Questions & Answers about Jääkaappi on melkein täysi.
Word by word:
jääkaappi = fridge / refrigerator
- jää = ice
- kaappi = cupboard / cabinet
So literally: ice-cupboard.
on = is
- It’s the 3rd person singular present tense of olla = to be.
melkein = almost / nearly
täysi = full (an adjective)
So a literal translation is: “The ice-cupboard is almost full.” → The fridge is almost full.
Finnish has no articles (no “a/an” or “the”).
Whether you mean “a fridge” or “the fridge” is understood from context:
Talking generally:
Jääkaappi on kallis. = A fridge is expensive. / Fridges are expensive.Talking about a specific, known fridge:
Jääkaappi on melkein täysi. = The fridge is almost full.
So the same Finnish sentence can correspond to either “a fridge” or “the fridge” in English, depending on the situation.
Both relate to the idea of full, but they’re used a bit differently:
täysi = an adjective “full”
- Works like “big”, “small”, etc.
- Used directly as a predicate:
- Jääkaappi on täysi. = The fridge is full.
- Lasipullo on täysi. = The glass bottle is full.
täynnä = a kind of adverbial form meaning “full (of something)”
- Very commonly followed by a partitive to say what it’s full of:
- Jääkaappi on täynnä ruokaa. = The fridge is full of food.
- Huone oli täynnä ihmisiä. = The room was full of people.
- Very commonly followed by a partitive to say what it’s full of:
In your sentence:
- Jääkaappi on melkein täysi.
Focus: the state of the fridge (it’s nearly at full capacity).
You could also say:
- Jääkaappi on melkein täynnä.
Very natural too; often felt as “almost filled up / almost full (of stuff).”
In everyday speech, both versions sound fine; täynnä might be a bit more common in casual talk.
Täysi here is in the nominative singular, the “dictionary form” of adjectives.
In sentences like X on Y where:
- X is a singular noun in the nominative (here: jääkaappi)
- Y is an adjective describing X (here: täysi)
…the adjective normally agrees by being nominative singular as well:
- Auto on uusi. = The car is new.
- Talo on korkea. = The house is tall.
- Jääkaappi on täysi. = The fridge is full.
You get other forms (like täyden, täydessä) when you put the adjective in different cases (genitive, inessive, etc.), for example:
Täyden jääkaapin löytäminen on harvinaista.
= Finding a full fridge is rare. (genitive: täyden)Jääkaappi on täydessä käytössä.
= The fridge is in full use. (inessive: täydessä)
But in your simple “X is Y” sentence, nominative täysi is the right form.
The normal, neutral word order is:
- Jääkaappi on melkein täysi.
Subject – verb – adverb – adjective.
Other options:
Jääkaappi on täysi melkein.
Grammatically possible but sounds odd or heavily emphasized; not natural as a basic statement.Melkein jääkaappi on täysi.
This is wrong or very strange in standard Finnish. It would be interpreted as:- “Almost the fridge is full” (as if you want to say “Almost the fridge, not something else, is full”), which doesn’t make sense in context.
In Finnish, adverbs like melkein typically sit right before what they modify:
- melkein täysi = almost full
- melkein tyhjä = almost empty
- melkein valmis = almost ready
So keep melkein in front of täysi here.
melkein means “almost / nearly / practically”. It suggests you are very close, but not quite there.
Examples:
- Olen melkein valmis. = I’m almost ready.
- Se on melkein mahdotonta. = It’s almost impossible.
Close synonyms:
lähes = almost, nearly
- Jääkaappi on lähes täysi. = The fridge is almost full.
- Slightly more formal/neutral in tone.
miltei = almost, nearly
- More literary or formal.
All three (melkein, lähes, miltei) could be used with täysi, but melkein is very common in everyday speech.
You change both the subject and the verb, and usually the adjective as well:
- Jääkaapit ovat melkein täysiä.
= The fridges are almost full.
Changes:
- jääkaappi → jääkaapit (plural nominative)
- on → ovat (3rd person plural of olla)
- täysi → täysiä (plural partitive is common in this predicate use)
You can sometimes see Jääkaapit ovat melkein täysi in very colloquial speech, but täysiä is the standard form here.
No. In standard Finnish you must include the verb olla (“to be”) in this kind of sentence.
- ✅ Jääkaappi on melkein täysi.
- ❌ Jääkaappi melkein täysi.
Leaving out on would sound ungrammatical or at best like very clipped, telegraphic speech (e.g. in notes or headlines, but even there it’s unusual).
So remember: Finnish normally needs an explicit “is/are” (on / ovat) in these sentences.
Approximate pronunciation, using English-like hints:
jääkaappi
- Syllables: jää-kaa-ppi
- jä like “ya” in yard, but with front vowel ä; ää is a long vowel → hold it: yäa
- kaa: kaa with a long aa (like in father, but longer)
- pp is a long consonant → a short pause or “double p” sound
- Stress always on the first syllable: JÄÄ-kaap-pi
täysi
- Syllables: täy-si
- täy: äy is like “a” in cat plus “y” in you blended: something like tæü
- si like see but shorter
- Stress on the first syllable: TÄY-si
Finnish has phonemic length, so the difference between single and double vowels/consonants (e.g. a vs aa, p vs pp) really matters.
jääkaappi is the standard everyday word for fridge / refrigerator.
You might also encounter:
- kaappi alone in context, but that normally just means cupboard.
- kylmäkaappi literally “cold cupboard” (used in some contexts, not as common in everyday speech).
- Brand or slang terms can exist, but jääkaappi is what you should learn and use.
So for normal conversation, jääkaappi is the correct and natural word.
Yes, a few common variants:
Jääkaappi on melkein täynnä.
Very natural; often used.Jääkaappi on lähes täynnä.
Slightly more neutral/formal “almost full”.Jääkaappi on ihan täynnä.
= The fridge is completely full / totally full (not “almost” but useful related phrase).Jääkaappi on melkein ihan täynnä.
= The fridge is almost totally full (more emphasis).
But for a straightforward “The fridge is almost full”, your original:
- Jääkaappi on melkein täysi.
and also:
- Jääkaappi on melkein täynnä.
are both completely acceptable and natural.