Learn Hardcore Finnish: Syksyllä sato on valmis sekä kasvimaalla että omenapuussa, ja keräämme kypsät tomaatit kottikärryihin. - In autumn the crop is ready both in the vegetable patch and in the apple tree, and we collect the ripe tomatoes into the wheelbarrow.

Syksyllä is syksy in the adessive case (ending -lla / -llä).
Here the adessive expresses time, so Syksyllä means “in (the) autumn / during autumn”.

This use of the adessive for time is very common:

kesä → kesällä = in summer
talvi → talvella = in winter
yö → yöllä = at night

So Syksyllä sato on valmis = In autumn the harvest is ready.

What exactly does sato mean here, and how is it different from similar-looking words?

Sato is a noun meaning “crop, yield, harvest (the result of growing plants)”.

Don’t confuse it with:

sataa (verb) = to rain
- Sataa vettä. = It’s raining (rain is falling).
sata (number) = one hundred

So in this sentence sato is the harvest / the yield, the total result of what was grown.

Why is it sato on valmis and not sato on valmiina?

Both valmis and valmiina come from the adjective valmis (ready), but they’re used slightly differently.

Predicate adjective in the nominative:
- sato on valmis
  - sato (subject, nominative)
  - valmis (predicate adjective, nominative)
- This is the standard way to say “the harvest is ready”.
Essive form (state / role):
- sato on valmiina
- can mean roughly “the harvest is in a ready state / position,” often with a nuance of being ready to be used / taken / processed.
- You more often see this kind of pattern with people or things in a role/state:
  - Olen valmiina lähtöön. = I am (standing) ready to leave.

In this neutral description of the situation, sato on valmis is the natural form.

How does sekä … että … work, and how is it different from just ja?

Sekä … että … is a correlative conjunction pair meaning “both … and …”.

In the sentence:

sekä kasvimaalla että omenapuussa
= both in the vegetable patch and in the apple tree

It puts a bit more emphasis on including both locations than a simple ja would.

Compare:

Sato on valmis kasvimaalla ja omenapuussa.
= The harvest is ready in the vegetable patch and in the apple tree.
Sato on valmis sekä kasvimaalla että omenapuussa.
= The harvest is ready both in the vegetable patch and in the apple tree
(slightly more “explicitly inclusive” in tone).

Grammatically, you put sekä before the first item and että before the second item.

Why is it kasvimaalla but omenapuussa? Why do they use different endings (-lla vs -ssa)?

These are two different locative cases:

kasvimaalla
- base: kasvimaa = vegetable patch / garden plot
- kasvimaalla = on/in the vegetable patch (adessive case, -lla/-llä)
omenapuussa
- base: omenapuu = apple tree
- omenapuussa = in/on the apple tree (inessive case, -ssa/-ssä)

Why different?

Land areas, yards, fields, and similar “surfaces” often use the adessive:
- pihalla = in the yard
- pellolla = in the field
- kasvimaalla = in the vegetable patch
With trees, Finnish typically uses the inessive:
- puussa = in/on the tree
- omenapuussa = in/on the apple tree

Finnish “conceptualizes” things (leaves, fruit) as being in the body of the tree, so you usually say puussa rather than puulla.

What are the base forms of kasvimaalla and omenapuussa, and how are they formed?

kasvimaalla
- base (nominative): kasvimaa (vegetable garden / patch)
- stem: kasvimaa-
- adessive singular: kasvimaalla (maa + lla → -aalla → -alla in spelling)
omenapuussa
- base (nominative): omenapuu (apple tree)
- stem: omenapuu-
- inessive singular: omenapuussa (puu + ssa → -uussa → -ussa in spelling)

So structurally:

kasvimaa
- -lla → kasvimaalla
omenapuu
- -ssa → omenapuussa

What form is keräämme, and why is there no separate word for “we”?

The verb is kerätä = to gather, collect, pick.

Keräämme is:

present tense
1st person plural (“we”)
indicative mood

The conjugation is:

(minä) kerään = I collect
(sinä) keräät = you collect
(hän) kerää = he/she collects
(me) keräämme = we collect
(te) keräätte = you (pl.) collect
(he) keräävät = they collect

The ending -mme already contains the meaning “we”, so the pronoun me is optional:

Keräämme tomaatit. = We collect the tomatoes.
Me keräämme tomaatit. = We collect the tomatoes (more explicit, a bit more emphasis on “we”).

Omitting the pronoun is completely normal in Finnish.

Why is it kypsät tomaatit and not kypsiä tomaatteja? What’s going on with the case here?

Kypsät tomaatit is:

kypsät = ripe (adjective, nominative plural)
tomaatit = tomatoes (noun, nominative plural)

Together they form the total object of keräämme.

In Finnish:

Total object (whole, complete set, completed action)
→ singular: genitive (e.g. tomaatin)
→ plural: nominative (e.g. tomaatit)

So keräämme kypsät tomaatit implies we gather all the ripe tomatoes (a complete, definite group).

If you say:

Keräämme kypsiä tomaatteja.

then kypsiä tomaatteja is in the partitive plural, which suggests:

an indefinite / unspecified amount, or
a not-necessarily-complete action (some ripe tomatoes, not all).

So:

kypsät tomaatit = the ripe tomatoes (all of them)
kypsiä tomaatteja = some ripe tomatoes

What does kottikärryihin mean exactly, and why is the ending so long?

The word is kottikärryihin = “into the wheelbarrow(s)”.

Breakdown:

basic word: kottikärryt = wheelbarrow (literally “wheelbarrows” – see next question)
stem: kottikärry-
-ihin = illative plural ending (movement into something, plural)

So:

kottikärryt (nominative plural) = wheelbarrow(s)
kottikärryihin (illative plural) = into the wheelbarrow(s)

The illative case expresses movement into:

taloon = into the house
laatikkoon = into the box
kottikärryihin = into the wheelbarrow(s)

The -ihin ending is the regular illative plural for many words ending in -i / -y in the stem.

Why do we talk about kottikärryt in the plural even if there can be just one wheelbarrow?

Finnish often uses the plural for certain tools or paired objects. Kottikärryt is very commonly used in the plural even when referring to one physical wheelbarrow.

kottikärry (singular) does exist as a dictionary form, but in everyday speech, people very often say:
- Kottikärryt ovat rikki. = The wheelbarrow is broken.

This is similar to English with “scissors” or “pants” (always plural in form, but can refer to one item).

In our sentence, kottikärryihin doesn’t clearly specify whether it’s one wheelbarrow or several; context would decide. Grammatically, it’s just “into wheelbarrow(s)”.

Why is there a comma before ja in …, ja keräämme kypsät tomaatit…?

In Finnish, a comma is normally put between two main clauses (independent clauses), even if they are joined by “ja”.

Here we have two main clauses:

Syksyllä sato on valmis sekä kasvimaalla että omenapuussa
keräämme kypsät tomaatit kottikärryihin

They have different subjects:

Clause 1 subject: sato (the harvest)
Clause 2 subject: me (we), implied inside keräämme

Because they are two separate finite clauses with different subjects, a comma before ja is standard:

…, ja keräämme kypsät tomaatit kottikärryihin.

In English, you might or might not use a comma before and in this case; Finnish is stricter about inserting it.

Could we say Sato on valmis syksyllä instead of Syksyllä sato on valmis? What’s the difference in word order?

Yes, both are grammatically correct:

Syksyllä sato on valmis.
Sato on valmis syksyllä.

The difference is mostly emphasis and information structure:

Syksyllä sato on valmis
- Time phrase Syksyllä is at the beginning → it is the topic/frame.
- Slightly like: “In autumn, the harvest is ready.” (setting the time first)
Sato on valmis syksyllä
- Subject Sato starts the sentence → more focus on the harvest itself.
- Can sound more like: “The harvest is (ready) in autumn (not earlier or later).”

Both are natural; Finnish word order is fairly flexible, and moving elements affects what is highlighted rather than basic meaning.

Is there any nuance in using kerätä here instead of some other verb like poimia?

Yes, there’s a small nuance:

kerätä = to gather, collect, pick up, often with the idea of collecting things together in one place.
poimia = to pick (fruit, berries, flowers), focusing more on the act of picking each item.

In this sentence:

keräämme kypsät tomaatit kottikärryihin
highlights that we are collecting the tomatoes together into the wheelbarrow(s).

You could say:

Poimimme kypsät tomaatit. = We picked the ripe tomatoes.

That sounds a bit more like the physical act of picking.
With kottikärryihin, kerätä fits very naturally: you collect them into something.