Finnish cases explained: all 15 noun cases with examples

What a case is in Finnish

In English you say in the house, out of the house and into the house. Finnish uses one word with an ending instead: talossa, talosta, taloon. These endings are the cases. They tell you who does what, where something is and where it is going.

Adjectives, numbers and pronouns take the same case as their noun: isossa talossa (in a big house), tässä kaupassa (in this shop). So once you know an ending, you use it again and again.

Fifteen sounds like a lot. In practice the endings are short and regular, six of them come in two neat groups of three, and three cases are rare in everyday speech.

All 15 Finnish cases at a glance

The table uses talo (house). For the last three cases, which are not used with talo in real life, we use more natural words.

Here is the same pattern with a front-vowel word, kylä (village): kylän, kylää, kylässä, kylästä, kylään, kylällä, kylältä, kylälle, kylänä, kyläksi.

The grammatical cases

Nominative: the basic form

The nominative is the dictionary form. It is used for the subject of most sentences: Talo on iso. (The house is big.) Its plural ends in -t: talot (the houses).

Genitive: -n

The genitive shows ownership, like 's in English. It is also used with many postpositions, words that come after the noun.

Partitive: -a/-ä, -ta/-tä, -tta/-ttä

The partitive is the case learners meet most often after the basics. You use it after numbers, for amounts of things like coffee or water, in negative sentences and for unfinished actions: kaksi kahvia (two coffees), En juo kahvia (I don't drink coffee). It has its own guide: the Finnish partitive case.

Accusative: a short note

Grammars disagree on whether Finnish has a separate accusative. In practice, a whole, finished object usually looks like the genitive (Ostan auton. I'm buying a car.) or like the nominative (Osta auto! Buy a car!). Only personal pronouns and kuka have a real accusative ending, -t: minut, sinut, hänet, meidät, teidät, heidät, kenet.

The six place cases

Six cases answer the questions where?, where from? and where to?. The inner cases are for being inside something. The outer cases are for surfaces, open places and being near something.

The outer cases have other everyday jobs too. They are worth learning early:

• Adessive for having: Minulla on auto. (I have a car.) Finnish has no verb to have; you say at me is a car.
• Adessive for time and transport: kesällä (in summer), illalla (in the evening), bussilla (by bus).
• Allative for giving and phoning: Annan lahjan Liisalle. (I'll give the present to Liisa.) Soitan äidille. (I'll call my mother.)
• Ablative for smells, tastes and looks: Tämä näyttää hyvältä. (This looks good.)
• Elative with some verbs: Pidän kahvista. (I like coffee.) Puhumme elokuvasta. (We're talking about a film.)

How the illative ending varies

The illative (into) is the one place case with more than one ending. The ending depends on how the word ends. These rules cover most words:

• Word ends in one short vowel: repeat the vowel + n. talo → taloon, kauppa → kauppaan, kylä → kylään, bussi → bussiin, Turku → Turkuun.
• One-syllable word with a long vowel or a diphthong: h + the vowel + n. maa → maahan, työ → työhön, yö → yöhön, tie → tiehen.
• Word ending in -e, or in a long vowel with more than one syllable: -seen. huone → huoneeseen, kirje → kirjeeseen, vapaa → vapaaseen.
• Words whose stem changes use the stem. Suomi → Suomeen, kieli → kieleen, nimi → nimeen.

Essive and translative: being and becoming

The essive (-na/-nä) means as or in the role of. It is also used for days and holidays. The translative (-ksi) means becoming or changing into, and it gives you the very useful suomeksi (in Finnish).

The rare cases: abessive, comitative, instructive

These three appear mostly in writing and fixed expressions. You can understand them when you see them and leave active use for later.

• *Abessive (-tta/-ttä), without:* rahatta (without money). In speech people say ilman rahaa instead. It lives on in forms like sanaa sanomatta (without saying a word).
• *Comitative (-ine- + possessive suffix), together with:* Hän tuli juhliin vaimoineen. (He came to the party with his wife.)
• *Instructive (-n, usually plural), by means of:* käsin (by hand), omin silmin (with my own eyes).

Which cases beginners need first

You do not need all 15 to start speaking. A good order is:

1. Nominative and genitive: basic sentences and my, your, Pekka's.
2. Inessive, elative, illative: where you live, where you come from, where you are going.
3. Adessive: I have (minulla on), on the table, by bus, in the morning.
4. Partitive: numbers, food and drink, negative sentences.
5. Allative and ablative: giving, calling, it looks good.
6. Essive and translative: jobs, days of the week, in Finnish.
7. Abessive, comitative, instructive: recognise them when you read.

Many word stems change slightly before the endings, for example Helsinki → Helsingissä or kauppa → kaupassa. That is consonant gradation, and it is worth learning alongside the cases. Plural forms use the same endings after an -i-: taloissa (in the houses). See the Finnish plural.

Practise with Maija

Cases become automatic when you use them out loud. In Maija's spoken classes you answer real questions, such as where do you live? and where are you going?, and she gently corrects a wrong ending and explains why, in your own language if you like. Take the free level check to start at the right level.