Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

 nouns (including pronouns and numerals) as well as any modifying adjectives, superlatives or comparatives, can be declined

Declension

In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...

 by a large number of grammatical cases, which are detailed here. See also Finnish grammar

Finnish grammar

This article deals with the grammar of the Finnish language . For the ways in which the spoken language differs from the written language, see Colloquial Finnish...

.

The cases generally correspond to the prepositions (in, to, at, ...) found in Indo-European

Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...

 languages. Because of these cases, the use of prepositions in Finnish is very restricted.
Note regarding the examples: Finnish language doesn't differentiate between he and she, or a and the. Thus, context may be required to get an accurate translation.

Finnish cases
Case	Suffix	English prep.	Example	Translation
Grammatical
nominatiivi		-	Talo on helppo sana.	House is an easy word.
genetiivi	-n	of	En pidä tämän talon väristä.	I don't like the colour of this house.
akkusatiivi	- or -n	- (object, whole)	Maalaan talon. Auta maalaamaan talo!	I'll paint the house. Help me paint the house!
partitiivi	-(t)a	- (object, part/incomplete)	Maalaan taloa.	I'm painting the house.
Locative (internal)
inessiivi	-ssa	in	Asun talossa.	I live in the house.
elatiivi	-sta	from (inside)	Poistu talostani!	Get out of my house!
illatiivi	-an, -en, etc.	into	Menen hänen taloonsa.	I'm going (in)to his/her house.
Locative (external)
adessiivi	-lla	at, on	Nähdään talolla!	See you at the house!
ablatiivi	-lta	from	Kiersin talolta toiselle.	I traveled from [one] house to another.
allatiivi	-lle	to (outside), onto	Koska saavut talolle?	When will you be arriving to the house?
Marginal
essiivi	-na	as	Käytätkö tätä hökkeliä talona?	Are you using this shack as a house?
translatiivi	-ksi	into (change, transformation, not movement)	Muutan sen taloksi.	I'll turn it into a house.
instruktiivi	-n	with, using	He levittivät sanomaansa rakentaminensa taloin.	They passed on their message with(using) the houses they built.
abessiivi	-tta	without	On vaikeaa elää talotta.	It's difficult to live without a house.
komitatiivi	-ne-	together (with)	Hän vaikuttaa varakkaalta monine taloineen.	He appears to be wealthy, with the numerous houses he has.

Grammatical cases

The grammatical cases perform important grammatical functions.

Nominative

Nominative case

The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...

: The basic form of the noun

Characteristic ending: none in the singular

'talo' = 'a/the house'

'kirja' = 'book'

'mäki' = 'hill'

'vesi' = 'water'

Genitive

Genitive case

In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...

: Characteristic ending: -n possibly modified by consonant gradation: mäki -> mäen, talo -> talon. For the nouns and adjectives that have two vowel stems, the weak vowel stem comes from the genitive singular.

The genitive indicates possession. It is also used preceding postpositions. However, it is homophonous (but not cognate!) to the accusative, which may cause some confusion.

"kirja|n kuvat" = "the pictures in the book"

"talo|n seinät" = "the walls of the house"

"mäe|n päällä" = "on top of the hill"

"vede|n alla" = "under water"

Accusative

Accusative case

The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...

: This case marks direct objects. The accusative indicates telicity

Telicity

In linguistics, telicity is the property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete in some sense...

; that is, the object has been finalized or the intended action is done. Note that a morphologically distinct accusative case exists in Finnish only for the following pronouns:

Singular

• minut = me
• sinut = you
• hänet = him/her

Plural

• meidät = us
• teidät = you
• heidät = them

Polite

• Teidät = you

Question

• kenet = whom

In contrast, regular nouns do not have a distinct accusative case. Instead, singular direct objects look like the genitive in direct address (Tuon maton "I'll bring the carpet") and in the nominative with both imperatives (Tuo matto! "Bring the carpet!") and passives (Matto on tuotu "The carpet has been brought"). Plural direct objects always appear in the nominative plural.

Traditionally, Finnish grammars have considered, on syntactic grounds, the accusative to be a case unto itself, despite its being identical to the nominative or genitive case. The recently published major Finnish grammar, Iso suomen kielioppi

Iso suomen kielioppi

Iso suomen kielioppi is a reference book of Finnish grammar. It was published in 2004 by the Finnish Literature Society and to this date is the most extensive of its kind...

, takes a morphological point of view and does not list the accusative except for the personal pronouns and kuka, while at the same time acknowledging the argument for the traditional view. The existence or nonexistence of an accusative case in Finnish thus depends on one's point of view. Historically, the similarity of the accusative and genitive endings is coincidental. The older accusative ending was -m, but in modern Finnish an m has become an n when it is the last sound of a word.

Partitive

Partitive case

The partitive case is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with numbers....

: Characteristic ending: -ta/-tä, where the 't' elides if intervocalic. The consonant stem of a noun (if any) comes from the partitive singular. Otherwise the ending is added to the strong vowel stem.

The basic meaning of this case is a lack of telicity

Telicity

In linguistics, telicity is the property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as being complete in some sense...

, that is, it is not indicated whether the intended result has been achieved. For example, Join vettä "I drank water-part." indicates that there is possibly some water left, while the accusative Join veden indicates all water has been consumed. It is not perfectivity. The partitive is the second most common case in Finnish. It has also other uses:

After numerals, except number 1:

• 'kolme talo|a' = 'three houses'
• 'kaksi las|ta' = 'two children'

For incomplete actions and ongoing processes whose ending or end result is unknown (the partitive object):

• "luen kirja|a" = "I'm reading a book"
• "hän opetti minu|a lukemaan" = "s/he was teaching me to read"
• "rakastan sinu|a" = "I love you"
• "ajattelin huomis|ta" = "I thought about tomorrow"

With nouns of indefinite number or substance nouns (the partitive object):

• "onko teillä kirjo|j|a?" = "do you have any books ?"
• "haluan vet|tä" = "I want some water"

For negative statements and for tentative enquiries (the partitive object):

• "talossa ei ole yhtään kirjaa" = "there is not a book in the house"
• "en nähnyt hän|tä" = "I didn't see him/her"
• "saanko lainata kirjaa?" = "can I borrow the book?"

With prepositions

• "ennen mäke|ä" = "before the hill"
• "ilman takki|a" = "without a coat"

Very rarely indicates location (coming from/ being found somewhere):

• "rann|empa|a" = "closer to the shore"
• "länn|empä|ä" = "further west"

The formation of the partitive plural is rather variable, but the basic principle is to add '-i-' to the inflecting stem, followed by the '-(t)a' partitive ending. However, in a similar way to verb imperfects, the '-i-' can cause changes to the final vowel of the stem, leading to an apparent diversity of forms.

Locative cases

The most important function of the locative cases is to indicate location. They are also used for miscellaneous case government

Case government

In linguistics, case government is government of the grammatical case of verb arguments, when a verb or preposition is said to 'govern' the grammatical case on its noun phrase complement, e.g. zu governs the dative case in German: zu mir 'to me-dative'...

, much like prepositions in other languages. For example, the suffix -lla as a locative means "on top", but may function as an instrumental case, e.g. kirjoitan kynällä "I write with a pen".

Two different kinds of suffixes are used, the internal locatives (-s-) and the external locatives (-l-).

The word in a locative case refers to the verb, for example, in Sovitan housuja ikkunassa the word ikkunassa "in the window" refers to the verb sovitan "I try on", not to the adjacent noun housuja "pants". The sentence reads out as "I'm in the window, trying on pants". However, in context due to the instrumental nature of the window and the word order, the sentence stands for "I'm trying on pants (on display) in the window".

Internal locatives

Inessive

Inessive case

Inessive case is a locative grammatical case. This case carries the basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house" is "talo·ssa" in Finnish, "maja·s" in Estonian, "etxea·n" in Basque, "nam·e" in Lithuanian and "ház·ban" in Hungarian.In Finnish the inessive case is typically formed by adding...

: Characteristic ending -ssa/-ssä added to the weak vowel stem

The first of the six so-called "local" cases, which as their basic meaning correspond to locational prepositions in English. The inessive carries the basic meaning "inside" or "in"

• "talo|ssa" = "in the house"

It is also commonplace to indicate time or immediate contact with the inessive

• "joulukuu|ssa" = "in December"
• "joulukuuse|ssa" = "on the Christmas tree"

Elative

Elative case

See Elative for disambiguation.Elative is a locative case with the basic meaning "out of"....

: Characteristic ending -sta/-stä added to the weak vowel stem

The second of the local cases, with the basic meaning of "coming out from inside" or "out of"

• "tuli talo|sta" = "(he) came out of the house"

Like the inessive, the elative can also be used to indicate time or immediate contact. Can also indicate origin or cause.

• "viime joulu|sta lähtien" = "since last Christmas"
• "nouse sängy|stä" = "get out of the bed"
• "tehty villa|sta" = "made of wool"
• "vihreänä kateude|sta" = "green with envy"

Illative

Illative case

Illative is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "into ". An example from Hungarian is "a házba"...

: The ending is usually -Vn, where V indicates the preceding vowel of the stem. Singular forms use the strong stem form. In cases where the genitive stem already ends in a long vowel the ending is -seen (singular) and -siin (plural). However, for words of one syllable the ending is always -hVn and this form is also used in plural forms where the plural stem already contains a vowel (other than i ) immediately before the plural i.

Some dialects, such as Pohjanmaa, use the -hVn more generally.

This is the third of the local cases, with the basic meaning "into"

• "meni talo|on" = "(he) went into the house" - regular formation from talo -Vn
• "vete|en" = into the water" - regular formation from vesi, strong singular stem vete- -Vn
• "vesi|in" = into the waters" - regular formation from vesi, plural stem vesi- -Vn
• "kuu|hun" = "to the moon" - single syllable variation -hVn
• "Lontoo|seen" = "to London" - long vowel stem variation from Lontoo (London) -seen
• "kaunii|seen talo|on" ="into the beautiful house" -kaunis has singular stem -kaunii- therefore -seen variation
• "kaunii|siin taloi|hin" ="into the beautiful houses" - plural -siin because of singular -seen and plural -hVn due to the additional vowel i in the plural stem "taloi"

The illative can also indicate close contact, time or cause

• "huomise|en" = "until tomorrow" (from huominen)
• "kevää|seen" = "until spring" (from kevät)
• "kylmä|än voi kuolla" = "one can die of cold"

External locatives

Adessive

Adessive case

In Uralic languages, such as Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, the adessive case is the fourth of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "on". For example, Estonian laud and laual , Hungarian asztal and asztalnál...

: Characteristic ending -lla/-llä added to the weak vowel stem

The fourth of the local cases, with the basic meaning 'on top of' or 'in close proximity of'

• "mäe|llä" = "on the hill"
• "ove|lla" = "at the door"

Adessive is also commonly used with the verb 'olla' to indicate possession

• "minu|lla on kirja" = "I have a book"

It can also indicate time, instrument, means or way

• "aamu|lla" = "in the morning"
• "bussi|lla" = "by bus"
• "vasara|lla" = "with a hammer"
• "kävellä varpa|i|lla|an" = "to walk on tiptoe/ on one's toes"

Ablative

Ablative case

In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ...

: Characteristic ending -lta/-ltä added to the weak vowel stem

The fifth of the local cases, with the basic meaning "from off of" - a poor English equivalent, but necessary to distinguish it from "from out of", which would be elative.

• "mäe|ltä" = "from (off) the hill"
• "nousin sohva|lta" = "(I) got up from the sofa"
• "Liisa sai kirjan minu|lta" = "Liisa got the book from me"

The ablative can also indicate time and it can be used to convey information about qualities

• "kahdeksa|lta" = "at eight (o'clock)"
• "hän on ulkonäö|ltä|än miellyttävä" = (freely:)"she has a pleasant appearance"

Allative

Allative case

Allative case is a type of the locative cases used in several languages. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages which do not make finer distinctions.-Finnish language:In the Finnish language, the allative is the fifth of the locative cases, with the...

: Characteristic ending -lle added to the weak vowel stem

The sixth of the local cases, with the basic meaning "onto".

• "mäe|lle" = "onto the hill"

Another meaning is "to someone" or "for someone"

• "minä annan kirjan Liisa|lle" = "I give the book to Liisa"
• "pöytä kahde|lle" = "a table for two"

With verbs of sensation, it is possible to use either the ablative or allative case

• "tuoksuu hyvä|ltä/ hyvä|lle" = "(it) smells good"

Marginal cases

As their name indicates, the use of these cases is rather marginal.
The name "general locatives" is sometimes used of the essive and translative cases (as well as partitive above) because their oldest meanings imply that they have been used to indicate location.

Essive

Essive case

The essive or similaris case carries the meaning of a temporary location or state of being, often equivalent to the English "as a ".In the Finnish language, this case is marked by adding "-na/-nä" to the stem of the noun....

: Characteristic ending -na. If the noun or adjective has two vowel stems, the strong vowel stem comes from the essive singular. NB the consonant stem used to be quite common in the essive, and some nouns and adjectives still have this feature.

This case sometimes carries the meaning of a temporary state of being, often equivalent to the English "as a ..."

• "lapse|na" = "as a child", "when (I) was a child"
• "vete|nä" = "as water"
• "pien|i|nä palas|i|na" = "in small pieces"
• "se on täyn|nä" = "it is full"

The essive is also used for specifying days and dates when something happens.

• "huomen|na" = "tomorrow"
• "maanantai|na" = "on Monday"
• "kuudente|na joulukuuta" = "on the 6th of December" (Finnish independence day).

In ancient Finnish, essive had a meaning similar to the local cases, which can still be seen in some words (being somewhere):

• "koto|na" = "at home" (koto being an archaic form of koti, still current in some dialects)
• "läh|empä|nä" = "nearer"
• "rann|empa|na" = "closer to the shore"
• "länn|empä|nä" = "further west"

Translative

Translative case

The translative case is a grammatical case that indicates a change in state of a noun, with the general sense of "becoming X" or "change to X"....

: Characteristic ending -ksi added to the weak vowel stem. The ending is -kse- before a possessive suffix.

This is the counterpart of the essive, with the basic meaning of a change of state. Examples:

• "maalaa se punaise|ksi" = "paint it red"
• "tunnen itseni väsynee|ksi" = "I feel tired".
• "se muuttui vede|ksi" = "it turned into water"

Also has a meaning similar to English "for a ..."

• "mäki on englanni|ksi 'hill'" = (literally:) "'hill' is English for mäki"
• "toistaise|ksi" = "for the time being", "for now"
• "suunnitelmia perjantai|ksi" = "plans for Friday"
• "valmis perjantai|ksi" = "ready by Friday"
• "mitä sinä teet työ|kse|si?" = "what do you do for a living?"

Rarely indicates location (going somewhere):

• "läh|emmä|ksi" = "(moving) nearer to"
• "rann|emma|ksi" = "closer to the shore"
• "länn|emmä|ksi" = "further west"

Instructive

Instructive case

In the Finnish language and Estonian language, the instructive case has the basic meaning of "by means of". It is a comparatively rarely used case, though it is found in some commonly used expressions, such as omin silmin → "with one's own eyes"....

: Characteristic ending -n added usually (but not always) to plural stem

This has the basic meaning of "by means of". It is a comparatively rarely used case, though it is found in some commonly used expressions.

• "omi|n silmi|n" = "with (my) own eyes"
• "käsi|n" = "by hand"
• "rinta rinna|n = "side by side"
• "jala|n" = "by foot"

It is also used with verbal second infinitives to mean "by ...ing", for example

• "lentäen" = "by flying", "by air"

Abessive

Abessive case

In linguistics, abessive , caritive and privative are names for a grammatical case expressing the lack or absence of the marked noun...

: Characteristic ending -tta

This has the basic meaning of "without". This case is a rarely used by itself, especially in the spoken language, but is found in some expressions and proverbs.

• "joka kuri|tta kasvaa, se kunnia|tta kuolee" = "who grows up without discipline, dies without honor"

However, abessive is quite common in combination with the third infinitive (-ma-, -mä-).

• "syömättä" = "without eating"
• "tekemättä" = "without doing"
• "... lukuun ottamatta" = "without taking into account..."

Comitative

Comitative case

The comitative case , also known as the associative case , is a grammatical case that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with"...

: Characteristic ending -ine (plus a possessive suffix for nouns but none for adjectives). This ending is added to the plural stem, even if the noun is singular, which may cause ambiguity.

This is a rarely used case, especially in the spoken language. The meaning is "in the company of" or "together with"

• "talo kirjo|ine|en" = "the house with its books" or "book"
• "hän saapui kauni|ine vaimo|ine|en" = "he arrived together with his beautiful wife" or "wives"

Others

Prolative

Prolative case

The prolative case is a declension of a noun or pronoun that has the basic meaning of "by way of"....

: This is only found in a few "fossilised" forms in modern Finnish (though it is alive and well in Estonian

Estonian language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...

). Its meaning is "by way of", some common examples being

• 'posti|tse' = 'by post'
• 'puhelimi|tse' = 'by phone'
• 'meri|tse' = 'by sea'
• 'kiertotei|tse' = 'by indirect route', or 'in a roundabout way'
• 'yli|tse' = 'over'
• 'ohi|tse|ni' = 'past me'

The prolative is not considered to be a case in the official grammar. That's because it's very similar to numerous constructs that are used to turn a noun into a verb, an adjective or an adverbial:

e.g. ankka (duck) > ankkamainen (like a duck) > ankkamaisesti (to do something like a duck)