Finnish profanity

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Many Finns frequently use profanity in everyday speech. While not all Finns swear, frequent swearing is a mark of youth culture. However, it is commonly considered impolite to swear excessively, in public and official occasions and particularly in front of children.

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."

The words often have old origins, and some have Pagan roots, that 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.

The people in the neighbouring countries to Finland often consider Finnish swear words harsher than their own, and even use heavily mis-pronounced versions of them, most notably perkele. Native Finns tend to consider the harshness exaggerated, while others use it to their advantage.

[edit] The words

The following explains the meanings of certain well-known curse words.
Helvetti	Helvetti translates as hell and has roughly the same meaning as in the English language. From Swedish Helvete, with the same meaning. Often used example-phrase is "What the 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 grove or burial site, or a mythical being hiisi associated with them (and possibly Hittavainen). It can nowadays be translated as "a devil" or some other little hellish being. The word is in same category with other "mild" swear words like "helkkari" or "himskatti". All of them meaning either Hell itself or somekind of hellish being. Hitto is usually translated heck.
Jumalauta	This is a combination of two words jumala meaning god and auta meaning help (verb, imperative 2nd person). It is used in a similar fashion to Oh God except in Finnish it tends to have a slightly aggressive emphasis, usually used as a way of expressing one's frustration. Another translation for Oh God is Voi luoja (luoja = the creator, a synonym for god). An ad campaign for Evangelian Church aid for third world countries used JumalAuta as an eyecatcher. This raised discussion for being too profane. Perhaps the most accurate English counterpart for "jumalauta" is "goddamn it", although in English one asks God to damn the person or reason for the problem, whereas in Finnish one simply asks God for some kind of help. Often used replacement words for it are jumankauta or jumaliste.
Kusi	Kusi, pronounced /kusi/ or like "coosy" 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 "pissa" as a tame replacement word. The word pissa has drifted so far into everyday usage that in combined form "pissapoika" (pissing boy) it refers specifically to the squirter on the windshield of cars. Several foreign visitors have been amused by the product "Superpiss" for windshield wiper fluid.
Kyrpä	Literally "cock" (meaning penis, not a rooster), very useful eg. as a "talk dirty" situations with Finnish females. Extremely offensive between two male adults. Variations include mulkku, molo, mulkero 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.
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 semi-strong swear word. The similarity with the Latin phrase per se 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 "of course"). 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 'pill-oo' (am.). Not especially swearing, but not something to say to your mother-in-law 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" - "shall (the) Devil take (it)" 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. Topi Uosukainen. 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, but when used it usually has other swear words said with it such as "Saatanan runkkari!". In English it means wanker.
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 (a) 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 in "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 late winter 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 less offensive hitto (see above), which sounds a little like the other word. Sometimes it's replaced with even less offensive vitsi, which means a joke (as in "oh joke", which doesn't make much sense but is hardly offensive), or hitsi, which happens to be what is created by welding, the weld.