# pistää tuulemaan



## Gavril

Päivää,

I saw this in today's Uusi Suomi, and wasn't quite sure how to translate the highlighted portion (even though I get the general drift of it):



> Marttila ihmettelee, miksei tuloksia ole vieläkään näkyvissä vaikka asiaa on työministeri Lauri Ihalaisen (sd.) johdolla valmisteltu jo kuukausia.
> 
> – Nythän olisi otollinen paikka, että Ihalainen ja hallitus *pistäisivät tuulemaan*, että saataisi hyvät pelisäännöt.



"Marttila wonders why no results are visible yet, even though a group led by Minister of Employment Lauri Ihalainen has been working on this project for months.

'Now would be an opportune time for Ihalainen and the government to [??], to come up with a good set of rules.'"

"pistää tuulemaan" seems to mean "poke into the wind" or similar, but does this refer to a more specific action (e.g., something that certain animals do, or something that people in a certain profession do)?

(Also, is "saataisi" the correct form to use in this case? I might be wrong, but I would have expected "saataisiin" here instead.)

Kiitos (ja tuulesta puheenollen, onneksi olkoon Tuuli Petäjä )


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## Grumpy Old Man

"Pistää tuulemaan" is an informal expression that means "to take quick and effective action". It is used in this Finnish version of an old song called Jackson:

 Lyötiin hynttyyt kerran yhteen
Mukavalta tuntui niin
Vaan on vuodet nuo menneet
Saaneet miehen aatoksiin 
   Nyt lähden Stadiin, mä vaihdan maisemaa
Kun lähden Stadiin, *mä pistän tuulemaan


*You are right about "saataisiin".


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## Finland

Hello!

Just pointing out that normally the expression is "panna tuulemaan". "Pistää tuulemaan" is a more recent variant of the same.

HTH
S


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## akana

So, literally, "to put blowing." I think an equivalent English expression would be "to get cracking." Would panna/pistää töpinäksi be equivalent, or is that used in different contexts?


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## Finland

Hello!

Panna tuulemaan and panna töpinäksi are more or less equivalent, yes. A more formal variant would be panna toimeksi.

HTH
S


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## akana

It seems there are quite a few of these expressions in Finnish. Another occurred to me: _panna hihat heilumaan_. But would this only be suitable in the context of manual labor?


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## Finland

Hello!

"Panna hihat heilumaan" can refer to any type of work, although its origins are of course in manual labour.

HTH
S


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