Finnish greetings

[Woods]

Moi / moikka / moro / morjes / morjesta...

Did I miss something?

What is your attitude towards all those different greetings? I go with "hei" (actually I mean it as a "hey," but I guess the speaker has no way of knowing it's a universal / Swedish / English "hey/hej" and not a Finnish one, so it goes pretty well as a Finnish "hi" too...

I also sometimes say "moi," mainly as a response to another person saying hi this way to me, but I haven't used any of the other ones.

I wouldn't use "moikka," maybe because one of my colleagues uses it all the time and he's totally gay (in the bad sense of the word used to describe heterosexuals - no offense whatsoever is meant toward actual homosexuals). I've noticed some cool people use "moro," and I guess sometimes they feel like they need to change it up a little bit and come up with versions like "morjes," "morjesta" etc.

Which one would you recommend?

[Naava]

First of all, I'm sure there's lots of variation in greetings and how they're perceived and used by people in different parts of the country. I'm speaking from an Southern Ostrobothnian point of view. If you asked from someone else, they might very well disagree with me.

Moi / moikka / moro / morjes / morjesta...

Did I miss something?

Morjesta päivää, moi moi, päivää/iltaa/iltoja/ehtoota/huomenta/huomenia, moikkelis, moikkelis koikkelis, moi vaan, moro vaan, hei vaan, heips, helou, heissan, heipsan, hellurei (ja hellät tunteet), morjens, morjensta, terve, tere, tervepä terve, tere tere, terse, mo, mooi... The list goes on. I swear some people just make up their own greetings.

The safest to use are hei and moi because they are neutral and can be used in almost any situation. Terve works, too. It's maybe slightly more casual than hei or moi. Avoid moikkelis, moikkelis koikkelis, heips, heipsan, hellurei, terse, and mo. These all have potentiality to make people cringe. Morjes/morjens (and its derivatives) and tere are informal IMO so it's best if you don't say these to strangers. Päivää, iltaa, ehtoota, huomenta (and their plurals) are fine both with friends and strangers, but I think they're used mostly when you expect the person/people you're talking to haven't noticed you yet/don't know you're going to talk to them. For example, if I go to my brother's house, I could yell päivää at the door so they know I'm there. (We don't use doorbells with family, we just walk in.) Or if I go to buy a ticket or something, I could start with päivää (or whatever time of the day it is). Ehtoo is the Western Finnish word for 'evening'. If you add hyvää to any of these, they become much more formal.

Some of the greetings I listed are "answers" that you use when someone has greeted you first: moi moi, hei hei, hei vaan, moi vaan, tervepä terve, tere tere. Usually you answer with the same word you were greeted with, so:
"Moi!" "Moi moi!" ; "Hei!" "Hei vaan!" ; "Tere!" "Tere tere!" ; "Päivää!" "Päivää päivää!" and so on. Many of the greetings can be used both when greeting first or answering to a greeting: moi, moikka, hei, heippa, terve. Sometimes you can add no before the greeting: no hei, no heippa, no moi, no moikka, no terve, no hei vaan. IMO if you use it first, it can sound like "I'm (pleasantly) surprised to see you", and if you answer with it, it can sound less stiff than plain hei. I don't think there are strict rules, though, you just need to know the context and what feels natural and flowing in the moment. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

FYI: I think Swedish hej has more friction than Finnish hei. Wiktionary seems to agree with me: it gives the pronunciations /ˈhɛjː/ and /ˈhei̯/ for <hej> and <hei>.

one of my colleagues uses it all the time and he's totally gay (in the bad sense of the word used to describe heterosexuals - no offense whatsoever is meant toward actual homosexuals

What is that supposed to mean? (It's also good to remember that the more you use a word in it's "bad sense", the more you strengthen its bad connotations.)

I've noticed some cool people use "moro,"

This is stereotypically Tampere (and its nearby regions) greeting. Here's an example of it with the "proper" Tampere dialect pronunciation. (Note: of course this doesn't mean it wouldn't be used anywhere else than in Tampere!) It's one of the informal ones, so you can use that with your friends but maybe not with strangers. It really depends on how formal you feel the context and your relationship is.

Also, some comments I found online:

► Show Spoiler

Mä käytän moi, kun kyseessä on joku tosi tuttu tai nuori henkilö.

Usein käytän heitä, se on jotenkin vähän tyylikkäämpi ja aikuisempi kuin moi vaikkapa naapurin 80 vuotiasta rouvaa tervehdittäessä, kun ollaan kuitenkin hyviä tuttuja ja päivää olisi liian muodollista.

Hei sanon usein kaupan myyjälle yms.

"I use 'moi' when it's someone I know very well or a young person.

Oftentimes I use 'hei', it's somehow more stylish and adult than 'moi' for example when I greet the 80-year-old neighbour of mine, because we know each other well and 'päivää' would be too formal.

I say 'hei' to the staff in shops etc."

moi - tavallista puhekieltä koko maassa, ylivoimaisesti yleisin tervehdys ainakin uudellamaalla

hei - kaksikielinen tervehdys, jota käytetään rantaruotsalaisilla alueilla

(hyvää) huomenta/ päivää/ iltaa/ jne - virallista yleiskieltä

terve - huumoritervehdys tuttujen kesken, virallisemmassa käytössä ainakin itä-suomessa kuopion seudulla (siellä esim. kaupan kassa ei sano hei tai moi vaan terve)

moro - only in tampere

"moi - common spoken language everywhere, by far the most common greeting at last in Uusimaa
hei - bilingual greeting that is used in Swedish speaking areas
(hyvää) huomenta/päivää/iltaa/etc - formal standard language
terve - humorous greeting amongst friends, used in more formally at least in East Finland in areas near Kuopio (eg. there the cashier doesn't greet you with hei or moi but with terve)"

Minä tervehdin useimmiten sanalla Terve, toiseksi yleisin on varmaan Heippa, jota käytän myös hyvästellessä.

Moi tulee sanottua kavereille toisinaan ja Hei vieraille, esim. kaupankassa (ellei sitten tutumpi kassa, jolle sanon Terve).

Huomenta sitten käytössä aamuisin, oikeastaan kaikille.

"I greet mostly with terve, the second most common is maybe heippa, which I also use when saying goodbyes.
Sometimes I say moi to my friends and hei to strangers, eg. cashiers (unless it's someone I know, in case I say terve)
I say huomenta in the morning, actually to everyone"

Oulussa käytetään yleisesti "terve" tai "hei". Pääkaupunkiseudulla kyllä kaikka käyttää "moi".
Tuttujen kesken oulussa sanotaan "helou".

"Terve and hei are commonly used in Oulu. In the capital area, everyone uses moi.
We use helou with friends in Oulu."

Tampereella käytetään myös ainakin näitä: termos, tereve, terse, terska. Hieman tuo viimeinen aina kuullessa hämmentää, mutta ihan tavallinen tervehdys on, ei ole tarkoitettu mitenkään härskisti.

Itse käytän läheisille Moi, työpaikalla Huomenta, Terve, Päivää, kaupan kassoille vastaan joko Moi, Terve tai Hei riippuen siitä mitä he sanovat. Tosin täällä Tampereella joutuu usein itse tervehtimään kassaa ensin.

"These are also used in Tampere: termos, tereve, terse, tersa. The last one always confuses me when I hear but it is an ordinary greeting, it's not meant to be rancid.

I myself use moi with friends, huomenta, terve, päivää at workplace, and I asnwer with moi, terve or hei to the cashiers depending on which one they've used. Although here in Tampere you have to greet the cashier first."

No terveiset Savosta: kavereille moi, helou, puhelimessa aina no moi tai no morjesta (riippuu henkilöstä), heippa lähtiessä tai hei hei. Kaupankassalle ja virallisimmissa yhteyksissä hei. Terve myös puolitutuille.

T:Pohjoispohjalainen Savoon nuorena muuttanut 35-vuotias akka.

"Well greetings from Savonia: moi, helou to friends, on phone always no moi or no morjesta (depending on the person), heippa or hei hei when leaving. Hei to the cashier and in more formal context. Terve also to my acquaintances.
From: A Northern Ostrobothnian 35-year-old woman who moved to Savonia when young."

Tämä syntyjäänkin helsinkiläinen 36 v. perheenäiti sanoo yleensä "hei" ja aamuisin kaikille "huomenta". Vanhuksille vähän tyypin ja tilanteen mukaan päivällä "hei" tai "päivää".

Joskus harvoin saatan sanoa "moi" joillekin tosi tutuille rennommassa tilanteessa. Ja silloin, kun toinen sanoo minulle ensin "moi", niin on luontevampaa vastata siihen samalla sanalla. Vaikka aika usein kyllä huomaan vastaavani hassusti moihin heillä.. Hei tulee niin automaattisesti.

Ikinä milloinkaan en sano "terve". Minun päässäni se on lokeroituu vanhemman mieshenkilön sanomaksi - joku naapurin Reijo voisi moikata ja huikata rehvakkaasti "terve". Ei tule mitenkään luontevasti minun suustani.

"This native Helsinki citizen who's 36-year-old housewife usually says hei and in the morning, huomenta to everyone. To the senior citizens I say hei or päivää depending on the person and the context.

Sometimes rarely I might say moi to someone who I know very well if the context is casual. And also when someone first greets me with moi, it's more natural to answer it with the same word. Although quite often I notice I answer funnily to moi with hei... Hei comes so automatically.

Never ever do I say terve. In my head it's categorised as something an older man might say - some Reijo from the neighbourhood could greet me and say self-imporantly terve. It doesn't fit in my mouth at all."

Asiakaspalvelussa:

Nuorehkoa tai rennon oloista asiakasta tervehdin usein "Moikka! Voisinkos olla avuksi?"

Aikuista, bisnesasiakasta tervehdin "Hei, kuinka voin auttaa?"

Molemmille lopuksi sama Kiitos, heihei! No nuorehkolle saatan sanoo kiitti, hei!

"At customer service:
I often greet younger people or someone who seems casual with "Moikka! Could I help you?"
An adult business customer I greet with "Hei, how can I help you?"
As a goodbye I se "kiitos hei hei" to both. Well, to a young-ish person I could say "kiitti hei"."

Mun käyttämät:

Huomenta (töissä aamuisin kaikille)

Moi (kavereille)

Hei (esim. kaupan kassat, nuorille myös moi)

Terve (raksaäijät, sähköasentajat ym. miehet)

Skudaa (parille huumorintajuiselle kaverille)

Tere (sama kuin ed.)

Nuorena kun asuin Itä-Suomessa, siellä oli käytössä lähinnä terve, Helsingin serkut tulivat sinne moikkailemaan ja se oli kyllä ihan hesalaisten hienostelua se... Moi tuli itselleni käyttöön kun muutin pois maalta.

"The ones I use:

Huomenta (in the morning at work to everyone)

Moi (to friends)

Hei (eg. cashiers, to young ones also moi)

Terve (construction workers, electricians etc. men)

Skudaa (to a few friend who've got a good sense of humour)

Tere (same as above)

When I was young and lived in East Finland, everyone used mostly terve. When my cousins from Helsinki came, they used moi/moikka, that was just pretentious... I started to use moi only after I moved out of the countryside."

Näin täällä:

Moi - tuttavallinen ja ystävällinenkin, aika yleispätevä. En käyttäisi kuitenkaan työhaastastattelussa

Hei - astetta muodollisempi, jopa epäystävällinen, jos on siihen asti käyttänyt moita saman henkilön kanssa ja sitten yllättäen laittaa tuon tervehdykseksi vaikka sähköpostin alkuun.

Terve - käytän joskus, etenkin kun tapaan samassa taloyhtiössä asuvan vanhemman herran tai muitakin mieshenkilöitä, joiden kanssa ollaan sellisissa väleissä, että päätetään yhdessä yhteisistä asioista (yhtiökokous, taloyhtiö ym.). Sopii jotenkin tilanteeseen.

Morjens - kun miehen Tampereella asuva aikuinen poika tulee kylään, käytän tätä. Johtuu ehkä siitä, että poikakin käyttää

Helou - yleispätevä puolileikillinen tervehdys kavereiden kesken

Päivää - leikillisesti muodollinen tuttujen kesken samoinkuin ihan oikeasti muodollinen vakavammissa yhteyksissä

Heippa - en käytä - omassa kielenkäytössäni kuuluu samaan lässytyssarjaan kuin iskä ja äiskä, joita inhoan yli kaiken.

"This is how it's here:

Moi - informal and friendly, too, quite universal. I wouldn't use it in a job interview, though.
Hei - a bit more formal, maybe unfriendly if you've been using moi so far with the same person and then suddenly write hei eg. at the beginning of an email.
Terve - I use sometimes, especially if I meet an older man or some other men who live in the same housing cooperative with me, if we have such relationship that we discuss and decide things together (shareholder's meeting, housing cooperative etc.) It somehow works in any situation.
Morjens - when my husbands' adult son, who lives in Tampere, comes to visit us, I use this. Maybe it's because he uses it , too
Helou - universal, half-playful greeting among friends
Päivää - playfully with friends, also actually formal in more serious contexts
Heippa - I don't use it - in my language, it belongs to the same baby talk as "iskä" (daddy) and "äiskä" (mommy), which I hate more than anything."

All in all, it really depends on the local culture and your own preferences which greetings you want to use.

[suruvaippa]

I've noticed some cool people use "moro,"

This is stereotypically Tampere (and its nearby regions) greeting. Here's an example of it with the "proper" Tampere dialect pronunciation. (Note: of course this doesn't mean it wouldn't be used anywhere else than in Tampere!) It's one of the informal ones, so you can use that with your friends but maybe not with strangers. It really depends on how formal you feel the context and your relationship is.

I honestly don't think I've ever heard "moro" pronounced that way in the ~15 months I've spent in Tampere. Either that or I just haven't been paying enough attention. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've also heard of youth in other cities having reappropriated moro as a "cool" way to greet akin to yo in (American) English, which kind of amuses me as an uustamperelainen.

Avoid moikkelis, moikkelis koikkelis, heips, heipsan, hellurei, terse, and mo. These all have potentiality to make people cringe.

I seem to actually hear mo quite a lot and don't find it at all cringey (though as a non-native speaker, so take this with a grain of salt); heips seems to be somewhat common too. Agreed on the rest. I'd like to give the person who first popularized terse a good slap. Add moik to the list too.

I wouldn't use "moikka," maybe because one of my colleagues uses it all the time and he's totally gay (in the bad sense of the word used to describe heterosexuals - no offense whatsoever is meant toward actual homosexuals).

I've no clue at all what you meant with that second part, but I'm not aware of any kind of negative connotations associated with moikka.

[Vlürch]

By far the absolute supreme greeting of utmost perfection that is to be found within the Finnish language, which is truly criminally underused for reasons that even the wisest man on the planet could not even begin to speculate upon, is definitely and without exception morso.

...and in case it wasn't clear from the shitty attempt at verbose long-windedness, I'm just kidding. It can also be a greeting, but above all it's the name of an absolutely terrifying character [WARNING: NSFL] from a children's TV series that traumatised an entire generation. Ask anyone between the ages of 20 and 30 what the scariest thing on TV was and they'll probably say Morso. Like, Jesus Christ, it looks like Mason Verger from Hannibal; if they came out saying Mason's appearance in the film was inspired by Morso, I could legit believe it.

And when you consider that in Italian morso means "bite"...

heips seems to be somewhat common too

Online, sure, but even then it's mostly used by female and feminine male vloggers and bloggers and whatnot. If you're a grown ass man who shows no clear signs of being gay or anything and say it in real life, people would at the very least cringe internally. (But some women do probably use it in real life, or at least one of the literally like 1.5 women I know uses it in text messages... not that text messages are real life, but they're closer to it than blogs or vlogs or whatever.)

I'm actually not sure if heippa is kinda cringy, too; it's one way to say "bye", the one I use the most myself.

[Naava]

I honestly don't think I've ever heard "moro" pronounced that way in the ~15 months I've spent in Tampere. Either that or I just haven't been paying enough attention. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Or you've spent your time with the wrong people - you can hardly ever hear the traditional accent anymore except from 40-50+ year old people. I also think it's somewhat tied to your profession, so the more you're paid, the less likely you are to have a Tampere accent.

But it's not completely gone yet, since that girl in the video and some of my Tampere friends are able to do the accent. It's also possible that the dialect is still alive and I've just missed it because most of my friends have moved to Tampere from somewhere else.

Avoid moikkelis, moikkelis koikkelis, heips, heipsan, hellurei, terse, and mo. These all have potentiality to make people cringe.

I seem to actually hear mo quite a lot and don't find it at all cringey (though as a non-native speaker, so take this with a grain of salt)

I didn't say those greetings are cringey, I only said they can be. It depends on the context and the person.

heips seems to be somewhat common too.

But some women do probably use it in real life, or at least one of the literally like 1.5 women I know uses it in text messages..

I know more than 1.5 women yet I've never heard this in real life. But like you, I've seen it in text sometimes.

I'd like to give the person who first popularized terse a good slap.

By far the absolute supreme greeting of utmost perfection that is to be found within the Finnish language, which is truly criminally underused for reasons that even the wisest man on the planet could not even begin to speculate upon, is definitely and without exception morso.

Thanks, I hate you both. Those are awful.

If you're a grown ass man who shows no clear signs of being gay or anything and say it in real life, people would at the very least cringe internally.

...how about heipsulivei?

Like, Jesus Christ, it looks like Mason Verger from Hannibal; if they came out saying Mason's appearance in the film was inspired by Morso, I could legit believe it.

That thing is so fucking creepy that I have no idea what kind of a person could create something like that and go "yup, looks perfect for a kids' show!" What is it even supposed to be? There's a cat, a donkey, and a what? A love child of Mason Verger and a monkey...?
But to be fair, I swear all the 90's and early 00's kids' TV series were more or less traumatising. Good times, good times.

I'm actually not sure if heippa is kinda cringy, too; it's one way to say "bye", the one I use the most myself.

I tend to use it with kids. I could imagine myself saying it to a friend after they've said hi to me first, too, especially if I haven't noticed them at first - but if I had to choose between heippa and moikka, I'd choose moikka both for greeting and for a 'bye'. (I also use hei ny [to one person] and heikää ny [two or more people] when leaving, but I haven't heard it outside of Southern Ostrobothnia.)

[suruvaippa]

By far the absolute supreme greeting of utmost perfection that is to be found within the Finnish language, which is truly criminally underused for reasons that even the wisest man on the planet could not even begin to speculate upon, is definitely and without exception morso.

Assuming this was supposed to be sarcastic (if not, I'll ready the pitchforks), I see your morso and raise you a heipparallaa.

...how about heipsulivei?

...what the hell is that monstrosity?

[Naava]

By far the absolute supreme greeting of utmost perfection that is to be found within the Finnish language, which is truly criminally underused for reasons that even the wisest man on the planet could not even begin to speculate upon, is definitely and without exception morso.

Assuming this was supposed to be sarcastic (if not, I'll ready the pitchforks), I see your morso and raise you a heipparallaa.

I see your morso and heipparallaa and raise you a heippatirallaa. Also, heipsansaa and heissansaa. Also also, what my dear mum likes to say: hellurei, kellä heiluu, kellä ei, and its alternative hei sun heiluvilles. She knows how horrible they both are and that's exactly why she uses them. (Not with strangers though. She's reserved them for family members.)

...how about heipsulivei?

...what the hell is that monstrosity?

I even found a perfect example of how to use it!

[suruvaippa]

I see your morso and heipparallaa and raise you a heippatirallaa. Also, heipsansaa and heissansaa. Also also, what my dear mum likes to say: hellurei, kellä heiluu, kellä ei, and its alternative hei sun heiluvilles.

...heipsansaa?!? I can't even tell anymore whether we're one-upping each other's cheesy greetings or imitating a Finnish pre-teen trying to half-assedly transcribe the words to Ievan polkka.

...how about heipsulivei?

...what the hell is that monstrosity?

I even found a perfect example of how to use it!

Okay, I'm dead.