Glossaries and guidance

The Prime Minister's Office compiles multilingual glossaries on government terminology. Glossaries are usually the product of multilingual terminology projects carried out by language specialists in cooperation with experts from different administrative branches.

The projects typically run for 1-3 years and the resulting glossaries cover between 150 and 900 concepts. Equivalents in selected languages, definitions, explanations and notes on usage are given, together with concept diagrams illustrating the relationship between the concepts concerned.

To support the work of the government translators, glossaries are also compiled on topical issues. These usually provide equivalents in two or three languages, together with explanations and examples of usage. 

Guides such as the English Style Guide, the Guide to Translating Finnish Statutes into English and Treaties into Finnish and the Government Guidelines on Translating and Writing for Twitter help translators, revisors and authors of government texts. Other guidance is issued to help resolve various language problems encountered in translating or writing in English. Even translation memories containing government texts are freely available.

Guidance related to Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU (1 July to 31 December 2019) is presented below.

Finnish Government Termbank Valter

Most glossaries are published in the Finnish Government Termbank Valter:

• Local Government Glossary 2013 (fi-sv-en)
• Finnish Military Ranks 2012 (fi-sv-en-fr-ru)
• Climate and Energy Glossary 2010 (fi-en). Download pdf 516kB
• Parliamentary Glossary 2008 (fi-sv-en-se-de-es-et-fr-ru)
• Labour Market Glossary 2005 (fi-sv-en-de-fr)
• Higher Education Glossary 2005 (fi-sv-en-de-fr-es-ru)
• Finnish Government Glossary 2009 (fi-sv-en-da-de-el-es-et-fr-it-nl-pt-ru)
• Taxation Glossary 2002 (fi-sv-en-de-fr). Download pdf 926kB
• Glossary of Court Terms 2001 (fi-sv-en-de-fr)

Other glossaries

In addition to the other glossaries listed below, our Finnish website provides information and links (in Finnish only) to more useful glossaries, guidance and translation memories as well as to glossaries compiled by other government agencies and public bodies.

• Financial Markets Glossary (fi-sv-en)
• Health and Social Services Reform Glossary (fi-sv-en)
• Terms of the Month 2012-2014 (fi-sv-en)
• Ministers and Ministries (fi-sv-en-de-fr-es-ru)
• Glossary of Government Document Types (fi-en)
• Prime Minister’s Office Departments and Units (fi-sv-en-de-fr-ru)
• Glossary of Government Job Titles (fi-sv-en)
• Terms relating to Finnish Regional Government Reform and the Names of Regions, Counties and Municipalities (fi-sv-en-ru)
• Intelligence Gathering Glossary (fi-sv-en)
• Glossary of Legislative Terms and Phrases (fi-sv-en)
• Climate and Energy Glossary (fi-en)
• Influenza A(H1N1) (Swine flu) Glossary (fi-sv-en)
• Government Rules of Procedure Glossary (fi-en)
• Bird Flu Glossary (fi-en)

Material related to Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU

• EU2019 Finland’s Presidency language versions (fi-en-sv-de-fr) (pdf, 160 kB)
• EU2019 Presidency Style Guide for Texts in English (pdf, 560kB)
• Traduction de contenus en ligne pour la présidence tournante du Conseil de l’Union européenne (FR) (pdf, 390k)
• Übersetzen von Webinhalten für den EU-Ratsvorsitz (DE) (pdf, 585k)