Konttoriin

Konttori is a Finnish noun meaning an office or a workspace, typically referring to a physical room or area where administrative tasks or customer service are conducted. It can denote a company’s or a public institution’s office, as well as a service counter in places like banks or post offices. In everyday speech, konttori can also describe a small, dedicated work area within a larger building.

The word is a loanword from Swedish kontor, which means office or bureau. The Swedish term itself traces back through Germanic and Romance-language borrowings common to many European languages. In Finnish, konttori has been in regular use since the 19th century and is closely related to toimisto, a more general term for an office.

Morphology and usage: konttori is declined like a standard Finnish noun. Nominative singular is konttori; genitive konttorin; partitive konttoria. The illative singular (movement toward) is konttoriin, used with verbs of motion such as mennä or suunnata: Menen konttoriin selvittämään asian. Inessive (location, “in the office”) is konttorissa, and plural forms are konttorit (nominative) and konttoreihin (illative, “into the offices”).

Usage notes: Konttori emphasizes the physical space or service counter, and is common in contexts involving public services or business offices. For broader or more formal references to an office setting, toimisto is often used as a synonym with slightly different nuance.

See also: toimisto, palvelukeskus, konttoriin changes in illative usage.