One of the most challenging parts about learning the Finnish cases is this: you need to learn about the form of the word while simultaneously understanding why the form is used or what its meaning is. Both form and meaning are unavoidable, and finding the balance without wanting to throw in the towel can be difficult. In my online course Case by Case, the form and meaning go hand-in-hand. In this blog post, I’ll give you the rough order in which the course teaches you the Finnish grammatical cases. You can use this as a rough outline if you’re learning the Finnish cases on your own.
To see the detailed list of modules of the online course, go here.
1. Understand the idea of the word stem
First, I teach my students that Finnish words have stems. The word stem is like the bare bones of the word, and to that stem, we attach things like cases, which carry a lot of meaning. For example, the word äiti (“mother”) has two stems: äiti– and äidi-. Different case endings require a different stem. You can watch a video about the Finnish word stems here.
2. Learn about the partitive singular
Very early on, I teach you the partitive singular. You need real-life examples of where you might see the partitive, and you learn to recognize its form.
What’s cool about the Finnish partitive singular is that you don’t need to know everything about the word stems yet. You can start learning the partitive singular without knowing too much about the word types.
3. Learn the genitive singular and the word types
Soon, you’ll come across the genitive. You need it when you want to talk about possession (äidin auto = mother’s car), you’ll need it when you want to use a postposition like kanssa (“with” –> äidin kanssa = “with Mother”), and the genitive is also an object case in Finnish: Haen äidin töistä (“I’ll pick up Mother from work”).
If you look at the word “mother” in those examples, you’ll see I used the stem äidi-. For a word like punainen (“red”), you would be using punaise- instead of punainen. This is just one example of why the word types are important.
4. Learn the interior locative cases
Next up are the interior locative/local cases:
- the inessive
- the elative
- the illative
With these cases, you will learn ways to describe where something is (talossa = in the house, Suomessa = in Finland). And again, you’ll have to figure out which stem to use. My example talo is easy because the stem doesn’t change. Suomi, however, does change its stem from Suomi- to Suome– in Suomessa (the inessive case).
5. Learn the exterior locative cases
Then, you can learn about the Finnish exterior locative cases:
- the adessive
- the ablative
- the allative
Learn how to form them and learn examples of what context they can be used in.
By now, you will probably have questions about the differences between -ssa (inessive case, interior locative case) and -lla (adessive case, exterior locative case), for example. The best way to learn is to use Finnish regularly and pay attention to it. Case by Case will provide you with a lot examples and exercises to help you with that.
I’ve also published a video and blog post about the difference between interior and exterior local cases here.
6. Study the object cases
So, early on, you familiarized yourself with the partitive singular and the genitive singular. You learned what they look like and what meanings they can have. Now, you’ll be faced with the object. The grammatical object in Finnish in the following sentences is the word in bold:
Minä rakastan äitiä. = I love Mom. (äitiä, partitive singular)
Minä haen äidin. = I’ll pick up Mom. (äidin, genitive singular)
Minä en hae äitiä. = I won’t pick up Mom. (äitiä, partitive singular)
Hae äiti! = Pick up Mom! (äiti, nominative singular)
They are all grammatical objects in the sentences, yet their form varies. There are grammar rules that explain this. I won’t go into them now. I guess what I’m trying to show here is that you’ll eventually have to look into some grammar rules if you want to understand the object cases in Finnish.
The object cases cause a lot of confusion, I know. But I want to emphasize that this aspect of Finnish grammar is not something you need to master perfectly. Making mistakes with the object case doesn’t usually stop you from being understood. It may feel like a big deal because the grammatical object is so prevalent in sentences, but you should give yourself some grace when you’re learning it.
7. Learn the translative and the essive
The translative and the essive aren’t the most common cases in Finnish, but they’re definitely worth learning.
8. Learn the plural
This is the point at which I bring up
- the plural stems of Finnish words
- the T-plural (t-monikko or monikon nominatiivi)
- the i-plural (i-monikko)
- the illative plural
- the partitive plural
- the genitive plural
9. The rare cases
Now you may want to learn the less common cases, which are
- the abessive
- the instructive
- the comitative.
I recommend learning some common expressions that they occur in. To read examples of each Finnish case, go to my blog post here.
I hope that this checklist helps you navigate the Finnish cases. There’s no shortcut, but if you’re looking for a systematic approach to learning the Finnish cases, then my online course Case by Case might be the resource you’re looking for. I built this course years ago, and it continues to be my most studied online Finnish course.
Have a look inside: