Finnish sayings etc what mean somethin different.

[onkko]

Joku roti nyt.
literally some "roti" now. Meaning you/someone do something unacceptable and told to fix it.
Ei perkele mitä sinä teet, joku roti nyt! No hell what you do, some roti now!

I have no idea where roti comes, it just is. Its not a word.

Ei mitään rotia = someone dont behave. Literally "no anything roti"
Ajavat rallia tuossa tiellä, ei mitään rotia. (they) drive rally in that road, no any roti.

Bit old but still used. If someone knows where roti comes im interested

[silk]

Jukka, can I ask you to analyse something for me.

nukuin yhden tunnin I slept one hour
Both yksi and tunti are in the accusative case.

but

nukuin kaksi tuntia
nukuin kolme tuntia etc
The number is in the nominative case and the hour is in the partitive case. Why the three different cases? The only explanation I can come up with is "that's just the way it is".

The wikibook Suomen kieli ulkomaalaisille explains it away with a concept known as “unmarked accusative”. According to this grammatical interpretation, the numerals kaksi and kolme actually are in the accusative case in those sample sentences, despite appearing identical to the nominative case.

What makes things a bit more complicated is that the latest major new Finnish grammar, Iso Suomen kielioppi – which probably should be taken to represent the present-day scholarly view on the subject – obviously disregards the former (traditional) ideas about the accusative case in Finnish. Having never read the book myself, I’m not sure how the authors explain the above-mentioned aspect of Finnish numerals and their usage.

Of course, when you dig deep enough, pretty much everything about languages boils down to “that’s just the way it is”...

Thanks for the links, Jukka. The wikibook explains it nicely, but yes, Iso suomen kielioppi puts another twist to it

By the way, the name of one of the authors of Iso suomen kielioppi, Auli Hakulinen, sounded very familiar to me. According to her CV, she "engaged in applying linguistics to teaching of mother tongue for comprehensive school 1971-79". I attended Joensuu Normal School in the 70's and we were guinea pigs for various experimental text books. We probably studied her Toisin sanoen series and that's how I remember her name

[Pursuivant]

If someone knows where roti comes im interested

Roti on ollut kangen alle tueksi pantavaa kivi tai puupala, joka lisäsi nostovoimaa kiveä tai kantoa kangettaessa. Jos kanto ei ottanut noustakseen, täytyi lisätä rotia alle. Joissakin murteissa roti on tarkoittanut itse kankea.

Nykyisin roti merkitsee ’järjestystä’, ’häveliäisyyttä’ tai jotain moraalin tai järjen rajaa, jota ei sovi ylittää. Joku roti -huudahduksen synonyymeja voisivat olla huudahdukset "joku raja" ja "pientä rajaa".

[onkko]

Roti was answered, thanks.

Now i got new "tehdä sinunkaupat" its bit old but still used.
do the trade of you, you know there is "Sinä" and "Te" in finnish. "Te" is used as formal and "show respect" way.
Thats just way to say you can use "sinä" instead so its very polite way to say you dont have to use "Te". Way to tell about friendship.
"älä turhaan teitittele" is other. "Dont bother about "te" (dont use without need word te)

Its bad that youngs dont have "te" installed, im not "sinä" for random mcdonalds seller

Sinä is you
Te is group of people or Polite you.

Like these

Mitä sinä haluat
Mitä te haluatte

First is for known people, other is for "respect"
"Te" is for respect.

[EP]

There is an interesting whole page article about phrases and sayings in today´s HS. It seems that there has just been a phraseology conferens in Helsinki with researchers from 34 countries. I wish they would have put down more examples, it is interesting how many sayings that we use are used almost worldwide. And hardly ever people think about the origin of the saying they use.

For example crying crocodile tears (itkea krokotiilinkyyneleitä/ne on vaan krokotiilinkyyneleitä) is in use almost worldwide, much wider than where crocodiles exist. They just don´t mention the origin.

I had never thought about burying a hatchet (haudata sotakirves), but it comes from native Americans. Lähteä autuaammille metsästysmaile the same. One swallow doesn´t make summer (Ei yksi pääsky kesää tee) comes from Aristoteles. One picture equals 1000 words (Yksi kuva vastaa tuhatta sanaa) is an American copyline from an advertisent (1921). Much ado about nothing (Paljon melua tyhjästi) is from Shakespeare.

And so on.

Some are strictly Finnish (I suppose). Like jäljet johtavat sylttytehtaalle (evidence points to butchery) . That means that it is obvious who is the guilty one. Comes from a piece of news from 1931, when body parts were found somewhere in Helsinki.

[Jukka Aho]

A related article in today’s online edition of Helsingin Sanomat:

• Krokotiilin kyyneleitä itketään kymmenissä kielissä

Edit: Dang, EP beat me to it!

[onkko]

Seems sayings are global
What about "sanasta miestä sarvesta härkää"?
"from word a man, from horn a bull", yes it doesnt make a sense but its saying.
And by this saying we live, "sanasta miestä" is one pointing out that we shouldnt lie, pointing that word is as strong as horn of bull.

[Rob A.]

Seems sayings are global
What about "sanasta miestä sarvesta härkää"?
"from word a man, from horn a bull", yes it doesnt make a sense but its saying.
And by this saying we live, "sanasta miestä" is one pointing out that we shouldnt lie, pointing that word is as strong as horn of bull.

Well...I think this one probably is NOT a Finnish saying:

Tikkia aikanaan ehkäistää yhdeksän!!.... So what might be the Finnish equivalent??...

[onkko]

Seems sayings are global
What about "sanasta miestä sarvesta härkää"?
"from word a man, from horn a bull", yes it doesnt make a sense but its saying.
And by this saying we live, "sanasta miestä" is one pointing out that we shouldnt lie, pointing that word is as strong as horn of bull.

Well...I think this one probably is NOT a Finnish saying:

Tikkia aikanaan ehkäistää yhdeksän!!.... So what might be the Finnish equivalent??...

That doesnt make sense at all

[Rob A.]

Seems sayings are global
What about "sanasta miestä sarvesta härkää"?
"from word a man, from horn a bull", yes it doesnt make a sense but its saying.
And by this saying we live, "sanasta miestä" is one pointing out that we shouldnt lie, pointing that word is as strong as horn of bull.

Well...I think this one probably is NOT a Finnish saying:

Tikkia aikanaan ehkäistää yhdeksän!!.... So what might be the Finnish equivalent??...

That doesnt make sense at all

...."A stitch in time saves nine..."

[onkko]

Well...I think this one probably is NOT a Finnish saying:

Tikkia aikanaan ehkäistää yhdeksän!!.... So what might be the Finnish equivalent??...

That doesnt make sense at all

...."A stitch in time saves nine..."

Tikki ajoissa ehkäisee yhdeksän. No there is no exact finnish equivalent
What about "parempi pyy pivossa kun kymmenen oksalla"

[Rob A.]

Tikki ajoissa ehkäisee yhdeksän. No there is no exact finnish equivalent
What about "parempi pyy pivossa kun kymmenen oksalla"

"Better a grouse in the hand than ten on the branch..."

..."A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."....so I suppose, then, that means...at least in English...three birds in the bush are actually worth more than just one in the hand... In Finnish you have to get up to ten before the "equation" shifts...

[Rob A.]

....I had never thought about burying a hatchet (haudata sotakirves), but it comes from native Americans.....

How about the "Talking Stick" or "Picking up the peace pipe..." Any Finnish equivalents to those?...

...Maybe Finns developed the "Silence Stick".... The person holding the "Silence Stick" has the right to remain silent for as long as they want...

[EP]

Nope, no talking sticks in Finland. But piece pipe (rauhanpiippu) has landed also in Finland. In fact it was one of the saygins the article mentioned: polttaa rauhanpiippua.

[onkko]

I did smoke "smoke of peace" so we could "bury our warhammer", it was jokingly way to say that we shouldnt have grudge.
Saying is well known and partly used And yes i did do that for good of neighborhough.