Breakdown of Minä haluaisin ison annoksen salaattia.
minä
I
haluta
to want
salaatti
the salad
iso
large
annos
the portion
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Questions & Answers about Minä haluaisin ison annoksen salaattia.
Why is the verb haluaisin in the conditional instead of the present tense haluan?
Finnish uses the conditional mood to soften requests or express politeness. Haluaisin literally means “I would like,” which sounds more courteous than the blunt haluan (“I want”).
Do I have to include the pronoun Minä at the start of the sentence?
No. Finnish verb endings already mark the subject, so minä is optional. It’s added here for emphasis or clarity, but you can simply say (Minä) haluaisin ison annoksen salaattia.
Why is salaattia in the partitive case rather than salaatti?
When asking for an indefinite or non-specific amount of something uncountable (a mass noun), Finnish uses the partitive. Salaattia = “(some) salad,” showing you want an unspecified quantity.
Why are iso and annos inflected as ison annoksen instead of remaining in their basic forms?
The phrase ison annoksen salaattia is a measure construction where salaattia (partitive head) is modified by a measure noun (annos) and its adjective (iso). In such constructions the measure noun takes genitive (annoksen) and the adjective agrees with it (ison).
How do measure constructions like annoksen salaattia work in Finnish?
To quantify uncountable nouns you pair a measure word (annos, litra, kilo) with the substance in partitive. Two common patterns:
• Partitive measure + partitive head: litraa maitoa, kiloa perunoita
• Genitive measure + partitive head: litran maitoa, kilon perunoita, annoksen salaattia
Both are correct; the genitive form often sounds slightly more precise.
Why doesn’t Finnish have an article like a or the before iso annos or salaattia?
Finnish has no articles. Indefiniteness (“a big portion”) and definiteness are understood from context, word order, adjectives, or quantifiers—no separate words for “a” or “the.”
Could I say haluaisin iso annos salaattia instead of ison annoksen?
In very casual speech you might hear iso annos salaattia, but grammatically the embedded measure phrase requires genitive–partitive agreement: ison annoksen salaattia is the standard way to express “a big portion of salad” as the object of haluaisin.