Log inSign up

Kerään marjoja metsässä.

Kerään marjoja metsässä.
I pick berries in the forest.

Breakdown of Kerään marjoja metsässä.

-ssä
in
metsä
the forest
kerätä
to pick
marja
the berry
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Finnish grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Finnish now

Questions & Answers about Kerään marjoja metsässä.

How can I tell that Kerään means “I pick” when there is no pronoun like minä?

In Finnish, the personal ending on the verb shows the subject, so the pronoun is usually dropped.

  • The verb kerätä = to pick, to collect.
  • Its 1st person singular form in the present tense is kerää
    • -n → kerään = “I pick / I am picking.”

Personal endings in the present tense:

  • (minä) kerää
    • n → kerään = I pick
  • (sinä) kerää
    • t → keräät = you pick
  • (hän) kerää (no ending) → he/she picks
  • (me) kerää
    • mme → keräämme = we pick
  • (te) kerää
    • tte → keräätte = you (pl) pick
  • (he) kerää
    • vät → keräävät = they pick

Because -n clearly indicates “I”, Finns normally leave out minä. You can say Minä kerään marjoja metsässä, but it sounds emphatic: “I pick berries in the forest (as opposed to someone else).”

What is the basic form of kerään, and how is it conjugated?

The dictionary (infinitive) form is kerätä = to pick, to collect.

Conjugation in the present tense:

  • minä kerään – I pick
  • sinä keräät – you pick
  • hän kerää – he/she picks
  • me keräämme – we pick
  • te keräätte – you (pl) pick
  • he keräävät – they pick

The stem you see in the present tense is kerää-, and personal endings are added to that.

So kerään marjoja metsässä = I pick berries in the forest.

Why is it marjoja and not marjat or just marja?

Marjoja is the partitive plural form of marja (a berry).

  • marja = a berry (singular, nominative)
  • marjat = the berries / berries (plural, nominative/accusative, all of a known group)
  • marjoja = berries (partitive plural, indefinite amount)

In Finnish, the partitive is normally used for:

  1. Indefinite quantity of countable things
    • Kerään marjoja. = I (am) picking some berries (an unspecified number).
  2. Masses and substances
    • Juon maitoa. = I drink milk.
  3. Objects of ongoing or incomplete actions (among other uses).

If you said:

  • Kerään marjat metsässä.
    → I pick *the berries in the forest* (suggests all of them, a specific set).

But with marjoja, you are just picking berries in general, not necessarily all of them or a specific known set.

What exactly is the case of marjoja, and how is it formed?

Marjoja is partitive plural of marja.

Formation:

  1. marja (singular nominative)
  2. Plural stem: marjo-
    • The -ja in marja changes to -jo- in the plural stem.
  3. Add partitive plural ending -ja:
    • marjo-
      • -ja → marjoja

So:

  • marja – a berry (singular)
  • marjoja – (some) berries (plural, partitive, indefinite amount)

The partitive plural ending often looks like:

  • -ja / -jä
    or
  • -a / -ä
    depending on the word and vowel harmony.
Why do we use the partitive (marjoja) here and not a different case?

Because the sentence talks about an indefinite, not fully specified amount of berries and the action is not presented as affecting a complete, total set.

The partitive is used with objects when:

  • The quantity is unspecified or partial:
    • Kerään marjoja. = I pick (some) berries.
  • The event is ongoing, habitual, or not presented as completed.

If you used nominative/accusative marjat, the meaning changes:

  • Kerään marjat metsässä.
    → Focus on all of a certain set: I (will) pick the berries (all of them) in the forest.

In everyday talk about doing something like berry picking, Finns normally use the partitive, because you’re rarely talking about a clearly defined total set of berries.

What does metsässä mean exactly, and what case is it?

Metsässä is the inessive case of metsä (forest).

  • metsä = forest (basic form)
  • metsä
    • -ssä → metsässä = in the forest

The inessive case (-ssa / -ssä) indicates location inside something: in, inside, at.

So Kerään marjoja metsässä literally:
“I pick berries in-the-forest.”

What’s the difference between metsässä, metsään, and metsästä?

These are three different internal local cases of metsä:

  1. metsässä – in the forest

    • Inessive (-ssa/-ssä): location inside
    • Olen metsässä. = I am in the forest.
    • Kerään marjoja metsässä. = I pick berries in the forest.

  2. metsään – into the forest

    • Illative (-Vn, here: -än): movement into
    • Menen metsään. = I go into the forest.

  3. metsästä – from (out of) the forest

    • Elative (-sta/-stä): movement out of
    • Tulen metsästä. = I come from the forest.

So in your sentence, metsässä is correct because the action happens inside the forest, not going into or coming out of it.

Can the word order change? For example, can I say Metsässä kerään marjoja?

Yes. Finnish word order is fairly flexible, and grammatical roles are mostly shown by endings, not by word order.

All of these are grammatically correct and mean essentially the same:

  • Kerään marjoja metsässä.
  • Metsässä kerään marjoja.
  • Marjoja kerään metsässä.

The difference is in emphasis and focus:

  • Kerään marjoja metsässä. – neutral: I pick berries in the forest.
  • Metsässä kerään marjoja. – emphasizes the place: In the forest I pick berries (maybe not elsewhere).
  • Marjoja kerään metsässä. – emphasizes the object: Berries are what I pick in the forest (as opposed to mushrooms, for example).

For a beginner, the original order Kerään marjoja metsässä is a good default.

Does Kerään marjoja metsässä mean “I am picking berries” (right now) or “I pick berries” (in general)?

It can mean either, depending on context. Finnish doesn’t have a special continuous tense like English am picking.

  • Kerään marjoja metsässä.
    → I am picking berries in the forest (right now).
    → I pick berries in the forest (habitually / whenever I go).

Context or an adverb will clarify:

  • Nyt kerään marjoja metsässä. = I’m picking berries in the forest now.
  • Kesäisin kerään marjoja metsässä. = In the summers, I pick berries in the forest (habitually).
How is Kerään marjoja metsässä different from Olen keräämässä marjoja metsässä?

Both can describe an ongoing activity, but there’s a nuance:

  1. Kerään marjoja metsässä.

    • Neutral present tense: can be right now or habitual.
    • Very common, simple, and flexible.

  2. Olen keräämässä marjoja metsässä.

    • Literally “I am in the process of picking berries in the forest.”
    • Uses olla (to be) + MA-infinitive in inessive (keräämässä).
    • Focuses more strongly on the ongoing activity at this moment.

So if someone calls you on the phone and asks what you’re doing right now, Olen keräämässä marjoja metsässä very clearly presents it as your current activity, but Kerään marjoja metsässä can also be used in that situation, especially in speech.

How do I pronounce kerään marjoja metsässä, especially ää, j, and ss?

Key points:

  • Long vowels are written with two of the same vowel and must be held longer:
    • ää in kerään:
      • ke-rään: the ää is long, like “a” in “cat” but lengthened.
  • j is pronounced like English y in yes:
    • marjoja → roughly “MAR-yo-ya”.
  • Double consonants are held a bit longer:
    • -ssä in metsässä:
      • met-säs-sä: the ss is longer than a single s.
      • If you say it too short, it might sound like a different form.

Rough guide (not exact English sounds):
Kerään marjoja metsässä ≈ “KE-raan MAR-yo-ya MET-säs-sä”, with ä as in “cat”, but fronted and with proper length where doubled.

What’s the difference in meaning between Kerään marjoja metsässä and Kerään marjat metsässä?

The difference is mainly about how complete and specific the object is.

  1. Kerään marjoja metsässä.

    • marjoja = partitive plural = some berries, an unspecified quantity.
    • Meaning: I (am) picking berries in the forest (no idea how many, not necessarily all).

  2. Kerään marjat metsässä.

    • marjat = plural nominative/accusative = the berries (a known total set).
    • Meaning: I will pick *the berries in the forest, with an idea of *all of them from some defined group (for example, all the berries on these bushes).

So marjoja = some (open-ended, indefinite); marjat = the (whole, defined set).

If I want to say “I don’t pick berries in the forest”, does the object case change?

No, here it stays in the partitive:

  • En kerää marjoja metsässä.
    = I don’t pick berries in the forest.

In negative sentences, the object very often appears in the partitive, especially when the object would be partitive in the positive sentence too.

Compare:

  • Positive: Kerään marjoja metsässä.
  • Negative: En kerää marjoja metsässä.

The verb changes (using the negative verb en + main verb in the base form kerää), but marjoja stays the same.

Is kerätä only “to pick berries”, or can it be used more generally?

Kerätä is more general; it means to collect, to gather, to pick. Context tells you what is being collected.

Examples:

  • Kerään marjoja. – I pick / collect berries.
  • Kerään sieniä. – I pick mushrooms.
  • Kerään postimerkkejä. – I collect stamps.
  • Kerään rahaa. – I collect money / raise money.
  • Kerään roskat. – I pick up the trash.

So in Kerään marjoja metsässä, the meaning naturally becomes “I pick berries (i.e., collect them from nature)”.