Learn Hardcore Finnish: Otatko sinä ostoskärryn, vai mennäänkö lelukauppaan ilman kärryä? - Will you take a shopping cart, or shall we go to the toy store without a cart?

The basic form (dictionary form): ottaa
2nd person singular present: sinä otat = you take
Yes/no question: add the question ending -ko / -kö to the verb:
- otat
  - ko → otatko = do you take / will you take?

Finnish doesn’t use a separate word like English do to form questions. Instead, it uses this -ko/-kö ending attached directly to the verb.
So Otatko (sinä)…? = Do you take / Will you take (you)…?

Why is sinä there? Could you just say Otatko ostoskärryn?

Yes, you can absolutely say just Otatko ostoskärryn?. The subject pronoun sinä (you) is usually optional in Finnish, because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

Otatko ostoskärryn? – neutral Will you take a shopping cart?
Otatko sinä ostoskärryn? – adds emphasis or contrast on you:
- Are *you going to take a shopping cart (as opposed to someone else)?*
- or Is it you who will take the cart?

So sinä is used here for focus or clarity, not because it is grammatically required.

What exactly is ostoskärry, and how is it different from kärry?

Ostoskärry is a compound noun:

ostos = shopping, purchase
kärry = cart, trolley, wagon

Together: ostoskärry = shopping cart, shopping trolley.

In the sentence:

ostoskärryn (genitive singular) – the shopping cart (object in the first clause)
later: ilman kärryä – literally without a cart

Here kärry alone is used in the second part to avoid repetition. Context makes it clear that kärry still refers to the ostoskärry from the first clause. In natural Finnish you often drop unnecessary repetition like this.

Why is it ilman kärryä and not ilman kärry?

The word ilman (without) always takes the partitive case.

So the pattern is:

ilman + partitive

For kärry:

nominative: kärry
partitive singular: kärryä

Therefore, you must say:

ilman kärryä = without a cart / without the cart

This is a general rule:
ilman + [noun in partitive], e.g. ilman rahaa (without money), ilman pipoa (without a beanie).

What does mennäänkö mean, and what form is it?

Mennäänkö comes from the verb mennä (to go).

Basic form: mennä
Passive / impersonal present: mennään
Question form: mennään
- kö → mennäänkö

In everyday Finnish, this mennään form is often used with the meaning “we go / shall we go”, even though grammatically it’s called “passive” or “impersonal”.

So:

Mennäänkö lelukauppaan…? = Shall we go to the toy shop…? or Are we going to the toy shop…?

Why does the sentence start with you (Otatko sinä) and then switch to we (mennäänkö)?

The structure is:

Otatko sinä ostoskärryn,
Will you take a shopping cart,
vai mennäänkö lelukauppaan ilman kärryä?
or shall we go to the toy shop without a cart?

So the contrast is:

Option A: You (specifically) take a cart.
Option B: We (you and I / our group) go without a cart.

This is natural in Finnish: the subject can change between clauses. The speaker is asking you to choose between:

You take a cart, or
We go without one.

Using mennäänkö includes both the speaker and the listener in the action (shall we go).

What is lelukauppaan, and what case is it in?

Lelukauppaan is another compound noun plus case ending:

lelu = toy
kauppa = shop, store
lelukauppa = toy shop / toy store (compound noun)
–an (here: illative singular) = “into / to (the inside of)”

So lelukauppaan is the illative case, roughly meaning:

lelukauppaan = into the toy shop / to the toy shop

In Finnish, movement into places is often expressed with the illative (-an / -en / -hin etc.), instead of using a preposition like English “to” or “into”.

Why is there a comma before vai, and what’s the difference between vai and tai?

In this sentence:

Otatko sinä ostoskärryn, vai mennäänkö lelukauppaan ilman kärryä?

The comma separates two clauses in one larger question and introduces an alternative.

vai vs tai:

vai
- Used mainly in questions
- Typically signals a choice between mutually exclusive options
- Often sounds like “or” in “either… or…?”
tai
- Used in statements and also questions where both options may be possible
- More like general “or” (not necessarily exclusive)

Here we have a yes/no-style question with two clear alternatives:

Either you take a cart
Or (instead) we go without one

So vai is the correct conjunction here. The comma is normal punctuation between the two clauses.

Why does the second part say just ilman kärryä instead of repeating ostoskärryä?

Repeating ostoskärry in full would sound heavy and unnecessary:

Otatko sinä ostoskärryn, vai mennäänkö lelukauppaan ilman ostoskärryä? – grammatically fine but a bit clunky.

Once ostoskärry has been mentioned, Finnish often shortens or simplifies repeated nouns, especially in speech. So kärry is enough, and everyone knows it still refers to the shopping cart.

This kind of ellipsis / shortening is very common and natural in Finnish.

Could you change the word order, like Mennäänkö lelukauppaan ilman kärryä or move sinä?

Yes, Finnish word order is relatively flexible, and several versions are possible with slightly different emphasis:

Otatko sinä ostoskärryn, vai mennäänkö lelukauppaan ilman kärryä?
– Neutral, with a bit of emphasis on sinä (you).
Sinäkö otat ostoskärryn, vai mennäänkö lelukauppaan ilman kärryä?
– Strong emphasis/contrast on you: Is it YOU who will take a cart, or…?
Otatko ostoskärryn, vai mennäänkö lelukauppaan ilman kärryä?
– Slightly more neutral, no pronoun.
Mennäänkö lelukauppaan ilman kärryä, vai otatko sinä ostoskärryn?
– Reverses the order of the options.

All of these are grammatically correct; the choice mainly affects what is emphasised and which option feels like the “default” versus the “alternative”.

Is mennäänkö literally “we go?”, and why is there no me (we) subject?

Literally, mennään is the passive/impersonal form: is gone / go(es) (by people in general). But in spoken Finnish, this form is very commonly used with the meaning “we”:

Mennään! – Let’s go!
Mennäänkö? – Shall we go?

The pronoun me (we) is usually omitted here because the form mennään itself already suggests a group including the speaker. You could say:

Mennäänkö me lelukauppaan ilman kärryä?

but that now clearly emphasises me (we) as opposed to someone else, and would sound a bit marked in this context. The shorter mennäänkö is more natural.