If you’ve been studying Finnish for a little while, you’ve probably learned the words ravintola “restaurant”, kahvila “café” and sairaala “hospital”. This article lists more such places ending in LA or LÄ!

The derivational suffix -la/lä is added to words to create locations where the element from the first part of the word lives or is located. It can be added to nouns (e.g. vankila “prison” from the word vanki “prisoner”). In certain rarer cases, it can be added to verbs in a round-about way (e.g. uimala “swimming facility” from the verb uida “to swim”, myymälä “shop” from the verb myydä “to sell”). There are also a couple which are based on adjectives (e.g. sairaala “hospital” from sairas “sick”).

1. Base list of places ending in LA

2. Subtypes of places ending in LA

2.1. Places where certain people live or spend time

We can use the suffix LA to refer to the house of a person, usually of a family member. For example, the expression “Mennään mummolaan!” means “Let’s go to grandma’s house”, where mummo “grandma” has been turned into mummola “grandma’s house”. The two most common words of this nature are mummola and anoppila, but we could in theory extend this to other family members as well: serkkula “cousin’s house” or tätilä “aunt’s house”.

An interesting, outdated word of this type is miehelä, which is what a wife-to-be would use to refer to the household of her future husband that she would become a part of.

2.2. Places where certain animals live

At a farm, you often have multiple places where animals take shelter from the elements.

2.3. Places containing certain objects

While the previous section had a list of places with animals inside them, this next list contains places with certain objects inside them. They are places where you either consume (e.g. ruoka “food” becomes ruokala “canteen”), produce (e.g. voima “power” becomes voimala “power plant”) or store (lanta “manure” becomes lantala “manure barn”) objects.

2.4. Places where certain actions are done

Placenames ending in LA which express where a certain action is taken are usually derived from a noun, which in turn is derived from a verb. Thus, the verb hoitaa “to take care of” has been turned into the noun hoito “care, treatment”, which in turn gives us the noun hoitola “a home, a place where people are taken care of or given treatment”. There are many types of such places, which you can find more information on further down in this article, where I list compound words ending in –hoitola.

2.5. Imaginary places

The -lA ending is also used for imaginary places from storybooks or mythology.

This is the case for hölmölä, a place where humoristically foolish people live. The adjective hölmö refers to a silly simpleton. In one of the stories, the people of Hölmölä try to solve the problem of a too dark house by carrying light into the house and darkness out of it inside of a burlap sack. Then, one of them makes a hole in the wall and once they see the effect that has, they keep making the hole larger and larger until the house collapses.

The underworld, ie. the world of the dead has several names ending in -la in Finnish: vainajala (from vainaja “deceased person”), tuonela (from tuoni – old word that can mean “death” or the netherworld) and manala.

Onnela (from the noun onni “happiness”) is an imaginary place where happiness prevails, a land of happiness. The word kultala (from the noun kulta “gold”) is also used as such to describe a place where everything good is in abundance.

Lastly, arkala (from the adjective arka “timid, shy”) is an imaginary place where fearful and timid people live. This word is often used in the expression “ei ole arkalasta kotoisin“, ie. “is not from arkala”.

2.6. Surnames and placenames

The suffix -lA also appears in many Finnish surnames (such as Mäkelä and Heikkilä) and placenames (such as Kouvola and Heinola). These often have historical roots. Check out my article about surnames here!

3. Compound words ending in LA

This article wouldn’t be complete without a section about compound words ending in LA. There are, for example, many types of restaurants, so you will find many compound words ending in -ravintola, such as lounasravintola, anniskeluravintola and kasvisravintola. More about these in the next sections!

3.1. Subtypes of asuntola 

An asuntola is made up of apartments, usually with common rooms such as a common kitchen. It’s a place where people belonging to the same group or institution get to live.

3.2. Subtypes of hoitola

On its own, the noun hoitola refers to nursing homes, care centers for the elderly. However, in compound words it can be used to refer to a variety of places where people are taken care of in some way.

The word hoitola comes from the noun hoito “treatment, care”, which in turn comes from the verb hoitaa “to take care of”. Compound words ending in -hoitola are places where people are taken care of or where they are given treatment. This can extend to many different types of treatments, such as the dentist’s, nail salons and boarding houses.

3.3. Subtypes of huvila

The noun huvi means “fun, amusement, pleasure”. When adding -la to it, we get huvila (in English: villa), ie. a house that’s primarily used for vacations and retreats.

3.4. Subtypes of kahvila

The noun kahvi “coffee” is a natural base for kahvila “coffee shop, café”.

The word anniskelu means the retail of alcohol for consumption at retailer’s premises. If a café has an anniskelulupa, it is licensed to sell all types of liquor to its clients.

3.5. Subtypes of käymälä

The word käymälä is based on the verb käydä, which means to visit a place: going there and exiting soon after. You can use the verb käydä, for example, when taking a shower (e.g. “Käyn suihkussa” means “I take a shower” and “Käyn vessassa” means “I go to the toilet”). Read more about the verb käydä here. The noun käymälä has lexicalized to mean specifically a toilet or privy.

3.6. Subtypes of myymälä

The word myymälä is based on the verb myydä “to sell”. A myymälä is a store, and the prefix used often gives us more information on what is being sold in the store. Another Finnish word for myymälä is of course kauppa, which can also be used in a similar fashion (e.g. vaatekauppa “clothing store”, kirjakauppa “bookstore”).

3.7. Subtypes of neuvola

Based on either the noun neuvo “advice” or the verb neuvoa “to advise”, a neuvola is a health clinic usually specifically for parents and young children. Health check-ups for growing children happen at the lastenneuvola, mothers can visit äitiysneuvola before and after giving birth and perheneuvola is there to help the whole family both with raising kids and dealing with problems related to family.

3.8. Subtypes of ravintola

The word ravintola of course means “restaurant”. It’s based on the noun ravinto, which means “nutrition” or “nourishment”.

3.9. Subtypes of sairaala

A sairaala is a hospital, based on the word sairas “sick”, so populated by sick people. In the Finnish healthcare system, a hospital typically serves a region of about 100,000 people. For more demanding care, one gets referred to a keskussairaala: a better equipped central hospital.

3.10. Subtypes of vankila

A vankila is a prison, based on the noun vanki “prisoner”.

3.11. Subtypes of voimala

Power plants or power stations can be called voimala or voimalaitos in Finnish. The words are based on the noun voima, which means “power”.

That’s all for this article about places ending in the suffix LA! Hopefully this breakdown of the meanings as well as the lists of the compound words gave you a better look at these words!

Related posts:

Places in the City – Finnish Vocabulary