The Genitive Case

In English we can indicate possession in two ways - using the word "of" or putting an apostrophe-s on the end of the possessor. So for example we say, "the Gulf of Finland" or "Peter's book". Deciding which to use is easy for a native English speaker. There are even situation when either works - you can say "the roof of the house" or "the house's roof".

So in English we can modify a noun to indicate possession, which means it is a case. In fact, it's called the Genitive Case.

In Finnish the genitive case is made by adding an -n to the end of the noun:

talo - house
talon - of the house, for example talon katto - the house's roof, or the roof of the house

Leena - popular Finnish woman's name
Leenan - Leena's, for example Leenan auto - Leena's car.

suomi kieli - the Finnish language
suomen kielen - of the Finnish language, for example suomen kielen fonetiikka - the phonetics of the Finnish language

Note that in the last example, the i at the end of each word turned into an e. This is just something that happens to words ending in i that are put in the genitive, and has to be learnt.

The Inessive Case

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.

Superlatives

Finnish has a reasonably regular structure for the generation of superlatives. You take the adjective X, and add -empi if it is more X, and -in if it is most X.

suuri - large
suurempi - larger
suurin - largest

pieni - small
pienempi - smaller
pienin - smallest

But is it always that regular? Firstly, one of the most common adjectives is almost totally irregular, so you just have to learn it. Here it is:

hyvä - good
parempi - better
paras - best

Then you'll find that a lot of adjectives ending in vowels see the ending vowel change, for example:

paha - bad
pahempi - worse
pahin - worst

Here you loose the ending a on the "most bad" superlative. With the next example we see the first occurrence of the pesky "consonants change" rule - p becomes v:

halpa - cheap
halvempi - cheaper
halvin -cheapest

And with this one the end vowel isn't lost:

iso - big
isompi - bigger
isoin - biggest

So there isn't an easy catch-all rule for superlatives, but they're fairly regular. In fact, they're regularer than English superlatives. Or, to put it another way, Finnish is still ...

helppo - easy
helpompi - easier
helpoin - easiest

Vocab list - trees

The last post was a bit frivolous - I don't expect anyone to learn those words, but I did think they were funny. Here is a list of seven words actually worth learning, as there are a lot of trees in Finland:

koivu - birch
mänty - pine
kuusi - fir
leppä - alder
tammi - oak
saarni - ash
jalava - elm

Moominwords

If you're at all interested in Finland you will know something about Moomins. The television cartoon series starts with a special Moomin song, the lyrics to which can be found here. It's called "Käy Muumilaaksoon" (come to Moomin valley), and contains a couple of words that you'll not find in the dictionary. However, every Finn knows what they mean:

tuijottelutuokio - staring moment
taikapilvikarkelo - magic cloud party

Important vocabulary, I think you'll agree.

Fruits and berries

It's autumn (syksy), which means there are lots of fruits and berries about in the forest (metsä). So today here is a short vocabulary list of common Finnish fruits and berries.

hedelmä - fruit
marja - berry

For some reason the Finns don't think that berries are fruit. They are berries, and that's that.

puolukka - lingonberry (actually a foxberry, but Finns are convinced it's a lingonberry). A red, rather sour and bitter berry that the Finns make into jam, which they then serve with stir-fried reindeer or spinach pancakes.
vadelma - raspberry
mustikka - blueberry (actually a bilberry, but Finns are convinced it's a blueberry)
mansikka - strawberry
karpalo - cranberry
muurain, lakka - cloudberry

omena - apple
päärynä - pear

Singular and plural

The Finnish approach to singular and plural objects of sentences is a bit complicated. In English if I said something along the lines of "would you like the fish", "would you like some fish?" or "would you like a fish?" or "would you like fish?" you would know what I mean without having to think. Of course it's the same for native Finnish speakers offering each other fish, but they don't have the definite and indefinite article, for starters and ... well, lets dive in and learn by example.

Would you like is haluatko in Finnish, and fish is kala.

First case: would you like some (part of this one) fish
haluatko kalaa

There is an extra a on the end of kala because it's in the singular partitive. You're offering part of one fish. In English we would just say "some fish."

Second case: would you like a (single non-specific) fish
haluatko kalaa

Again, the extra a because it's the singular partive. You're offering one of many non-specific fish. In English we'd say "a fish" or perhaps "fish."

Third case: would you like the fish (a specific fish)
haluatko kalan

Suddenly kala is in the genetive case by adding an n - which means "of the fish". So you're asking "would you like of the fish." Yep, doesn't make much sense in English, but it's how you offer someone a specific single fish.

Fourth case: would you like the fish (a specific number, each fish identified)
haluatko kalat

Fish is put in the nominative plural. This is a rather contrived situation so it's rare. You'd have to be in a situation where someone had selected, say, three specific Japanese fighting fish and you were holding them for him. Then when he came round to visit you'd be asking him if he would like the fish (a specific number, each fish known).

Fifth case: would you like some (of many) fish
haluatko kaloja

In this example fish is in the partitive plural. Initially this didn't make much sense to me, and in speech a Finn is probably actually going to use the partitive singular. So this is the case where they're serving whitebait, for example, and your as the host ask a guest if she would like some fish.

But cheer up. A Finn asking you if you would like some of many fish is probably going to say: "would you like some fishes?"

And then you get to correct them.