It doesn’t really work the same way “-mainen” does, it’s similar, but results in a word that has a more definite meaning.
“Lapsimainen” would mean childlike or childish, while “lapsukainen” only ever refers to an actual child in an endeared way (or if used to describe an adult, would be like saying “my sweet summer child” in english).
The Finnish suffix “-kainen” is used to create nouns that refer to things or beings associated with a particular quality or characteristic. Even though we don’t necessarily mentally associate it with a similar meaning as “-mainen”, it still is. Hence the translation of “bearlike” is close enough.
Fun fact, those are called “karhukainen” in Finnish. A direct (but loose) translation would be “bearly”, “bearlike” or something else bear related.
In English too, the colloquial name for tardigrades is “water bears” :D
Not a f*ing Walter bear!
German is “Bärtierchen”. Which is a cute version of bear animal.
Very loose. The finnish equivalent for those words would be “karhumainen”. I’m not sure there is a single-word translation for the “-kainen” suffix.
It doesn’t really work the same way “-mainen” does, it’s similar, but results in a word that has a more definite meaning.
“Lapsimainen” would mean childlike or childish, while “lapsukainen” only ever refers to an actual child in an endeared way (or if used to describe an adult, would be like saying “my sweet summer child” in english).
The Finnish suffix “-kainen” is used to create nouns that refer to things or beings associated with a particular quality or characteristic. Even though we don’t necessarily mentally associate it with a similar meaning as “-mainen”, it still is. Hence the translation of “bearlike” is close enough.