vihannes vs kasvis

[Satish]

Is there any meaningful difference between the words vihannes and kasvis? Both of them are listed as vegetable in wiktionary..

[Jukka Aho]

Is there any meaningful difference between the words vihannes and kasvis? Both of them are listed as vegetable in wiktionary..

The definitions are not too clear-cut, but it roughly goes this way:

• vihannes, vihannekset: Edible parts of plants, excluding (sweet) fruits, berries, nuts, seeds, and the underground bits (root vegetables.) Exception to the “underground bits” rule: onions. Mostly green stuff (vihreä, vihanta, and vihannes are all related words) such as leaves and stems, but including, for example, tomatoes and peppers, squashes, etc.
• juures, juurekset: root vegetables
• kasvis, kasvikset: Everything plant-related that is edible; including the two above-mentioned categories. Kasvikset also includes (sweet) fruits and berries, nuts, potatoes, and mushrooms (for some reason, even though they’re not a part of the plant kingdom.) See here for a more detailed definition.

But as I said, these categorizations are not always too clear-cut, especially in everyday language. You can except to hear people call e.g. carrots or potatoes “vihannekset” from time to time.

[Satish]

Thanks for this. If you are wondering why this question, well my 'location' has changed from Melbourne to Helsinki so I need this to survive at Lidl!!

[Jukka Aho]

Thanks for this. If you are wondering why this question, well my 'location' has changed from Melbourne to Helsinki so I need this to survive at Lidl!! :ochesey:

Well, people ask the strangest questions here so yours was not out of the line in any way. :D Welcome to Finland!

As for “survival skills”, and for some interesting cultural and linguistic observations, you might want to take a look at this blog; especially the older entries tagged with Finland-related keywords. The author is an American (ex-)ex-pat who lived several years in Finland, but then moved back for work and family reasons.

(Note: your ‘location’ field still reads “Melbourne, Australia (soon to be Helsinki)”... so perhaps you’d like to update that now.)

[Satish]

Interesting to see that finnish does the same as english and lumps tomatoes under the non-fruit category. I think the old myth that tomatoes were called fruit due to a farming lobby in the US might not be true after all. Unless the Finn tomato farmers got wind of the tax on fruit and did the same thing!

ps. location has been changed - suomessa on uusi suomalainen . (my first existential sentence..)

[raamv]

Try not to "Think" in English when Learning Finnish, rather your Mother tongue ( if not English) to speed up your learning..
English just confuses the use of kielin oppi ( grammar) for Finnish..
Tervetuloa Suomi!!

[Jukka Aho]

Interesting to see that finnish does the same as english and lumps tomatoes under the non-fruit category. I think the old myth that tomatoes were called fruit due to a farming lobby in the US might not be true after all. Unless the Finn tomato farmers got wind of the tax on fruit and did the same thing!

The fruit of Solanum lycopersicum is actually a berry in botanical sense... I believe. (Well, ‘vegetables’ are just a culinary and grocery trade classification, anyway – not a botanical or ‘scientific’ classification...)

ps. location has been changed - suomessa on uusi suomalainen . (my first existential sentence..)

Yep. It’s correct, too! (Except for the capitalization.)

[Pursuivant]

HK sininen is also said to be a vihannes

[Satish]

vihannes for a sausage?? Hmm, maybe this is one of those initiation rights for new Finns??

[Jukka Aho]

vihannes for a sausage?? Hmm, maybe this is one of those initiation rights for new Finns??

It is said to be the food item that has the lowest meat content in the stereotypical diet of a Finnish man...

[mrjimsfc]

vihannes for a sausage?? Hmm, maybe this is one of those initiation rights for new Finns??

It is said to be the food item that has the lowest meat content in the stereotypical diet of a Finnish man...

Much like an American "vegiburger" (which tastes like sawdust).