The Elative case

The elative case is the "from" or "out of" case and is formed by adding -sta or -stä to the end of a word. You use it to say where you are from - for example

Olen Helsingistä - I am from Helsinki
Hän on Englannista - He/she is from England
Menet talosta - You come from the house
Se on tietokoneesta - It is from the computer

There are a few things to note:
1) the "k" in Helsinki turns into a "g" when you add a suffix to it. This is one of the consonant gradation rules that I allude to now and again. It's the same for other words ending in -nki. For example Finnish for town is kaupunki, so "I am from a town" is olen kaupungista.
2) Finnish for England is Englanti, but the "t" changes to an "n" when the suffix is added. This is another consonant gradation rule.
3) The word for computer is tietokone - from tieto, which means "information" and kone, which means "machine". An extra -e- is added; this is known as reverse consonant gradation.

So, this started as a post about the elative case, and turned into an introduction about gradation instead. In fairness, the elative case is simple and it's only gradation that makes it complicated.

So now, if you look back at the previous post, you should understand why the word mistä means "from where". It's like the word mitä (what) in the elative case - literally "from out of what":

mistä sinä tulet? - from out of what you come?
tulen Cambridgista. - I come from out of Cambridge

What? Where? Why?

Time for some very useful words, all beginning with the letter M. The first is mitä, which means "what". However, it's what in an indefinite sense - if you didn't hear what someone said, or if you're asking what is going on you use mitä. For example, the verb for "to happen" is tapahtua, so "what's happening" is mitä tapahtuu.

The word for "what" refering to something tangible is mikä. So if you're holding up a strange object in a Finnish shop and asking what it is, you would say mikä se on - "what is it".

Missä means "where". If you want to say "where are you", use missä olet.

Mistä means "from where" - with the verb tulla (to come) you can ask the question "where do you come from", namely mistä sinä tulet.

And finally, miksi means "why". If you have a small child who speaks Finnish you'll hear this word a lot, in which case it's useful to know the word koska - which means "because".