Of the spoken language word groups in Finnish, words ending in –Ari (-ari/-äri) are the second most common, right after –is (futis, pehmis). These are the most common in the slang of the South of Finland, especially Helsinki.

These words always have three syllables, and at their base lies fairly often a loanword from Swedish or English. Some others are simply Finnish standard language words that have been made shorter.

Some of these words are considered slang words, while others have been adopted into regular spoken language, or even standard language. For example, the words polttarit (stag party) and dekkari (detective story) have completely been adopted into standard language.

Please note that all the words on this page are commonly used and would therefore be important to familiarize yourself with.

When translating these, I have tried to stick to the most common use of the word. It’s important to notice, however, that people will be creative while using language and create new words ending in -Ari on the fly. This can result in the same -Ari word having several meanings when their base word is similar.

Food Words Ending in -Ari

Spoken Language Clothing Words

Most of these clothing words ending in –Ari are related to shoes and pants. Most of them appear in the plural, because you have two shoes and pants have two legs. The spoken language word will end in the T-plural just like the standard language form does (e.g. tennarit and tennistossut).

Spoken Language Words for People

Spoken Language Words for Brands

Some very popular (international) brands like McDonalds and Chrysler will have their own nickname in spoken language. In addition, amongst their fans, bands will also have their own special spoken language name. Examples of this are Leevarit (Leevi and the Leavings), Saipparit (Cypress Hill), and Gunnarit (Guns´n Roses)

Sports Words Ending in -Ari

I’m assuming there are quite many terms of ice hockey, baseball and soccer that have a spoken language equivalent. Unfortunately I don’t follow any sports closely, so the list below is very basic.

Free Time / Parties

The words in the list below that end in a -t are plurale tantum words, aka words that always appear in the plural, even if their meaning isn’t exactly plural.

Places and Spaces

In addition to some types of places, we can also find a lot of spoken language nicknames for areas of the city. There are several places in Helsinki that hava –Ari-nicknames (e.g. Puottari, Hirvari, Flemari) and the same is true for Tampere (e.g. Koskari) and Espoo (e.g. Hekari). I have added the spoken language words used for rooms in a house or building here as well.

Children / School

Objects / Machines / Tools

Those are some of the most common spoken language words ending in -Ari. Hopefully you find this list useful and want to learn more spoken language words!

Related posts:

Finnish Spoken Language Numbers Kaheksan Spoken Language Words ending in -is – Puhekieli Sanasto Mä Mää Mie – Pronouns in Spoken Language Typical Features of Finnish Spoken Language – Puhekieli