Finnish Compound Words

Finnish has many compound words. Many of them are very descriptive. Here are ten:

1) autotalli (garage) (car + stable)

2) jääkaappi (refrigerator) (ice + closet)

3) kenkälusikka (shoehorn) (shoe + spoon)

4) laskuvarjo (parachute) (bill + shadow)

5) lentokone (airplane) (flight + machine)

6) lohikäärme (dragon) (salmon + snake)

7) mehujää (popsicle) (juice + ice)

8) silmämuna (eyeball) (eye + egg)

9) tietokone (computer) (knowledge + machine)

10) valtameri (ocean) (power + sea)

Many Finnish compound words are formed as in English. The word kirjahylly (bookshelf) consists of kirja (book) and hylly (shelf). However, a number of compound words are formed differently. The Finnish word maailma (world) is not a compound word in English. It consists of maa (world) and ilma (air).