# climbing over the wall



## Extra Virgin Olive Oil

What is the word to use, when I want to express that a person climbs over the wall (for example, to escape, or to break into a house)?

Mies --kiipesi? kapusi? kipusi?-- seinälle jotta karata (vankilasta).

Mies --kiipesi? kapusi? kipusi?-- seinälle jotta murtautua kotiin.


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## Gavril

I'm not sure about the semantic difference between _kiivetä / kavuta / kivuta _-- hopefully the Finnish speakers can help us.

However, it definitely seems (based on Google) that _kiivetä seinää _"climb (up) a wall" is more common than _kivuta seinää _and _kavuta seinää._ For your sentences, I would suggest,

_Mies yritti karata vankilasta kiipeämällä seinää._

_Mies yritti murtautua kotiin kiipeämällä seinää._

It might be better to say _kiipeämällä seinän yli _here, but I don't see a lot of Google results for _kiivetä seinän yli_ compared to _kiivetä seinää._


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## Grumpy Old Man

There are two Finnish words commonly used for different types of walls.  If you talk about a house or a building, "seinä" is the right word:

_Seinällä on taulu.
Hän nojasi seinää vasten.
_
If the reference is to a wall built to prevent people from entering an area or from escaping from it, "muuri" and sometimes "valli" are usually the correct words:

_Hadrianuksen muurista ei ole paljon jäljellä. _(There isn't much left of Hadrian's Wall.)

_Mies yritti karata vankilasta kiipeämällä muurin yli.
Mies kiipesi muurin yli karatakseen vankilasta.

"_Mies --kiipesi? kapusi? kipusi?-- seinälle jotta murtautua kotiin."

I'm not quite sure what you have in mind here.  Anyway, if it's an "omakotitalo"  -  a private house  -  I would probably say: _Mies kiipesi *aidan* yli murtautuakseen taloon._  If the reference is to the wall of the house, not the fence surrounding it, the only way in is through a window in the wall: _Mies kiipesi ikkunasta taloon/sisään._
_
"_Kiivetä seinää" doesn't work here.  One of these two things happens: you either end up on the roof if you are outdoors or you hit the ceiling if you are indoors.


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## Gavril

Kiitos, GOM! I was wondering why _kiivetä seinää / seinän yli _yielded so few results.

What about _kavuta / kivuta muurin yli_? Neither phrase seems very common -- how do _kavuta / kivuta _differ from _kiivetä _in this context?



Grumpy Old Man said:


> There are two Finnish words commonly used for different types of walls.  If you talk about a house or a building, "seinä" is the right word:
> 
> _Seinällä on taulu.
> Hän nojasi seinää vasten.
> _
> If the reference is to a wall built to prevent people from entering an area or from escaping from it, "muuri" and sometimes "valli" are usually the correct words:
> 
> _Hadrianuksen muurista ei ole paljon jäljellä. _(There isn't much left of Hadrian's Wall.)
> 
> _Mies yritti karata vankilasta kiipeämällä muurin yli.
> Mies kiipesi muurin yli karatakseen vankilasta.
> 
> "_Mies --kiipesi? kapusi? kipusi?-- seinälle jotta murtautua kotiin."
> 
> I'm not quite sure what you have in mind here.  Anyway, if it's an "omakotitalo"  -  a private house  -  I would probably say: _Mies kiipesi *aidan* yli murtautuakseen taloon._  If the reference is to the wall of the house, not the fence surrounding it, the only way in is through a window in the wall: _Mies kiipesi ikkunasta taloon/sisään._
> _
> "_Kiivetä seinää" doesn't work here.  One of these two things happens: you either end up on the roof if you are outdoors or you hit the ceiling if you are indoors.


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## Extra Virgin Olive Oil

It completely slipped my mind that in Finland (and quite possibly neighbouring countries as well), there's no such thing as a "wall" which surrounds a house.


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