Retkikeitin on rinkassa.

to be

Breakdown of Retkikeitin on rinkassa.

• rinkka: the hiking backpack
• retkikeitin: the camping stove

Questions & Answers about Retkikeitin on rinkassa.

What do the individual words mean in Retkikeitin on rinkassa?

• retkikeitin = camp stove / backpacking stove
• on = is
• rinkassa = in the backpack

A little more detail:

• retkikeitin is a compound word:
  • retki = trip, hike, excursion
  • keitin = cooker, stove, boiler device
• rinkassa comes from the basic form rinkka, which means a hiking backpack or rucksack.

So the sentence is built very simply as:

retkikeitin + on + rinkassa
camp stove + is + in the backpack

Why is it rinkassa and not rinkka?

Because Finnish often shows location by changing the ending of the noun instead of adding a separate word like in.

The basic form is:

• rinkka = backpack

To say in the backpack, Finnish uses the inessive case, which usually adds -ssa / -ssä:

• rinkka → rinkassa = in the backpack

So English uses:

• in
  • the backpack

Finnish uses:

• backpack + case ending

This is one of the most important differences between English and Finnish.