terveempää

Terveempää is a Finnish comparative form of the adjective terve, meaning healthier or more healthy. It is the partitive singular form used when the modified noun is in partitive, as in phrases such as healthier food. In general, terveempää expresses a relative improvement in healthiness compared to a reference point.

Usage and examples

The word is most common in everyday language related to diet, lifestyle, and healthcare. It appears with nouns in the partitive case, for example: haluan terveempää ruokaa (I want healthier food), tarjolla on terveempää vaihtoehtoa (there are healthier options). Because it is a comparative, terveempää signals a comparison rather than an absolute state of health.

Grammatical notes

Terveempää is derived from the stem terve with the comparative suffix -mpi. The form shown here is the partitive singular; other forms of the comparative will have different inflections to agree with the noun and grammatical case. It is often contrasted with terveellisempi, which more directly conveys “more healthful” in a health-quality sense, though both can be used to express improvement in health-related contexts.

Context and nuance

In everyday Finnish, terveempää is widely used in discussions of food, fitness, and wellness. While common in marketing and media, it describes relative healthiness rather than an absolute health claim. For stricter health claims, speakers may use terveellisempi or health-focused terms.