Helsinki

See also: helsinki, Hèlsinki, Helsínki, Helsinkî, Helsînkî, Hêlsînkî, Ħelsinki, and Ḥélsinki

Languages (22)

English

---

Afrikaans • Azerbaijani • Breton • Danish • Dutch • Finnish • French • German • Hungarian • Icelandic • Indonesian • Italian • Latvian • Polish • Portuguese • Serbo-Croatian • Slovak • Slovene • Spanish • Turkish • Võro

---

Page categories

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Finnish Helsinki.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɛlˈsɪŋ.ki/
• enPR: hělʹsǐngʹkē

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Proper noun

Helsinki

2. The capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland.

   Synonym: (obsolete) Helsingfors

   • 2005, Bill Clinton, My Life‎^[1], volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 376–377:

     My doctors didn't want me to go to Helsinki, but staying home wasn't an option. Yeltsin had been reelected and NATO was about to vote to admit Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic; we had to have an agreement on how to proceed.

   • 2017 July 5, Alana Semuels, “From 'Not in My Backyard' to 'Yes in My Backyard'”, in The Atlantic‎^[2], archived from the original on 17 August 2017:

     There’s a YIMBY group in Somerville, Massachusetts, and one in Los Angeles; there’s a San Francisco YIMBY party and a YIMBY group in Portland. YIMBYtown, a national conference, will take place in Oakland this month; Helsinki is hosting Yimbycon in August.

3. (metonymic) The Finnish government.
   • 2024 July 12, “Finland approves controversial law to turn away migrants at Russian border”, in Euronews‎^[3]:

     The aim of the bill is to introduce temporary measures which curb migrants from entering the Nordic nation, in response to what Helsinki sees as “hybrid warfare” from Russia.

Derived terms

• Helsinkian

Translations

the capital city of Finland

• Afrikaans: Helsinki
• Albanian: Helsinki (sq)
• Amharic: ሄልሲንኪ (helsinki)
• Arabic: هِلْسِنْكِي f (helsinkī, hilsinkī)
• Armenian: Հելսինկի (Helsinki), (obsolete) Հելսինգֆորս (Helsingfors)
• Asturian: Ḥélsinki (ast)
• Azerbaijani: Helsinki (az)
• Belarusian: Хе́льсінкі m (Xjélʹsinki), Хэ́льсынкі pl (Xélʹsynki), Гельсінгфо́рс m (Hjelʹsinhfórs) (historical)
• Bengali: হেলসিঙ্কি (bn) (helośiṅki)
• Bulgarian: Хе́лзинки m (Hélzinki)
• Burmese: ဟယ်လ်ဆင်ကီမြို့ (hailhcangkimrui.)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 赫爾辛基 / 赫尔辛基 (haak¹ ji⁵ san¹ gei¹), (obsolete) 赫爾辛福 / 赫尔辛福 (haak¹ ji⁵ san¹ fuk¹)

  Mandarin: 赫爾辛基 / 赫尔辛基 (zh) (Hè'ěrxīnjī), (obsolete) 赫爾辛福 / 赫尔辛福 (Hè'ěrxīnfú)

• Czech: Helsinky (cs) f pl
• Danish: Helsinki (da), Helsingfors (da) n (dated)
• Dutch: Helsinki (nl) n, (obsolete) Elsenfors
• Esperanto: Helsinko (eo)
• Estonian: Helsingi (et)
• Finnish: Helsinki (fi)
• French: Helsinki (fr) m; (obsolete) Helsingfors (fr) m
• Galician: Helsinqui (gl)
• Georgian: ჰელსინკი (ka) (helsinḳi)
• German: Helsinki (de) n
• Greek: Ελσίνκι (el) n (Elsínki)
• Hebrew: הֶלְסִינְקִי (he) f (helsinki)
• Hindi: हेलसिंकी m (helsiṅkī)
• Hungarian: Helsinki (hu)
• Icelandic: Helsinki
• Indonesian: Helsinki
• Irish: Heilsincí f
• Italian: Helsinki f
• Japanese: ヘルシンキ (ja) (Herushinki); (obsolete) ヘルシンフォーズ (Herushinfōzu)
• Kazakh: Хельсинки (Xelsinki)
• Khmer: ហែលស៊ិនគី (km) (haelsɨnkii)
• Korean: 헬싱키 (ko) (Helsingki); (obsolete) 헬싱포스 (Helsingposeu)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: Helsinkî (ku) f, Helsînkî (ku)

• Kyrgyz: Хельсинки (Helsinki)
• Lao: ເຮນຊິນກີ (hēn sin kī)
• Latin: Helsingia f
• Latvian: Helsinki m
• Lithuanian: Helsinkis m
• Macedonian: Хелсинки m (Helsinki)
• Malay: Helsinki
• Maltese: Ħelsinki
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: Хельсинки (Heĺsinki)

• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: Хельсинки (Xelʹsinki)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Helsingfors (no)

  Nynorsk: Helsingfors

• Pashto: هلسنکي f (helsenki)
• Persian: هلسینکی (helsinki)
• Polish: Helsinki (pl) pl
• Portuguese:

  Brazilian Portuguese: Helsinque (pt) f

  European Portuguese: Helsínquia (pt) f

• Romanian: Helsinki (ro)
• Russian: Хе́льсинки (ru) m (Xélʹsinki), (obsolete) Гельсингфо́рс m (Gelʹsingfórs)
• Sami:

  Northern Sami: Helsset

  Skolt Sami: Heʹlssen

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Хѐлсинки m

  Latin: Hèlsinki (sh) m

• Slovak: Helsinki f pl
• Slovene: Helsinki (sl) m pl
• Spanish: Helsinki (es)
• Swedish: Helsingfors (sv)
• Tajik: Ҳелсинкӣ (Helsinki)
• Tamil: எல்சிங்கி (elciṅki)
• Tatar: Һельсинки (Helʹsinki)
• Thai: เฮลซิงกิ (hel-sing-gì)
• Tibetan: ཧེལ་སིན་ཀི (hel sin ki)
• Turkish: Helsinki (tr)
• Turkmen: Helsinki
• Ukrainian: Ге́льсінкі (uk) m (Hélʹsinki), Гельсінгфо́рс m (Helʹsinhfórs) (historical)
• Urdu: ہلسنکی m (helsinkī)
• Uyghur: خېلسىنكى (xëlsinki)
• Uzbek: Helsinki
• Vietnamese: Hiệu Sinh Kỳ, Hiệu Sinh Kì, Hen-xin-ki
• Võro: Helsinki
• Yiddish: העלסינקי n (helsinki)

Afrikaans

Etymology

Borrowed from Finnish Helsinki.

Proper noun

Helsinki

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Derived terms

• Helsinkiër
• Helsinkies

Azerbaijani

Proper noun

Helsinki

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Breton

Proper noun

Helsinki

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Danish

Proper noun

Helsinki (?)

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

   Synonym: (dated, rare) Helsingfors

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Finnish Helsinki.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɦɛlˈsiŋ.ki/, (less common) /ˈɦɛlˌsiŋ.ki/, /-sɪŋ-/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Hel‧sin‧ki

Proper noun

Helsinki n

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Synonyms

• Elsenfors (obsolete)

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from vernacular Swedish Helsinge, itself probably derived from *hälsing- (found in e.g. Hälsingland, Helsingborg ~ Hälsingborg), a derivative of hals (literally “neck”) (perhaps Old Swedish hals > hälsinge), here referring to a narrow part of a flowing body of water. Helsinki is located on the delta of the river Vantaa, so the name would refer to the rapids of that river. Indeed, Vanhankaupunginkoski, the rapids around which Helsinki was founded, was called Helsinge fors (literally “Helsinki rapids”) in older sources; this is also the origin of the current Swedish name Helsingfors.

In the past the city was considered to have been named after the Swedish province of Hälsingland, on the grounds that Helsinki would have initially been settled by people from Hälsingland, but this is no longer considered likely (instead, the largest group seems to have been those from Uppland).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhelsiŋki/, [ˈhe̞ls̠iŋk̟i]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -elsiŋki
• Syllabification^(key): Hel‧sin‧ki
• Hyphenation^(key): Hel‧sin‧ki

Proper noun

Helsinki

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

   Synonyms: (abbreviation) Hki, (colloquial, Helsinki) Stadi, (colloquial, rest of Finland) Hesa

Declension

The internal locative cases (inessive, illative and elative) are used with this place name when referring to a location; for example, "in Helsinki" is Helsingissä.

Inflection of Helsinki (Kotus type 5*G/risti, nk-ng gradation)
nominative		Helsinki	—
genitive		Helsingin	—
partitive		Helsinkiä	—
illative		Helsinkiin	—
		singular	plural
nominative		Helsinki	—
accusative	nom.	Helsinki	—
	gen.	Helsingin
genitive		Helsingin	—
partitive		Helsinkiä	—
inessive		Helsingissä	—
elative		Helsingistä	—
illative		Helsinkiin	—
adessive		Helsingillä	—
ablative		Helsingiltä	—
allative		Helsingille	—
essive		Helsinkinä	—
translative		Helsingiksi	—
abessive		Helsingittä	—
instructive		—	—
comitative		See the possessive forms below.

Possessive forms of Helsinki (Kotus type 5*G/risti, nk-ng gradation)

first-person singular possessor singular plural nominative Helsinkini — accusative nom. Helsinkini — gen. Helsinkini genitive Helsinkini — partitive Helsinkiäni — inessive Helsingissäni — elative Helsingistäni — illative Helsinkiini — adessive Helsingilläni — ablative Helsingiltäni — allative Helsingilleni — essive Helsinkinäni — translative Helsingikseni — abessive Helsingittäni — instructive — — comitative — — second-person singular possessor singular plural nominative Helsinkisi — accusative nom. Helsinkisi — gen. Helsinkisi genitive Helsinkisi — partitive Helsinkiäsi — inessive Helsingissäsi — elative Helsingistäsi — illative Helsinkiisi — adessive Helsingilläsi — ablative Helsingiltäsi — allative Helsingillesi — essive Helsinkinäsi — translative Helsingiksesi — abessive Helsingittäsi — instructive — — comitative — — first-person plural possessor singular plural nominative Helsinkimme — accusative nom. Helsinkimme — gen. Helsinkimme genitive Helsinkimme — partitive Helsinkiämme — inessive Helsingissämme — elative Helsingistämme — illative Helsinkiimme — adessive Helsingillämme — ablative Helsingiltämme — allative Helsingillemme — essive Helsinkinämme — translative Helsingiksemme — abessive Helsingittämme — instructive — — comitative — — second-person plural possessor singular plural nominative Helsinkinne — accusative nom. Helsinkinne — gen. Helsinkinne genitive Helsinkinne — partitive Helsinkiänne — inessive Helsingissänne — elative Helsingistänne — illative Helsinkiinne — adessive Helsingillänne — ablative Helsingiltänne — allative Helsingillenne — essive Helsinkinänne — translative Helsingiksenne — abessive Helsingittänne — instructive — — comitative — — third-person possessor singular plural nominative Helsinkinsä — accusative nom. Helsinkinsä — gen. Helsinkinsä genitive Helsinkinsä — partitive Helsinkiään Helsinkiänsä — inessive Helsingissään Helsingissänsä — elative Helsingistään Helsingistänsä — illative Helsinkiinsä — adessive Helsingillään Helsingillänsä — ablative Helsingiltään Helsingiltänsä — allative Helsingilleen Helsingillensä — essive Helsinkinään Helsinkinänsä — translative Helsingikseen Helsingiksensä — abessive Helsingittään Helsingittänsä — instructive — — comitative — —

Derived terms

• helsinkiläinen
• Hesa
• Hesari

French

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /ɛl.siŋ.ki/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Paris)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Proper noun

Helsinki f

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛlzɪŋki/, (less often also) /hɛlˈzɪŋki/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Proper noun

Helsinki n (proper noun, genitive Helsinkis or (optionally with an article) Helsinki)

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

   Helsinki ist die nördlichste Hauptstadt auf dem europäischen Kontinent.

   Helsinki is the northernmost capital city on the European continent.

   Was heißt Sonnenuntergang auf Finnisch? – ? – Helsinki.

   (literally, “What is sunset in Finnish? – ? – Helsinki.”)

   A Kalauer (“lame pun”) based on hell (“light, bright”) and sinken (“to sink”). Here always stressed on the second syllable.

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈhɛlsiŋki]
• Hyphenation: Hel‧sin‧ki
• Rhymes: -ki

Proper noun

Helsinki

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, front unrounded harmony)

	singular	plural
nominative	Helsinki	—
accusative	Helsinkit	—
dative	Helsinkinek	—
instrumental	Helsinkivel	—
causal-final	Helsinkiért	—
translative	Helsinkivé	—
terminative	Helsinkiig	—
essive-formal	Helsinkiként	—
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	Helsinkiben	—
superessive	Helsinkin	—
adessive	Helsinkinél	—
illative	Helsinkibe	—
sublative	Helsinkire	—
allative	Helsinkihez	—
elative	Helsinkiből	—
delative	Helsinkiről	—
ablative	Helsinkitől	—
non-attributive possessive – singular	Helsinkié	—
non-attributive possessive – plural	Helsinkiéi	—

Possessive forms of Helsinki

possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	Helsinkim	—
2nd person sing.	Helsinkid	—
3rd person sing.	Helsinkije	—
1st person plural	Helsinkink	—
2nd person plural	Helsinkitek	—
3rd person plural	Helsinkijük	—

Derived terms

• helsinki

Icelandic

Proper noun

Helsinki n (proper noun, indeclinable)

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Indonesian

Etymology

Borrowed from Finnish Helsinki.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /hɛlˈsinki/ [hɛlˈsin.ki]
• Rhymes: -inki
• Syllabification: Hel‧sin‧ki

Proper noun

Helsinki

1. Helsinki

Further reading

• “Helsinki”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Finnish.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /elˈsin.ki/, (careful style) /ˈɛl.sin.ki/

Proper noun

Helsinki m

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Latvian

Proper noun

Helsinki m pl (1st declension)

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Declension

Declension of Helsinki (1st)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative	—	Helsinki
genitive	—	Helsinku
dative	—	Helsinkiem
accusative	—	Helsinkus
instrumental	—	Helsinkiem
locative	—	Helsinkos
vocative	—	Helsinki

Polish

Helsinki

Etymology

Borrowed from Finnish Helsinki.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xɛlˈsiŋ.ki/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iŋki
• Syllabification: Hel‧sin‧ki
• Homophone: helsinki

Proper noun

Helsinki nvir pl (related adjective helsiński)

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Declension

Declension of Helsinki

	plural
nominative	Helsinki
genitive	Helsinek
dative	Helsinkom
accusative	Helsinki
instrumental	Helsinkami
locative	Helsinkach
vocative	Helsinki

Derived terms

nouns

• helsinka
• helsińczyk

Further reading

• Helsinki in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Helsinki in PWN's encyclopedia

Portuguese

Proper noun

Helsinki f

1. (proscribed) alternative spelling of Helsinque

Usage notes

The Portuguese-Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990 recommends the use of nativized placenames (instead of unadapted borrowings or partial calques) if these are established in the language. As such, the forms Helsinque or Helsínquia are preferred.

Serbo-Croatian

Proper noun

Hèlsinki m inan (Cyrillic spelling Хѐлсинки)

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Slovak

Etymology

Borrowed from Finnish Helsinki.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɦɛɫsiŋki/

Proper noun

Helsinki f pl (genitive singular Helsínk, declension pattern of žena)

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Declension

Declension of Helsinki

	plurale tantum
nominative	Helsinki
genitive	Helsínk
dative	Helsinkám
accusative	Helsinki
locative	Helsinkách
instrumental	Helsinkami

Derived terms

• Helsinčan m
• Helsinčanka f
• helsinský

References

• “Helsinki”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2026

Slovene

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xɛ̀ːlsinki/

Proper noun

Hélsinki m pl

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Declension

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Masculine inan., hard o-stem
nominative	Hélsinki
genitive	Hélsinkov
	plural
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	Hélsinki
genitive (rodȋlnik)	Hélsinkov
dative (dajȃlnik)	Hélsinkom
accusative (tožȋlnik)	Hélsinke
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	Hélsinkih
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	Hélsinki

Related terms

• Hélsinčan / Hélsinčanka
• hélsinski

References

• “Helsinki”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
• “Helsinki”, in Termania, Amebis
• See also the general references

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xelˈsinki/ [xelˈsĩŋ.ki]
• Rhymes: -inki
• Syllabification: Hel‧sin‧ki

Proper noun

Helsinki ?

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Related terms

• helsinguino

Turkish

Etymology

From Finnish Helsinki.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [hælˈsinci]
• Hyphenation: Hel‧sin‧ki

Proper noun

Helsinki

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Declension

Declension of Helsinki

	singular	plural
nominative	Helsinki	Helsinkiler / Helsinki'ler
accusative	Helsinki'yi	Helsinkileri / Helsinki'leri
dative	Helsinki'ye	Helsinkilere / Helsinki'lere
locative	Helsinki'de	Helsinkilerde / Helsinki'lerde
ablative	Helsinki'den	Helsinkilerden / Helsinki'lerden
genitive	Helsinki'nin	Helsinkilerin / Helsinki'lerin

Possessive forms of Helsinki

	singular	plural
benim (my)	Helsinki'm	Helsinkilerim Helsinki'lerim
senin (your)	Helsinki'n	Helsinkilerin Helsinki'lerin
onun (his/her/its)	Helsinki'si	Helsinkileri Helsinki'leri
bizim (our)	Helsinki'miz	Helsinkilerimiz Helsinki'lerimiz
sizin (your)	Helsinki'niz	Helsinkileriniz Helsinki'leriniz
onların (their)	Helsinki'si Helsinkileri Helsinki'leri	Helsinkileri Helsinki'leri

Derived terms

• Helsinkili

Võro

Proper noun

Helsinki (genitive Helsinki, partitive Helsinkit)

1. Helsinki (the capital city of Finland; a municipality, the capital of the region of Uusimaa, Finland)

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.