Perkele is a Finnish word meaning "evil spirit" and a popular Finnish profanity, used similarly to English "god damn". It is most likely the most internationally known Finnish curse word.

Is perkele a bad word?

The people in the neighbouring countries to Finland often consider Finnish swear words harsher than their own, and even use heavily mispronounced versions of them, most notably perkele (Damn it) Native Finns tend to consider the harshness exaggerated, while others use it to their advantage.

Why do Finnish people say perkele?

As Finland was Christianized, the old Finnish deities were regarded as demons. This led to the use of "Perkele" as a translation for "Devil" in the Finnish translation of the Bible. Later, in other translations, the word was rendered as paholainen (the evil one).