Breakdown of Työpaikkaruokala on täynnä ihmisiä lounastauolla, joten menemme taukohuoneeseen syömään.
Questions & Answers about Työpaikkaruokala on täynnä ihmisiä lounastauolla, joten menemme taukohuoneeseen syömään.
Työpaikkaruokala is a compound noun made of three parts:
- työ = work
- paikka = place
- ruokala = cafeteria / canteen
First, työpaikka = workplace.
Then työpaikka + ruokala → työpaikkaruokala = workplace cafeteria.
In Finnish, it’s very common to glue words together into one long compound instead of using separate words like “workplace cafeteria” in English. The main word is at the end (ruokala), and what comes before it describes what kind of cafeteria it is (a workplace one).
The phrase is on täynnä ihmisiä.
- ihmiset = the people (nominative plural)
- ihmisiä = people in the partitive plural
The word täynnä (full) regularly takes the partitive case when you say what something is full of:
- Täynnä ihmisiä = full of people
- Täynnä vettä = full of water
- Täynnä tavaraa = full of stuff
So you almost always say:
- X on täynnä + partitive
Saying on täynnä ihmiset would sound ungrammatical; it would be like saying “is full the people” in English.
Both exist, but they’re used differently:
täysi = full as a normal adjective before a noun
- täysi lasi = a full glass
- täysi bussi = a full bus
täynnä = full (of) as a predicative form, usually after olla and followed by a partitive
- Lasini on täynnä vettä. = My glass is full of water.
- Työpaikkaruokala on täynnä ihmisiä. = The workplace cafeteria is full of people.
You do not say:
- ✗ Työpaikkaruokala on täysi ihmisiä. (wrong)
You either use täysi before a noun, or täynnä with a partitive complement.
Lounastauolla is lounastauko (lunch break) in the adessive case (-lla / -llä).
The adessive has several uses; here, it expresses “during / at” a time or event. So:
- lounastauolla ≈ during the lunch break / at lunch break
Finnish often uses the adessive for times like:
- kesällä = in (the) summer
- tauolla = during a break
- yövuorossa / yövuorolla = on the night shift
So Työpaikkaruokala on täynnä ihmisiä lounastauolla =
“The workplace cafeteria is full of people during the lunch break.”
Grammatically, lounastauolla is a clause-level adverbial, not attached to just one noun. It describes the time situation of the whole event:
- During lunch break, the workplace cafeteria is full of people.
Logically, it’s the people who are on their lunch break, but Finnish doesn’t need to spell that out. It’s enough to say that at that time (lounastauolla), the cafeteria is full.
Joten means “so / therefore” and introduces a result clause:
- …lounastauolla, joten menemme…
= “…at lunch break, so we go…”
There is a comma because joten starts a new independent clause. In Finnish orthography, coordinating conjunctions like ja (and), mutta (but), joten (so) normally get a comma before them when they connect two full clauses:
- Olen väsynyt, joten menen kotiin.
- Ulkoilee paljon, mutta syö huonosti.
- taukohuoneessa = in the break room (inessive, static location)
- taukohuoneeseen = into the break room (illative, movement to a place)
The verb mennä (to go) usually takes a directional case: it tells you where you’re going to:
- Menen kotiin. = I go home.
- Menen kauppaan. = I go to the shop.
- Menemme taukohuoneeseen. = We go into the break room.
So -een (illative) marks that you’re moving into the break room, not just being inside it.
Syömään is not a finite verb; it’s a verb form expressing purpose:
- It is the third infinitive in the illative:
syödä → syömään (= “to eat / in order to eat”)
The pattern is very common:
- mennä + verb in -maan / -mään = go (in order) to do something
Examples:
- Menemme syömään. = We’re going (in order) to eat.
- Menin nukkumaan. = I went to sleep.
- He lähtivät ostamaan ruokaa. = They left to buy food.
If you said menemme taukohuoneessa syömme, that would be wrong: you’d have two finite verbs (menemme, syömme) in one clause without a connector. You need the infinitive form for purpose.
Yes. Both are grammatical and natural:
- Menemme taukohuoneeseen syömään.
- Menemme syömään taukohuoneeseen.
The difference is minor and mostly about information order / emphasis:
- First version: slightly emphasizes the destination (to the break room, to eat).
- Second version: slightly emphasizes the activity first (we go to eat, in the break room).
In everyday speech, both orders are fine; Finnish word order for adverbials like this is quite flexible.
In Finnish, the personal ending on the verb already includes the person:
- menen = I go
- menet = you (sg) go
- menee = he/she goes
- menemme = we go
- menette = you (pl) go
- menevät = they go
Because the subject is clear from the verb ending, Finnish often omits the pronoun unless you want:
- contrast (Me menemme, mutta he jäävät. = We go, but they stay.)
- emphasis (ME menemme! = We are the ones who are going!)
So:
- Menemme taukohuoneeseen syömään. is the default, natural way.
- Me menemme taukohuoneeseen syömään. is also correct but slightly more emphatic or contrastive in many contexts.
It’s not wrong at all. Both are fine:
- …joten menemme taukohuoneeseen syömään. (neutral)
- …joten me menemme taukohuoneeseen syömään. (slight emphasis on we)
Using me can imply something like:
“so *we (as opposed to others) will go to the break room to eat.”*
Without me, it simply states what “we” (understood from the verb form) do.
- ruokala = cafeteria / canteen in general
- työpaikkaruokala = a cafeteria that is specifically at the workplace
So:
- A school might have a kouluruokala (school cafeteria).
- A factory or office might have a työpaikkaruokala (workplace cafeteria).
If you just said ruokala, context might tell you it’s the one at your work, but työpaikkaruokala makes that explicit.
Yes, you can:
- työpaikan ruokala = the workplace’s cafeteria
- työpaikkaruokala = workplace cafeteria (compound)
Both are correct and understood the same way. However:
- Finnish tends to prefer compounds for very common, tight combinations:
työpaikkaruokala sounds a bit more standard and “fixed” as a term.
Using the genitive (työpaikan ruokala) is also natural, just slightly more “phrase-like” rather than a single lexical item.
Both can mean a break room, but there’s a nuance:
taukohuone
- Literally: break + room
- Emphasis on it being a room you go into
- Very common in everyday speech
taukotila
- Literally: break + space
- Slightly more abstract or formal; might refer to an area, not necessarily a closed room
- Common in workplace / official language (signs, workplace guidelines, etc.)
In everyday conversation about an office or factory, taukohuone is very typical.
ihmisiä is about how many; there are many people.
lounastauolla is about time, not count.
You don’t need to match singular/plural between these:
- There is one lunch break time (conceptually) during which there are many people.
So:
- Työpaikkaruokala on täynnä ihmisiä lounastauolla.
= There are a lot of people in the workplace cafeteria during (the) lunch break.
There is no plural form needed for lounastauolla here, even though many people are on that break.