Food vocabulary is the vocabulary you use every day, whether you're reading a menu, standing in a supermarket aisle, or trying to explain that you can't eat dairy. This lesson covers seventy of the words that come up most — meals, meat and fish, dairy, bread and grains, drinks, and the handful of adjectives you need to say whether something was any good.
Two things make Finnish food words easier than they look. Compounds do a lot of the work — once you know ruoka ("food") and kauppa ("shop"), ruokakauppa explains itself. And a great many are simply borrowed: pasta, salaatti, jogurtti, kahvi. You'll recognise more of this list than you expect.
Fruits and vegetables have their own lessons — this page covers everything else.
Meals
food
ruoka
meal
ateria
breakfast
aamiainen
lunch
lounas
dinner
päivällinen
supper
illallinen
snack
välipala
starter
alkuruoka
main course
pääruoka
dessert
jälkiruoka
Practice these words
ruoka
Quick notes:
- Lounas is the big one. Finnish workplaces eat lunch early — often between 11 and 12 — and lounas menus in restaurants are cheap and end sharply at 14:00.
- Notice -ruoka doing the work in alkuruoka, pääruoka, jälkiruoka: start-food, main-food, after-food.
Meat and Fish
meat
liha
chicken
kana
beef
naudanliha
pork
sianliha
minced meat
jauheliha
sausage
makkara
ham
kinkku
reindeer
poro
elk, moose
hirvi
fish
kala
salmon
lohi
herring
silli
Baltic herring
silakka
prawn, shrimp
katkarapu
Practice these words
liha
Quick notes:
- -liha means "meat of," so naudanliha is cattle-meat and sianliha is pig-meat. The animal comes first.
- Silli and silakka are different fish and Finns will correct you. Silakka is the small Baltic herring, and it's the one in the traditional dishes.
- Poro on a menu is reindeer, and it's genuinely common in the north rather than a tourist novelty.
Dairy and Eggs
milk
maito
butter
voi
cheese
juusto
cream
kerma
yoghurt
jogurtti
soured milk
piimä
egg
kananmuna
ice cream
jäätelö
Practice these words
maito
Quick notes:
- Piimä is a thin, sour drinking milk found in every Finnish fridge. It's an acquired taste and Finns are fond of it.
- Kananmuna is literally "hen's egg." In the shop and on menus it's usually shortened to muna.
Bread, Grains and Staples
bread
leipä
rye bread
ruisleipä
bread roll
sämpylä
porridge
puuro
oats
kaura
rice
riisi
pasta
pasta
potato
peruna
soup
keitto
salad
salaatti
sugar
sokeri
salt
suola
pepper
pippuri
oil
öljy
Practice these words
leipä
Quick note: ruisleipä is close to a national symbol. Dense, dark, sour rye bread is what Finns abroad say they miss most, and it appears at every meal including breakfast.
Drinks
water
vesi
tap water
hanavesi
sparkling water
kivennäisvesi
coffee
kahvi
tea
tee
juice
mehu
orange juice
appelsiinimehu
soft drink
limsa
beer
olut
wine
viini
red wine
punaviini
white wine
valkoviini
cheers!
kippis!
Practice these words
vesi
Quick notes:
- Finnish tap water is excellent and free everywhere. Asking for hanavesi in a restaurant is completely normal.
- Limsa is the everyday word for any fizzy soft drink — the formal virvoitusjuoma exists and nobody says it.
- Olut is the dictionary word for beer; in a bar you'll more often hear kalja or just the brand.
Describing Food
delicious
herkullinen
tasty
maukas
sweet
makea
salty
suolainen
sour
hapan
bitter
kitkerä
spicy, hot
tulinen
fresh
tuore
Practice these words
herkullinen
Quick note: tulinen comes from tuli, "fire." Finnish food is not, as a rule, tulinen, and a dish labelled that way in Finland may still be milder than you expect.
Saying What You Can't Eat
vegetarian
kasvissyöjä
gluten-free
gluteeniton
lactose-free
laktoositon
Quick notes:
- Olen kasvissyöjä — "I'm a vegetarian" — is understood everywhere and well catered for.
- -ton / -tön means "without," the same ending as in työtön ("unemployed"). You'll see it stamped on half the products in a Finnish supermarket: sokeriton, maidoton, alkoholiton.
- Finland is unusually good at lactose-free dairy. Laktoositon milk, cream and cheese are in every shop, not a specialist item.
What to Know About Finnish Food Words
The compound habit is the thing to lean on. Finnish builds specific food words by gluing general ones together, so a long word is usually two short words you may already know. Ruoka (food) + kauppa (shop) = ruokakauppa, supermarket. Kana (hen) + muna (egg) = kananmuna. Appelsiini + mehu = appelsiinimehu. When a food word on a label looks impossible, try splitting it in the middle before giving up.
The second thing is how many words are borrowed and lightly repainted. Pasta, salaatti, jogurtti, banaani, kahvi, tee, sokeri — Finnish takes the international word and files off the edges to fit its own spelling rules, usually by doubling a consonant or adding a final vowel. Finnish words almost never end in a consonant cluster, which is why salad becomes salaatti. Once you know that habit, you can often guess.
Third, a practical note about eating in Finland: portions and pricing revolve around lounas. Between roughly 11:00 and 14:00, most restaurants serve a fixed-price lunch, often a buffet, at a fraction of evening prices, and it usually includes bread, milk or piimä, salad and coffee. It's the single best-value meal in the country and it's aimed at locals rather than visitors, which is exactly why it's worth knowing the word.