Questions & Answers about Kärry on täynnä ruokaa.
Kärry is a general word meaning some kind of cart / trolley / wagon with wheels that you push or pull.
In everyday modern contexts (especially in a supermarket), kärry usually means a shopping cart / shopping trolley.
However, it can also refer more generally to:
- a handcart or small wagon
- a larger cart used for transporting things (e.g. on a farm), depending on context
If you specifically want to say shopping cart, people often say:
- ostoskärri or ostoskori (regional)
- or just kärry, when it’s clear from the situation (in a store).
Ruokaa is the partitive singular of ruoka (food).
The base word is:
- ruoka = food
The partitive singular is:
- ruokaa
In this sentence, täynnä (full of) requires its complement to be in the partitive case. So the pattern is:
- olla täynnä + partitive
- Kärry on täynnä ruokaa. = The cart is full of food.
- Huone on täynnä ihmisiä. = The room is full of people.
- Ilma on täynnä savua. = The air is full of smoke.
So -a / -ä at the end often signals the partitive case in Finnish.
Using the partitive (ruokaa) instead of nominative (ruoka) expresses an indefinite amount of something – in this case, food as a mass or substance, not countable units.
Compare in English:
- ruoka ≈ “the food” (as a specific thing)
- ruokaa ≈ “(some) food / food in general”
With täynnä, the idea is that the cart is filled with food as a substance, not with “one whole food”. That’s why Finnish uses the partitive:
- Kärry on täynnä ruokaa. = “The cart is full of food (some amount of food).”
Using ruoka here would be ungrammatical.
Täynnä behaves a bit like an adjective but is more like a predicative form that functions similarly to a postposition or an adverbial. Practically, you can treat it as a special word meaning full (of) that:
normally appears with olla (to be):
- Kärry on täynnä. = The cart is full.
- Lasit ovat täynnä. = The glasses are full.
governs the partitive:
- täynnä ruokaa = full of food
- täynnä ihmisiä = full of people
Unlike a normal adjective, täynnä does not change its form with singular/plural or case in this construction:
- Kärry on täynnä ruokaa.
- Kärryt ovat täynnä ruokaa.
Here, täynnä stays the same.
Täysi is the ordinary adjective meaning full. Täynnä is a special, fixed form used in the construction olla täynnä + partitive (of something).
The natural, standard way to say “full of X” is:
- olla täynnä + partitive
- Kärry on täynnä ruokaa.
Täysi is used differently:
- Attributively (before a noun):
- täysi kärry = a full cart
- täysi lasi = a full glass
- As a predicate, usually without specifying what it is full of:
- Kärry on täysi. = The cart is full.
You will sometimes hear structures like Pöytä on täysi ruokaa in colloquial speech, but the clear and safe pattern to learn is:
- täynnä + partitive → “full of (something)”
- täysi alone → “full” (without immediately adding what of)
Kärry is in the nominative singular, the basic dictionary form.
In the sentence Kärry on täynnä ruokaa.:
- kärry = subject (the thing we are talking about)
- on = 3rd person singular of olla (to be)
- täynnä ruokaa = predicative phrase describing the subject
So structurally it’s very much like English “The cart is full of food.”, just without an article.
Finnish does not have articles (no words corresponding directly to “a / an / the”).
The noun kärry can mean:
- a cart
- the cart
depending on context.
The sentence Kärry on täynnä ruokaa. can be translated as either:
- A cart is full of food.
- The cart is full of food.
The choice of a vs the in English depends on earlier context, not on anything in the Finnish sentence itself. In Finnish, definiteness is usually clear from context or additional words (like se for “that/it”).
Make kärry plural and make the verb agree, but keep täynnä ruokaa the same:
- Kärryt ovat täynnä ruokaa.
- kärryt = carts (nominative plural)
- ovat = are (3rd person plural of olla)
- täynnä ruokaa = full of food
Notice täynnä does not change to a plural form, and ruokaa stays in partitive.
Yes.
Kärry on täynnä. means simply “The cart is full.”
The listener will understand that it’s full of something, but you don’t specify what.
Similarly:
- Huone on täynnä. = The room is full.
- Bussi on ihan täynnä. = The bus is totally full.
Use the negative verb ei and change on to the connegative form ole:
- Kärry ei ole täynnä ruokaa.
= The cart is not full of food.
Structure:
- Kärry = subject
- ei = negative verb (3rd person)
- ole = base form of olla used with negation
- täynnä ruokaa = predicative phrase
Key points:
Stress is always on the first syllable of each word:
KÄR-ry on TÄYN-nä RUO-kaaÄ
- Similar to the a in English “cat”, but a bit clearer and more fronted.
- In kärry, täynnä, pronounce ä as in “cat”.
Y
- A front rounded vowel. There’s no exact English equivalent.
- Start from the “ee” sound in “see” and round your lips as for “oo” in “too”; you get something like ü in German “über”.
- ry, täynnä both have y with that sound.
Double consonants (rr, nn)
- They are longer than single consonants.
- kärry: hold the r a bit longer than in English.
- täynnä: the nn is lengthened.
This length difference can distinguish words in Finnish, so it matters.
R
- Finnish r is usually trilled (rolled), like in Italian or Spanish.
Spoken smoothly:
KÄR-ry on TÄYN-nä RUO-kaa, with each word clearly separated, stress on the first syllable of each.
Yes, Finnish allows flexible word order, and it’s used to change emphasis rather than basic meaning.
Neutral, straightforward:
- Kärry on täynnä ruokaa.
(Normal, subject → verb → complement.)
You can say:
Kärry on ruokaa täynnä.
→ Emphasises that what it is full of is food, not something else.Ruokaa on kärry täynnä.
→ More literary/poetic or emphatic. Literally something like “With food the cart is full”, focusing on ruokaa.
All of these still mean, in essence, “The cart is full of food.”, but Kärry on täynnä ruokaa is the most neutral and natural everyday form to learn first.