Ravintolassa

Ravintolassa is a Finnish word that functions as the inessive singular form of ravintola, meaning restaurant. It translates roughly to "in the restaurant" or "at the restaurant" and is used to indicate location inside or at a restaurant.

Formation and grammar: In Finnish, many place-nouns form the inessive case with the suffix -ssa or -ssä. For ravintola, the inessive becomes ravintolassa, which includes a double s due to the suffix -ssa appended to the stem ending in -a. The related forms include ravintolasta (elative: out of the restaurant) and ravintolaan (illative: into the restaurant). Ravintolassa is typically used with verbs like olla (to be), mennä (to go), tai työskennellä (to work) to describe location or activity inside a restaurant.

Usage: Ravintolassa is common in everyday Finnish. Examples include: Olen ravintolassa. (I am in the restaurant.) Ravintolassa on hyvä ruokaa. (There is good food in the restaurant.) Mennen ravintolaan illalliselle. (We are going to the restaurant for dinner.) The word is versatile in contexts such as dining out, work, or meeting someone at a restaurant.

Notes: Ravintola as the base noun refers specifically to a place serving prepared food for an audience, often with meals or beverages available. Ravintolassa, like other inessive forms, answers questions about location and is frequently used in signage, menus, and spoken Finnish.