Arvaa eläin: kuka sanoo miau?
A2 Finnish listening practice · Finnish · Curated for beginners
Why do Finns call cats with “kis-kis” instead of “kitty-kitty”?
Different languages call cats with different sounds. English speakers say “here, kitty-kitty” or “puss, puss.” French speakers say “minou-minou.” Finnish speakers reach for kis-kis (sometimes kisuli-kisuli), a short, hissing-soft sound that real Finnish cats apparently respond to. The word kissa (“cat”) shares the same root, so calling kis-kis is essentially saying “cat-cat.” Finnish kids learn the call before they learn most other animal sounds.
This clip is a children’s animal-guessing game: the host gives a hint that the animal “starts with kis and says miau.” The kids guess kissa immediately. The riddle works because kis-kis and kissa are bound together in Finnish ears from toddler age onward.
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this A2 Finnish listening practice listening practice?
General Finnish frequency
Spoken Finnish frequency
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In Finnish children’s TV (Pikku Kakkonen, Ransu, Mörkö)
- ▸In Finnish family vlogs and TikToks with pet cats
- ▸In Finnish farm and rural-life content from Lapland
- ▸In Finnish parenting forums and language-learning sites
- ▸In Finnish picture books and read-along audiobooks