FINNISH CASES FOR PEO…
FINNISH CASES FOR PEOPLE WHO CANT
WRITE GOOD
(small notes - we write the vowels in a case ending using capital letters to mean that it can either be a or ä
depending on vowel harmony, bc writing e.g. -ssA is easier than writing -ssa/ssä
i’ve used the word talo for as many examples as possible, because it is straightforward and doesn’t do
anything weird when inflected)
1. nominative: talo - the basic bitch of the bunch, usually in the subject position (from a
linguistics perspective it is almost always in the subject position, but certain forms look the
same so you might see 'nominative' in the object position even though it is actually something
else, more on that later):
● Talo on punainen = "(The) house is red"
2. genitive: talon - this is the "s" case in english, it indicates possession:
● Talon ovi = "(The) house's door"
with that we've reached the end of the ones that exist in english, congratulations!
3. accusative: talo/talon - this is what i mentioned up there about the object position! in a
positive sentence, if the verb or sentence doesn't give you a reason to inflect the noun some
other way, this is the case you put it in, and in this case it's usually in the form that looks the
same as the genitive, so talon:
● Ostin talon = "I bought a house".
4. partitive: taloa - turn back now. literally a demon. this is the hardest case to understand, it
Editoutside
does not exist with the Docslanguages
of finnic app and there is actually a 400-some odd page book
dedicated to explaining how it works! i'll do my best to explain the most common situations
Make tweaks, leave comments, and share
though:
with others to edit at the same time.
it is used…
NO THANKS
● after numbers (kaksi taloaGET THE APP
= two houses)
● after certain verbs (bad example: Rakastan taloa = i love the house), and
● it is also the default object case in negative sentences (En ostanut taloa = i didn't buy
a house)
now for locative cases! these go together as a group of six - three of them are 'interior' cases
and three of them are 'exterior' cases, if you look at the picture it will hopefully be clearer.
and three of them are 'exterior' cases, if you look at the picture it will hopefully be clearer.
5. illative/-Vn: taloon - this is for motion into something (like going actually inside it):
● Menen taloon = "I am going to the house" [note that even though english uses 'to' here, it is the
weird one here since you would generally be going inside the house].
it is also used with certain verbs:
● Luotan taloon = "I trust the house" (dumb example i know but it's one of the only verbs that comes
to mind that has illative as its rection, aka its required case - keep that term in mind)
6. inessive/-ssA: talossa - this is for being in something (again, actually inside of it):
● Olen talossa = "I am in the house".
it is also used with certain verbs:
● Käyn talossa = "I am visiting the house"
and it is the basis for constructing existential sentences in finnish (aka the "There are [things]
in/on/at [places]" form in english:
● Talossa on kaksi huonetta = "there are two rooms in the house")
7. elative/-stA: talosta - this is for motion out of something:
● Lähden talosta = "I am leaving the house"
it is also what i would call the topic case - if the english sentence would use 'about', the "about''
thing is often in elative:
● Puhumme(Puhutaan) talosta = "We are talking about the house"
last but not least, it is also the case you'd use when talking about what something is made out
of:
● Talo on tehty puusta = "The house is made of wood"
the next three are the exterior counterparts! the location meaning of them is very similar to the
previous three, but they are talking about going to/being/coming from being on/near/at a place
or thing rather than inside
8. allative/-lle: talolle - this is for motion towards something:
● Menen talon pihalle = "I am going to the house's yard" (you don't go into someone's yard of
course, you are at it, or more precisely going onto it, so words like piha generally use the external locative
cases - note that as english speakers, we might have a different perspective of what counts as "on" vs. "in"
than a finnish speaker, so don't be surprised if sometimes these aren't used like you'd expect!)
this is also used with certain verbs:
● Annan sinulle talon = "I give you a house" (i can't think of a verb that has allative as its rection
and would make sense with 'house' lol)
9. adessive/-llA: talolla - this is for being on or at something:
● Olen talon pihalla = "I am in the house's yard" (again, english being weird and inconsistent
here)
this is also the case you use when forming possessive sentences (this is important!):
● Minulla on talo = "I have a house" (or literally "on me is house").
finally, this is also the 'means' case:
● Menen bussilla = "I am going by bus"
10. ablative/-ltA: talolta - this is for motion away from something:
● Lähden pihalta = "I am leaving the yard"
it is also the rection for what i would call 'sense' verbs (aka when something [sense verb] like
[noun] in english):
● Rakennus näyttää talolta = "The building looks like a house"
those are the locatives! now for the rest, which are somewhat less common so you shouldn't
worry too much if you don't immediately understand them:
11. translative/-ksi: taloksi - this is the case you'd use for when something is changing its
state in some way. it is kinda hard to explain, so examples might be easier:
● Toimisto muutettiin taloksi = "The office was turned into a house"
● Käännän sen suomeksi = "I am translating it into Finnish"
12. essive/-nA: talona - if translative is kinda like allative/illative in the sense that it is "motion"
towards something (in this case a state of being rather than a physical location), then you can
think of essive as like the equivalent of inessive/adessive in that it is used for talking about
something being in a certain state (think of it like how we might use 'as' in english):
● Rakennusta käytetään talona = "The building is being used as a house"
● Työskentelen farmaseuttina = "I work as a pharmacist"
13. instructive: taloin - this one is really rare nowadays, it is used when talking about the
means by which you are doing something, but other than in some fixed expressions it has
been mostly replaced by the adessive (the "menen bussilla" i mentioned above):
● Tein sen käsin = "I made it by hand" (sorry, literally cannot think of a situation in which you could
even use 'taloin' lol)
14. comitative/-ine: e.g. taloineen - what
(this one is so rare that i really don't know how to use it at all lol, ask a native if you're curious
but i hardly ever see it)
15. abessive/-ttA: talotta - fairly uncommon with normal nouns, but more common with verbs
that have been made into nouns (aka participles), this one means 'without x'. i guess? you
could say that 'talotta' means 'without a house', but it's not the usual way to say it for sure.
