I dig you!
The consonant gradation of the Finnish language can make conjugating verbs a bit tricky - here's a good example: a Belgian friend of mine - an exchange student - was leaving our village and wanted to write a few lines to her friends in our school. So she wrote a letter in Finnish and posted it on the school notice board. Although I was really moved by all the nice things she wrote, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the sentence: Minä kaivan sinua, I dig you. In English that makes sense, but in Finnish it sounds really funny, as if you'd really dig a hole into someone. What my friend of course meant to say was that she misses me. This mistake is an easy one to make as the verbs kaivaa, to dig, and kaivata, to miss someone or something, look very similar. But in this case conjugation makes all the difference: Minä kaipaan sinua, I miss you, and minä kaivan sinua, I dig you. But don't worry, my friend, I dig you too :)
Sent by: I.
Comments
What Kaivan means in Finnish, literally, is 'I dig (a hole or something similar whatever you might go digging)' but as it is England and you guys pronounce it differently, don't worry about it. Only Finns might recognise it and there's about 5 million of us all together in the world! :)
I have a 5-months old baby and named him Kaivan. I thought I had made the name up (mixed 'Kai' and 'Donovan'). Now I see that it's a word in the Finnish language. How fabulous is that? So what exactly does that mean? Thanx.
I have a 10-month old twin that I named Kaivan. I too thought I made it up: Kai (from an aunt named Kaia) and van because I needed somthing to match his twin's name Keithan and older brother Kendan! How neat to know it means something! :)
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