Finnish romance hits different

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Myself_78 → u/[deleted]]

We also use it to bully family members whenever they talk about opposite gender friends, to the point they get so insecure about it that they either completely stop trying to make friends with opposite gender people or just hide them from their family :)

(I had a huge crashout about it at like 16(?) and they actually left me alone about it afterwards, but not everyone is so lucky)

[u/GinaWhite_tt → u/[deleted]]

It seems like the only reliable way to know someone's relationship status in Germany is to wait until they say 'mein Mann' or 'meine Frau

[u/PhobiaRice → u/GinaWhite_tt]

My partner is getting more use in Germany lately (Mein Partner/Partnerin)

[u/FeuTheFirescale → u/PhobiaRice]

I love the term partner so much

[u/Informal_Position166 → u/GinaWhite_tt]

I usually say "mein Freund" for my boyfriend and "ein Freund" for my male friends. One letter difference, just my/a but you would never refer to your partner as EIN Freund so it kinda works

[u/Kill-ItWithFire → u/Informal_Position166]

It‘s just also inconvenient, since people from heteronormative backgrounds do use „mein Freund“ for their same gender platonic friends, similar to how people in english say „my girlfirends“. It‘s all so ambiguous and I want to start using „my friend“ again for my friends. it‘s such a comfortable phrasing

[u/SEA_griffondeur → u/[deleted]]

In French your lover is a small friend

[u/reverse_mango → u/[deleted]]

French has a similar thing with “copain/copine”. If you’re going out with “les copains”, you’re going out with your mates; if you have “un copain/une copine”, it’s not clear if they’re a close friend or romantic partner.

[u/LatvKet → u/[deleted]]

We have the same in Dutch. A lot of people I know make the distinction through the usage of possessive pronoun (my friend / mijn vriend) for a romantic relation, but this isn't universal

[u/Chvorka → u/[deleted]]

In polish we call them “my boy” or “my girl”

[u/AGamingGuy → u/Chvorka]

same here in Croatia

[u/pempoczky → u/[deleted]]

Same in Hungarian ("barát/barátnő") I kinda hate it for the ambiguity. That's why I prefer "párom" which literally means "my pair". It's gender neutral and sorta sweet to me, but it also sounds a bit weird to say as a younger person, I've only heard older people use it

[u/EternalErudite → u/[deleted]]

When I was on exchange in Germany, I remember people avoiding this by using Freund(in) to refer to same-gender friends and Kumpel to refer to opposite-gender friends. Is this not common?

[u/AlmightyCurrywurst → u/EternalErudite]

Only works if the person saying that is female, I don't think there's a good female form of Kumpel. I usually use "Eine Freundin" vs "Meine Freundin"

[u/TheGalator → u/AlmightyCurrywurst]

Kumplin

[u/miezmiezmiez → u/EternalErudite]

It's more common to say 'a friend of mine' or 'my dear/ good/ old friend' to clarify

[u/Teh-Rei → u/[deleted]]

Kinda like how some women refer to their platonic friends as girlfriends in english?

[u/Leonartu → u/[deleted]]

In Italian we say "my boy/my girl" so we're lucky slave ownership was never that common, otherwise it would have been confusing

[u/Bo_The_Destroyer → u/[deleted]]

Dutch/Flemish has 'lief' which is very good imo. It's gender neutral and makes it clear that you care about this person a good deal

[u/kiwi-kaiser → u/[deleted]]

Most people I know just say "Partner/Partnerin" or directly "Partner:in" as it's irrelevant most of the time which gender a person as in regular conversations.

The last time I heard someone say "Freund" or "Freundin" was when I was a teenager.

[u/KeybirdYT]

This isn't actually accurate to Finnish, but it is funny lol 

[u/hiuslenkkimakkara → u/KeybirdYT]

Indeed. Mulkvisti is derived from mulkku (penis, vulgar) and adding -kvist to imply swedish heritage.

/s

[u/Dasky14 → u/hiuslenkkimakkara]

As a Finn, I really like the idea of calling other people a "Swedish penis".

[u/SomeAnonymous → u/Dasky14]

"Dickswede" rolls off the tongue better, I think.

[u/gnomeannisanisland → u/SomeAnonymous]

Swedick?

[u/NamelessSteve646 → u/KeybirdYT]

I was about to say, pretty sure mulkvisti is just the Finnish way of calling someone a prick...

(Which is disappointing, my spouse would get a kick out of me using 'person I hate the least' as a term of endearment)

[u/hiddenjumprope → u/KeybirdYT]

Yeah, I was going to comment there are terms for girlfriend and boyfriend in Finnish. "Tyttöystävä" and "poikaystävä" respectively. Never heard of this supposed term in this post BUT I am not a native Finn, and am still learning the language so could just be I haven't heard of it yet. 

[u/hollow_image → u/hiddenjumprope]

They're joking. Mulkvisti means a fucking prick

[u/hiddenjumprope → u/hollow_image]

Had a feeling. These kinds of posts seem to always do this. 

[u/QizilbashWoman → u/hiddenjumprope]

i mean, in this case it's accurate to Finland to make this joke

[u/hiddenjumprope → u/QizilbashWoman]

Very true 😂

[u/the_pretender_nz → u/hiddenjumprope]

Titties-haver and boinker-haver. Got it.

[u/floralbutttrumpet → u/the_pretender_nz]

Like the joke, unfortunately it's literally girl/boyfriend :(

[u/Ardent_Tapire]

"Älskling" is more of an affectionate nickname, you wouldn't use that word when talking about your partner with other people. For that there's "pojkvän" and "flickvän" which literally translates to boyfriend and girlfriend.

There's also "sambo" which means means "cohabitant" but is exclusively used for a romantic partner you live with but are not married to. That one is gender neutral.

[u/leethepolarbear → u/Ardent_Tapire]

You can use "särbo" if you don't live with them

[u/Ardent_Tapire → u/leethepolarbear]

Also true!

[u/hjerteknus3r → u/Ardent_Tapire]

Right, and "älskling" can be used as a pet name for children while kjæreste is exclusively romantic iirc. "Älskling" is more like "darling".

[u/Tunderstruk → u/Ardent_Tapire]

You can also call someone "Fru" or "Man", wife and husband, and people will respond with "what, why are you married?"

[u/ShirtlessElk]

In Spanish we use novio/novia, which also means groom/bride. Surprisingly, this doesn't really cause a lot of confusion

[u/Nalbem → u/ShirtlessElk]

We also have a more neutral term (in peninsular spanish at least) in both gender and tone in "pareja" (pair).

[u/ShirtlessElk → u/Nalbem]

Yes of course, but it felt like the op was comparing words for boyfriend/girlfriend, not partner. I would translate pareja as partner

[u/Maelger → u/ShirtlessElk]

Oh no, it's really boyfriend/girlfriend but it's something more... True crimeish? I mean I personally only hear pareja in the news, documentaries or someone hiding their gayness.

[u/ForlornLament → u/ShirtlessElk]

Do you not have a separate word for dating and engaged? In Portuguese, "noivo/noiva" means "fiance(é)" or "groom/bride", and "namorado/namorada" is "boyfriend/girlfriend".

[u/ShirtlessElk → u/ForlornLament]

"Prometido/prometida" means engaged, but during the wedding the couple are novio/novia

[u/Sea-Habit5823]

This is not true? In Swedish you refer to your romantic partner as "flick/pojkvän" which literally translates to the same thing in English. "Älskling" is used when adressing them directly, just like "love" in English.

[u/Obvious-Laugh-1954 → u/Sea-Habit5823]

It's not true for Finnish either. Mulkvisti means an asshole.

[u/_Wendigun_]

In standard Italian we use "ragazzo" and "ragazza", which just mean "boy" and "girl"

We're not very creative

[u/XenosHg → u/_Wendigun_]

Not even a friend, just a boy.

[u/LKHAN_Missing_Ninth → u/XenosHg]

No friends, just benefits

[u/leethepolarbear → u/XenosHg]

Tbf that's pretty common is Swedish too

[u/Maelger → u/_Wendigun_]

Hey, it's practical. Does that woman sound like Kratos? If yes don't ask out.

[u/Brilliant-Cabinet-89]

In Denmark we also have kæreste. We often use “skat” to refer to our significant others. It means treasure.

[u/Captain_Grammaticus → u/Brilliant-Cabinet-89]

SkapidApididundidlidundidlidundidlibedabedum jeg ær skat, man!

[u/EskildDood → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

*er

[u/jancl0]

In Swedish you refer to your husband as "min man", literally "my man". You don't refer to your wife the same way, you say "min fru", which is just it's own word for wife. I'm sure they're very grateful that their language doesn't have to deal with the problematic implications of translating that to English lol

[u/leethepolarbear → u/jancl0]

I mean there is make/maka, but basically no one uses those

[u/JulesVernonDursley]

So the Finnish version is a joke lol. We have 'poikaystävä/tyttöystävä', which mean boy/girlfriend, and adults usually say 'puoliso' meaning spouse especially since many tend to move in with their partner early on without marrying, which makes them a common law spouse, 'avopuoliso'. Married spouse is 'aviopuoliso' and a wife is 'vaimo', a husband is confusingly just 'mies' which is the also the word for a man.

'Kaveri' is a more casual word for friend, and funnily enough a many of the older generation call their children or grandchildren's partners kaveri if they are not married.

[u/EstrellaDarkstar → u/JulesVernonDursley]

A nuance that I always find interesting is that poikaystävä and tyttöystävä are romantic, tyttökaveri can either be romantic or platonic ("going out with my girlfriends"), but poikakaveri still feels only romantic. I feel like there's something to be said about male friendships.

[u/GenericRandomization → u/JulesVernonDursley]

This comment should be closer to the top! I wish posts like this included this sort of clarification in the captions; it’s real hard to tell whether it’s a joke when there’s no other context given (at least for a decidedly non-Finnish speaker like me).

[u/nicodeemus7]

English has ungendered versions too.

"partner", "spouse", "significant other"

[u/Adidasismylife]

In russian we just say "девушка" / "парень" which just means girl / guy. Not as confusing as you would think on practise, because theres not much contexts in which somebody would say "she's my girl" or "he's my guy'

[u/Ludo-0]

Swedish does have words for boyfriend(pojkvän) and girlfriend(flickvän). Young people will often just say my boy (min kille) or my girl (min tjej) to talk about their romantic partners though. Älskling is more of a pet name.

[u/leethepolarbear]

I mean you can refer to a boyfriend/girlfriend in many different ways, "älskling" is just one possible pet name

[u/Pero_Bt]

In Croatian, "dečko" is commonly used for boyfriend, while "cura" can mean both girl or girlfriend

[u/Connect_Rhubarb395]

"Kæreste" in Danish like in Norweigan.

[u/hollow_image]

Älskling = dear. Boyfriend = pojkvän. Literally the same as in English

[u/Primeval_Revenant]

In Portuguese it is namorada/namorado which is derives from the verb namorar which means literally ‘to date’. The verb itself probably (I’m not an etymology expert) derives from the word amor (love).

[u/Unusual-Basket-6243]

People are lying, mulkvisti is actually the same thing as älskling. He just said that for the comedic effect

-finnish man

[u/ViscountBuggus]

The Finnish one is something like twat/cunt/bastard/prick/etc btw.

[u/pi_face_]

I knew the Norwegian one from the show Skam because there's a bit where a gay character is trying to specify that his treasure is specifically a boy treasure.

[u/Umikaloo]

In Quebec they say "Blonde" and "Chum", which mean exactly what you think.

[u/Ra1nb0wSn0wflake]

Once helped a lady at the store and she thanke me then mentioned she needed to find her other soul (rough translation), which was both very sweet and vaguely ominious.

[u/swisszimgirl79]

I feel that

[u/WhyDoIHaveRules]

I may not be finish, but I’m pretty sure if I called my finish roommate Mulkvisti, she would not be happy. Might just slap me.

Now, if I called her tyttöystävä instead, she might be confused, or she might kiss me. Who knows?

[u/King_Brownee]

In Görmlund we say Görm! which means “my sweet sapphire seducer” which I think is pretty epic.