Breakdown of Ravintolassa me syömme kalaa ja riisiä.
ja
and
me
we
ravintola
restaurant
syödä
to eat
kala
fish
riisi
rice
Questions & Answers about Ravintolassa me syömme kalaa ja riisiä.
Why do the words for fish and rice end in -a and -ä in this sentence?
They are in the partitive case. In Finnish, when you are talking about an unspecified amount of a mass noun, like food or liquids, you use the partitive case for the object. You are eating "some" fish and rice, not one whole specific fish.
Why does kalaa get an -a ending, but riisiä gets an -ä ending?
This is because of vowel harmony. The word kala contains the back vowel "a", so it takes the back vowel ending -a. The word riisi only contains the vowel "i", which is neutral. Words with only neutral vowels take the front vowel ending -ä.
Is it okay to change the word order and start with Me syömme?
Yes! Finnish word order is flexible. Me syömme kalaa ja riisiä ravintolassa is perfectly correct. Starting with Ravintolassa just shifts the focus slightly, like saying "At the restaurant, we eat fish and rice."
What does the -ssa ending on ravintolassa mean?
The -ssa ending means "in" or "inside". It is added directly to the base word ravintola (restaurant) to tell us where the action is happening.
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