Finnish nominals, which include pronouns, adjectives, and numerals, are declined in a large number of grammatical cases, whose uses and meanings are detailed here. See also Finnish grammar.
Many meanings expressed by case markings in Finnish correspond to phrases or expressions containing prepositions in most Indo-European languages. Because so much information is coded in Finnish through its cases, the use of adpositions (postpositions in this case) is more limited than in English, for instance.
List of Finnish cases
Note regarding the examples: Finnish has no grammatical gender nor definite and indefinite articles. Thus, context may be required to get an accurate translation.
Grammatical cases
The grammatical cases perform core linguistic functions such as signaling who initiates an action or the object of an action.
Nominative
The basic form of the noun. Characteristic ending: none in the singular = 'a/the house' = 'a/the book' = 'a/the hill' = '(the) water'
Genitive
Characteristic ending: possibly modified by consonant gradation: . For the nouns and adjectives that have two vowel stems, the weak vowel stem comes from the genitive singular. The genitive indicates possession. It is also used preceding postpositions. However, it is homophonous (but not cognate) to the accusative, which may cause some confusion. = 'the pictures in the book' = 'the walls of the house' = 'on top of the hill' = 'under water'
Finnish also uses possessive affixes together with the genitive case
= 'her/his house(s)'
Accusative
This case marks direct objects. The accusative indicates telicity; that is, the object has been finalized or the intended action is done. Note that a morphologically distinct accusative case exists in Finnish only for the personal pronouns and the personal interrogative pronoun:
Singular
= me
= you
= you (polite) = him/her/it/them Plural = us = you = them Question = whom
In contrast, nouns, adjectives, numerals, and other pronouns, do not have a distinct accusative case. Instead, singular direct objects look like the genitive in direct address ( "I'll bring the carpet") and in the nominative with both imperatives ( "Bring the carpet!") and passives ( "The carpet has been brought"). Plural direct objects always appear in the nominative plural.
Traditionally, Finnish grammars have considered, on syntactic grounds, the accusative to be a case unto itself, despite its appearing identical to the nominative or genitive case. The recently published major Finnish grammar Iso suomen kielioppi takes a morphological point of view and does not list the accusative except for the personal pronouns and , while at the same time acknowledging the argument for the traditional view. The existence or nonexistence of an accusative case in Finnish thus depends on one's point of view. Historically, the similarity of the accusative and genitive endings is coincidental. The older accusative ending was -m, but in modern Finnish an m has become an n when it is the last sound of a word.
Partitive
Characteristic ending: , where the 't' elides if intervocalic. The consonant stem of a noun (if any) comes from the partitive singular. Otherwise the ending is added to the strong vowel stem. The basic meaning of this case is a lack of telicity, that is, it is not indicated whether the intended result has been achieved. For example, Join vettä "I drank water-part." indicates that there is possibly some water left, while the accusative Join veden indicates all water has been consumed. It is not perfectivity. The partitive is the second most common case in Finnish. It has also other uses: After numerals, except number 1: = 'three houses' = 'two children' For incomplete actions and ongoing processes whose ending or end result is unknown (the partitive object): = "I'm reading a book" = "s/he was teaching me to read" = "I love you" = "I thought about tomorrow" With nouns of indefinite number or substance nouns (the partitive object): = "do you have any books?" = "I want some water" For negative statements and for tentative inquiries (the partitive object): = "there is not a book in the house" = "I didn't see him/her" = "can I borrow the book?" With prepositions = "before the hill" = "without a coat" Very rarely indicates location (coming from/ being found somewhere): = "closer to the shore" = "further west"