Hi thou!!

You might know that in English language "thou" is used to be a second person singular pronoun. However, English language has become so polite that thou has progressively disappeared. Instead, "other people" are always called "you" whether there was one or many of them.

The case is very different in Finnish language. Finnish language is very straight forward and does not use much polite expressions. People say what they mean and that's it. For example, the word "please" does not have any translation in Finnish, because it just does not exist. Because of the use of very straight language, foreigners may feel that Finns are impolite, but the politness for Finns means more behavior than words. Being kind to people, not bothering them, respecting others, not letting people down and keeping your promises is a Finnish way to be polite.

But let's go back to words. In Finland, using "you" when talking to one single person is very rare. It only exists in very formal situations which we don't have so much. Sometimes phone sellers may call you "you" instead of "thou". Or if you speak with someone that you do not know, or if this person is very old and important you may consider to say you instead of thou. Often middle age people may even get angry if you call them "you" instead of "thou" and they would tell you "I am not that old!!".

What may seem even more surprising is that using she or he is also getting more and more rare. For your information, she is "hän" and he is "hän", thus there are no difference between men and women when you call them. But Finns do not call people so often s/he anymore. Instead of saying "there s/he comes!" they say "There it comes". Finns use "hän" form only in very formal situations. Oh, and also when they talk about their lovely pets (no kidding!!). When a English speaker says "A friend of mine is taking care of my dog. She takes good care of it", a Finn says "A friend of mine is taking care of my dog. It takes good care of him".