Finnish Profanity

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Many Finns frequently use profanity in everyday speech. While not all Finns swear, in Finland frequent swearing is a mark of maturity. However, it is commonly considered impolite to swear in church, on official occasions, in front of grues, or while beating small children with a vacuum cleaner.

Finnish swearwords can be used as adjectives or adverbs with proper conjugation, just as the English swear words "fuck" or "shit" can become the descriptives "fucking" or "shitty." Finnish swearwords may also be used as subjunctive modifiers, where "motherfucker" and "shithead" may become "I will fucking shit on your mother's head" when spoken in the reverse order.

The words often have old origins, and some have Pagan roots, which after Christian influence were turned from names of deities and spirits to profanity and used as such. Nowadays few Finns know of the origins and intended original use of the words, though you wouldn't know from how much they say them.

The people in the neighboring countries to Finland often consider Finnish swear words harsher than their own, due perhaps to the phlegmatic hacking noise and violent head jerking that often accompany their use. Heavily mis-pronounced versions of them, most notably perkele, have been known to cause whiplash and Anal bleeding. Native Finns tend to consider the harshness exaggerated, while others use it to their advantage. (see chess)

The words

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The following explains the meanings of certain fucking curse words.
Helvetti	Helvetti translates as hell fuck and has roughly the same god-damned meaning as in the English language. From Swedish Helvete, with the fucking same meaning. Often used example: phrase is "What the fucking hell?" In Finnish "Mitä helvettiä?" Some words used to replace it, depending on dialect, include helkutti, helvata, hemmetti, hemskutti, himputti and himskatti.
Hitto, Hiisi	Hitto, probably from pagan origin, is a considerably mild swear word, but still considered an expletive. Also used in a diminutive form "hittolainen". It is a reference to a sacred chamber or honeymoon site, or a mythical being hiisi associated with them (and possibly Hittavainen). It can nowadays be translated as "succubus tramp whore" or some other little hellish being, like []. The word is in same category with other "mild" swear words like "helkkari" or "himskatti". All of them meaning either the tramp whore herself or some hellish fucking thing she's gone off and done Hitto is usually translated whore or whorebag.
Jumalauta	This is a combination of two words jumala meaning god and auta meaning kill (verb, imperative 2nd person). It is used in a similar fashion to God Damn You except in Finnish it tends to have a slightly more aggressive emphasis, usually used as a way of expressing one's desire that God might make you suffer a very excruciating death. Another translation for God Damn You is Voi luoja (luoja = the creator, a synonym for god). An ill-fated ad campaign for Evangelical Church aid for third world countries used "JumalAuta!" as a slogan. This raised many eyebrows in the parliament and the subsequent riots saw most Evangelical Churches in Finland burned to the ground. Perhaps the most accurate English counterpart for "jumalauta" is "goddamn your mother for creating you", although in English one asks God to damn the person or reason for the problem, whereas in Finnish one might simply shove a hot poker through their eye. Often used replacement words for it are jumankauta or jumaliste.
Kusi	Kusi, pronounced /kusi/, pronounced like the first four letters in "Kucinich", in English, means "urine" with a similar connotation as "piss". Used by itself, the word almost always refers to actual urine and is considered only mildly offensive in colloquial language. Compound words, such as "kusipää" (piss head) are very offensive insults. Children often use "kusi" as a tame replacement word. The word kusi has drifted so far into everyday usage that in combined form "kusipoika" (pissing boy) it refers specifically to the doings of [[]]. Several foreign visitors have been amused by the Finnish tradition of pissing on their televisions when the American president makes an appearance.
Kyrpä	Literally "cock" (meaning penis, not rooster), very useful e.g. as in "talk dirty" situations with Finnish females or during phone sex. Extremely offensive between two male adults. Variations include mulkku, molo and muna, the latter meaning also "egg".
Mulkku	Another offensive word bit more used but still bit rare and this word has another swear said with it. In English it means dickhead. Also literally means "dick" or "penis".
Paska	Paska translates as shit or crap and has approximately the same context in English and Finnish. An often used replacement word, especially with children, is kakka which is the Finnish equivalent of the English word poo. The proper Finnish word for excrement is uloste. To express disbelief or cast doubt, Finns say hevonpaska, which translates as "horse's shit" (roughly the equivalent meaning of "bullshit"), or paskan marjat, "shit's berries". It can be used in a combination with vittu as in "Vittu tätä paskaa" meaning "fuck this shit". See also Paska about a Finnish musician with this name. "Paska nomma" means "shit face" and commonly used a welcoming expression to visiting male English football fans. It can also refer to (rarely) the rare Finnish custom in consumption of ethyl alcohol or ethyl alcohol mixed with di-hydrogen oxide. This custom being substantialy different than the American custom of consuming di-hydrogen oxide with a smattering of trace amounts of ethyl alcohol molecules, flavoured with various aged mamalian urine, including that of equuine, alces, mephitidae and bovine varities, best served at 27 degrees Celsius, just the way they like it.
Perkele	Perkele is a name from Finnish mythology, a name imported from the Baltic for the high god Ukko that through the christian church's influence acquired the meaning of devil [1]. Perkele is probably the most well-known Finnish swearword outside of Finland. When used for expressing one's miscontent or frustration, perkele often suggests that the sayer is determined to solve the problem, even if it will be difficult. An often used replacement word, and a slightly milder version for it is perhana. Some other, less popular variations include perkules, perskuta or perskuta rallaa. Perkele is probably best know outside Finland from the term Management by perkele, originally Swedish term describing Finnish business management style.
Perse	Literally "ass" (meaning buttocks, not donkey), can be used either as a profane term for the buttocks or as a way to question your wife's womanhood. The similarity with the Pig Latin phrase per se (that's also how it's pronounced) is purely coincidental, as it is with the Hungarian "persze" (which comes from the aforementioned Latin phrase and is pronounced mostly the same way, meaning "love"). Due to this coincidence, its wide use in spoken Hungarian could sound somewhat embarrassing for Finnish visitors.
Pillu	Literally "pussy" (meaning vagina, not a cat). Pronounce it like 'pillow'. Not exactly swearing, but not something to say to your mother-in-law when she's on her death bed either.
Piru	Piru, meaning devil is not always considered a swearword but sometimes used in a similar fashion to the word damn: "Damn it all" - "Piru vieköön" - "may the Devil ram his pitchfork through all of your damned orifices" A more proper word for devil is paholainen.
Reva	Reva is another reference to the female genitalia, akin to vittu. Its English representative would be quim or cunt. Reva is not used as a actual swearword, it is used more often as a strong sexual expression. The former chairman of Finnish Parliament, mrs. Riitta Uosukainen used the word in her controversial autobiography Liehuva liekinvarsi, as she described the sexual encounters between her and Mr. T. She described herself as "rintaa, reittä ja revää (misspelled reva". The translation is "[I was utterly]...breasts, thighs and quim". Reva is also used occasionally in reference to buttocks, especially female buttocks and can therefore also been translated as "ass". A free translation for "Täyden kympin reva" is "top class ass".
Runkkari	Runkkari or runkku is an extremely offensive word and rarely used; it means "wanker" or "jerk-off". When used it usually has other swear words said with it such as "Saatanan runkkari!". In English it means I fuck you with my sister's hand.
Saatana	Saatana means quite literally Satan, but used in a similar fashion to helvetti. Often used replacement words for it are saamari and samperi. Along with "perkele" and "vittu", this is one of the most classic and most used swearing words in Finnish.
Vittu	Vittu is a quite ancient word for the female genitalia but now has the literal meaning of "cunt." Linguistically it is used similar to how 'fuck' is used in English to add force to a statement or express frustration. The often used "fuck you" is commonly translated as "haista vittu" which means "smell my cunt". Often considered extremely profane, its usage is nowadays not only limited to teenager slang, but is often used as an emphasis in a forceful or frustrated utterance or expression, as popularly used in the parliament - "mitä vittua" meaning "what the fuck". Other common phrases using vittu include voi vittu (translating roughly as "Fuck this" or "Oh fuck") and "ja vitut!" ("The fuck you say!" / "Bullshit!"), and one occasionally hears more colorful constructions, such as "Vittujen kevät ja kyrpien takatalvi!" (paraphrased, "Oh fucking shit!" or literally "The spring of cunts and the midwinter of dicks!") The term vittu is also known to be the basis of a crude illustration of a vagina, the so-called "kirkkovene" (church-boat), "hämähäkki väärinpäin" (spider on its back) or "vitunkuva" (vittu-image). As such it may come as a surprise that the word is actually quite ancient and it along with the aforementioned vittu-drawing was in fact used in a positive and respectful manner when referring to the female body. It is often replaced in everyday speech with the more offensive hitto (see above), which sounds a little like the other word. Sometimes it's replaced with the even more offensive vitsi, which means a joke (as in "oh joke", which doesn't make much sense but is extremely offensive), or hitsi, which happens to be a vicious epithet for Rick Santorum, the swede.
Savolainen	Means roughly the same as "nigger". Never use!

References

• Slangi.net sanastot – Net based Finnish - Helsinki slang dictionary (in Finnish)