kartonkiin

Kartonkiin is a Finnish grammatical form meaning “into cardboard” or “to cardboard.” It is the illative case of the noun kartonki, which denotes cardboard or cardboard-based material. In Finnish, the illative case marks direction toward something and is commonly used with verbs of motion or placement, such as when indicating that an object is being moved into a cardboard surface or container. The form kartonkiin is produced by adding the illative suffix -in to the stem kartonki, with standard rules of vowel harmony and consonant changes applied.

The word kartonki itself is a loanword in Finnish, reflecting the material known as cardboard. It is widely used to refer to cardboard sheets, cartons, and packaging material. As the illative, kartonkiin does not change its basic meaning but shows that the action is directed into cardboard.

In modern Finnish, illative forms like kartonkiin are common for expressing movement toward materials or places. They appear in everyday language, technical descriptions, and literature, though they are sometimes omitted in spoken language when the context makes the direction clear.

Etymology: kartonki derives from European sources for cardboard, with cognates in German karton, French carton, Italian cartone, and related languages; the exact path into Finnish is not always documented. The illative suffix -in is a standard part of Finnish grammar.

See also: Finnish illative case, kartonki, Finnish language, loanwords in Finnish.