Every April, I’m amazed at how Finnish is spring is pretty much identical with Belgian winter. I grew up in Belgium, where usually April means green grass, leaves and flowers. In Helsinki, April means +7 degrees and everything being grey and brown. At the moment, it’s raining. But we had some beautiful days last week, and Vappu is just around the corner! Can’t wait! On to the question of the day:
Omar writes:
Mitä tarkoittaa “nimenomaan” ?! What does “nimenomaan “mean?!
Dear Omar,
Great question! Nimenomaan is one of those words that emphasizes and defines meaning, and as such it’s pretty hard to translate accurately. Nimeomaan can be translated as exactly, absolutely, totally, precisely, in particular.
You can use it to say that someone understands exactly what you mean. In this example that I just made up, Maija and Aarne are having coffee.
Maija: Tää on ihana kahvila.
Aarne: Joo, mistään ei saa näin hyviä korvapuusteja!
Maija: Nimenomaan!
Maija: I love this café (literally: this café is wonderful).
Aarne: Yeah, you can’t get korvapuustis this good anywhere!
Maija: Exactly!
You can also use it to single something out:
Maija: Tää on ihana kahvila.
Aarne: Joo, nimenomaan korvapuustit on täällä tosi hyviä!
Maija: I love this café.
Aarne: Yeah, the korvapuustis in particular are really good here!
To emphasize:
Maija: Mihin me mentäis kahville?
Aarne: En mä tiiä, oisko Cafe Laine mitään?
Maija: Mun tekis nimenomaan mieli korvapuustia.
Aarne: No mut hei sit mä tiedän hyvän paikan!
Maija: Where do you want to have coffee?
Aarne: I don’t know, how about Café Laine?
Maija: I’m really craving a korvapuusti.
Aarne: Well in that case I know just the place!
In most cases, in particular works pretty nicely as a translation for nimenomaan, so if I had to choose one word to translate it with, that would be my favorite.
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