New here? See the Users guide and learn how to use this site.

Location cases

Inessive, elative, illative

Inessive, elative, illative are interior location cases by common name.

Inessive

Inessive expresses beeing inside, it can be translated in, within or at. Inessive ends with -ssa, or -ssä (remember the vowel harmony!)

Inessive, elative and illative has common stem with genitive.

talossa - in a house
juomassa - in a drink
järvessä - in a lake

Elative

Elative expresses coming out, it can be translated from, or out of. Elative ends with -sta/stä.

talosta - out of a house
taivaasta - from sky

Illative

Illative expresses going in or to a place, it can be translated into or to.

astuin sisälle taloon.
I entered the house

Forming illative is little bit tricky. In simpliest variation, -n is added and the last vowel lenghtened.

talo:taloon
kirja:kirjaan (a book)
juoma:juomaan
kuppi:kuppiin

sometimes -h must be added between the two vowels. Usually this happens, when there is lots of vowels already. It would be impossible to pronounce if there was eg. chain of 3 a´s.

maa:maahan
suo:suohon (a swamp)

Few exeptions are:

vapaaseen (free)
taivaaseen
esseeseen

In spoken language and dialects h is quite often added, so it's not a big mistake, if you say

talohon
kirjahan
juomahan
esseehen

Adessive, ablative, allative

Adessive, ablative, allative are exterior location cases, wich equivalent to inside location cases. They express being near of something or on the top of something.

Adessive

Adessive is used for at, on or top of. Sometimes also near of, about or around of something.

Odotan sinua asemalla.
I wait you at the station.

Kirja on pöydällä.
The book is on the table.

Talo on mäellä.
The house is on the hill.

Talolla on väkeä.
There is crowd around the house.

The ending is -lla (or -llä, depending on vowel harmony)

Ablative

Ablative expresses leaving a place:

Juna lähtee laiturilta neljä.
The train leaves from platform four.

The ending is lta. (Remember the vowel harmony!)

Allative

Allative is used for on to or to.

Laita kirja pöydälle.
Place the book on the table.

Lähden kaupungille
I'll go to downtown.

The ending is lle. (Don't worry about the vowel harmony, it doesn't apply to -lle!)

All exterior location cases (Adessive, ablative, allative) are in same grade and has the same stem as genitive. Easiest way to form these cases, is to replace the n of the genitive with the propriate ending.

Often, when you talk about places, you must use interior or exterior location cases. Interior: Olen kotoisin Turusta. Exterior: Olen kotoisin Tampereelta. (I come from Turku/Tampere)