# reilu



## Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Kuulin tv-ohjelmistossa:

...23-vuotias N.N. ja reilut kaksi vuotta nuorempi N.N. sanovat tahdon noin 60 vieraan läsnä ollessa.

Mitä tarkoittaa reilu tässä tapauksessa? Sanakirjassa ei näytä oikea käännös: straightforward, fair, decent, honest, generous.


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## Hakro

During last few years the word _reilu_ has been used for "over, more than". 

(In my ears it sounds simply stupid.)


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## MaijaPoppanen

I'm originally from eastern Finland, and at least there *reilu* has been used for "over, more than" for decades so it isn't new phenomenon. 
Stupid or not, it is accepted by Kielitoimisto, so there isn't anything wrong in that kind of usage of the word *reilu*.


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## Hakro

I think that for example the sentence "Ryöstön teki reilu 50-vuotias mies" sounds quite stupid. Does it sound correct to you, Maija? 

This kind of expressions you can read and hear every day. Instead, _yli, enemmän kuin, runsas,_ etc. have practically disappeared.


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## MaijaPoppanen

It sounds stupid, but it's still correct. 

(Kai se ryöstäjä jakoi osan saaliistaan kavereilleen, kun se oli niin reilu.)


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## Hakro

In my opinion any expression that gives a wrong impression is incorrect, accepted or not.

Besides, Kielitoimisto has accepted also grammatically incorrect expressions ("montaa").


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## Gavril

There was an earlier thread about _reilu_ where one poster commented,



Mårran said:


> As I understand the word, _reilu_ doesn't mean simply "over" but rather "a bit over". If the police had arrested _yli 5000 rikollista_, the real number could be anything above 5000, but with _reilut 5000 rikollista_ the number is greater than 5000 but still relatively close to it.



I'm really glad this comment was made, since this nuance of _reilu_ is not mentioned (at least not clearly) by any dictionary I know of. Recently, I came across the sentence

_Aikataulu on kireä, sillä reilun puolen tunnin kuluttua koneen on oltava valmis nousemaan taas ilmaan._

"The schedule is tight, since after slightly over a half hour, the plane has to be ready to take off again."

The sentence is much easier to make sense of if you interpret _reilun puolen tunnin_ to mean ”slightly more than a half hour”. If it simply meant ”more than a half hour”, then it would be would be hard to understand why this is meant to be a "tight" schedule.


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## Hakro

Gavril said:


> I'm really glad this comment was made, since this nuance of _reilu_ is not mentioned (at least not clearly) by any dictionary I know of. Recently, I came across the sentence
> 
> _Aikataulu on kireä, sillä reilun puolen tunnin kuluttua koneen on oltava valmis nousemaan taas ilmaan._
> 
> "The schedule is tight, since after slightly over a half hour, the plane has to be ready to take off again."
> 
> The sentence is much easier to make sense of if you interpret _reilun puolen tunnin_ to mean ”slightly more than a half hour”. If it simply meant ”more than a half hour”, then it would be would be hard to understand why this is meant to be a "tight" schedule.


The problem is that the original meaning of _reilu_ is practically forgotten and the secondary meaning (over, more than) has pushed aside several other expressions that we have (yli, enemmän kuin, runsas). Especially _runsas_ has exactly the same meaning (a little over) as reilu, without having other meanings that may cause confusions.


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