Back in August we covered the Essive Case, or as I like to call it, the "As" case. You simply stuck an -na or -nä on the end of a noun, which modified it to mean "as a noun".
Another common case is the Inessive Case, or as I like to call it, the "In" case. You stick an -ssa or -ssä on the end of a noun, which modifies it to mean "in a noun". Finnish doesn't have a separate word for "in" - they use the Inessive Case instead. So, for example:
talo - house
talossa - in the/a house
pää - head
päässä - in the/a head
kaapi - cupboard
kaapissa - in a/the cupboard
laatikko - box
laatikossa - in the/a box
Ah, in that last one we lost a k. When you stick new endings on words that end in double-k followed by a vowel, you remove one of the k's. It's called consonant gradation, and I'm going to avoid talking about it for quite a while yet, because it's one of the more difficult (some would say annoying) "features" of Finnish.
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