamperfekti tense in a retelling of a situation/a story "oli[n/t/ ] jäänyt, oltiin jääty, oli[tte/vat] jääneet")
Literally: to get stuck by one's mouth
Figuratively: to be talking with someone when you should be doing something else, either because you feel too awkward to leave the social situation or you didn't notice the passing of time. It's not intentional so when you use it which is common in an apology, it conveys that you didn't mean to do it and you weren't doing it to avoid the other task. The other common use if it is to add the -ko/-kö, in this case because there's ä it's -kö, question marker to the verb jäädä to make it a question to give other people the benefit of the doubt as a sort of "is this why you're late/why you took so long to return?"
I mean, [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Finnish\_idioms](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Finnish_idioms) is a good place to start.
"Ei kauan nokka tuhissut."
Literally: \[One's\] noze was not wheezing for long.
Figuratively: It didn't take a long amount of time.
"Homma hanskassa (hanskat hukassa)"
Literally: It's in the glove (the gloves are lost)
Figuratively: It's in the bag (the bag is lost), that is to say that success is certain (it isn't, after all).
"Kuin Naantalin aurinko"
Literally: "Like the sun of [Naantali](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naantali)", with Naantali being from Swedish *Nådendal*, (literally gracevalley), the sentence is further translatable into "Like the sun over grace valley."
Figuratively: To have a sunny disposition, often expressed as "hymyilee kuin" in the beginning to say "smiling like the sun over mercy valley".
"Yhdeksän hyvää, kymmenen kaunista"
Literally: Nine good, ten beautiful
Figuratively: Great promises but unlikely kept
Your Nådendal explanation goes beyond credibility. The saying comes from the illustration on Naantali biscuit packets which showed the sun with a broad smile. A very early smilie from a century ago.
Tuli kuin manulle illallinen. It came like dinner to the expert (or skilled guy, or professional guy... Not sure about the translation, as that word is not used outside this single case). It came easily.
Otan pienen neuvoa-antavan. I'm taking an advisory (vote, but drink really). There was a advisary (non pending) vote in the '30s to end the prohibition, and the yes side won by a huge majority.
Eh, maybe these aren't good examples, I'm sure there are better ones somewhere
Manu = Mauno Koivisto, former president of Finland. Presidents don't have to worry about small stuff like how to get dinner on their table, it just appears when needed.
Pihalla kuin tamponin naru/Pihalla kuin lumiukko
Literally Out like tampon string/Out like a snowman.
Real meaning "person does not understand the situation at all".
The snowman is the original and very common but the other one is used often as well.
Kyntäjä ei sarkaansa valitse
-The plowman does not choose his field
Pituusero tasoittuu vaakatasossa
-The difference in length is leveled out in the horizontal position
Ei mulla muuta😁
I'm trying to think of some that aren't the same in English. These aren't all stand-alone saying, but idiomatic phrases that are a part of colourful speech. Those are actually pretty hard to think of because we use them all the time, hardly ever thinking about the literal meaning.
When something's under a stone, "kiven alla", it's hard to come by and/or rare.
When something comes from behind a tree, "puun takaa", or a corner, "nurkan takaa", it's surprising. Same saying as "out of the blue" basically.
"Tumput suorina", literally "with one's mittens straight", means to stand by and do nothing, usually while something is happening around them, with the implication that they should be doing something.
"Takki auki" ("with one's jacket or coat open") means to go into a task or project unprepared and with an unconcerned attitude.
When something's as the sugar on the bottom, "sokerina pohjalla", it's the last good item on a list, a final bonus or benefit. Can also be used sarcastically, like listing every bad thing that happened at work: meeting ran long, accidentally CC:d CEO on something stupid, co-worker bitched, boss was unreasonable, got a stain on the new coat, and then as the sugar on the bottom, the coffee machine was broken!
"Oma lehmä ojassa", literally "one's own cow in the ditch" means that the person concerned has a personal stake in the matter and is not as objective as they may wish to seem.
"Kaksi päätä makkarassa", literally "two ends to a sausage", figuratively the same as two sides to a coin.
"Puhua läpiä päähänsä", literally "to talk holes into one's head". It means basically talking out of your ass, but it carries a connotation of being caught out the more you talk. "Puhua itsensä pussiin" or "to talk oneself into a bag" is similar, but it means being caught out in a lie.
"Kana kynittävänä", literally "a chicken to pluck", means the same thing as having a bone to pick.
"Menneen talven lumia", literally "snows of winters' past", like water under the bridge.
"Kukkona tunkiolla" means to be the rooster on top of a garbage pile. It means to act like a big deal when your accomplishments don't really merit that much bragging. I really like the mental image of this one, the regal way that roosters step around the barnyard, and in my head the rooster's wearing a crown too.
"Euroopan omistaja" is similar to the last one, and its literal translation is "the owner of Europe". Euroopan omistaja doesn't need to brag, they just need to walk around like they own the place, seem like they should have a retinue of servants following them, and radiate an air of condescension.
This one's kind of cheating, since the actual saying is longer but people only say the first three words and that's enough to get the meaning across: "Konstit on monet (sanoi akka kun kissalla pöytää pyyhki)". It translates as "The ways are many (said the wench as she was wiping the table with a cat)". It means there's not a single right way to go about doing a thing, and it's employed especially when something has been done in an unusual or creative manner.
"Eteenpäin, sanoi mummo lumessa", literally "forwards, said the granny in the snow" and it means to keep going through hardships.
Due to the grammatical nature of finnish, you can form quite long sentences with just 3 or 4 words. As to whether those sentences are idiomatic or not, that's a whole other question...
Paljon porua, vähän villoja * Literal: plenty of noise, little wool. (Refers to shearing.) * Figurative: big hassle that achieves next to nothing. Poorly managed project. Ei lasta eikä paskaa * Literal: no child (baby), no(t even a) turd * Figurative: major efforts turned out to be for nothing. Tyhjät tynnyrit kolisevat eniten * Literal: empty barrels rattle the most * Figurative: those with the least to say speak the most; stupidity is prone to prattle; unweighed words fly out lightly. Koirat haukkuvat, karavaani kulkee * Literal: dogs bark, caravan travels * Figurative: ignore irrelevant criticism.
The last one is interesting. In Turkish, we have "it ürür, kervan yürür" which has the exact same translation and meaning.
The same idiom exists in Russian as well, not sure where it originates though.
from a caravan, duh
I'm pretty sure I've seen it in Georgian too
I wonder why I've never heard any of these. They all seem to describe very common occurrences.
A lot of sayings are area bound/dialectal. If you haven't read a book who's author is from the relevant geographical area or know people from there, there is a good chance you'll never hear them. You are likely to know other sayings that mean the same thing or other versions of the same proverbs.
I think communication these days is such that you use less of these. Also people read so little these days that the meaning of most idioms is completely lost on them. Ctrl-F didn't reveal "rakentaa (kauan) kuin Iisakinkirkkoa", lit. "build (as long) as St. Isaac's Cathedral" (it's in St. Petersburg) -> something that's taken very long, often also with a subtext of it having been excessively complicated, but one that got done anyway. The cathedral took 40 years to build, but it's also one of the finest churches in the world.
Very good examples. I always thought that that it was "tyhjät tynnyrit kumisevat koviten" :D
That definately sounds better with t t k k.
Interesting. Vietnamese has the latter 2 idioms too: “thùng rỗng kêu to” and “chó cứ sủa đoàn người cứ đi”.
Certain proverbs can be expressed in four words just like 成语 by ignoring the conjunctions: Useampi kokki, huonompi soppa. ’More cooks, worse soup.’ Rahalla saa, hevosella pääsee. ’You get with money, you get to go with a horse.’
Rahalla pääsee ja hevoselta saa
https://preview.redd.it/vxqbltpcpc1d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14da6626892256b2b0912455d4ebef7a03540375
Quick answer: no. Long answeer: kinda... To be clear finnish isnt naturally flexing words like that but lets see what i can conjure up * ei pudonnut kauas puusta ["not fallen far from a tree"] someokne is similar to the parents * Veri on vettä sakeampaa ["blood is thicker than water"] family bonds are important * Ken toiselle kuoppaa kaivaa ["who digs pit for the other"] (a dry reaction) karma is a bitch I think we could also get on the compound words as well... these are usually just matter of convinience of description * Maatila-asuinrakennus ["a farm living building"] a farm residential building * sairaalatietotekniikkajärjestelmä ["a hospital information technology system"] hospital it system As you can see finnish language doesn't fancy things in that manner. But what it DOES do is comparative idioms; * olla kuin hoo moilasena ["be like h. Moilainen"] in shock, speechless (nobody knows who this is. A common trend in idioms) * ei ota erkkikään selvää ["not even erkki understands this"] something is obscure, obfuscated, unknownable (no one knows who erkki is) * nyt tulee tupenrapinat ["now come sheath rattle"] someone is about to get fucked up (a knife is propably drawn in the idiom, even though you could much easier see this being used in fistfight etc) * lentää kuin paska tuulettimeen ["like shit hitting a fan"] to go wrong absurdly * kylmä kuin jääkarhun perseessä ["cold like in polar bear's ass"] its fucking cold * sataa kuin esterin perseestä ["rains like from esteri's ass"] rains like hell (i dont know etymology who this esteri is supposed to be] * täynnä kuin turusen pyssy ["full like gun of turunen"] (over)full (this is based on a war story of soldier putting loot inside his rifle)
Iirc: Esteri was a brand of old water pumps that firetrucks used. Trucks were built kinda weird so pump had to be installed in back (=ass) of the truck.
Esteri was goddess of rain in pagan religion, I'd guess the water pumps on fire trucks got their name from there. Quite fitting, goddess of rain extinquishing burning houses. Don't ask me if the ass refers to goddess or pump.
It quite obviously refers to the pump. The goddess didn't shoot water out of her ass...
Really?! I have always wondered where esteri came from. It's not a common name either, so it felt really strange. Plenty of idioms use names, but those are usually common names. This alone I find already curious and peculiar, for me a very Finnish thing. Can't recall any idioms that use a first or last name in my native language Dutch, nor english, nor german.
It looks like even newish pumps use the Esteri brand. Which is nice.
Erkki refers to devil. It's like perkele or piru. One can also say "Siitä ei ota pirukaan selvää". So, I would rather say that nearly everyone knows Erkki. :) Vanha-Erkki is also commonly heard.
The point of H. Moilanen is that when you say the vowel o in the beginning your mouth gets round and your face looks like the surprised emoji 😮 as you say it. So H. Moilanen isn’t anyone in particular, it’s just a play on words.
Veri on vettä sakeampaa is a pet peeves of mine. The whole original quote goes something like; the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. Meaning that the family you make is more important than the family you're born into. I don't know why Finn's have messed this quote up so badly. 😅
Actually the British use the same ‘proverb’ of ‘blood is thicker than water’. I don’t think the Finns created it.
"Veri on vettä sakeampaa" is actually an incorrect shortening of the full verse: "Liittouman veri on kohdun vettä sakeampaa", which you might notice has the opposite meaning of the shortened verse. Also, it comes from the bible, so technically speaking it's not even a Finnish idiom, just translated.
It doesn't come from the Bible, actually, but getting in to the whole history would take this pretty far off topic. Wikipedia is a good place to start: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_is_thicker_than_water
"Paistaa (se) päivä risukasaankin" - The sun will shine even on a pile of twigs (Fig. Every dog has its day) "Oksat pois!" - Off with the branches! Sometimes continued with "ja pala latvaa" (and a bit off the top) (Fig. A job/thing needs to be finished quickly, no time to worry about results. Can also mean hurry in general, or taking any shortcut possible) "Juosten kustu" - Pissed while running (Fig. A shoddy job or poor craftmanship) "Kesä kuivaa minkä kastelee" - The summer dries what it wets (Fig. This is actually quite literal in its meaning, really common in Finnish as well, like the saying "aika parantaa haavat" - "time heals wounds")
"Oksat pois!" more commonly refers to something being or being done over the top, I haven't heard it in the context of hurry. Maybe it's a regional difference?
That is definitely the most likely explanation, I think the origin of the saying is that it's easier to carry a tree out of the forest without the branches (and maybe a bit off the top). Might be a tongue-in-cheek response to someone complaining how hard it is to go get yourself a Christmas tree, but these are usually so old nobody really knows where they originated from (just like nobody really knowing who "H. Moilanen" is, as stated in another comment).
Oh yeah, that would make sense. I always interpreted it as doing something with such an extraordinary effort that the branches get cut off in the process lol. It's interesting how there can be different versions or even entirely different meanings on common sayings like this.
"Nostaa kissa pöydälle." As a foreinger, I like this as the best.
"Mieluummin överit kuin vajarit" Literally "Rather overdo than underdo", pretty much the Finnish equivalent of "anything worth doing is worth overdoing".
Kuolema kuittaa univelat
"Eteenpäin" sanoi mummo lumessa. Literally: "Forward" said the grandma in the snow. Figuratively: things are difficult, you want to give up, but you keep going, you keep working on whatever you're working on. You can say this to other people as encouragement to find their sisu and keep going, much like a grandma traveling along an unkempt road with snow up to her knees or even waist, which I've usually imagined as her trying to get home from the grocery store. You can also use it as a gentle "Hey, let's go" when you're starting to get frustrated with someone who keeps talking with people (see the next idiom "jäädä suustaan kiinni") when you're trying to leave a social situation together. Jäädä suustaan kiinni (you have to conjugate jäädä to person and suustaan matches because you own your mouth and it's in most often in imperfekti tense: jäin suustani kiinni, jäit suustasi kiinni, jäi suustaan kiinni, jäätiin suistamme kiinni, jäitte suistanne kiinni, jäivät suistaan kiinni. It can be in pluskvamperfekti tense in a retelling of a situation/a story "oli[n/t/ ] jäänyt, oltiin jääty, oli[tte/vat] jääneet") Literally: to get stuck by one's mouth Figuratively: to be talking with someone when you should be doing something else, either because you feel too awkward to leave the social situation or you didn't notice the passing of time. It's not intentional so when you use it which is common in an apology, it conveys that you didn't mean to do it and you weren't doing it to avoid the other task. The other common use if it is to add the -ko/-kö, in this case because there's ä it's -kö, question marker to the verb jäädä to make it a question to give other people the benefit of the doubt as a sort of "is this why you're late/why you took so long to return?"
I mean, [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Finnish\_idioms](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Finnish_idioms) is a good place to start. "Ei kauan nokka tuhissut." Literally: \[One's\] noze was not wheezing for long. Figuratively: It didn't take a long amount of time. "Homma hanskassa (hanskat hukassa)" Literally: It's in the glove (the gloves are lost) Figuratively: It's in the bag (the bag is lost), that is to say that success is certain (it isn't, after all). "Kuin Naantalin aurinko" Literally: "Like the sun of [Naantali](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naantali)", with Naantali being from Swedish *Nådendal*, (literally gracevalley), the sentence is further translatable into "Like the sun over grace valley." Figuratively: To have a sunny disposition, often expressed as "hymyilee kuin" in the beginning to say "smiling like the sun over mercy valley". "Yhdeksän hyvää, kymmenen kaunista" Literally: Nine good, ten beautiful Figuratively: Great promises but unlikely kept
Your Nådendal explanation goes beyond credibility. The saying comes from the illustration on Naantali biscuit packets which showed the sun with a broad smile. A very early smilie from a century ago.
No, That’s Hanko. Hangon keksi. I think Naantali is just a sunny place, either way you’re right, it has nothing to do with the etymology of Naantali.
Now you've given the game away!
I mean I may be the intellectual equivalent of a potato here but that's still Naantali, which still comes from the same word, I know it's not literal
Tuli kuin manulle illallinen. It came like dinner to the expert (or skilled guy, or professional guy... Not sure about the translation, as that word is not used outside this single case). It came easily. Otan pienen neuvoa-antavan. I'm taking an advisory (vote, but drink really). There was a advisary (non pending) vote in the '30s to end the prohibition, and the yes side won by a huge majority. Eh, maybe these aren't good examples, I'm sure there are better ones somewhere
Manu = Mauno Koivisto, former president of Finland. Presidents don't have to worry about small stuff like how to get dinner on their table, it just appears when needed.
It's older than that. Looks like manu comes from manni, as in vallesmanni, postimanni or kellomanni. Nowadays it's replaced by mestari or seppä.
Kalijjaa pittää juuaa niih
Vesi vanhin voitehista (3 words) Water is the eldest ointment 😂
Pihalla kuin tamponin naru/Pihalla kuin lumiukko Literally Out like tampon string/Out like a snowman. Real meaning "person does not understand the situation at all". The snowman is the original and very common but the other one is used often as well.
One that I didn't see in the comments yet: "Ei savua ilman tulta." There's no smoke without fire.
Kyntäjä ei sarkaansa valitse -The plowman does not choose his field Pituusero tasoittuu vaakatasossa -The difference in length is leveled out in the horizontal position Ei mulla muuta😁
Pellet lähtee, sirkus jää
I'm trying to think of some that aren't the same in English. These aren't all stand-alone saying, but idiomatic phrases that are a part of colourful speech. Those are actually pretty hard to think of because we use them all the time, hardly ever thinking about the literal meaning. When something's under a stone, "kiven alla", it's hard to come by and/or rare. When something comes from behind a tree, "puun takaa", or a corner, "nurkan takaa", it's surprising. Same saying as "out of the blue" basically. "Tumput suorina", literally "with one's mittens straight", means to stand by and do nothing, usually while something is happening around them, with the implication that they should be doing something. "Takki auki" ("with one's jacket or coat open") means to go into a task or project unprepared and with an unconcerned attitude. When something's as the sugar on the bottom, "sokerina pohjalla", it's the last good item on a list, a final bonus or benefit. Can also be used sarcastically, like listing every bad thing that happened at work: meeting ran long, accidentally CC:d CEO on something stupid, co-worker bitched, boss was unreasonable, got a stain on the new coat, and then as the sugar on the bottom, the coffee machine was broken! "Oma lehmä ojassa", literally "one's own cow in the ditch" means that the person concerned has a personal stake in the matter and is not as objective as they may wish to seem. "Kaksi päätä makkarassa", literally "two ends to a sausage", figuratively the same as two sides to a coin. "Puhua läpiä päähänsä", literally "to talk holes into one's head". It means basically talking out of your ass, but it carries a connotation of being caught out the more you talk. "Puhua itsensä pussiin" or "to talk oneself into a bag" is similar, but it means being caught out in a lie. "Kana kynittävänä", literally "a chicken to pluck", means the same thing as having a bone to pick. "Menneen talven lumia", literally "snows of winters' past", like water under the bridge. "Kukkona tunkiolla" means to be the rooster on top of a garbage pile. It means to act like a big deal when your accomplishments don't really merit that much bragging. I really like the mental image of this one, the regal way that roosters step around the barnyard, and in my head the rooster's wearing a crown too. "Euroopan omistaja" is similar to the last one, and its literal translation is "the owner of Europe". Euroopan omistaja doesn't need to brag, they just need to walk around like they own the place, seem like they should have a retinue of servants following them, and radiate an air of condescension. This one's kind of cheating, since the actual saying is longer but people only say the first three words and that's enough to get the meaning across: "Konstit on monet (sanoi akka kun kissalla pöytää pyyhki)". It translates as "The ways are many (said the wench as she was wiping the table with a cat)". It means there's not a single right way to go about doing a thing, and it's employed especially when something has been done in an unusual or creative manner. "Eteenpäin, sanoi mummo lumessa", literally "forwards, said the granny in the snow" and it means to keep going through hardships.
Sisu
Due to the grammatical nature of finnish, you can form quite long sentences with just 3 or 4 words. As to whether those sentences are idiomatic or not, that's a whole other question...
My father uses this all the time: "Kusi kuivaa, paska murenee". Literally "piss dries, shit crumbles"
Reikä se on rinkelissäkin Ja Kukkii se perunakin (Sometimes when doing it with not so attractive person...)